Cold weather and hot coins?

Mother Nature is trying to prevent us from getting into high gear after the holidays.

I live only a mile from the office, so I did not have any difficulty arriving at my desk this morning, but a number of colleagues decided to either work from home or take a vacation day today.

It might be cold in Iola, but the snowstorm went south of us, so roads and sidewalks are in good shape if you are bundled up enough to stand up to the extreme cold.

Hobby activity is warming up. But it is an inside activity. I expect there are many hobbyists who will begin to think about coins again as they stay in inside this week with nothing else to do.

Judging from the email that has arrived since I left the office on Friday, hobbyists around the country are resuming their routines, including writing to Numismatic News.

As always there is an email in my inbox that I would like to comment on. A collector wrote that he had sent an order via the U.S. Mint’s website.

He gave me his reasons for buying what he bought and cited sales numbers from the Mint Statistics page. Then he asked me if I wanted to comment.

That’s a loaded question if ever there was one.

If I tell him he shouldn’t have purchased what he did, what would he think?

If I tell him it is a great purchase and then the price declines on the secondary market, what will he think?

My best alternative is some namby-pamby noncommittal comment. I don’t think that is what he is seeking.

The point of buying any coin is that it pleases you to own it no matter what I might think about it.

But I must say it is nice to be thought of after the down time of the holidays.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."