How did we get there?

Thursday afternoon was a big day for the numismatic staff at Krause Publications. At 3 p.m. the camera rolled for the pilot of Coin Chat TV.

A 15-minute segment was done. Editorial director Debbie Bradley introduced me and Colin Bruce, who for many years was in charge of the catalog department that puts out the many volumes of the Standard Catalog series for coins and paper money.

I had to put a suit on. For Colin, the overalls look disappeared an he put on his Snoopy tie. My tie had a Chinese coin theme as I had obtained it at the World Money Fair in Berlin. It seemed a good opportunity to wear the tie for the first time.

Did it bring me luck? I think so. It was fun to do. I learned that saying copper-coated zinc cents was harder to do than I ever would have thought beforehand. Facts that you have known for years can sound twisted with the slip of the tongue.

We picked the future of the cent and the $1 bill as the discussion topics precisely because we figured it would ease us into more difficult topics.

We don’t yet have a studio, so we were using a round conference room that was popularly dubbed “the silo” when it was built in 1982.

There was a nice skyline scene behind us. I asked, “Is this New York? I don’t recognize any of the buildings.”

“No,” I was told, “It’s Vancouver.”

Hey, we love ya, Canada. We prove once again that the country has a major influence in our neck of the woods. Historically, many of our place names came from the French trappers and much of our trade heads north through the Great Lakes as it always has.

I saw the video Friday. When will you get to see it? I don’t know yet, but Coin Chat TV is close.

Watch wwwcoinchatradio.com for more information.