Merry Christmas from me to me...

Greetings Collectors,

This is journal entry number 90 for this calender year. And it will be my last for this year. As in my coin collection, which is "all over the place", so has been my topics for the year. I know I have made several of you pissed on more than one occasion. But to those in that camp, please try to realize that anything I say is just one persons opinion and like a-holes everybody has one. There are only a very few that can lay claim to not only "having one", but "being one", and I may fall in that latter group on certain occasions. I want to apologize to any of you that I may have offended.

My morotorium on coin purchases comes to an end at "midnight" tonight and while this short refrain should have made my financial situation better, it has not, due to the fact I have somewhat wiggled out and sidestepped into another kind of purchase. This break from coin buying has done considerable damage to not only my "pocketbook" but has created yet another "monster" because now I am really intrigued and have actually fallen in love with old silver bars in the 1-20 something ounce sizes. I have quite a few bars that I have bought down through the last 30 years and maybe 75-100 ounces are in the "one-ounce" size and are called art bars. People collect these from what I understand and are really into it. There are clubs across the nation that deal with these little one-ounce "art bars". I also own quite a few 10-ounce and a few 25-ounce bars. I had two of the 100-ounce bars but sold one of them and only have one now. In my opinion these latter bars are much too big and I may sell this last one to free up funds to get some more of these "little guys".

The 1-OZ. art bars interest me not. If I could wave a magic wand over the ones I had and could turn them into 10 or 25 OZ. bars, or even 5-ounce bars, I would trade someone and take 5% less in total ounces just to have the silver in a larger form. My new found love and I really think "passion" would be a better word, is silver bars around the 25 ounce size and smaller. The kind of bars that have really tweaked my interest are the "odd sizes" and even more so if there is a decimal in the weight. Such as the 5.23 ounce and the 3 ounce. Also in this collection I have started, I want them to be as old as possible and I am trying to get bars from the different silver producing states such as Nevada (the 3-ounce bar pictured) & Montana (the cool little 1-ounce "loaf style" bar).

I have been searching high and low and have almost a dozen I am watching at present and do hope to win all of them or at least a good portion of them. The only problem is these old style bars sell for quite a healthy premium above their worth in actual silver. But while I like everyone, wants to get a good deal, I do not mind paying extra for something that there are "very few" of. So now I have one more mouth/addiction to feed. Wow, you should have heard my daughter when I shared the fact that I was going to start collecting yet one more thing. Mind you that this little girl has been raised by a father that collects so very many things old besides coins. I even have an "old solid brass" hose nozzle collection with about 50-60 pieces. These are the old "hot dog" size and maybe a little larger that you twist one way or another to regulate the stream from a "jet" to a "spray". Then there is a 25 year collection of "made in occupied Japan" figurine pieces on all sizes and shapes/styles, and the "Baby Ben" westclock alarm clocks from the early 1900's, (I have around twenty or so) Wow I could go on and on. My youngest son put it very well several years ago when he said "Daddy, our house looks like the "Cracker Barrell".

Anyway yet one more collection is born. At least it is one from the precious metals section. Also included in the picture are a few other December buys. A half dozen 20 franc gold pieces, an Australian soverien, a 2 1/2 Mexican gold peso coin and one more gold rope chain bought from a neighbor who needed a little extra Xmas money. But out of all you see pictured, the three things I am most thrilled with are the 5.23 oz. bar, and the little 1-ounce Montana loaf followed by the 3-oz. Nevada bar. I do think I am really going to enjoy adding to this "little odd silver bar" collection. The only problem is, is that I have not figured out how to get all of this pictured into my safe that is shown at 11'oclock.

Happy Collecting & Happy New Year!

WKF