Coming year one worth collecting in

This article was originally printed in the latest issue of Numismatic News.
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Even though the cover date says it is 2011, as this is written it is still good old, comfortable 2010. I know I will have to make my annual accounting regarding the forecasts I made at the beginning of the year, including the big two: the prices of gold and silver. These especially will include a healthy portion of humble pie. Fortunately, humble pie has no calories in it, so the extra weight I expect to pick up at family holiday celebrations will not be magnified.

Early 2011 will also require that I make forecasts for the coming year. I am sure readers won’t let me drop gold and silver from that forecast, so you will have to stay in suspense for my next guesses.
This sequence of two columns will appear starting with the Feb. 1 issue. I know this date seems awfully far away in the future, but it will give me the opportunity to digest the results of the Florida United Numismatists convention in the forecasts as well as getting the annual closing prices for gold and silver.

Perhaps I shouldn’t wait. The insight from FUN does not seem to have improved my record any in the past, but it does seem to make me comfortable about swallowing my pride for this exercise.

On the other hand, making mistaken forecasts is human. If I could sweep the boards and go 10 for 10 forecasts correctly every year, I probably wouldn’t be writing this column for a living, and I certainly cannot imagine not being able to earn a living in the hobby I love.

The year 2011 will see my 33rd anniversary sitting at a desk here at Numismatic News. Time does fly when you are having fun. I suppose I should uppercase it as FUN for this special issue. That not only provides emphasis, but also serves as a reminder that others find numismatics to be as enjoyable as I do.

I started out here in 1978, the 100th anniversary year of the Morgan dollar. I have done a pretty good job of shadowing the centennials of each and every Morgan silver dollar issue since then. Only the 1921 date remains to be celebrated and that will occur just before my official U.S. government set retirement age of 66 and two months in 2021. Will I still be here to mark the occasion? I cannot know the to answer that question with any more certainty that I could have about the centennials of all of the other issues 1878-1904. We’ll see, won’t we?

If nothing else, it would certainly be an interesting numismatic coincidence for me. After all, Morgan dollars might be out of the limelight at the moment, but with the possible exception of the Lincoln cent, no U.S. coin issue has had more impact on the state of the hobby during my career than the Morgan dollar.

To have an interest in coins is a great pleasure as well as opportunity. It is my hope that you will make the best of all of your opportunities in 2011 and that you will continue to actively enjoy life as a numismatic hobbyist.

If we all are able to do that in 2011, it should be a pretty good year no matter how accurate or inaccurate my forecasts end up being for the next 12 months.