Joseph Trance

A Money Tale

      I made a decision in my thirties  (cica 1980's) that I was going to be
a coin collector.  The first time I bought a coin from a thrift shop
it was a buffalo nickel attached to a chain. It was labeled "valuable antique nickel".   It was an old coin,  in very poor condition but I didn't know that at the time.  I just knew it was old and therefore just had to be valuable.  I think I paid about twenty dollars for it and I was going to bring it to a coin shop and make millions in profit.  You live, you learn.
     Flash toward to 2017.   So there I am at the August  13th 2016
California's Worlds Fair of Money Expo.  I have a few coins certified by PCGS and NGC in my pocket that I am ready to sell, have certified, or trade. The tables of money here are obscene.  Aisle after aisle there are displays of gold coins, certified sliver coins from all over the world, and buckets of coins for sale.  There are also tables of paper money from many different countries. This is a packed expo.  There are mega millions of dollars here, table after table of wealth.  There must be over 200 sellers here.
    I walk down the aisles, tables to the left and right of me.  I come to a table selling "antique dimes and nickels" and there is a display of buffalos.  I have a memory flash of my first purchase, and my experience trying to sell it.  "I'll give you a dollar for it," a coin shop owner offered.   And then flashes of my growth as a collector;  reading coin collector books, my eBay purchases, my first trip to a coin shop and looking at coin details ​​through a magnifying glass. 
Memories fade.
       I'm back at the expo and I scan the table. I see a buffalo nickel on a chain labeled fifty dollars.   It's worth between  thirty to thirty five dollars in its condition. I've come a ways since my first purchase. I pick up the chain.  "I'll give you  ten for it,"  I say to the seller.  " Thirty five",  he counters.  "Twenty my final. " I offer.   "Sold."  He says.   I smile. It's been a long and educational money journey.


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Published on e-Stories.org on 05/13/2022.

 
 

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