The coin show was fun. There were some beautiful and valuable coins bought and sold there, including gold ones. Over seven hundred people came just on Saturday. I thought hard about buying the Queen Victoria silver crown coin, but just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much for it. Instead I bought a Victoria half crown – and then a King Edward VII and a King George VI, both crowns, all three for less than half what the Victoria crown would have cost. Mr. Davisson showed me a Queen Victoria pattern crown (a design for a coin that was never minted), a magnificent and very finely detailed piece that really belongs in a museum. Only four thousand dollars!

Quite a few people saw and commented favorably on my display of “1,000 Years of English Money.” A member of Northwest Coin Club wants me to refine it some more and enter it in our State Fair. I’ll think about it – but probably won’t. Each coin in my display is firmly fastened down inside two frames, but what if someone just picks up a frame and walks away with it? Thirty-plus years of patient searching and buying, gone.

On the other hand, what would a thief do with it? These aren’t American dimes and quarters they could spend in a vending machine – which is what happens to many collections a burglar takes, which is why an amazingly valuable coin will turn up in someone’s pocket change. Which is why collectors routinely examine their pocket change.