Be open to new experiences at any age

El Dorado Times
By Marie Snider
Tuesday, November 8, 2005

My grandmother was a numismatist, although she didn't know it.   In other words, she was an avid coin collector.

She often gave old silver dollars to her grandchildren.   Fortunately, I still have the coin she gave me on my 13th birthday.   The 1883 silver dollar is in a little coin envelope addressed in her beautiful penmanship "To Marie Anna Gingerich from Grandma Moser." It is a very heavy silver coin.

I also have one-eighth of her Indian head penny collection.   Her large collection was passed on to her four children and my mother passed her fourth to her two children.

The Indian head penny was minted from 1859 to 1909.   My collection includes pennies from the early 1880s through 1909.   My pennies have some small value, but mostly the collection reminds me of my remarkable grandmother.   Because of my grandmother, I've always been fascinated by coins. 

So I was very interested when I read recently that Steven L. Contursi paid $8.5 million for a historic coin set.

Originally, the set was a gift from President Andrew Jackson to King Ph'ra Nang Klao (Rama III) of Siam, now Thailand, in 1836.   The coins range from a copper half cent to a $10 gold piece.   The set also includes an extremely rare 1804 United States silver dollar, minted especially for this gift.

The coins were last sold for $4 million in 2001.

This set has special interest, because after Rama III died, his brother Rama IV became king. And Rama IV was the Siam king played by Yul Bryner in the movie "The King and I." 

It isn't unusual for Contursi, who is president of Rare Coin Wholesalers, to purchase coins priced from $2 million up, but $8.5 million is a world record.

However, Contursi is an expert numismatist and knows what coins are worth.   He reports that the 1804 silver dollar in the set is one of just eight dollar coins made in 1804 and is called the "king of coins." Sold separately, it could bring as much as $6 million.

Contursi knows coins because he became a collector at a very young age.   In the 1960s, he lived in the Bronx and made money by delivering papers.   He sorted through every coin he received and saved the valuable ones in cheap blue cardboard boxes.    Later, when he was a graduate student, Contursi sold the last of his childhood coin collection to buy textbooks.   The shop owner was very impressed by his knowledge of coins and immediately offered him a job.   At the time, he was studying physics.    But in 1975, Contursi abandoned his dream of a career in physics to buy a coin store and has been a numismatist ever since.   That decision changed his life forever, and he obviously loves his work.   What if Contursi had not been open to changing directions?   Would he still be in a laboratory performing experiments instead of traveling the world in search of rare coins?

Goals are good. But sometimes surprises are even better.

Do you have a fixed idea of what will be happening in your life next month or in five years? If so, maybe it's time to open your life to new experiences - regardless of your age.

Copyright 2005 Marie Snider