A Collector In The Family

One of our granddaughters has become a Numismatist.

Well, a couple of them are collectors, but one simply wants to collect so that she can take it to the book fair and buy books!

Lydia, on the other hand, has really taken an interest in collecting the different coins which represent our National Parks.  These quarters are not to be confused with the State Quarters which were issued several years back.  (Even though Mike and I did have the two intermingled at one time until we were corrected by our Family Numismatist.

We had a phone conversation with the Family Numismatist Lydia the other night.  She set us straight on what we should be looking at in regard to the quarters.  She asked us if we would look at any quarters we might have to see if we had some that she had not already collected.

I asked her for a list and this is what we got:

She also informed me that she had a few duplicates.  I laughed and asked her what she meant by that and she explained, "I have two or three quarters that are the same.  That is what duplicate means."

Mike and I are pleased that she is thorough and that she is so smart and that she has a broad vocabulary.  We chuckle at the fact that she feels she needs to explain things to us.  Well, for example...

I was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a new series of quarters - the National Park series.  I thought she was simply collecting the state quarters that were minted before she was even born.  So, she explained to me that there is a difference.

(Image from the site)

Please notice that there is wording engraved around the image at the center of each quarter.  Mike gathered together several dollars worth of quarters that he had collected during the past week or so and we sorted through them looking for Lydia's state quarters.

We noticed that only a handful of them had state information on them and the others had the traditional eagle on the obverse side of George Washington's head.  We also noticed that Mike had collected a few duplicates.

Bridgette says Lydia will get her quarters out and study them and comment on what is featured on each quarter.  Then, I recalled that Lydia had mentioned that she would hang on to her duplicates and might share them with her sisters.  So, Mike and I gave her a call to see if she wanted us to contribute to the duplicate stash as well as save for her own collection.

During our conversation, I mentioned that Mike and I were struggling to see what state each coin represented.  I told Lydia that we had both put on reading glasses.  I mentioned that Mike had tried out two different pairs of reading glasses.  I also mentioned that he moved a lamp and held the quarter right under the light to get the best view he could of the quarter.  It was a bit of a struggle for us.

Lydia explained that we needed to, "Look just to the left of the picture.  The name of the state is right there on the left," she said.  I told her that we knew where the state name could be found.  That was not the problem, the problem is the size of the word on the coin.  Our old eyes could not see such little print!

Lydia just giggled and told us we might need to get us a magnifying glass!  We figured out a work-around - take a picture of the coin and zoom in on it to more clearly see the wording.

We now have a couple of plastic bags which have quarters in them.  One is labeled: Lydia's and the other is: Duplicates.  We are glad to gather them for Lydia's collection but I don't think Mike and I will compete for the title of Family Numismatist!