Did you think I was gone? First journal in over a month.

Well, I've been staying busy lately with school and work and the next two weeks should be "interesting." (Finals are fun) Even so, I'm still alive and I'm still here. (amazing isn't it?)

I've been giving some thought to where I want to go with my collecting. Sure, I'm going to continue my Prez dollars sets and my type sets. Yes my Lincoln cents continue to figure prominantly into my long term goals. But when I think back to when I was really young (about 10) the thing that really caught my imagination were large silver coins. I'm talking about 38mm+ diameter coins. They are really great presentation peaces; They're large enough to support some really impressive designs. This means I'm interested in things like the Morgan and Peace dollars, but also in the modern bullion coins put out by America, Mexico, Canada, Great Britian, China, and Australia.

One of the things that I've always loved about coin collecting is that you can take a coin type that is fairly universal and compare what different countries were making and putting on their coins at a given time. You can compare the different coins and the symbolism of the images, why program got started in the case of the bullion coins, and how the images were chosen. In this way the coins become points of comparison and ways of understanding the differing cultures (although I must admit to a certain dislike for China in general).

One of the things I'm really looking forward to going forward is making sets of some or all of the silver bullion coins from the various countries that are producing them. My American Eagles are almost complete. I'll probably order the last 2 coins I need this weekend. After that I'll just be buying 2 coins a year to keep them current. I have about half of the Australian Lunar coins and I just bought my first Chinese Panda a few days ago. Not all of the sets that I want to build have registry sets, when I get to that point I'll be making signature sets for them. I don't really care about points; I just love the coins. I think that this will be a major focus of mine for several years to come.