Coins, Kids, and the Lack of Funds

Wow, it seems like it has been forever since the last time I?ve had a quiet Saturday morning to play with my coins. There is only a week left to school, baseball season is over, and I have extricated my two youngest sons from my ex-wife in Louisiana and they are here for the summer. I even managed to get a decent night of sleep last night.

Money or rather the lack of money has brought most of my collecting activities to a painfully grinding crawl. My registry sets have only seen three additions to them since my last journal entry.

1) 2008 S PF69 Lincoln Cent

2) 2004 S PF69 Lincoln Cent

3) 2009 S PF70 Washington DC Clad Quarter

All three I was able to purchase for very reasonable prices, considerably less than $10 each. I have also grossly neglected my registry photos and documentation over the last several months.

My fledging album set of good to fair Walking Liberty Half Dollars has grown to about 20 coins. Again, I recognize that in time I will be upgrading all of these coins but I can afford this level of set at the moment and it makes me feel like I am actually doing something. Besides, even in this condition this is a very pretty coin. (Side Note: Oddly enough, I have not developed an affinity for the Silver American Eagles.)

The 1973 S Proof Eisenhower Dollar needed to complete my album set still eludes me. I did, however, manage to pick up an upgrade for my 1972 TIII. I am still on the hunt for upgrades to all of the circulated 1971 P/D and 1972 P/D coins. The set as it stands now with the exception of the 1971 P/D and 1972 P/D circulated coins has all come from mint or proof sets. I still have not taken the plunge starting my graded registry set of Eisenhower Dollars.

In the process of acquiring proof sets to fill the holes my Kennedy Half Dollar album I?ve managed to put together near complete album sets of the Susan B Anthony, the Sacagawea, and the Presidential Dollars. The SBA set is missing the variations, 1979 Wide Rim, 1979 S TII Proof, 1981 TII Proof, and the 1999 Proof coin. I do not think I will pursue a registry set for any of these with the possible exception of the SBA. The Kennedy Album Set is nearing completion with all of the coins being taken from mint or proof sets with the exception of 1982 P/D and 1983 P/D halves. I had not made any recent progress on my Registry Set of Proof Kennedy Halves.

My Lincoln Cents album set is still holding at 15 coins short of a complete set, not counting a couple of the variations. I mostly need the early key and semi-key coins so I don?t see any of those holes getting filled particularly quickly. My upgrading efforts are proceeding nicely though, albeit slowly. Many of my original coins from between 1935 and 1942 are now BU red. Everything from 1944 to present is BU/MS red. The 1943 PDS coins are also BU/MS. Since my album is rather old, I am considering upgrading it as well. I suspect that will be a Christmas present though.

After my youngest son left last summer to return to Louisiana, I have been setting aside every State Quarter I pick up in change. In the last week, he has managed to go through each and every one of them and fill in his circulated State Quarter set. He has done quite well and I am proud of him. His set is about 8 or 10 coins short of being completed. He also found a couple of Sacagawea Dollars in quarter mix. He is now interested in those as well. Of course those are not nearly as readily available in circulation so it my take some additional doing on my part to find him those dollar coins. The two he did find were both 2009 P and as luck would have it one Pos A and one Pos B. (Chuckling to myself here ? at least he hasn?t seen the America the Beautiful Quarters, YET! Come to think about it, I don?t think he?s seen the Presidential Dollars yet either.) And one final thought on my youngest son?s collecting: he found my 10x loop. He had already shown a very keen eye for spotting quality coins and now he is fascinated with examining them under 10X magnification. If he every turns into a serious coin collector, I suspect his sets will rival most for the quality coins.

Now, hopefully, with summer break here I will not let my journal lapse for months at a time.