Casey's Other Collection

Yes, friends, it's true. I actually have a collection of non-squirrel items, although many would argue that this particular collection is slightly less awesome than my squirrel collection. They're probably right. But friends, allow me to introduce you to my other hobby: collecting coins!

It all started with the state quarters series. I was actually slow to start my collection, I only begin seriously seeking out state quarters in about 2008, I believe. My grandmother was kind enough to send me her extra state quarters and an archival folder for my collection. As of a few months ago, I finally completed the set! The whole set doesn't photograph very well, but here are the last two quarters I added, Alaska and Hawaii. I'm particularly fond of Alaska myself.

Before I finished with the state quarters I realized that my little pursuit was soon going to be over, and I thought, "Well if I have ten years worth of quarters already... why don't I just collect all quarters?" And so, with the purchase of a few more archival folders, and one crazy afternoon spent going through our change jar, I was on my way!

These Washingtons have been surprisingly more difficult to collect. I don't have any Washington quarters from before 1965, and I'm even missing some certain key years and mintmarks from the 1990s! Which is just crazy... if I was alive when these quarters were struck I feel like they should be really easy to obtain. I'm currently missing 1991-D and 1993-D, so all y'all should check your pockets and try to help a nerd out.

Of course, as you're probably guessing, one thing led to another and all of a sudden I wanted even older quarters... quarters before they decided to put George Washington on them. What I needed was... Standing Liberty. The Standing Liberty was struck between 1916 and 1930, and is considered by some coin experts to be one of the more beautiful of United States coinage. Of course coins that old just don't turn up on pocket change that frequently anymore, so I had to take my collecting to a whole new level. Coin shops and estate sales and flea markets are a popular place to find quarters like this, but being the Internet-savvy consumer that I am, I quickly learned the joys of coins on eBay.

I now am the proud owner of two of these coins, one from 1926 and one from 1928. I am a fan of old stuff, after all, and I just find these coins to be so charming. I'm hoping to expand this part of my collection in the future, but not anytime soon since, you know, it costs money to collect money...

I love my little coin collection, and I hope y'all do too. Someday I'll expand out of quarters... maybe into dimes! Who knows!?!? You'll have to stay tuned to find out what happens next in my crazy little world!