Collector happy with his baseball coins

Coin collecting requires patience. However, when a coin collector is waiting for a new issue to be delivered from the U.S. Mint, sometimes that quality is sorely tested.

During such times I receive many communications expressing varying degrees of dissatisfaction.

This is why it is refreshing to have received an email yesterday from New Mexico collector Daryl Conley who has been waiting patiently for Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coins that he ordered from the U.S. Mint to be delivered to him.

He writes:

“I ordered one each of the silver proof, silver uncirculated, clad proof and clad uncirculated Baseball HOF half dollars and dollars on March 31.

"The clad proof half arrived first, on June 25, followed by the silver proof dollar on July 8, the clad unc half on July 15, and the silver unc dollar on July 22. Seems they could have saved shipping costs by shipping them all at once.

“They are a beautiful design and exceptional quality, but even though they have all the appropriate legal tender inscriptions, I can’t help but think they look more like medals than coins. Just my opinion. I’m still happy with them.”

I am grateful to Mr. Conley for letting me know that he has received his coins and that he has happy with them.

This email won’t make headlines. The Mint had earlier indicated when it would be able to make all deliveries, but it confirms in my mind that collectors are decent people and that we are all in this together.

I expect other collectors across America have received their coins and are happy with them, but in their usual quiet and unassuming way we will not hear from them.

Positive news thus often flies under the radar and won’t make headlines. Thanks to Mr. Conley, I at least can give this positive news a headline on my blog.

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."