I lived in Cozumel Mexico, a scuba diving island in the Caribbean, for 15 years. While there I worked my way up to instructor status and doing so made great many dives. The marinal animal I rarely got to see while diving was the turtle, so I was especially excited when I got to swim near a turtle or two on a dive. They were always a little mesmerizing for me.

Fast forward about 20 years and I have just sold my house in California due to PTSD from multiple fires and moved to Oregon. I am staying in a nice room in a fancy barn, and decide I should really buy some PMs while I have a little money for a safety net. I am not really hyped about it; its just something I feel I should do for preparedness.

I am cozied up in the barn during a downpour, feeling disconnected from the world and my life, looking through Ampex offerings. I end up buying a mini-monster box of 1 oz Silver Amerian Eagles because I expect they will be easy to sell if need be, and a couple 1 oz gold The Perth Mint Oriana bars because they are beautiful and sexy. I end up feeling really anxious parting with the money rather than happy. I am sad that I do not feel the excitement many people on reddit have expressed experiencing when acquiring their first PMs.

The next time I am perusing Ampex offerings, I stumble across the 2017, 1 oz Nuie Hawksbill Turtle. I am instantly struck by the coins beauty and how they capture the experience of seeing turtles under water. The feeling of diving with the turtles comes back to me, the gratitude and peacefulness, the sound of the bubbles. I feel connected to my past, myself, and my life. I feel almost desperate that I must have some in spite of having already spent my allocation for the time being. So I order a couple of tubes and wait, with a different kind of anxiousness, for their arrival.

When they arrive, I finally understand the love of stacking some people have. Why they like to get their treasure out and look at it, or hold it, or both. I have not been able to bring myself to touch my Hawksbills without gloves, but when ever I look at them I have the feeling of swimming with the turtles, and an appreciation of how beautiful the coins capture they way turtles swim in the ocean and how a divers bubbles can swirl around them.

They also gifted me with the understanding of how owing a stack of silver can feel very satisfying and joyful far beyond the fact that they have a monetary value. My Hawsbills will be the last PMs I part with if I must sell my stack someday.

Here's a link to the coin. They are so very much more beautiful in person. But I guess that is true of most beloved coins.

https://www.apmex.com/product/104231/2017-niue-1-oz-silver-2-hawksbill-turtle