It had to Happen.....

Obama coins, for the "serious" collector. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Obama. I can't wait for him to Ba-ROCK the White House....(yeah, I said it. I had to.) But I don't think I will celebrate by buying up a bunch of cheesy Obama coins. They make coins to commemorate anything anymore.
I wrote a blog a long, long time ago about how horrified I was over the "Twin Towers" coins. Why would anybody want to "commemorate" such a traumatic and sad thing? Actually, I did hear, while in NY, a reason behind some of the commercialization of the 9/11 tragedy. Some of those kinds of things are sold for the purpose a 9/11 fund that goes to the families who lost loved ones there. I guess that makes sense....? It makes it a little less distasteful, although I don't think I would want the death of a loved one of MINE to be so ...I don't know...commercial, maybe?

Ok, I have to go completely off the subject right now to say something that has been in the back of my mind ever since the trip to NY. We had dinner with Jeb, one of my husband's high school friends that we haven't seen since high school graduation. Jeb lives in the area of the World Trade Center and was there during the whole 9/11 event. He told us a story that left me feeling chilled to the bone. He said as people learned exactly what was happening, even those folks in the other burroughs of the city who couldn't actually SEE the devastation, long lines of people started heading to the hospitals, particularly St. Vincent's (the one closest to the financial district) to give blood. Medical personnel flooded the hospitals to set up triage to take care of the wounded. Only noone showed up. The hospitals were eerily empty of victims, because you either got out completely fine and unscathed. Or you did not get out. Jeb said that was the part that he will always remember. The absence of the injured in area hospitals, even as the city mobilized in huge numbers to take care of them as the whole event unfolded.

But about those coins....Do people really buy these things? And what exactly do they do with them? Do they sit in a drawer, forgotten for years on end? Are they hot collectors items? Because honestly, I have NO idea what one would do with a bunch of coins marking specific events. I have read that some of these Obama coins, the ones that are actually colorized instead of just pressed metal, are considered "defaced" and therefore less valuable by serious coin collectors. I guess its a case of "buyer beware". I did find one coin that I am tempted to buy.
I won't. But I am tempted.....