Tyler or Spears? I know who wins

It is hard for me to get mentally started this morning. My e-mail has the usual large group of messages that have accumulated since I left the office at 5 p.m. on Friday.

The calendar says that one of the news highlights this week is that tomorrow the John Tyler Presidential dollar will be officially introduced at his Sherwood Forest Plantation in Charles City County, Va., 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

This event is significant, but it occurs in the immediate shadow of last week’s launch on May 14 of the second Lincoln cent design for 2009. This has already been followed by a lot of online auction offerings of the new coins.

Also, Tyler was the nation’s 10th President and is not particularly well known. Even if he were very well known, it might help public interest, but in any numismatic series the 10th issue just doesn’t generate the same level of excitement as the first couple of issues do.

What makes this event a little bit unusual is that there will be no coin exchange afterward.

Events of this kind don’t always catch fire the way the Lincoln introductory event did, but they are important. They help keep the public informed and they help point out the historical nature of the issues themselves.

Perhaps I should simply have started out by mentioning Britney Spears. I have done this twice in two years and the level of interest in my blog then pops higher. Why should I do this? Absolutely no reason except it makes me laugh. Sometimes a good laugh is better than anything.

There – I feel much better.

I bet you do, too. After all, we collectors are as human as anybody else.