My great-grandfather, Winston Wiley (Wes) Goodner, grew up poor. He was a very good football player and was drafted by the Eagles. Then he got badly injured and had to quit. In order to make more money, he became an insurance salesman and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Once he retired, he and Helen decided they wanted to diversify their savings. They collected music boxes, old replica trains, and coins. He scoured local coin auctions to find old, and special coins. He also traveled to some coin stores to buy the coins. The collection became part of his and Helen’s life. When he passed away, the collection was passed down to my grandfather David who added a few coins to the large collections. After he passed, my father and my aunt were given the collection. They split about a third of the collection that they thought was the most valuable and special to their family. Some of the less important coins were sold to my grandfather’s friend, who was a coin appraisal man.One of the most valuable and my favorite coin in the collection is a Chinese gold coin. The coin is heavy, weighing in at about 1 gram (.999 to be exact). The front of the coin pictures the Temple of Heaven, a Taoist temple located in Beijing, China. It also shows the date of the coin, 1988. On the backside of the coin, a panda is pictured enjoying a bamboo shoot. The coin collection reminds me and my family that even though my grandfather and great-grandfather have passed away, we can still remember them and their hobbies through learning about and looking at the coin collection.

– HJG

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