What a pleasure to be wrong

Being corrected is part of the job of an editor. Sometimes this can even be an enjoyable experience. As an example of an enjoyable correction, I take a piece of mail I received yesterday.

It was from John Queen. He worked at Paramount during its heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He knew Jim Kelly, a name that carried great weight in the numismatic community until his death in 1967.

Queen was also a dealer in his own right.

He is writing for Numismatic News nowadays to share some of his memories with the current generation of readers.

What’s the correction?

He objects to a note that I put at the end of his articles. There are many readers who do not remember when he was an advertiser in the 1970s.

What did I get wrong?

Well, he objects to being described as a "retired coin dealer."

He writes, “I am not retired. I conduct a quite successful coin business keeping regular hours 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. When I am busy I also work the afternoons. I also manage 18 acres with two very large gardens a nut orchard, etc.”

Did I mention that he is 89 years old?

We should all be so lucky to stay busy with what we love to do.

That’s the beauty of numismatics. It is a lifelong pursuit that only ends when we, as individual hobbyists, say it ends, and not before.

It will be a great pleasure for me to remove the reference.

I stand corrected.