family heirlooms...

Last night I was trying to catch up on reading all of the new year's journal entries. This helps to keep me involved in the hobby even when my funds don't allow me to be in "purchasing mode." One series of journals was discussing the NGC submission coupon and the struggle of deciding on which coins to submit.

I had almost forgotten that I still have my 5 free submission voucher, so I immediately pulled out my raw coins and found myself in the same conundrum. I finally settled on 3 possible submissions:

1) Make the most of the voucher value and send 5 older coins...or..

2) Send in 5 coins that will fill slots in my sets....or

3) send in 5 coins that I really like but their value is less than the cost of slabbing, since the grading is "free" this could be my chance to have them encapsulated without feeling like I'm being a bonehead..

Then it occured to me, there is another coin that I have always wanted to have preserved/encapsulated. A few years ago, before I got involved with the registry and had my youthful passion for coins reignited, my mother gave me a few things that had belonged to my dad. He passed 11 years ago at the age of 59 and was buried on his 60th birthday and my mom had been going through some of his old stuff to give to us kids. She offered me his triangular folded flag from his funeral-now mounted in a nice case with his medals pinned to it, but I told her to hold onto it. She also gave me a thick book of our family tree dating back to the early 1700's when my ancestors first immigrated to America...and among other smaller things she gave me an old silver dollar that my dad had in his wallet. I remember that he had shown it to me before and told me it was from his dad ( my grandpa).

The dollar is a common date- a 1921 Morgan- but its value can't be measured in terms of dollars. It is a link to the past, held in the living and calloused hands of my grandfather and my father and now by me. The coin is not very worn, however it has taken on a red and brown tone-probably from the stain in the wallet ( with my luck it will get body-bagged as artificially toned)...the issue is that I like holding it in my hands, feeling its weight and the ridges on the rim...but I'd also like to get it safe in a holder with a label that says "grandpa's dollar" or something

So now I also am stuck with the submission conundrum..if anyone wants to send me a message with their thoughts I'd appreciate it..but I'm thinking that I may go with the 5 cheapie coins that I really like but have low values otherwise they may just sit in my "future slabbing" drawer forever.

Here's a picture of Grandpa and dad's 1921 Morgan... sitting on the cover of the book (tome) of the Jackson family tree...and yes, Andrew actually was a relative of mine (although I'm not a direct descendant because he had no kids)..