heard from a missing friend

Well it has been a tough year in many ways for some in our little community. Economics has been tough on many-- Several have had to pause in their collecting while others have had to sell part or all of their collections to pay for more pressing issues. Some of us have had medical issues and some have had to deal with the hardest things one could face--death of loved ones.

I did get good news from 2 people, I know that a couple of the people that I send messages to on occasion have asked about them so......

Michael Cooper, having already been hit with one tough blow, had a very serious emergency surgery. As expected from Michael, he is quickly on his feet and his spirits are very high.

Clay, who we haven't heard from since July when he announced that he was going for a heart surgery...is struggling with some continuing medical issues but is still active building his impressively massive set. He may not be keeping us abreast of his latest acquisitions in his journals but he is as an enthusiastic collector as ever.

So I got these bits of good news recently and thought I'd share...

On a personal note, I have officially started "High Seas chapter 2"..the continuation of my sailing ship themed set....the original set recently became only the 5th set out of over 1,100 signature sets to have over 4,000 people take time to look at it.

At the risk of running long, a quick story......

I got an email a few weeks ago from an ebay seller who also has an on-line coin store. He was running a special sale on a coin from China. I usually just glance and delete but this caught my eye..the pictures looked familiar. As I continued to read, it turns out the advertisement not only was using pictures from my "China Empress Ship" coin, but the description was verbatim from my set also...I sent them a little email mentioning that I was flattered and wouldn't mind a little kick-back from them for making their job so easy by writing their ads for them..Needless to say, I have yet to receive a response...

Anyhow, I hope everyone has a wonderful 2009..Happy Hunting.......

A wonderful coin from Iceland..the reverse has a fishing ship but I just love this obverse..