Coin Collecting

One of my co-workers, Buck, recently retired. I asked him what he planned on doing. He enthusiastically announced he was going to pursue his life long dream of owning a hobby shop. I inquired as to which hobby he had in mind.  He smiled and said coin collection. I had Chippy Jr. with me, and he seemed a bit baffled. Then I remembered he has grown up with credit cards and digital currency. Well, Buck noticed too, he offered Jr. a part time job in his new store.

A quick history lesson. I grew in what folks called a “cash economy.” In those dark ages, we used to lug around wads of paper bills and bags of metal coins. Unfortunately, us critters were stuck using human currency. We tried to mint our own money but the whole sunflower seed standard never evoke the same level of confidence as the gold standard. We literally had “cash carts” we pushed to the store. We tried to spend as much of it as we could so we didn’t have drag it home with us. Those coins were heavy for us ‘munks. At the bank, they used conveyor belts to move the coins around.

We were all excited when humans decided to move to the plastic/credit standard and eventually to digital currency. Now we can pay for everything with our cell phone. So much more convenient.

Apparently there is a lot of nostalgia for coins. The coin shop was busy on opening day.

The “Bargain Stump” was surprisingly popular. Buck put out a bowl of 3 coins for 50 sunflower seeds deal. (Yes, you read that correctly, the shop was accepting payments in sunflower seeds.)

Someone started a rumor on social media that the coin bowl had a gold coin.

Customers searched …

... and searched more for that elusive coin. While searching for gold they discovered other coins they just had to have.

“What a bargain. I will takes these coins, here are my seeds for payment.”

You wouldn’t think our feather friends would take in interest in coins but they swooped in. This Titmouse found a valuable silver coin.

A line quickly formed at the coin bowl.

Coin folders are popular with the collections. Buck was setting this one up.

I had no idea what these folders were about so, I took a look.

The idea seems to be to fill in the slots inside of the folder with the appropriate coin.

At the shop, the folders were used to display coins for sale. These two customers were looking to fill in hard to fill gaps in their own folders.

This lady has found the four coins she needs.

Wait, I think she just spotted the last coin which will complete her folder.

Not wanting to miss out on the action, this Titmouse flew in for a closer look.

Afraid that the Titmouse will make off with the “good stuff” this fellow offers 250 seeds for folder and all the remaining coins. The titmouse countered with an offer of 300 seeds.

Growing wary of the bidding war, the ‘munk gentleman offered a 1000 seeds! Sold!

Word about the new coin shop continued to spread. Buck found himself working harder in retirement than he did at his 9-5 job and was loving every minute of it.