Collecting coins- what I have done

After the coin display was done, I was asked to write a book about the display. It showed the coins in the display, their description, and had much more room to write about the significance of different pieces.

I did the revisions to the book on the phone, by long distance while driving across North America. I attended a Suzuki Violin School course in Wisconsin, and phoned in revisions every day on a pay phone. One day while travelling across the prairies, there was a tornado about 30 miles north from where I was. The editing was at least as tough as writing it, and probably more, but I didn't count on tornados.

I traveled with the display to the Northern Exhibition Centre in K’san, where it was displayed. K’san is in one of the incredibly beautiful parts of BC, and I had not been there before. It was when I put the display in there that I really realized how much I had accomplished.

I also did several other displays for the museum- one at the CNA convention when it was in Vancouver. (1991?). I used 10 cases of Chinese coins, covering all the major dynasties. Another display was for a major feature called Arts of Conflict, which displayed a piece of Chinese knife money along with a Japanese Samurai suit, and other wonderful weapons. The museum has a good Tsuba (swordguard) collection.

I now buy and sell coins and paper money, and go to coin shows. I sell on eBay. I have done talks about the life and money of Sun Yat Sen, talked on the radio, and for national conventions, and written articles about various aspects of collecting coins and paper money. I had no idea that a coin found under a lake surface that got me started, and a gift of a brass coin, would lead into such different fields, but that is a story for another blog. Such is the power of collecting coins.