What Have You Accomplished This Year?

This can be twisted to have something to do with coins. If you think about it, this means you'll be able to buy more coins since you won't have to send money to creditors.

Great job! You must feel great about it!

I had a good year, returning to the hobby after about 10 years away and for the first time with a solid income.

I completed my junior high (20 years old) Whitman Jefferson collection (circulated) then started a Dansco Jefferson+Proofs collection (BU) that is now short 16 coins, with 1970+ being solid (6666) full steps.

I also completed an Ike album and a Kennedy half album (Dansco both, latter with proofs, both BU).

Moved some of my more precious coins (from the late 80s) from old 2x2s into Air Tites.

Completed a U.S. 1955-to-present Proof set - all base sets + all prestige and silver premier sets during the years they were made (no American Legacy stuff though--yuck!), and the Prestige sets were zero-toning. Probably the hardest thing to do this year - lot of shows, lot of ebay auction scans, lots of on-site inspection of sets advertised on craigslist, as well as running through the complete inventory of most coin shops in this part of my state.

Found two 1919 cents (both G-VG, no better) in spare change.

Got to befriend some dealers.

Dramatically ramped up my knowledge and understanding of world coins.

Dramatically improved my understanding of the 2010 coin market - TPGs, grey sheet, etc.

I got kinda crazy on type coins and put together a nice set, but not exactly according to a 7070 format. I still need to get a Trade dollar and Seated dollar and an 1853 A&R half and I would consider it pretty much complete.
I managed to return to driving a school bus although I thought I was going to give it up and consequently ended up with a nice special needs run that beats the heck out of that urban high school gang I had dealt with for the previous 3 years.
I bought a bigger boat and several new firearms.
I opened a booth in Lewisburg PA in an antique shop and have sold coins there along with antiques.
I sold on ebay for the first time in a couple years after boycotting them and made a profit on gold coins but I did better selling gold coins on CCF and I think I learned a lesson of how not to lose 25% of a sales price on ebay with fees.
I gained 20 lbs, not good!

This was a great year for me simply because I survived an unexpected heart attack on June 18th and have learned that "every day is a gift". Been giving away lots of my coins (and old toys) to fellow collectors and really enjoying the feeling. I also managed to keep my job which is a major accomplishment in my industry.

Just keeping the 'ole 6.9 litre Mercedes going. That's fun! A while ago, I had a run (as a passenger) in a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. That's a half million dollar museum piece of a car, baby! The car was originally sold to Soraya, wife of the Shah of Iran. It was raced once or twice in Australia.

Coinwise, I picked up a good VF antoninianus of Julia Domna, and a VF tetradrachm of Tyre, with Trajan obverse, Melquarth reverse.

I made it back from Iraq in August, started into flight school in September, started up my Franklin ms64 FBL registry set over at PCGS(http://www.pcgs.com/SETREGISTRY/pub...76301&ac=1), and found out Thanksgiving Day that were going to have a baby! I just wish I had more time to get on here but with college and flying full time, it just hasn't happened. Come to think of it, I have a flight review at 2pm tomorrow. I should probably be reviewing required flight maneuvers and my flight plan right now.
Oh well, back to studying!

I got a handle on my coin collection. I did some serious cataloging and weeding out of duplicates. I've always been really obsessive about organizing my collection, but there were areas where I didn't know what I had. I also began selling on ebay to drop out duplicates, build a paypal balance, and buy new stuff.