Catch him if you can

I have a lunch planned with the president of the Costa Rican Numismatic Association. Mauricio Soto is a young and very active collector. He is a busy employee of an international engineering firm with a wife and two young boys. He travels a lot. I am fortunate to find him in the country this week.

I happened to see him last month at the Memphis paper money show. He had not planned to be there, but on Saturday night, there he was. I bumped into him in the bar just off the hotel lobby. He had come in just the day before because he had gotten a special airline deal.

I told him I was planning a visit to Costa Rica in August and our lunch plans flowed directly from that conversation.

As I say, he is very busy, but he always seems to find time for numismatics. He would like to write some articles for Bank Note Reporter or World Coin News. He wants to talk about the details. He is concerned that we North Americans might forget the Costa Ricans and the connections that Paul Green helped to establish.

I expect we can work something out easily enough except that I cannot give him a 25- or 26-hour day so that he can expand his activity level. That said, he is going to be the man to know in Costa Rica for many years to come.