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 Replies: 16 / Views: 3,047 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1751 Posts |
I've been off the forum so long I forgot my username. I had to look up an old thread to find it  . It's great to see several of the usual people here! It's like coming home   . The past 5 years I switched to keeping tropical fish and miniature shrimp. Now there's a cost intensive hobby, even when you get used equipment. The price of quality fish and their food, makes coin collecting seem reasonable . There's nothing like ordering $400 of shrimp or fish, paying $80 to ship from Toronto to small town Alta. Then in a few months later lose almost everything, as something changed at the water treatment plant, or a pest infestation broke out. It's thrilling when you see new fry swimming and your tanks are full of new life!! It can as easily go the other way, if not careful. Live fish are a lot more delicate and expensive to ship as well! So I'm back too collecting my silver dollars and 99.99 silver proof sets. I'm behind in several years. My time spent in my other hobby, coupled with hearing my friends spending $3-$4k for orthopaedic surgeries on their dogs; have put coin collecting in a whole new light! A coin will always be worth melt, it's a great small work of art , coupled with a history lesson. It's important to set a realistic budget and define your goals! A well renowned tropical fish keeper, summed it beautiful. He said divide the hrs of enjoyment into the cost of your hobby! When you look at the entertainment value in terms of hrs of enjoyment, it's a different way of valuing your coins. As the world gets more stressful, it's important to have a place to retreat to, losing oneself in the beauty of silver or gold artwork!! As collectors of nclt it's easy to grumble about the overpriced coins from various mints. Do we stop to think of all of the labour and artistry, which went into making the piece. I find many bullion pieces don't have as much devotion to details. Do we use it to learn or teach history. I love reading Commens posts about his coins. I always learn something new. I've been inactive in collecting since 2017, it was the last year I bought any mint products. As my neighbour got my tropical fish keeping hobby kickstarted., I definitely don't have enough money to support both hobbies big time. On a smaller scale both should be manageable! I at times get paranoid about the possible effects of humidity of 550 gallons of water on my collection! It's another reason I took a break! I was reading too much on the forum about how to keep your coins pristine; I became rather ocd on the topic  ! Where I wasn't enjoying my coins, as opposed to worrying about keeping them mint condition, pardon the pun. So I'm back, with hopefully a more honed focus and realistic expectations then when I joined 9 years ago! It seems not all that much has changed. I do feel the lower mintages is a great move! Please correct me if I'm wrong, it seems like less coins are produced? I see I'm still ocd about editing my posts Edited by pocket change 50
12/19/2021 10:38 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
 back. I remember as a kid we were quite sucessful breeding fancytail guppies, swordtails and black mollies. We had several tanks. Now I have an empty tank in the basement. I think it is the tall 30 gallon. I love fish tanks. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6514 Posts |
Well written and welcome back.
Check out my counterstamped Lincoln Cent collection: http://goccf.com/t/303507 |
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
back. John1 |
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Moderator
United States
187582 Posts |
back to the Community! |
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
21584 Posts |
I vaguely remember your user name but welcome back.
Always nice to have another Canuck contributing.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
6767 Posts |
Welcome back, Pocket change. Great to see that everything is fine. You will not see some huge change in RCM offerings. And in general everyone can find something for their taste. Face value items discontinued . RCM developed entry level 1/4 oz coin series on card. Peace dollar series started. Renewed Silver Dollar series takes unexpected directions. Renewed Half Dollar seems to be ended towards Renewed Toonie. |
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CCF Master Historian of USA Commemoratives
United States
12252 Posts |
Welcome back! I've wondered about you over the years. Glad to see your return!
Collecting history one coin or medal at a time! (c) commems. All rights reserved.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
1751 Posts |
@TNG I have 7 strains of fancy guppies and a tank of culls. The culls have crossed with a couple of mollies from the neighbour. So I have had interesting looking muppies. I really enjoy my livebears, especially the varieties of swords and platies. Then I have an assortment of community fish. Lastly I have a 13 inch Carpo Knife, which is orange and brown striped.
I at times wonder what it the two hobbies are compatible, as it can get a tad humid in the summer. Last summer with an Alberta heat wave, my built in dehumidifier was running 3/4 of the time! Thank you for your welcome back! I start in tropical fish hobby also in the 70's. My mom had about 20 tanks and was breeding a variety of different tropical fish. Both hobbies have changed drastically over the decades! As I age I don't enjoy going out in winter weather more than is necessary. So it's important to keep busy with a couple of hobbies, to stimulate the mind!
