I was joking with Coins Magazine editor Bob Van Ryzin the other day. I said, “Do you realize that 46 of the 50 states quarters have now been released. Doesn’t that make you feel old?”

He laughed. What made it funny is our shared memories. We were both at an internal Krause Publications meeting when Bob offered his observations on what the 50 states program would mean for our readers and our future as a numismatic publishing firm.

To say that Bob thought the impact would be big is an understatement. He knew it would be huge and if anyone in that room at the time had any doubt about it, it was dispelled then and there.

Well, here we both are now coming into the home stretch of a 10-year program. Who would have believed it? A decade seemed so long to look ahead. It passed quickly.

I often wonder about all of the state quarter sets started by kids that were left uncompleted as the years passed. Ten, twenty or thirty years from now they will come back to these sets and some will then try to finish them. They will go on to enjoy a fruitful hobby career.

But then that is something Bob expected at our meeting a decade ago and that is no joke.