Lifetime interest a golden years benefit

The beauty of coin collecting is it can be embraced equally by people who are 8 or 80 years old.

Many collectors hold onto their interest throughout their lives, even if their budgets do not allow expenditures on coins during the time of college, launching a career and creating a family.

Illustrating this eternal interest this morning came in the form of a handwritten letter.

The shaky nature of the writing proclaimed someone who is closer to 80 than 8. But it also proclaimed an ongoing interest in things numismatic.

“I have a change report for the Numismatic News," he wrote, "the issues of America the Beautiful quarter series new quarters for 2017, Iowa’s Effigy Mounds National Monument.

“The new quarter was found in change March 1 from a soft drink machine purchase at East Towne Manor ... in Charlotte, N.C.

“I am a coin club member in Charlotte."

The note was short and to the point.

I sure appreciate the report of finding a 2017-dated coin in change.

The fact that this coin was the new ATB quarter found so soon after its release date shows they are working their way through the arteries of commerce.

That is the job coins are created to do.

It is up to collectors to take the pulse of the pace as this job is done.

The letter writer has done so.

I would guess he has been checking his change for many years.

I expect he enjoys it, or he wouldn’t bother to notify me.

It is too bad he did not reveal a little bit about his hobby background.

I believe it would be interesting.

However, almost nobody writing a circulation finds notification goes off topic to discuss themselves.

That probably seems selfish to them, so they don't do it.

But that’s the nature of most collectors. They promote the hobby rather than themselves.

I appreciate it when individuals take time out of their lives to share information with others.

I think all readers are grateful to them.