Silver Certificate: yes or no?

Can you stand one more Silver Certificate story?

The notes I obtained on Friday became the focus of a conundrum.

The daughter of my niece just turned 3 years of age. As part of my gift, I considered slipping one of the $1 Silver Certificates that I wrote about yesterday into the card.

I hemmed and hawed.

The notes aren’t pretty, I thought.

Will I look cheap even if it isn’t the only gift?

Is it too much to ask the non-collecting parents to put the note aside until she is 7 or 8 years old when she can comprehend why the note is different?

In the end, I decided against it.

I can put the note in a drawer and pull it back out at the appropriate time.

Will I remember to do this?

You know what they say about good intentions.

Not going through with it is probably the better course for the short term, but I somehow feel disloyal to the hobby by not taking advantage of an opportunity to give it a plug.

Oh well, just call me a coward. I will have to make it up somehow.

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