My Silver Collection Introduction

@jonnyla08 Introduction To All Fellow Silver Collectors

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Introduction and Pride of my collection - 1807 Draped Bust Silver Half Dollar

A Little Bit About Me

Good evening everyone. I'm @jonnyla08 and I am the Founder of some small projects here on Steemit called Steemexplorers and Monster Madness Giveaways, two small initiatives aimed at helping users across the STEEM platform in numerous ways. Previous to this post, I had been conducting regular daily giveaways on things on Steemit to assist my other teams that we've been building over the past 6 months to a year. I'm happy to say that these projects we've developed can now stand on their own which gives me time to enjoy some down time and to get into some things I enjoy like sharing my United States coin and paper money collection with the world.

Many of you likely did not know this about me prior to this post but I have a rather decent coin collection that I mainly pieced together in my young adult days prior to build a family, back when I had money to spend on collectibles such as these. These days, I still collect, but in smaller quantities of course. I spend time here and there to look for interesting things in my change, across various paper bills I have, and pretty much at any chance I get.

I had also been involved in the presale of the 2018 STEEM Silver Rounds but unfortunately due to some financial rough patches over the past year or so, had to re-sell those coins that I had purchase, as painful as it was. It hurt me to my core to have to do that but there were other pieces to my collection that I simply could not live without.

How It All Started

My whole hobby began one afternoon when I found an old box of coins under my bed at my parent's house that they had saved for me over the years. Not even intending to or knowing anything about collectible coins, they had just been stashing change away to save for me for a future date at which I might need it. As I looked through that small box, I noticed that some of the coins looked different than the others. There were some wheat pennies in the box, a couple of indian head pennies, a couple mercury dimes, a few silver roosevelt dimes, a silver 1964 Kennedy half dollar, one roosevelt silver half dollar and one Morgan silver dollar.

This was all I needed to peak my interest. You see, I have a very addictive personality, but not in a bad way. When I find something that I'm interested in I will get so engulfed in that hobby or that area of focus that I won't stop reading and researching until I know as much as I can on the matter. When I REALLY enjoy something, I will spend countless hours doing exactly this, so much so that you might say it's a bit obsessive. However, I believe we all need our hobbies and this is my way finding joy in something positive and is far better than several other things I could be doing with my time like gambling, which is a terrible thing for someone like me (a difficult thing to manage when you live very close to two of the largest casinos in the United States).

The Center Piece of My Collection

After landing my first job out of college, I saved a few hundred dollars and bought this 1807 Draped Bust Silver Half Dollar. Even though I didn't have a family then, or even a girlfriend for that matter, I knew in my heart that I wanted to find a piece of American History that I would never sell in a million years, no matter how hard times got. I'd rather be bankrupt than sell this coin and even now almost 10 years later, I 100% plan to pass this coin on to my children and hope they keep it long after I'm gone.

This coin when I purchased it ran me about $450. I believe I overpaid for it by a decent amount but at the time I didn't care and I just wanted to ensure I won it from the auction site I purchased it from. This coin is graded by PCGS with a grade of VG10 which is still pretty solid considering the coin is roughly 212 years old.

To me, this coin represents a time in our country's history when the independent country of the United States of America was only about 30 years old after gaining independence over England. It represents a time of new beginnings and a time of uncertainty when people had to rise to the occasion and build a new nation from the ground up. Collecting silver is where things started for me but it ultimately led me to gaining an appreciation for old and rare currencies as well. This coin pictured above is the best of both worlds.

The 1807 draped bust silver half dollar is a 90% silver American half dollar. It is said that these were minted in Philadelphia which makes perfect sense for the time period and that only about 300,000 coin mintage is known to have been produced. The obverse and reverse sides were both designed by Robert Scot, Cheif Engraver of the United States Mint during this time period, and one of the most prolific early America designers of coins. Robert Scot's designs depicted images related to rebellion, unity, victory and liberty and in my opinion were unlike anything you'd find today. The significance and meaning behind many of his designs are unparalleled if I had the money to collect every coin he every made I would. They are works or art.

Other Parts of My Collection to Come in Future Posts

I have a whole slew of things from American Silver Eagle, 1 oz silver rounds, early american tiny silver 3 cent coins among various early american pennies and other copper type of coins. I also have a wide range of circulated silver coins in all denominations as well as collector sets for annual silver coin mintage for states quarters, half dollar, etc. ranging all the way back to the early 1950's.

I look forward to sharing many of my coins with you and I hope that you will find that my silver and coin collection is a true collection of someone that is passionate about this while working with an extremely limited budget. My collection is very near and dear to me so I hope you will all find some enjoyment out of it too.

Thank you all for your time and for reading my first every silver / coin post.