So I have been considering something on and off for the past couple of days. It's really been turning over in my mind quite a bit, because it is a hard choice. But my head knows the right thing to do, and so, it's time to buckle up the big boy belt, bite the bullet, and throw it on the Blockchain where I can't back out.
If you have not seen what happened to @welshstacker I highly advise you go over and give a read to his latest blog post here, you can go back further for a deeper look too: https://steemit.com/steemsilvergold/@welshstacker/i-will-be-watching-will-you. Basically, The man had his 2018 Steem Silver Rounds stolen right off his front porch. He was expecting 9 of the rounds. Not only are these unique rounds, with a limited mintage, but damnit if this isn't the man who created the design for the damned things. And here he is without any silver with his design punched in it.
Take a moment to think about this. You spend time working up an idea in your head, drawing it out, you put all of your love, effort, and skill into a piece of art, then you have to sit back and watch while other people judge that work that you put so much heart into, you hope you will get picked, but you know there are other artists out there who have worked hard on their submissions too. What a bolt of excitement and probably relief there is when the vote tally is over and your design has been declared the winner! Amazing!
But the work has only begun. Refinements have to be made. Final designs must be brought together, and a die must be cut. Finally, days, weeks, months later you are finally rewarded when a package shows up at your door and you get to see and feel the product of your effort.
Imagine pulling your shiny new piece of silver with YOUR design on it out of the protector so you can feel each little fish, the embedded Steem Logo, the roots of the tree. What a wonder to actually see and feel your art pressed in to that precious metal.
Then imagine all of that being swept away in the blink of an eye. There is no such moment for @welshstacker, because his rounds are gone. The community has been really supportive of him. @mattclarke has offered a $100 bounty to anyone who helps track down the rounds if they should ever be offered for sale online. @thedamus is promising to send a couple of his own Steem Rounds if Welshstacker wins his raffle tonight, and the community has purchased a bunch of raffle slots for him. Everyone is doing what they can to help our designer.
The thought came to me pretty early on to send @welshstacker one of my 2018 rounds. I bought 13 of them and never intended to keep them all. I could probably offer to sell one for twice what I bought it for, get a quick sale to cover my "loss" in donating one of my rounds to Matt. But that didn't really seem like enough. It looks like he had ordered nine of the rounds, sure, one random round is a nice gesture, but it really doesn't make up for the loss of 9 rounds.
So I have one thing remaining to me that might make one round sufficient, and it seems appropriate for the designer of the round to have it.
On Sunday, @raybrockman established an approximte value of the top 10 numbers in the round series. I imagine 11-20 are not too far behind in total value. When I looked at the numbers that Matt was getting, I was a little shocked that his lowest numbered round was in the 90's. Maybe those numbers all match up with his 2017 rounds, I don't know. But what I do know, is that the designer deserves one of the lowest numbered rounds. And I have one by simple luck of the draw.
I'm going to send Matt "My Precious"...
It's hard to say good bye to number 16.... But I feel like it is the right thing to do for someone who created the design for this round. So I will ship it out, with no expectations of compensation, and no strings attached. All I need is Matt's address and I will get this in the mail to him free and clear.
Additionally, knowing Matt is international, I want to extend this offer to anyone else in the Americas, If you would like to contribute a round, or anything else to this package to Matt, I am happy to have you send it to me, and then I will take care of the international shipping cost. I know I am not the only SSG member who ordered ten or more of these rounds... if you would like to donate one to Matt, so maybe we can get close to bringing him to "whole" on his original order, you can send it to me and I will pack it all up and send it off to him.
If you would like to contribute to the Care Package to Welshy, just let me know either in the comments, or on Discord and I will give you my address to send to. Please let me know no later than Sunday night if you are sending something my way, so I know what is coming. If no one else is contributing, I will get my round sent off on Monday. Obviously, if people are sending things to Nashville, I will have to wait for them to come in before I put together the package.
EDIT ammendment to the below - @sevinwilson has offered to be the intermediary to collect the rounds and put them in an insured package to @welshstacker. If you wish to contribute to the Care Package for Welshy, please touch base with Sevin and he will collect the goods and ship them all out at once.
I know a lot of you don't know me, since I am a new member to the group. So trusting me to send what is sent to me could be an issue. So if a more established member of the community would like to step up to be the designated shipper, I am happy to send my round to them and then compensate them the total shipping cost to get everything to Matt if that works out better. Whatever it takes. This is a community that help each other, so I just want to do my part to make our round designer whole.
Thanks everyone! Let's do this thing!!!