Welcome to the Tarnished Truth, your newsletter. I have greatly enjoyed editing this newsletter for you all for these last several years, I have learned much from my numismatic friends and tried to pass on information I thought would be of interest to the members. Because of health. time restrictions and an ageing overworked computer starting to have a mind of its' own I must step aside as your editor, and hope someone will step forward and contact Craig, Bob, or J.D. and volunteer to take up the position as editor. Will enjoy sitting back and watching this great club move forward.

    When I was about 9 years old, my interest in coins began with a little box of change that my father had. He had backpacked around Europe back in the 60s and brought back a few coins from each country he visited. Also included in the box was the standard mix of wheat cents, silver dimes, silver quarters, silver halves and even two Indian Head cents he found as a kid (an 1864 and an 1879). The coins that really impressed me the most were the British brass 3 pence with the 12 sided edge and a Danish coin with a hole in it. At this point I had already seen wheat cents and silver coins before, but the concept of a coin that wasn't round or whole, really impressed me.

    I used to pester my parents to see the coins all the time. After a while, they suggested I start building a collection of my own. Whenever my parents or relatives found foreign coins, wheat cents or other interesting coins in circulation, they saved them for me. At the time, the only thing I had to store my coins in was a little green metal bank box with a key lock on it and a slot on top to deposit change. (It seemed appropriate at the time). Eventually I made it to the neighborhood coin shop and picked up some vinyl coin pages. Not realizing I was supposed to use 2X2 cardboard inserts, I just put the coins straight into the pages. Needless to say, they fell out a lot.

Not long after that, I was shopping with my grandparents and while waiting in line for checkout, I asked if my grandmother had any Canadian pennies. She said she didn't have any in her change purse, but she knew there were some back at the house. So we got home and my grandfather pulled out a box that was just full of coins he had saved over the years. Canadian coins, Morgan dollars, Standing Liberty quarters, Mercury dimes, Franklin Halves, Barber coins, a Churchill crown (everybody's favorite!) and many others. Most of these were coins I had only seen in books. He told me I could have them and to split them up with my brother and sister. So of course being the sibling rival that I was, I kept the best for myself and gave the Kennedy halves and wheat cents to my brother and sister. Not long after that my cousin gave me a few half completed Whitman Lincoln Cent folders, a number of empty ones and some outdated Bluebooks and Edmund's guides. I now had more coins and albums than ever before.

    My interest waxed and waned from that time through high school. Picking up baseball cards, comic books and old soda bottles (weird, I know) as hobbies in between coins. I didn't really get back into the hobby until college (strange since most fall out of it during college). I bought my first computer during the summer of '96 which allowed me to use the internet in my dorm room at school. I found newsgroups such as rec.collecting.coins and online clubs like Coinmasters. I learned a great deal from both of these groups. I also met my current business partner, who turned me on to ancient coins.

    Close to graduation, Heritage Rare Coins in Dallas, TX was looking to fill an internet sales position. Having a good deal of experience with computers, the internet and some with coins, I sent them a resume (despite my pending B.A. in Anthropology). They flew me down for a few interviews. I got to meet some of the key players as well as attend their company picnic. I wowed them with my softball playing skills apparently, as I never received a real job offer from them, but I did get an offer from their company softball team's captain to play for them. Go figure.

    After a year and a half working tech support for an ISP, two years as an office temporary intermingled with summer excavations in Italy, and 6 months as a contract archaeologist, Ben and I decided to go ahead with what we had talked about in college. So on September 27, 2002, we incorporated CIVITAS Galleries, Ltd, found a location in October and opened the doors in November, thus leaving me where I am today: overworked, starving, flat broke, working with coins and loving it.

The WINS paypal acount winstreasury@aol.com

Paypal Balance as of 2-21-03 $213.66

No revenue or expenses this month.

Paypal Balance as of 3-28-03 $213.66