Celebrate your coin collecting life

How do you celebrate your anniversary milestones in numismatics?

That’s seems like a loaded question, I know, but I really am thinking about it now.

I have just come back from the ad department.

I was there to wish a longtime colleague happy birthday.

We are a few weeks apart in age and after my birthday rolls around, but before her’s, I call her kid. Now after extending birthday greetings and a few laughs about age, it is back to work to put the next issue of Numismatic News together.

And it’s back to my original question.

How should you celebrate numismatic milestones?

There is no card that I am aware of that says happy anniversary of being a coin collector.

Unless the American Numismatic Association decides to begin a gag line of specialty cards, there never will be.

But there might be a way to appropriately celebrate a hobby milestone nevertheless.

If you are coming up on a milestone year, treat yourself and your family. Plan on going to next year’s World’s Fair of Money in Anaheim, Calif.

While you walk the bourse floor, your kids or grandkids can enjoy Disneyland. There would be no better way to celebrate your longevity in numismatics.

For a routine year that isn’t a round number, get yourself a book.

Most collectors are famous for making do with outdated references. I have been guilty of that myself.

Celebrate your anniversary in numismatics by getting yourself a new book.

Better yet, get a book about a segment of the hobby that you would like to try.

If a truly special anniversary is coming up, plan to go to the Summer Seminar at ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., next year.

You have time now to set the money aside to pay for it, because it does not occur until next June.

There you will meet many people who appreciate and share what you have been doing all these years of being a collector.

Who better to celebrate your numismatic anniversary with than fellow collectors at a Summer Seminar?

These are just three ways to mark your time in numismatics.

Because collecting is such an individual pursuit, you are not likely to encounter a rush of colleagues bursting into your office to help you mark your milestone, but you should celebrate it anyway.

Being a collector over the years enriches life and is worthy of some form of recognition. You get to choose how to do it. Just don’t choose to ignore it.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."