Years ago I was told I couldn’t have cats, that I was highly allergic to them. As you can imagine, that broke my heart. I became obsessed with cats, and started a collection of cat things. Not normal cats, but colorful artistic cats like those drawn by artist Laurel Burch.
Eventually a friend told me about an alternative medicine treatment that had worked to eliminate her horse hair allergy. So, I gave it a try and it worked! I have no idea how it worked, and didn’t care…
So for almost 14 years now, I have owned very furry cats (and dogs) and been delighted. However, I did keep the love of collecting cat things, and that includes coins.
Early on in my coin collecting hobby, I discovered “cat crowns” from the Isle of Man. Each year they issue a new coin with a different breed of cat. When I started painting coins, those cat crowns were top on my list to be transformed into jewelry. I have painted at least 6 different years/breeds of cats, and are always on the lookout for more when I go shopping at coin shows.