i would like to thank COINSBYGARY and his well written blog "The Blessings of Liberty" on introducing me to some very well designed medals with a lot of great background on each and every one of them. there was one in particular that caught my eye, the 1876 H&K Centennial Exposition Official Medal. i loved the design and the symbolism and the medal as a whole  was out of this world. so what does a collector do when they see something they like, they stalk multiple samples of them. they watch them, learn more about them, and at the right moment go for the attack and snatch it up. i ended up spending 25$ on the copper medal. with an R-6 it is just about the rarest piece i own. although the medal does have a hole in it, it is in a very particular spot, where the "sun is". there were 13 stars in the sky and  the hole was punched right in the middle of it. the back was not damaged in the process (by this i mean all the words are still clear just the wreath was damaged) making the medal attractive and possibly more affordable for collectors like me. And like Mike says "collect what you like"