Why I was happy

Normally at lunch I either watch a show I've recorded or read at the park for an hour.  I try to get away from the office so I can clear my mind a bit.  Today I didn't feel like reading and I didn't have anything to watch, instead I went to an antique shop and bought some pennies.

First, I'm not an antique shopper.  Last weekend Jen had a tax class and I didn't want to sit around the house so the kids and I went for a drive and ran some errands. While out the kids got hungry and wanted hot dogs.  Even though we were by the mall and could have gone into the food court for a quick dog I decided to check on my phone if there were any hot dog joints near by.  Urbanspoon came up with a place called Pittsburgh Willy's which I had never heard of before so we went hunting for our dogs. I was surprised when we found Pittsburgh Willy's because it was in the middle of a large antique/consignment business called Merchant Square.  The dogs were great and we had some time to kill before Jen would be home so we tooled around for an hour or so.  Both kids had a blast even though we didn't buy anything.

So when today I had nothing to do for some reason I went back to the weekends memory.  I did a quick Google Maps search, found there was an antique shop, Golden Bird Antiques, a couple of blocks over and off I went.  I had no intention of buying anything but once I got there I found something I couldn't pass up.

I collect elongated coins; ECs; pressed pennies; squished change.  I didn't start collecting ECs alone.  My daughter and I started to collect them together on our first trip to Disneyland but she grew out of them and I didn't.  Most of the coins I have I've gotten while on vacations, approximately half of them are from Disneyland.  I've received some from other collectors and recently I received some when I joined The Elongated Collectors. Yes, there is a club.

ECs generally are not that expensive.  Most machines cost 51 cents per coin; two quarters are the cost and then the penny for the pressing.  When a machine goes away it's considered retired and retired coins are considered more valuable.  Older retired coins are considered even more valuable and of course the oldest ECs that are known to exist are valued the highest.

Today when I entered Golden Bird Antiques I started talking to the owner about elongated coins and I was very surprised when he said he had a few.  He prefaced this by saying that while he only had a few they were probably ones that I would be interested in.  He was right.

The oldest known ECs are from the 1893 Columbian Exposition.  The event was essentially a worlds fair in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering America.  At the convention there was the first known pressed penny machines and there were 4 different coins being made.  What I purchased were two of those four coins.  I've seen the coins for sale on eBay, and I never really planned on buying them but once I saw them in person I had to have them.  The price seemed right and while I knew I'd be in the doghouse I still bought them.

And that is why I was happy.  I'm still happy but I was right about that doghouse.  Crushed my mellow a bit but I deserved it.  Hopefully I'm not in the doghouse for long.  Not a lot of room here.  Little lonely.