Coin Weak.

We are firmly in the grips of a global pandemic with the human race facing unprecedented challenges. Civil liberties and freedoms stripped. Democracies at risk. Capitalism crumbling.
I have been wondering what would be my tipping point that would cause concern to shift into creativity, fear to become fuel, for the insanity to become inspiration.  Will it be a think piece about an isolated island nation, seeing planes depart with no knowledge of when they'd return? Or stories of our front-line workers and the incredible sacrifices they are making to keep us safe?  Or an in-depth look at how we as a community are coming together to support the most vulnerable among us?
Mayhaps those might come.

But TODAY what sent my typing fingers flailing is my sheer disbelief at an article posted on 'the largest independent online media source for rare, modern and bullion coins'.

Yes.

Coinweek.com, you have pissed me the hell off. And because we are sheltering in place like our clearly-frustrated Premier has told us to, I HAVE TIME. And you are gonna hear from me.

Before readers question what I was even doing on this site whose mission is "to inform, entertain, and educate collectors about coins, paper money, and every other area of numismatic pursuit" (ALRIGHT I see you  'NUMISMATIC'. That is a great word but teaching it to me does NOT excuse this tom-fuckery.), lemme explain that I have random projects and needed to learn about Bermuda coins... which led me to THIS PAGE OF UTTER FACKIN' DRIVEL that has been viewed almost six thousand times which is frankly six thousand times too many.

Shutting up about another country's history of which you seem to know nothing about IS FREE. I came to your site to learn about coins - that's what I wanted to hear about. You all know coins. That's your expertise.  Instead, I have to read that:
"Bermuda never really played a significant role in the history of the United States, or in the history of the British colonies that became the original thirteen United States..."
"To a minor extent, Bermuda served purposes for the British during the American Revolutionary War and during the American Civil War..."
"a group of British islands off the Atlantic Coast no longer has much geopolitical significance..."

SIR.
What in the actual hell are you talking about?
I had to reread it because SURELY a website that has won over 48 Numismatic Literary Guild Awards and named the Best Online News Site for the last 5 years straight by an unnamed source would have fact-checked this article.  If, Coinweek, you all have the best coin writers 'in the industry', how in this era where Google sits available to all with free Wifi on the public square, could you post this?
So again.
I HAVE TIME.

To Greg Reynolds' first point about Bermuda not playing a 'significant role in history', I respond, "BITCH YOU LIE."

How... HOW is it possible that I could read this line WHILE SITTING IN A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE THAT IS THE OLDEST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN THE NEW WORLD?  Please sir. EXPLAIN. I look out my window and see some of the oldest existing buildings of the Americas.  We are the fifth oldest parliament in the world and the building where our parliament met in 1620 STILL STANDS.  This year we will acknowledge the four hundredth anniversary of our parliament and that building, and celebrate the four hundred and eighth birthday of our town, but before you ask, Greg, no, you may not attend any festivities. Because you had AMPLE resources to do better.

You mention the shipwreck of 1609 and that, after departing in 1610, George Somers returned to Bermuda to get supplies for Jamestown. But, you neglect to speak about the supplies they already TOOK from Bermuda, which saved that colony from further starvation and abandoning their plans. Those mofos were packing up when the group came from Bermuda with all manner of hog and cahow bird. Now I'm not saying that's a good thing - perhaps if the English had fucking skedaddled, your nation that elected a pussy-grabbing Donald J. Trump would be a bit different. Who knows? But the fact remains: SIGNIFICANT.

And the people that spent time in Bermuda. They would have had an entirely different trajectory had they arrived in Jamestown in 1609 and been amongst the colony during 'the Starving Time'. You heard of Pocahontas? She wouldn't have had her name changed to Rebecca and died married off to an Englishman... cuz he would have already been married. But his wife died in childbirth in Bermuda.  George Yeardley whose bones were discovered a couple years back in Jamestown? One of America's first elected officials and slaveowners. Stephen Hopkins was on the Mayflower. You mention the Tempest and say it 'seems to have been partly based' on the stories of shipwrecked passengers. The play speaks of Bermuda by name (the still-vexed Bermoothes) AND Shakespeare DEFINITELY had William Strachey's written account. A POX ON YOUR HOUSE!

