It's been roughly a year since I started collecting and the tally is 114 graded/slabbed coins worth 35,097 points.

I am most pleased with the progress I've made on my 1971 Mint Set -- lacking 2 coins for 100% and needing to upgrade the 1971D Lincoln Cent from 66RD to 67RD. My 1971D MS67FT Roosevelt Dime came to me through a purchase from our very own TD Henson. It was this coin and Todd's encouragement for that I joined the Collector's Society. I have learned so much through studying Todd's Roosevelt sets and am somewhat sad he has decided to move away from them, but am certainly looking forward to following whichever new endeavour he decides to undertake. Thank you Todd!

In addition to the 1971 set, I had plans to focus on 1967 and 2007 Mint Sets for my wife and child. Of course, I soon found this was not enough and started a 20th C. Type Set, 1967 SMS set, Jefferson Nickel set, and (beginning with a most generous gift) an Eisenhower Dollar set.

All the while I've been reading and learning - "The Red Book", most all of the Whitman "A Guide Book of" series, Coin World Monthly, and all of the great Journals and posts on the Chat Boards. I have taken to visiting the Houston Numismatic Exchange on a regular, weekly basis during my lunch hour away from work and everyone there has been helpful and encouraging, but most all of their coins are raw which spawned another quest - the 7070 US Type Set. I feel as if I have learned quite a bit over the last year, yet understand I have much more to learn, and realize I will spend a lifetime collecting, buying, selling, filling holes, upgrading, trading, making mistakes, and making "scores". Honestly, I have not figured out exactly what series it is I want to collect, as I like them all, but I do know I will finish my 1967, 1971, and 2007 mint sets and the 7070 will someday be complete, but probably never finished.

TD Henson, Six Mile Rick, and VUMC409 deserve special attention for making me feel at home among you all and I want for all of you to know that I read every Journal and almost every board posting in US Coins, Numismatic General, and Hey buddy, can you spare a grade?. Whether you guys & gals realize it or not you all impart a tremenous amount of knowlede and I for one have been lucky to have absorbed a bit of it this last year!

-Doug

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