Good afternoon folks!

     When I was young and had just finished college in 2010, they called me an "Alternative Student". I personally looked at myself as "39 and holding" eventhough I was only 8 (in dog years)!  :-) As far as numismatics was concerned, I had all my Junk money in a box and the coins that my granny and step-fatherhad left me were in plastic sandwich bags. I had my collection appraised one time back in the 90's and was told I had about $700 , but it was all in the silver coins that I had i.e. silver melt. Of course this was before I started collecting "seriously" and doing the proper research. In Dec. 2019 I decided to start a storage system. I had never cleaned my coins so after I found out that you were NOT supposed to clean them, I thought to myself, this is good news! One less task to preserving my collection. I like a shiny new coin as good as the next guy but old coins have their own particular beauty as well. Since I was looking at affordability as well as something that would accomplish the mission, I chose the cardboard flips for the majority of the silver coins and slabs for my Kennedy Half Collection.     I purchased the silver box for my silver coins. I do have a few SusanBAnthony's and Sacagawea's in there as well. See the pictures with this blog. I was reading a blog in the forums and there were a couple of comments on "staples". I'm no scientist, but being in a 174MM Artillery Battalion, I do know RUST! For me, this was a case of "monkey see, monkey do". If I keep the cardboard flips dry and stored properly, they will still be silver long after I'm outta here ! Since I was going to be aggressive about my Kennedy Half Collection, I chose to slab them and house them in boxes inside a briefcase. See the pictures with this blog. I know this process is more expensive, but I'm going by what I learned in the military, and that is if you want to keep something nice, you have to pay the price!      The red book that you see with this blog is what I call "Gracie's Coin Journal". Gracie is my daughter. Even though she's now 20, still a "babe in the woods", I want her to know the process of collecting and maintaining a collection. My sister gave me the idea when I was talking to her on the phone one day. So now when I purchase a coin/coins I make an entry into the journal so that one day when the collection is hers she will know about it and the history behind it. It will be my parting gift to her. Right now, she's not interested one bit about numismatics and that's ok with me. She will be older one day and have something nice to pass on to future generations!     In closing, did I mention I also do windows, laundry, dusting as well as vacuuming, dishes and cleaning? Being retired has it advantages and disadvantages I guess ! Until next time my friends, stay SAFE, healthy and Coronavirus FREE !  Charlie aka slybluenote

26 Mar. 2020     Good morning folks ! First I want to thank all the folks that have helped me navigate this site so far! I've only been a "ANA" member for 2 days and I'm already getting smarter :-)  ! I really appreciated thearticle that Mr. Doug Winter wrote in reference to the Ten Rules of Coin Collecting. I did read ALL tenrules, but as any good writer would do, the paragraph that preceded the rules really hit home for me. Thereality check the paragraph alluded to spurred me to proceed to the rules. Sometimes, the truth hurts !The rules make sense and as Mr. Winter indicated, some will be harder for me than others. The realitycheck Mr. Winter opened with was for me, like looking in a mirror. When I first started collecting, I wasguilty of buying what I would later learn was "Junk Money" vice "New Money" ! My collection early onwas "summarily dismissed" by more than one dealer/collector. Rule number 3 is going to be especiallyhard for me since I don't have an abundance of "Patience" to start with, but I'm a work in progress! Seebelow for an example of one of my "impulsive" buys :-) ! I'm going to have to find out where Mr. Wintergained his knowledge and to peruse some of his work, when I get an opportunity!