Some of Louie’s pennies

Louie loved coin collecting. I’ve always found it mildly interesting, but rarely to the degree that others have enjoyed. Since I love people energized by something, there have been two situations where coin collecting became a focused activity.

In college my roommate was a hard-core penny collector. Collectors like him are why you never see wheat back pennies these days. His idea for a great weekend was to pick up dozens of rolls of pennies from the bank and spend a Saturday sorting through them, looking for any older than 1958. When we were in college, there were still plenty of them. By plenty I mean one penny in every other roll of fifty coins. Continue reading →