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1751 Posts |
It's great to be back and catch up! I'm surprised that it's been 9 and a half years already since I signed up! I appreciate all of the welcome backs! It will be interesting to read what both new and old members have to say about all aspects of the hobby! I also collect Pre 1967 silver and large cents. I had an interesting read on the 2017 commemorative 7 oz penny set! It was a most informative discussion. I stumbled across the set yesterday, when search for proof silver 2017 sets. It seems like the RCM went a little crazy with the variety of proof silver circulation and other non silver coin sets! What are people's opinions on the offerings for 2017? The one thing I have noticed is mintages have gotten smaller! Do they still pump out too many offerings? I'm thinking 2017 may have been an unusual year for sets? I know I'm going to enjoy catching up with reading about the coins from the years I missed. It wonderful to see so many people from 9 years ago and to meet new people who've entered the hobby since I was away.,The discussions are always interesting, as there can be many views on both topics and coins! It's sort of odd as when I joined my mobility was limited by hip pain and needing a hip replacement. This time it's lower back pain and another possible back surgery. So coin collecting and discussion are well suited for a seditary hobby . My challenge is when I go to look for certain coins and they're under 10-15 lbs of others. I managed to collect a lot in almost 10 years & . I still enjoy the singles. However now I'm more focused, as I realize how much room coins in packaging takes up! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2951 Posts |
I managed to complete the entire Canadian large and small cents up to the 60s . I also wonder where everybody else went from threads past  , what are they up to, and I probably would have wondered about you also... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7273 Posts |
Welcome back!
I'm a fish guy also. Had densely planted tanks for years, used to have Congo tetras and fancy plecos than went to Australian rainbows. Sadly in Hurricane Sandy we had no power for a week and all the fish died. I went to African cichlids as my water is hard and I didn't want to ion filter the water any more. I got 6 cichlids and now have about 20 all tank bread from the original 6. I can't keep plants as the cichlids move and kill them all. I may eventually go back to a planted tank but the cichlids keep on breeding. I also have a small 10 gallon colony tank of Malawi snail cichlids that is about 20 years old. Other than an ancistrus fan tail pleco that passed away after 12 years same fish type, all tank bred. That one is densely planted. The snail cichlids are small so they don't cause damage to the plants.
Edited by hfjacinto
12/20/2021 9:38 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
pocket change 50, I think I might fire up my tank and let it naturally produce guppies again. It will be a survival of the fittest situation. Call me weird but watching busy catfish, snails and plecostomus clean up the glass fascinated me. Guppies can be low maintenance. I don't know anyplace nearby to get fish. Maybe Craigslist can hook me up. Well, every time we have somebody over in the basement my wife wants to give away the tank and all and I keep saying NO! lol  LATE EDIT:  I did just post on CL  Wanted - A small collection of livebearing tropical fish
Edited by TNG
12/21/2021 11:01 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7273 Posts |
Here are quick pictures of my tanks.   |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1751 Posts |
@mrwhatisit What an amazing accomplishment, you must be feeling thrilled  . There's how many cents in your collection? I'm also wondering how you have chosen to display/store them? The large cents are another passion of mine. One day if I ever win a lottery, I'd love to have several large Vicky's with some reddish tones or even George V or VII in that order. The small cent design has taken years for the design to grow on me. I've finally come around to seeing its beauty! I drool over the vine of leaves and use of cent in the design of the large cent! A thought just occurred to me, I wonder if over a 150 years ago people grumbled about coins making a hole in their pocket or the weight? I know there were people grumbling about this very thing, when the loonie and twoonie were introduced. I miss finding cents when out for a walk. It was a cool little surprise! Especially when the sun caught a newly minted cent. It's taken me a few years to stop referring to cents as pennies! As it was so commonly used in speech! Are you going to continue on to 2012? I'd enjoy seeing a few photos of your large cents! I sometimes wonder what prices those large cents are going for, which were found in rolls? I believe the auction was around 2013, I recall it was in Feb! It's always encouraging and exciting to hear when a person has reached a challenging goal! |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1751 Posts |
@hfjacinto wow those are nice African's , interesting that you also have shell dwellers. It doesn't take long for fish to reproduce!! I heard with Africans a person needs to keep them a bit crowded with lots of caves or decore to break up sight lines, due to the aggression factor. I had convicts for 3 years in with my Knife. As cichlids are known for digging up a tank, I managed to outsmart 11 adult convicts. I used Jungle Val, buried deep in big deep containers. The top layer I used a couple very heavy rocks to anchor the plants in their containers. It's worked well for over 2 years now. The last 4 months that 55 gal is down to 2 convicts and my 13"'knife. I actually got so into the fish hobby, I started a YouTube channel. It was doing very well as I got involved with the fishtuber community. Then my mom's health changed and so did my son's. So I haven't had time in months to post new videos! I even bought a 200gal tank with a 90 gal sump. I still need to find room for it. When I bought it from my neighbour, my young son moved out. Now he's home and I finished cleaning out mom's room at the care home in November. So it's going to take some organization to try and fit everything in. Having it in a pleasing set up. I had expected to be an empty nester. My proposed fish room got turned back into a bedroom. . It's nice to have 2 hobbies to switch my attention between! It's cool to meet another person who enjoys both hobbies! I also met a few people who have YouTube coin channels. There's 1-2 Canadians with coin channels. I've seen a couple of American collectors do auctions on YouTube. So it seems people are getting inventive with the hobby and introducing it to the younger generations. Through using this media, people don't need to be limited, if you live hours from coin dealers or a regular community. It seems like the trend is moving more and more to doing things online. |
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Replies: 16 / Views: 3,047 |
Posted 12/19/2021 11:49 pm