SHALL I GO ON?  OKAY I WILL.

You say that, 'to a minor extent' we had a  purpose during the American Revolutionary War.  YOU ARE WILDIN' OUT GREG. I understand that history lessons in school are somewhat lacking and America always likes to think they did everything by their damn selves but please note, you all would have lost that war if not for the Tucker family who stole British gunpowder from their in-law, Bermuda's governor, in 1775.  St. George Tucker then went on to write a proposal dissertation for the abolition of slavery in Virginia.

In fact, Bermuda was the first English Colony to receive enslave Africans. Shitty fucking facts, but again SIGNIFICANT. And what you won't do is erase my Ancestors who shaped not only this island, but the entire maritime Atlantic with their incredible skill as boat builders and pilots. "Few white men there are in Bermuda who can take a boat through the reefs … The negro descendants from the old slaves are the pilots who seem to know these reefs from their earliest boyhood."  You all would still be sailing on a trapezoid sail if it wasn't for the triangle rig developed right here in Bermuda so please double-check your work before handing it in.

*deep breath* AND YOU SURE AS HELL are not going to dismiss THEE Mary Prince, the first Black woman to have her story published in Britain.  The heart-wrenching narrative of her life as an enslaved woman born and raised in Bermuda, then transported to the salt mines of Turks and Caicos (built by Bermudians) was used during the debates about the abolition of slavery. THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY GREG.

Now, the Civil War - you know what, we were on the wrong side of history with that one, but I don't walk past the Confederate headquarters on my way to the grocery for you to tell me we didn't play a major (albeit gross) role.  AND, if Bermuda hadn't been a strategic military centre for the South, a Confederate ship woulda never came here. And Mr. Joseph Rainey, a Black man born enslaved and forced to serve on board that ship, wouldn't have had the chance to escape and live on our island that had already abolished slavery while yours was fighting to maintain it. He wouldn't have operated a barber shop right down the hill, and lived out the war safely in Bermuda, then returned to South Carolina and become the first Black man elected to the US House of Representatives, the Second Black Man in Congress.  CONGRESS GREG.

And Mr. Rainey was not the only Black person able to escape to Bermuda after slavery was abolished in 1834. The Enterprise slave ship traveling from Virginia to South Carolina was forced into our waters by a storm in February 1835 and, after an inspection discovered 78 enslaved people on board, a court hearing lasted well into the night that allowed them each to step forward and say whether they would 'continue with the ship and remain a slave, or stay in Bermuda and be Free'.

Honestly I could go on and on.

We could talk about the war of 1812 when the British sailed out of Bermuda and burned down the White House. Also, the last person to die in that war is buried here in Bermuda. Minor point but I felt strongly that you needed to know.

We could talk about both World Wars that saw Bermudians lose their lives. In the second one a hotel that is still open today served as a strategic spy centre that helped bring down Nazis. NAZIS GREG. [Google James Bond and Bermuda. I shall wait.]

We could talk about the role of Black Bermudians in the Civil Rights Movement - the first International Black Power Conference was held in Bermuda in 1969.

We could talk about our roles today as the 'Risk Capital' of the world, an international insurance and reinsurance giant, thus playing a role in every major disaster your country experiences, and a leader setting trends in the global tourism industry.

At the end of the day, Greg, Bermuda is a tiny 21 square mile rock in the middle of the Atlantic and has been the mouse to America's lion for centuries. I needed you to know that we are out here, and have BEEN out here.
Part of a mysterious triangle.
Teaching you about shorts.
Supplying you with lilies and onions.
Being dope generally. 
Developing great minds that create change here and across the globe.
And our historians, storytellers and educators have not researched, written, treasured and shared Bermuda's stories, with voices catching and tears rising, in love and in awe of our island, for a coin collector to come along and say they were insignificant to the world.