DSessom

I was born on a cold, snowy day, December 23rd, 1969, in Pecos, Texas while my mother was visiting her parents for Christmas. My father was deployed in Viet Nam at the time. My family moved to Lawton, Oklahoma in 1976 and I have lived here ever since, with the exception of a 6 month stint in Dallas right after I graduated from high school in 1988. Early in life, I worked as a film/print developer for Moto Photo. After that, I went to work for the Comanche County Sheriffs Department, first working as a jailer and then a deputy sheriff. That job inspired me to go to college and in January of 1997, I started college courses at Cameron University.  Halfway through college, I got a job as a contractor at Fort Sill, working in IT as a computer technician. That job transitioned into a Civil Service position in 2004 and I have been working at that same job for a total of 25 years (contract and civil service combined). 

I have collected coins off and on starting at age 12 or so. Back then, my dad would take me to Zorgers coin shop, a local coin store in Lawton, and I would spend my hard earned money buying mostly 19th and 20th century type coins. I earned money by helping a neighbor maintain her Persian and Himalayan cattery. Feeding and watering the kits and cleaning litter boxes! I also helped run a fireworks stand in the summer. So, I have been working and earning my own money since I was 12 years old, and I chose to spend it on rare coins and motorcycles. (Motocross dirt bikes)  I had amassed a decent collection, all in 2x2 paper holders, stored in a 3 ring binder. That all changed when I turned 16. I discovered girls and hot rods. Coin collecting went to the wayside for many years, until around 2005, a dear neighbor lady (who had also been my high school English teacher) gave me a box of coins that her husband had collected. He had passed away a few years prior in 2003. They were all loose coins of various types, some US and some foreign, all tossed into a cigar box. This is what re-sparked my love for coin collecting. I have been active in collecting ever since, with only a few breaks now and again. 

My initial interests in numismatics were limited to US Type coins, and I later gravitated to Barber coinage. I have a special love for Liberty V nickels. Just in the past 5 years or so, I started collecting some German coinage and well as German currency, mainly because my mother is of German decent. 

In the past couple of years, I dove head first into US currency collecting and now collect all types of US currency as well. I have keen interest in fractional currency from the Civil War era, and also collect US National notes from local banks. My partner, Linda, calls me a Niffler, which is a small creature in the Harry Potter series that hoards coins and shiny objects. 

That's about it!