Hello, everybody!� Earlier today I went to a coin show with my grandfather in Coeur d'Alene Idaho.� It was the third or fourth year that we have been attending that show.� I believe that we got there around 10:45.� When we went in we were given tickets for hourly drawings and bought a raffle ticket.� We did a lap around the stands and one of the first things that I saw caught my eye.� It was an 1857 flying eagle cent.� This had been on my list but I walked around some more to see if there was a better option.� Some of the people running the stands gave me some items.� In all they gave me an arrowhead and a 2005 nickel.� �Some of the last things that I saw were some off center coins.� I ended up buying one from the 1980's for $20.� We wandered around some more and on my second loop I bought the flying eagle cent.� It was listed at $30 but he gave it to me for $28.� We went a few more loops until it reached 2:00 and then we went up front for drawings and the raffle.� I ended up winning one of the prizes.� My prize was a Canadian centennial set, a 1917 Canadian cent, a 1918 Canadian cent and a 1919 Canadian cent.� At the end of the show I had spent $48, not including the raffle ticket, and came out with all that.� I had a great day with my grandpa and got to do something that I love.

� � � � � �The highly debatable topic of retiring the United States cent, as well as an increase towards the same for the Five cent, has lately appeared as an almost regular discussion in multiple collecting formats, from printed publications to online forums. Within the past several, this very subject seems to be spreading beyond the collector rhelm to the general public, both posing the question as to why both denominations remain viable when their cost to manufacture far exceeds their face value. By comparison, this week's blog discusses another growing debate subject, the U.S dollar coin.

Recently I have been collecting these coins after I gave one to my father for his birthday.� These are a few of them, most of them I have to keep sealed so as not to get them in bad condition.� The one that is slabbed I got as a prize from a coin show. These coins have been around since 1986 and are 1oz of fine silver.� So this means you have to be extremely careful ( as you would do with any coin ) and wear gloves.� Other than that it is a pretty easy set to collect although you should start by getting the proofs out of the way since they can be expensive.� They are not in circulation and will most likely never be.� I am still not quite sure when I will be going to the PAN show in Gettysburg but I will update you on that later.� Stay happy and enjoy your collecting.�

In my own words.

Hi everyone, I just logged on to see if my membership is still active, and apparently it is. I’m probably gonna check on the website occasionally to see if I have new messages. Anyways, I don’t want this to be a short and boring blog, so I’m gonna tell a little story! So, I was at my friends house (who has a railroad right next to it) and thought “what if I put a no date buffalo nickel that he had on the tracks (I gave it to him a year or so ago) so that the train could squish it?” Well, we put the buffalo nickel and two other coins on the tracks and waiter for like 20 minutes. Turns out we missed the train by about 5 minutes (I heard it pass by right before we went outside) so we went inside. The next time the train would pass by was in like 2 hours, and I had to go, so I told my friend to get the coins tomorrow. A few days later, he brought all three of them with him and they were super flat and super wide! Sadly, I don’t have any pictures, but you can look one up online or something. Well, that’s it. Bye and see you later!