Godless

I just returned from a news-less vacation and logged onto the CNN website. The first article that caught my eye was one of the “godless coin”.

When I was young, I collected coins. The interest has stayed with me throughout my life. A few years back, my mom made me clear out my secret stash of goods stored at her house because she was moving home. During the clearance evaluation, I found my old coin collection. Most were in damaged condition because the collection albums sold at that time contained some form of corrosive material. I guess we all got ripped off during the 1970’s.

When I moved to Japan, during the “pre-web era”, I found a news group where coin collecting enthusiasts, “numismatics”, would post their coins for sale. Around 1992, I purchased a gold, one-yen coin. I still have that coin and according to Ebay, my investment has performed dismally. I paid around $900 in 1995 for the coin and it’s now worth somewhere around $1200 today.

But the intrigue of coin collecting is still with me. When I saw the “godless coin” article today, I immediately went to Ebay and completed a speculative purchase of the coin.

“Due to a glitch that still has federal officials befuddled, the U.S. Mint printed thousands of the new $1 coins without the "In God We Trust" inscription traditional on all its money. The coins also are missing the "E Pluribus Unum" inscription, as well as a mint mark indicating whether they were produced in Philadelphia or Denver. Also, the coins are missing edge inscriptions specially made for the new dollar.”

I paid, including shipping insurance, $318 for a one-dollar coin. We’ll see how foolish this speculative investment turns out to be.