Nice to meet everyone

Thank you for the chance to join your community! My name is Solomon, from Pinehurst, North Carolina. I've been an avid collector since the age of 5, starting with basketball cards (and Pokemon!), then that passion blew up after my father showed me his stamp and coin collections. Coincidentally, I found a 1913 franc in my elementary playground in that same week! And that coin was the start to my own collection. From then on, I kept any change I thought looked "different", and had amassed quite the collection of countries, varieties, and US silver coins pre-1964. I had no idea these were silver, but always called them my "bleached coins" because I had nothing but my imagination to rely on. Collecting has always been fun for me, but I'm especially interested in varieties and things that look "different". One of my biggest finds the Lord had blessed me with was the 1964 Special Mint Set, where only a couple dozen are known to exist. I believe that with a positive attitude and a mind willing to learn, you can find anything.

As for stamp collecting, I've always been interested in it because of my father, but have only been seriously collecting for the past 5 years with a primary focus on US varieties. I especially enjoy the experimental nature of the paper-making process during the 1800's, and after much learning and sampling have collected a number of paper varieties and even special printings (validated by APS). If anyone has any questions regarding these, I would love to share what I know!
But the main reason I'm joining is because I'm currently expanding into World philately, and the Scott catalogues do not show everything in terms of "variety". I hope there are specialists here that can put up with my unfamiliarity and be willing to help me.

It is a pleasure to be here with you all, and I look forward to chatting with you.