The longer you're active in collecting, the better your chances are of acquiring the rare coins you need
. Sometimes the opportunity to purchase a coin is rarer than the coin itself, so you must be patient and ready to pounce when your coin finally appears. Never assume that a coin is locked away forever. Who ever thought that Johns Hopkins University would sell off the Garrett collection? Who suspected that we'd ever have a chance to bid on coins from Byron Reed's collection or from the Joseph C. Mitchelson collection? We simply don't know what neat collections lurk around the corner. But the fact that strong hands have sold their coins in the past gives us hope that others will do the same in the future.