Get refund; buy coins

Lunch is always a good thing in my world.

My trip to the Crystal Cafe is not only necessary on business days, sometimes I learn things that might prove to be helpful.

You might have heard during the fiscal cliff debate in Congress at the end of 2012 that income tax refunds would be delayed this year. Financial papers that I read point out that people spending their tax refunds help power the economy forward in the early months of a new year.

Tax refund delays would tend to slow the economy down, which is not something any of us would want to see.

At lunch at the end of last week I happened to hear a conversation between two waitresses. One was telling the other that she had just gotten her income tax refund from the State of Wisconsin and she expected the federal refund shortly.

Multiply this anecdote by millions of Americans and perhaps we will see the economy picking up going forward.

That would be nice.

Now if only there was some way to know whether coin collectors tend to spend a certain portion of their income tax refunds on coins. That would probably be great news for upcoming coin shows, including the Whitman Baltimore show March 12-15, and related auctions.

I am sure if you are in a mood to spend, there will be many dealers at shows or in their shops who can help you out.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."