A brief introduction to me and my intentions for journal entries.

Greetings journal readers. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Luke. But since I insist on eccentricity, I will write under the name Mr. Smith Guesser.

I've only been collecting coins for a few years. And when I first got started, I was all over the place with my collecting. But now I am a much more focused collector, concentrating my collecting efforts today on the silver 1946 to 1964 Roosevelt dime series.

Why Roosevelt dimes? Well, two reasons.

First, the Roosevelt dime series is not the most popular coin right now in numismatics. And I'm a bit of a contrarian.

But more importantly, the design on the reverse of the Roosevelt dime is really interesting to me. It is certainly one of the most esoteric designs found on 20th century U.S. business circulated coins; although the Walking Liberty design on the 1916-1947 Half Dollar and American Silver Eagle is also deeply meaningful.

Flanked on both sides by the olive branch (signifying peace) and the oak branch (signifying strength) is the great torch, a symbol of enlightenment. This concept harkens back to its literal interpretation, for where there is darkness, light guides the way.

But this is also the torch of Prometheus, the God who stole fire for the service of man, for which he is also subjected to eternal punishment. Fire was the first technology. Without it, the human being would still be living in caves, eating bugs, and raw meat. We would still be animals.

Before Prometheus, the human being needed the gods. But once Prometheus brought the torch from the heavens, humans did not need the gods anymore. In other words, reason and logic replaced the irrational and illogical.

These symbols have been used for thousands of years to represent these core ideas. Perhaps this is why the design of the Roosevelt dime remains relatively unchanged for nearly 70 years, the longest a U.S. coin has ever been minted without significant design changes. (The Jefferson nickel is actually the longest running mintage, but significant changes in the design were made in 2003 with the Westward Journey series.)

My current Roosevelt dime collection, which I've named The "Fear Itself" Collection, contains over 100 professionally-certified Roosevelt dimes that grade MS 66 or higher, plus over 25 additional lower-grade mint state coins.

These include over 40 dimes with Full Torch or Full Bands designation and over 20 coins with well-known pedigrees including the Benson Collection, the Omaha Bank Hoard, the Binion Collection, Nick Cascio, the Teich Family Collection, and the Richmond Collection, among others. Other dimes have been acquire from leading Roosevelt dime collectors here on the NGC registry including Michael R. Bianco III and Six Mile Rick.

The entire collection is presented here in the NGC Registry in three separate competitive sets and an additional custom set. The highest graded coin set is currently ranked 38 in the 1946-1964 Roosevelt Dime Circulation Issue Competitive Sets.

In these journals I plan to discuss my experiences collecting silver Roosevelt dimes and what I've learned from the series.

So with that, please check back soon.

Regards,

Mr. Smith Guesser

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