About Me

I am a coin collector who was blessed to have been at the right place at the right time. The treasure recovered from the SS Republic shipwreck was to me what the 1954 King Farouk auction in Egypt must have been to John Jay Pittman … a once in a lifetime opportunity to add to my collection some of the finest specimens of the coins that I love the most — Type 1 Double Eagles (1850–1866).

When I first started collecting coins, I entered The Arlington Collection of Type 1 Double Eagles into the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) registry. By the Summer of 2005, my registry collection was complete. That year NGC awarded it their Best Classic Set Award in addition to their Best in Category Award which it was to receive every year it remained in the registry.

In 2008, I removed the coins from my NGC registry set. As of 2014, the registry set is still the third most viewed set out of over 10,000 sets even though the coins were removed a number of years ago. The fact that the set has remained near the top after all these years shows just how popular the double eagle is among collectors.

Read the Collector's Weekly interview with A.C. Dwyer as they talk about the California Gold Rush, the Civil War, shipwrecks, and double eagle gold coins.

Today my interests are a lot broader than $20 double eagles. Type collecting is now my major focus. And although gold is still at the top of my interests, I am not limiting myself to gold — or even coins for that matter. Territorial gold and hard times tokens among others, have all been attracting my interest lately.

But it's also the numismatic stories that interest me. The history and stories surrounding coins is what makes this hobby interesting. The desire to share some of these stories and other information is what led me to create this website. I have written articles in the past for various numismatic publications and websites (see example), but I prefer to post the articles here because I like the immediate feedback I receive.

I am not a coin dealer, CEO, doctor, lawyer, or professional athlete. Like Mr. Pittmann before me, I work a normal job and my days are spent amongst a sea of cubicles that are all just like mine. To me coin collecting is a hobby and a passion. It is something to be enjoyed and to help me relax. What it is not is a job.