The other day I stopped at my nearby coin shop to look at see if he had anything new. He had a few new things, a few of which I picked up, but more interesting than that was one of the other customers who I met.
That encounter led to me gaining possession of these coins. Let's go into a story.
I should start by saying my adopted city in Japan has a Japanese language school that is quite well known. As such, it attracts a lot of foreign students from all over the world. I've never gone there (it's quite expensive) but I know some of the teachers there and I understand it's a fairly good school.
As a result of this, my city has a larger than average foreign population. Most of them are Chinese, Korean, or Filipino, but occasionally there are some Westerners there. Usually also most of these people stay on the campus of the Japanese language school, so they rarely venture more than a few blocks away, but you do something get some adventurous ones who roam off, looking for fortune and glory I'm sure.
Anyway, on this day at the coin shop I happened to run into another American, a Texan. We chatted for a bit. Long story short, he had some coins he was looking to sell but he didn't like the price the shop was offering him. I suppose he found himself spending too much here, as many foreigners seem to do, and he needed to generate some cash. Just why he brought some silver with him when coming to Japan, I didn't ask. Maybe for situations like this! He had a bunch, but four of them caught my eye so I picked them up from the guy.
These three very worn ones:
A Barber half-dollar, a walking liberty half-dollar, and a seated liberty dime. They are in terrible condition, but I don't have any so I thought they would be great to have and I bought them off him.
And then this beauty.
I wasn't quite as trusting on that and asked the coin shop owner to test if it was real. He said it was, so I bought it. My first silver Eagle.
Big difference between the silver eagle and the walking liberty half
It reminded me of an idea I had several weeks ago and had presented in the Silver Gold Stacker Discord. I was thinking I should buy two American silver eagles, one for each year of my sons' births, 2013 and 2016. One choice I then would have is I could then just stick them away in keep them in perfect condition to give to my kids one day. That might be good. My second idea is I thought it could be fun to carry these two coins with me all the time as my carry pieces. Presumably the effect here is they will get a little worn in the next twenty years, tarnished, maybe a bit dirty and dinged up, but then when my kids are grown and I pass them on, they will have a much more personal connection. Of course the danger of that idea is I could lose them if I'm not careful.
The eagle I picked up a few days ago doesn't fit the bill (it's 2002) but it did put that idea back in my head. Next time I visit the coin shop, I'm going to ask if the shop owner will save any eagles of those dates that he happens to get. I'm also going to see if I can order some. I've never ordered silver coins from an online store... I don't know if they will even ship to Japan, but time to check that out.
I'll write more about these specific coins later, giving short reviews as I've been doing recently for coins. In this post I just wanted to share my recent pickups and my silver eagle idea.
Are you guys doing anything similar for your kids or grandkids? Do you have any pocket pieces that you always carry with you? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |