What’s Old Isn’t Always New Again

Release: JUNE 20, 2025

 

    As I sit here writing, an ice cream truck just drove by.  Honestly.  It did.  The tunes played to announce its arrival evoked memories of summers long ago.  We kids would grab our nickels and dimes to buy a Bomb Pop.  Today, those cost kids a few dollars.

    As it passed, I wondered how long it would be before such trucks have literally passed, forever.  They may soon fade as does their music when they drive to another neighborhood.

    That summer ice-cream truck also made me consider other “essential” yet vanished everyday items.  Long before my time, wall mounted wooden telephones were, without question, a revolutionary creation.  Talking to someone miles away through a wooden box?  Absurd!  That evolved into the now-antiquated desk telephone with a rotary dial.  By the 1970s, dial phones transformed to futuristic push button models.  Those too are fading to become flat “smart phone” devices we carry in our pockets.  Into those we merely announce who we wish to call....

Gold Treasure In Time For Summer Dreams

 

Release: JUNE 13, 2025 

    Summer has officially begun.  That should be good news for millions of school children who have been aching for the end of school.  The emotional downside for them is sure to be a traditional pattern in the retail sector.  Those are stores that, even before the Fourth of July, begin putting “BACK TO SCHOOL” sale banners in their aisles.  What a psychological taunt!

    There are always countless wishes incorporated into summer fun.  One of those is the eternal summertime craving to acquire wonderful and preferably valuable things.  Childhood dreams of finding some sort of treasure are timeless.

    In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck endeavored to uncover riches in Injun Joe’s cave.  The story tells us it was to be found “under the cross.”  Sure enough, the two boys searched the cave, found a cross on the wall and dug beneath it.  There, they uncovered a treasure box filled with “several thousand dollars in gold coins.”

    Back when Tom and Huck were searching, gold was barely $20 an ounce.  Today, it’s over $3,300 per ounce.  That means, if the boys found $2,000 in gold back then, it would have a value of over $330,000 today.  Not bad for two youngsters on a summertime quest....

What Is The Value of Evil?

 

Release: JUNE 6, 2025

     Eighty-five years ago, in 1940, John Wolfe was in grade school in St. Louis.  From radio and newspapers, he knew problems in Europe were piquing.  Germany was overrunning country after country.  In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  America was at war.

    Wolfe so wanted to enlist.  Of course, he was too young.  As he went through high school, he continued to want to join.  The Battle of the Bulge increased that desire.  Upon graduation he was able to sign up.  He went through basic training for the Army infantry and was sent to Italy.  There, he was tapped to be in the Military Police.  In many respects, MPs had carte blanche.  They could travel pretty much at will....

Two Women Achieve Collectible Recognition

Release: MAY 30, 2025

     When Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins left earth and headed for the moon on Apollo 11, two of them surely knew how their public lives would dramatically change.  Armstrong and Aldrin gained the glory of being the first humans to set foot on the moon.  Conversely, Collins orbited the moon alone piloting the command module that would bring them all home.

    Collins would be later dubbed as “once, the loneliest man in the universe.”  He gained that moniker because of having being cut off not only from his fellow astronauts but anyone else on earth as, for 21 hours, as he and the module circled and passed behind the dark side of the moon.

    Metaphorically speaking, First Ladies can feel equally isolated.  Often, they are fully overshadowed as their president-husbands orbit governmental responsibilities.  The more complicated and convoluted the presidency – due to wars, the economy, etc. – the more obscured the First Lady.

    As far back as the 1780s, when George Washington ascended to the office, his wife Martha loathed her position as First Lady.  She often commented on how smothering it could be.  In one statement, Martha commented she felt, “more like a state prisoner than anything else....”

A Nickel For Your Thoughts? Or, A Dime?

Release: MAY 23, 2025

     Great news!  I may well be $100 million dollars richer!  Maybe a billion!  You too.  Better yet, our respective treasures are no further away than our pockets or purses.  At least, that’s the encouragement I get weekly from online posts.

    Most often on my phone, messages come through telling me one of my lowly pennies could be worth $124 million.  Also, a bi-centennial quarter struck in 1976 could be worth over a billion dollars!  Holy cow!  This is huge.  They are also outright lies.

    The bi-centennial quarter was the first modified version of the familiar Washington quarter since first issued in 1932.  Instead of the spread-eagle on the reverse, it featured a colonial drummer.  When it came out, people everywhere were enthralled and saved them en masse.  Today, they still pop up.  I got one in my change just yesterday.  Am I a billionaire?  Nope....

What’s The Worst That Can Happen?

 

Release: MAY 16, 2025

    A rhetorically facetious question asked by younger people is, “What’s the worst that can happen if I do this?”  The “this” in question is typically any activity that is invariably dubious.   There are different levels.  For instance, skipping class in school.  That’s unwise.  Or, driving with one’s eyes closed.  That takes catastrophe to a whole new level.

    When collecting baseball cards, what’s the worst that can happen?   I’d wager there’s not a boy alive who, at some point, hasn’t claimed his mother threw out his cards – many of which were imaginarily super valuable.  I was one of those kids.  I can even picture the box that housed my Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle and other Holy Grail gems (which certainly existed in my mind....)

Goodnight Moon, Hello Controversy

 

Release: MAY 9, 2025

     The goal of any collectible hobby is simple – enjoyment.  Most often, the premise of something being “collectible” equates to the items evoking positive memories, usually based on when we were much younger.  Barbie dolls and the like offer solace to women who remember them fondly as young girls.  Numismatists invariably recall the joy of assembling their first collection of pennies or nickels by date and mintmark.  All such hobbies are a rite of passage.

    At one time, stamp collecting too was more rampant than today.  Just 60 years ago, over half of all boys were immersed in collecting vintage stamps.  Most had dreams of those stamps soaring in value....