I was born in Puyallup Washington, near Seattle/Tacoma. My Grandfather started letting my brother and I play with coins and stamps at a very young age. My family moved away at age seven to Yakima Washington. And I've lived in Yakima Valley ever since. My Grandfather passed away shortly after our move and his coin collection was packed up and stored away. Collecting wasn't really a big part of my life after my Grandfather passed away and teenage years brought on many different interests and coin collecting took the back seat. I'd still pick an occasional silver or wheat from pocket change and thought of my Grandfather every time I'd find one. Years later when my Grandmother decided to divide my Grandfather's collection up, the members of my family all walked away with a thousand plus coins each. These coins really sparked my collecting interest in a major way. I began to daydream about these little pieces of art and history and would think about who's hands these coins may have passed through. I started digging around on the internet and found a brand-new coin club that had some pretty neat members. BINGO! people to share my passion with! I learned about grading and how the condition of a coin, in most cases, is what makes it either worthless or valuable. I also learned that most of the coins I inherited were not as valuable as I thought but was very pleased anyway. If it weren't for that internet club, I don't think I would have stuck with collecting.

My first real love in collecting was the Walking Liberty half dollar. I learned to grade them and managed to build an almost complete set (minus two key dates) in circulated condition. Next came Franklins. I think Franklin halves are sleepers waiting to explode in value. Every once in awhile I'll pick up a BU roll and search for some higher grades and FBL's. After Franklin halves I got interested in Lincoln's and then buffalos. Next came Error coins. Error coins are still "my thing". I don't know what it is about errors that has me hooked like I am. Maybe it's because they are intriguing to me. I can look at an error coin and try and figure out how it happened and I think of it's journey though the coining process and it's journey from the mint and how it wound up in Jason Craton's possession.

In between all of the above I met my wife. We married, had a couple of kids and I helped put her through school. She is an RN in a Critical Care Unit. I'm now a stay at home Dad. We are making a move to Seaside Oregon. We have found a little house ½ block off the ocean. We don't know how long we'll stay or what it will be like but we are going to make a go of it while the kids are still young.
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Jason Craton -- ANA R-195238

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The Feature Coin

The Panama Twenty Balboa

This issue's featured coin is a reminder that WINS is a World Club and not all rare and beautiful coins have the United States of America minted on the reverse. This extremely large coin ( The picture is actual size if you are running at 800 X 600 resolution ) is a 1985 proof. It is of .500 silver with a total weight 1.9273 oz of silver. Its name is "The Discovery of the Pacific" and as its main portrait explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa and a depiction of the very rare Harpy Eagle which is native to the Panama area. These coins were minted for Panama by the Franklin mint, and they like Canada's coinage have the medal format as opposed to the U.S. coin format. This coin was only minted in proof and the total mintage was 1,402 pieces, yes that is pieces not thousands. The coins present value is somewhere between $150 and $200, of course you could buy an 1895 proof Morgan dollar in 1962 for just about that same price. Who knows?