who needs a pill !!

I'm not a big believer in all the syndromes that are constantly being invented to sell drugs to us. "Twitchy Eyelids?"...."this could be a symptom of a syndrome that some independent laboratory has determined may kill you if left untreated !!" Fortunately for us, they usually have discovered the pill or treatment to cure it before the syndrome was identified.

As cynical as I may sound about other peoples restless legs and irritable bowels...I actually do have one of these "syndromes." I forget what it's called but I always feel a bit melancholy in the winter. Some may be able to relate--it's dark when you leave for work, it's dark when you get off...and usually grey and damp or clear and frigid during the 6 hours of daylight. My skin gets dry and itchy (probably a seperate syndrome-" Winter Skin Syndrome"), I tend to nap a lot when I'm at home and I'd rather be home than wrapping on 4 or 5 layers of clothes to go outside.

So January and February have become my most active coin months. Nothing cures "Winter Melancholy Syndrome" like the purchase of a nice coin from Barbados, Jamaica or the Bahamas !! Or better yet- another coin with a sailing ship !! Seriously though, I was looking through my Krause Catalog of World Coins today while simultaneously scoping out some coins on ebay and another idea for a cool set came to me...I think I may build a date set of either Barbados $1, $2 or $10 coins or maybe Bahamas 50c, $1 or $2. The designs of all of these are beautiful, they are surprisingly available considering some of the mintages are less than 1,000...and best of all they are affordable.

So, I have found the cure for the winter blues...coins from tropical islands--the next best thing to being there !! So as I sit here with virgin rum-runner in hand, my mind and eyes are focused on images of flamingos and marlins, conch shells and mahi mahi, sunrises on the beach and coral reefs....