Wisconsin shiver or shirt sleeves?

Winter is coming.

In Wisconsin, you just don’t quite know when it will hit.

Yesterday I was walking outside in shirt sleeves. Today, I expect to be able to do the same thing.

These pleasant conditions cannot last.

When the temperature drop comes, it can be swift and brutal.

But I put up with it because Wisconsin is home sweet home. My roots are here. My interests are here.

This is how I feel about numismatics.

It has been my home for over half a century.

Winter in numismatics in the weather sense is welcome.

Winter is the season for numismatics. It is an indoor pursuit. It is tailor-made for mental action while the wind and snow lashes the outside of the house.

It is a time of meeting with collectors and dealers at shows around the country and around the world.

It is a season to be welcomed and enjoyed

There are escapes to places like Tampa, Fla., for the Florida United Numismatists convention in January.

I have been to the World Money Fair in February in Berlin, Germany, when the weather, which would be typical in Iola, was considered so cold that it emptied the streets of the usual pedestrians.

But like winter weather, the coin market’s commercial activity can be unpredictable and cold.

World mints and coin dealers were making money hand over fist when bullion prices were at records in 2011.

Financial times have chilled in numismatics since then, so much so that we are being warned of pending doom for the whole concept of coin collecting’s future.

Don’t believe it.

Winter is coming, or it might be here in the commercial sense.

But just as sure as winter arrives, spring follows.

Make the best of winter in numismatics.

Treat it as an old friend who has come to visit.

And like the visit from the old friend, winter will leave, markets will thaw, and the seasonal cycle of growth will begin again.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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