Very little to show for the month

I have felt like a ship at sea in irons during the month of September. Still reeling from the financial storms of the summer, disposable income for coins has been scarce to say the least. Throw on top of that there have been relatively few very good deals on coins out there lately so ultimately my September acquisitions were almost nonexistent. Even the circulated rolls I?ve gone through have yielded only minimal hidden treasures. But all is not lost as I did manage a couple of nice finds, nothing exceptional but nice.

My $5.00 Dimes for Kids program is starting to make some head way as I gave away yet another dime this month. I managed to pick up a 3 or 4 $5.00 dimes including a 2005D SMS MS69. (This was a small coup.) I gave one young man in one of my classes a MS67 1967 SMS dime for his collection. (The SMS dimes for 1965 through 1967 are actually listed in the proof sets.) This was his first graded coin and when I gave it to him he was quite surprised. He looked at the dime in its slab flipping it over and over, examining the dime very carefully. He had a bunch of questions and he even noted that the dime was starting to tone slightly. I was impressed. The next day the young man brought in a couple of coins from his collection to show me, both in 2x2 flips. He asked me if I knew what one of the coins was because he couldn?t seem to identify it. He said he had gone through all the entire British section of his world coin book and couldn?t find anything on the coin. I looked at it and immediately recognized his error. The coin was an 1811 Spanish Reale. Obviously, he wasn?t going to find anything in the British section of the book. The coin was probably in XF condition but it was still pretty neat to see the kid had one in his collection. The other coin was 1850 Large Penny. Personally, I was amazed and impressed. There are just not too many high school kids whose collections can boost either of these coins. (For the record, this kid is actually an interesting example of a young collector. He actually likes looking for error coins. He can readily identify doubling and die clashes.) As for the rest of the kids in my classes, we are far enough into the semester that I?ve started taking about coins and I am starting to build some interest and get some questions from the kids that never thought about collecting coins before.

Elsewhere in my slowly growing collection, I managed to add a 1973 PF68 UC to my Lincoln Memorial Proof set and a couple of MS Sacagawea for my circulated set. (I?m really looking for a PF69UC Lincoln Cent but the price was right on this one.) Most notable of those was the set of MS 67 2009 P and D. As it turns out, MS67 is a top pop for both coins. Somehow, I don?t think that will last forever. I also added two more PF70UC State Quarters for my Union of States set, Hawaii and Oklahoma both clad. Oh yea, and I almost forgot I picked up a 1977S PF69UC Roosevelt Dime for my Proof Dime Set. Of course, the dime also makes an appearance in my 1977 (High School Graduation) Annual Proof Set. All in all though, despite September being incredibility slow I added all of the coins for less than $0.25 on the dollar of FMV.

As a rule, slow acquisition months typically do not bother me. A slow month usually means I can spend time sprucing up my pictures and coin descriptions but I didn?t even get to do that this month. I think that is what is aggravating me the most. Between getting material ready to teach my classes, helping my son with his school work and a new puppy in the house, time has just slipped through my fingers. The precious little time I have spent with my coins has been limited to some reading and a little bit of set maintenance. I am beginning to think that as my $5.00 Roosevelt Dime set evolves and grows I want to turn it into a FT Set. (The dime, MS67 SMS 1967 that I gave to the young collector, has fewer points than the MS66FT SMS 1967 dime I currently have listed in the set.) I actually have 5 FT Dimes between the circulation and proof sets so far. The 1965 through 1967 SMS dimes can come with a FT designation in the proof set.

I am hoping that October will be more productive but October is State Fair month and I promised the family a day outing at the fair. For now, I will leave you with a picture of my newly acquired Oklahoma PF70UC Clad State Quarter. As with the silver Oklahoma quarter, I still think the reverse of this quarter is one of the most elegant of all the state quarters.

Dennis