The One that started it all

Sort of, anyway. As I mentioned in the introduction, I had a brief dalliance with the hobby in 1995 and 1996, but then nothing until 1999, when I began collecting the State Quarters. But I wasn't a real numismatist yet then. I didn't even know that mint marks existed, or what they stood for, for example.

Then, in 2008, we found my late father's collection. He had stored it leaning against the back of our heating unit- not a safe place, and it may still have been hidden there if we hadn't had to replace the unit in 2008!

Among the small collection were a handful of assorted pieces he had pulled from circulation throughout the years, mostly wheat cents, but 4 of these....

WOW! I had never seen anything like this before. I had never seen a US dollar older than a Susan B. Anthony dollar, but these were amazing. I was hooked after spending the rest of the night looking at his small collection, and I've been a member of the hobby ever since, in some form or another.

Odd fact though....I've never added another Peace dollar to my collection since then. The original 4 remain the only ones I have. With how much of an impact it made on me, and the fact that I consider it the best looking US issue, it is kind of surprising. This one scanned the best of the 4, I don't actually remember which one I saw first- but they all were seconds apart. Both are 1922 and 1923s.

Thanks for reading!