I don't believe I missed the history lesson or the journey you speak of!

If the members of the chat boards will remember, I have made the same comments you made, but only on the chat boards in several posts.

The journey you speak of is of utmost importance in coin collecting. Without it, these tiny pieces of metal we so eagerly track down would be just that, tiny pieces of metal with absolutely no signifance in our lives. However, each coin has a history, a purpose, a character and a personality all its own. If we do not stop to appreciate these qualities in each and every coin we put in our sets (raw or graded), then we have in deed missed the boat.

Long, long before I ever became "sophisticated enough" to buy slabbed coins, I collected raw coins by the truckload, so to speak. I would sit and think about that coin like there was no other in the world at the time. With slabbed coins, this becomes a little more difficult, particularly in the higher MS grades and with the slabbed Proofs since that don't "travel" like the business strikes do. With the lower graded circulated coins this is still absoulutely possible and I stll do this frequently. Raw medals, tokens and still more raw US coins come into my collection. Every one of my new acquisitions receives the same due diligence as the coins I collected 20 years ago.

All of this said again, what harm does a little friendly competition hurt on this site? Would I like to own at least one "perfect" set, heck yeah. Will I ever own one? Most likely not, but what is the big deal in trying as long as I remember how I got there? I have replaced many, many, many coins in my long quest to get to where I am today, as I'm sure we all have. After all, we wouldn't be in these sets if we didn't want to rank and compete!

Michael

'13$10Indi