"Padraic Brown" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:57:01 -0400, "Bruce Remick"
wrote:

Depends on your "collecting" philosophy. Most people who actually
collect things - be they coins or stamps or toy trains - like to
actually enjoy seeing, holding, playing with, etc those items that
they collect. Putting a coin collection in a bank vault is, in my
opinion, contrary to "collecting".

I feel exactly the same. I also would feel uncomfortable hauling my
valuable collectables in a cardboard box to an emergency shelter and
either
leaving them in the car or sleeping with them. This fear is something we
collectors just have to put up with as best we can

Frankly, leaving the collection in a box buried under lots of other
stuff in the car at the shelter is better than leaving it in the
abandonned house.

There are always choices to be made. Under normal circumstances, there
would be no worries. In times like Floridian collectors have recently
undergone, there is no good decision. After all, a bank building is
not usually much stronger than a decently built house - it will be
just as liable to collapse and destruction. And certainly a primce
target of looters!

I would rather sell such coins to someone who would enjoy them, put
the money in stocks and take a trip to a local museum or coin shop to
just look at my vast "virtual coin collection".

I'd have a hard time doing that for security reasons alone.

What security reasons? Sure, Al Queeda might dicide to drop a bomb on
the day you visit the museum - but that just gets into needless
paranoia.

I meant that I would not sell my coin collection just to free myself of the
worry that someone might steal or loot it one day. I thought that was what
you were getting at.


I would almost
feel that the looters & thieves had beaten me without actually committing
a
crime.

??? Are we on the same wavelength here?

Dunno. It's akin to terrorism, where we say we won't "let the terrorists
win", when in truth they have already restricted our lifestyles and have us
dangling on a nervous string. They may not have "won" but they have us
looking over our shoulders like never before. Didn't mean to so political
here


The unscrupulous
looters who prey on these stressed-out homeowners are the ones who
should
shoulder the blame and punishment, not the victimized
collector-homeowner.

Obviously! I think this was the OP's point when he said the looters
ought to be shot.

I gathered that. It's frustrating though to think that underage looters
will simply be slapped and handed to their parents.

Personally, I don't see why they can't be shot and THEN handed over to
their parents.


Either way would work for me.

Bruce