It's interesting how finding one coin ( or in this case re-discovering one that I already had) can redirect our collecting to an area we never would have expected.
I was still a teenager and selling coins at a local outdoor fleamarket when an older gentleman came up to my table and asked if I would like to buy some Canadian coins. I told him I would take a look at them and arranged to come by his house later. He had a lot of nice Canadian coins which I couldn't afford, but I bought some proof-like sets, about 30 rolls of BU cents (1958-1968), an 1858 20 cent piece, and some assorted rolls of George VI and early Elizabeth II cents ( That's where the 1955 NSF was ).
The cent rolls sat in a box unopened for a few decades and then in 2013 after Canada discontinued the cent, I decided to finish my small cent set which only needed the later ones. I had 1920-1972 already from my early collecting days. The newest Charlton guide I had was from the late 60's and had no mention of the 1955 NSF variety.
About the same time I was walking through the book department in an Ollie's discount store and saw a Krause world coin catalog for $ 6.00. I bought it and was looking through the Canadian section when I noticed a very expensive variety (1955 NSF). I had no idea what it was, so I went online and ended up reading this forum to find out what it was.
Then I remembered the box of cents I had stored away for so many years, got them out, and found this coin. I decided that since I already had the hardest variety I would go ahead and find the other's I had read about on the forum. After finishing up my small cents, I thought why not at least get a date set of large cents also.
To make a very long story shorter, I am now collecting large cents by die pairs and in some cases die states.
If that coin had not been in the box, I would probably have a lot more time to go fishing now
, but I would have missed out on not only the fun of collecting Canadian cents, but also all the good friends I have made from collecting them.
That's the real blessing of this hobby, though it took me awhile to figure that out.
Hope I haven't bored you all with this story, but I think of it every time I see this coin.
Posted 05/27/2019 7:25 pm
