Year begins with a happy ending

Coin and paper money dealers are some of the most competitive people on the planet during business hours on the bourse floor.

“Intense” is not a strong enough word to describe the rivalries to find deals and to get deals done.

However, in their off hours they can be and often are the greatest of friends and professional colleagues who watch each other’s backs.

At the Florida United Numismatists convention I found an example of this.

A well-known dealer, who would rather not be named, lost a bank bag in the convention center parking lot. In the bag was a professionally graded Series 1900 $10,000 Gold Certificate, invoices, checks, cash and other papers normally found in such a bag.

This occurred Wednesday night.

The dealer didn’t even realize it was missing until the next day. After some frantic searching and that panicky feeling that goes with it, the cavalry came to the rescue in the person of FUN’s Bob Hurst, who showed up at the table on Thursday asking the dealer if he was missing something.

How did Bob get it?

It turns out Larry Shepherd and Xiaolong Teng were walking in the parking lot about 8 o’clock on Wednesday night when she spotted the bag and turned it in to FUN.

The dealer once again in possession of his bank bag on Thursday was more than just grateful. He suggested a reward in the form of a day at the spa. When that was refused he tracked me down to tell me the story so I could get the word out.

I’m glad he did.

In a world that usually pays attention only to bad news, I think we need to be aware that there are happy endings, too.