Why don’t locals collect anything?

From coins filled with history to sea shells, the only limitation to collecting is your own imagination

BARRY LLOYD
barryjo46@yahoo.co.uk

It is not uncommon in other parts of the hemisphere to spend many hours on ones hobbies or personal collections. In my eyes as a foreigner lives in Panama are only lived in the present, not in the past or the future. This mentality can easily be demonstrated come ‘Pay Day’. Then for a very short period of time everybody is out shopping, partying, drinking in nightclubs, taking the family out to restaurants. However, the following week all these venues are virtually empty.

Why is that? Yes, you have spent most of your money already. This is a very perilous way to live, exhilarating but dare I say irresponsible. What happens if you have a family emergency and you have no money to address it? I suppose that is where the credit card comes out.

There maybe some justification that in ‘First World’ countries individuals generally have more disposable income to dedicate to collectibles but, I don’t believe this is the main reason.

I think one of the most important factors is that Pananamanians are very aware of the security issue. By this I mean theft of a prized collection. To a lesser extent they may consider collecting activities boring. Also; ‘What will happen to the prize collection when you die?’

You have to realize that monetarily your collection may have no value to anybody else. I used to have a childhood friend who collected candy wrappers, another who collected keys. My two older brothers spent hours at bus and train stations collecting their registration numbers and crossing them out of pre-printed enthusiast books. Some people just collect old programs of their favorite football team.

However, you do have the more eccentric collectors, like me! I have always had a strong interest in history, especially anything connected to Italy. Therefore, I started collecting ‘Ancient Roman Coins,’ I could not afford the gold aureus however; I could obtain silver denari with some assistance of my credit cards!

On each coin there is a miniature portrait of the Emperor of the day; some were in power for only two weeks so this made their coinage exceedingly rare. I managed to collect the first three centuries of this historic coinage.

Also, one can think where has the coin been for the last two thousand years? Remember there were no banks in those days, so a lot of the coins were buried by soldiers on campaigns and unfortunately perished prior to being able to collect their hoard from their hiding places.

A lot of the coins I collected were found by modern day metal detectors. I also collected very old verge pocket watches. This was more to admire the craftsmanship and the mechanics of the watch itself, rather than any historical element of who owned the watch. Both collections totaled well in excess of ten thousand dollars until I decided to sell everything to relocate to Panama.

Even now in Panama I am still a collector, I now collect Taguas, mainly frogs! I get just as much enjoyment from these as I did my more expensive collections. The only problem: one has to dust these! I know the rest of the world consider the English as eccentrics and I suppose we are but, come on Panama get collecting! If you have a low income how about collecting shells or insects! Also, I hear there are some nice multi-colored buses going cheap soon I think they are called Diablo Rojo’s! The only limitation to collecting is your own imagination.

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