What is it about that Lincoln set?

I just received an e-mail from a reader who said until the Lincoln Coin and Chronicles set came along he had not ordered anything from the U.S. Mint for years.

“This set is superb and flawless. The set design is very impressive. I was ready to abandon coin collecting for many of the same reasons your readers have expressed in the last few months. This experience may change my mind.”

It is certainly impressive when one single issue grabs you and pushes you to an action that is the very opposite of what you have been contemplating.

What precisely was it about this set that got his attention? He didn’t say.

He could have ordered the proof Lincoln commemorative dollar by itself last March. He could have ordered the proof Lincoln cents as a set in August.

It took the combination to get him off dead center.

Was it the 50,000 number? Could it simply be the allure of something that might be scarce?

Packaging perhaps?

We will never really know. Every collector is different, yet every collector is the same. Something just gets under our skin so that we have to act.

Putting a collection together is simply acting again and again.

I wish him well in reconnecting with whatever it was that got him into the hobby in the first place. The Lincoln set is a wonderful first step in a walk back down that road.