Peter's Dad's Bio
Hello & welcome to the Peter's Dad family coin collection. I'm Peter's Dad and the curator / custodian of this collection.
This collection was started by me as a Memorial to my 15 year old son Peter who died in a river rafting accident on the first day of our Summer, 2000 family vacation.
Peter was a fine young man and while he may have been short in stature and demure in build, he had a heart of gold and was generous to a fault. Peter was a voraciouos reader and as he grew older, he found himself being fascinated by accounts of the life of Ben Franklin.
The day before he died we'd ordered a Proof Franklin Half Dollar to start a set we'd hoped to complete once we returned from vacation. Regrettably, that wasn't to be.
Shortly afterward, I decided to complete the set we'd begun together. I'd hoped that'd be something of a cathartic exercise that might help me find some desperately needed peace & consolation and to some extent, it did.
It didn't take long to finish a PF67 or better set of Brilliant Proof Franklins but that simply failed to satisfy my desire to build the truly special set for the special son we'd lost.
After refocusing a bit, I decided to try to assemble a truly COMPLETE set of Proof Franklin Halves and have been working on that goal for several decades now.
Checking the NGC Registry you'll find 3 distinct sets of certified, high grade Proof Franklin Halves under the "Peter's Dad" moniker now.
The first set of Only Brilliant Proofs, the 2nd set consists of Only Cameo Proofs and the 3rd set is made up of Only Deep or Ultra Cameo coins.
While NONE of these set rank very high individually, I think the combination of these sets and the variety of finishes each offers that makes the totality of this collection so interesting.
From my perspective, this collection of Proof Franklin Halves stand as a Memorial to my son Peter but they also pay homage to Ben franklin, arguably one of the most influential and fascinating figures in early American History.
I'd like to take a moment to offer my heartfelt thanks to my close dealer friends Jim B. & Jeff W. Their long term commitment to helping me turn the initial concept into 3 NGC Registry worthy sets is greatly appreciated. These sets would not have been possible without their tireless help.
Their help has also brought this grieving Father great comfort and consolation. It would be hard to find better friends. And after all, isn't that one of the greatest benefits of the Numismatic hobby, having the opportunity to develop lifelong friendships? That has clearly been the case for me.