It’s been nearly 18 years since I wrote a blog post. About the time that my two sons started sports, scouts, and all the other endeavors young men engage in. It was a great time to be a Dad. In a lot of ways, it was a chance at a second childhood, and to make memories with my sons. Coins, blogs, and other grown-up pastimes took a back seat (as they should!)
Now the boys are men, I have passed the 6 decades mark, and
time has slowed a bit. There they were
waiting for me, the coins. The 18 years or so waiting for my return only a blip
on their journey of millennia. The coins. I used to call them my coins, but the
passage of time has made me realize that I am only a stop in their journey,
they will endure beyond me. They are not my coins; I am more accurately their
caretaker.
With more free time, I revisited them in their flips. I got
reacquainted with reference books and dusted off old equipment. How did I set
the camera and lighting to get good pictures? Turns out it didn’t matter; the
camera was dead. My back and neck no
longer enjoyed using the stereo microscope. (My eyes weren’t as big a fan
either). Where were my calipers? Drat, my scales aren’t working either.
So, a new digital microscope replaced my camera and stereo
microscope. LED ring lights replaced my old lighting set up. The camera on my
cell phone also takes great pics if the coin is too large for the digital
microscope. Back when I last posted to this blog, I had a Blackberry phone, I
never used it for coin pictures. Now I have a Samsung phone, it makes better
images than the camera I used 18 years ago and is much easier to set up and use.
I purchased new scales, and upgraded to digital calipers, much more accurate
and easier on my eyes. Things have changed. Except the coins.
Saturday and Sunday mornings early, before the rest of the
house rises is my coin time. It’s when I revisit and sometimes rephotograph coins
that have been in my collection. I enjoy revisiting them, sometimes lamenting
my younger self’s failure to keep better records. I find attribution errors, add
citations from my expanded library and expanded experience, Younger me cared
less about the details. I was all about finding the coins (either by cleaning,
or purchasing) assigning or reconfirming the attribution, getting it catalogued
into my collection and uploading to my website. Then, on to the next.
Older me can’t afford to purchase many coins, and the
uncleaned coins I used to enjoy 20 years ago are not the same quality or variety.
That’s ok, the coins currently with me offer plenty of opportunities for enjoyment,
learning and relaxation. I find I spend more time on investigating the historical
context. I enjoy adding notations of the who, what, why of the coins in my database.
Between studying the detail and deeper historical context of
the coins, learning to use new equipment, upgrading my website I find the coins enrich me on many different
level. Just the ticket to help keep my mind flexible. Most of all, after all
this time, I still marvel at the age of these coins. Imagine the times they travelled through, the
hand they passed thru on their way to mine. Now I’m starting to think about
their future after my time with them is done. I deeply desire their next steward
get as much from them as I have.
