Free cherrypicker's guide

[lara4228]

Thank you Lucien. I love to express myself in the written word.

Now, please show me where my typos are? I would like to fix them. Are they actual typing errors or grammar?

Thanks,

Lara

[SuddenAdoration]

Very good essay Lara! I enjoyed reading that. A+++

[copperlover]

Very good essay Lara! I enjoyed reading that. A+++

There were two and the one I remember immediately is .....aides s/b aids. I will have to search for the second.

Lucien

[coinman2009]

The essay's so far are great! Whomever wins will enjoy this book, and the knowledge gained will be priceless! I know what I've learned from my 10-12 year old copy has greatly benefitted my searching! Enjoy!

[pman860507]

This is just a for warning before my entry. I typed this though out the day while trying to work, post on the forum, and not kill my boss. so if there are errors I'm sorry.....

anyways enjoy the read.

[pman860507]

I should start of by saying this is a great contest and I’m glad to be a part of it, and here is me.

Hello, My name is Casey Parman, and I live in Topeka, Kansas. I work for an architectural engineering firm as a CAD tech. In the future I hope to hold a position in the information technology field. I greatly love computers and programming almost as much as I love searching Lincoln cents. Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to get a job doing what I enjoy. I am married to my beautiful wife Kylee Parman, we have been together for almost 5 years. We have a 2 year old son Gabriel, and in the next few week’s/days we will add the second addition to our family little Noah. Though I don’t have the best paying job in the world I do try my hardest to provide for my family before start going coin crazy.

I try greatly to divide up my time so I spend more of it with my family then I do searching coins. Though sometimes it doesn’t not work out the way it’s planned normally my wife will let me know though. I hope to teach my kids all about them when they get older and pass down my collection to them.

My collecting experience started when I was pretty young I was interested in a lot of coins, my grandparents bought me a few proof sets of England coins 1983 and 1987. The sad part is I still don’t know anything about them they just sit in my display case. I will always keep them and pass them on to my children when I pass on. Then I got a little older and my life was all about sports even got a scholarship to a Community College to play baseball. Sad part about that is after the first season I blew my arm out and have not been able to play since. Then about 6 years ago one of my dumb friends who were an avid coin collector took my credit card… He decided to make an online purchase of mostly silver coins from a company. I didn’t know this until the package showed up on my door step. I ended up keeping the coins they were mostly Morgan Dollars and Mercury Dimes. I ended up stashing them away for 3 year. When me and my wife where engaged she told me about all the half dollars she had. I ended up going through them because I actually never remember seeing one before. I decided to stash these away with my other coins. Finally about 2 years ago we moved to our house, while unpacking a came across all my silver that I completely forgot about. I was really impressed with the Morgan Dollar so I started searching the internet for information. I came across my first coin family and the Coin Community which is still a great site that I enjoy visiting. Not knowing anything about varieties/errors. I posted my Morgan dollar and the user SuperDave replied that it was a top 100 VAM. This is what really got me excited about coins. Error, varieties this is something I didn’t even know happened. A great world opened up to me. It took me another year to really get into collecting I started out with Indian Cent. They were great fun but nothing compared to the Lincoln Cent. I discovered Lincoln cents about 6 months ago. Ever since then I have been an avid Lincoln cent collector/hobbyist trying to increase my knowledge on grading, varieties, and errors as much as possible. I have only been a member of the LRC for less than a month but you guys/gals have taught me more then I could ever imagine. I’m glad to make this my second home with all the great members here it truly is an awesome community to be a part of.

Over the past 6 months I have really been into searching bank rolls, getting wheat cents from my dealer and looking for varieties and error coins. My main interests are varieties, though I love to have nice examples of error coins for future reference. I truly believe it when everyone says once you find a variety they are easier to spot out. The first one I ever found was a RPM, 1953D-1MM-001 I almost missed it completely; something made me take a second look at it which leads me to seeing a very nice example of a repunched mark. Ever since then I can easily spot out a RPM, thought sometimes I question if actually is one. I have not found a DDO, and the only DDR was a 2006 double column. Everything I use for reference coins is on the internet. I have always been like that with coins I never really thought about book reference knowledge. Until recently Cimperialis said something that opened my eyes.

Cimperialis said, “Until the coin books are available online, there is no substitute. The Authoritative Reference on Lincoln Cents, the Cherrypickers Guides, etc. has unique information not available online. Relying on spotty information online will cause you to miss a lot. Every expert here will attest to the value of reading books, and supplementing them with online info.”

I always figured that everything available in books was also available online, but this new insight into knowledge that is not available to me at the moment has really been bugging me. I have since then been looking into my budget seeing where I can cut back to get a good reference book to take everywhere with me. I think it would be great to have a book to reference when I’m on my daily searching quest, and just when I want to start reading to expand my knowledge. I feel like I am currently “relying on spotty information online will causing me to miss a lot”. I would greatly benefit from getting this book. I’m sure I would wear this book out like I do my programming books. I think reading is one of the best ways to achieve information. This is how I taught myself how to program, work on computer, and everything else in my life I don’t know why I didn’t think it would matter with coins. I am truly glad for what Cimperialis said if this would have happened any later I’m sure I would not have entered this contest.

The Lincoln Recourse has been a great recourse for information, with amazing people. I look to further my relationship with everyone here that is willing. The experts here are amazing people never discouraging or looking down at you, and they are always teaching and encouraging you to keep searching for what is out there undiscovered. I see a long future with LRC and I know I will greatly enjoy every minute of it.

[liveandievarieties]

Picking a winner was a difficult matter, but in the end I had to go with somebody...

First off, a big thanks to Karah- she removed herself from the running by deciding to purchase a copy of the book, I know she'll be glad for it.

Casey is receiving the CP guide- I've helped the other 4 contenders in this thread in various ways and feel that everyone deserves a shake- his passion and desire showed through is essay as clearly as several others. You've already come a long ways Casey and I look forward to your continued growth! It's fun having you around, thanks everyone for participating.