The Fortin Family Blog

 

April 20, 2026

Emerging From a Long Quiet Period

and

Back at the Homestead for Spring Projects

 

Greetings an welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. Thank you for returning after a long self imposed hiatus!

After transferring the GFRC platform to Darrell Low and Matt Mayers, I promised myself the opportunity to "go dark" and take a much needed break from the daily blogging chore. For over six weeks, the peace that should come with a full retirement was realized. Each retirement day started in a relaxed manner via cooking breakfast and enjoying YouTube videos before Diane and I took our routine 8:00 AM health walks. Once back from walking, the days quickly filled with clubhouse gym activities and yet another afternoon stroll. I was to the point of walking 4-5 miles a day on a continuous basis along with time in the gym. Progress with lower back pain could be felt as the exercising strengthen the body.

A 718 Boxster road trip arrived during the final week of March and into early April with an overnight stop in Key Largo and several nights in Key West. The overall journey allowed for new explorations including a drive on Rt 41 through the Everglades down to Rt 1. Crossing the many bridges and keys from Key Largo to Key West in a top down Porsche was fun to say the least though the speed limits translated into a thoroughbred simply strolling along. Top down Mustangs were omnipresent with only a handful of 718 and 911s seen during the entire trip. Honestly, Key West felt too touristy for my liking, especially Duval Street. The most memorable stop was at the Truman Little Whitehouse for its historical flavor and content along with strolling through the Truman Annex and its military constructed and maintained structures that were a cut above all else on the island. The Hemingway House was OK but just too crowded to be fully enjoyed. The Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, adjacent to the Southernmost Point, was a strong second to the Truman Little Whitehouse. Thanks to AI Copilot, we stayed at a lovely B&B on Grinnell St with residential like parking for the Porsche. Evening Cuban and Haitian local fare was also memorable. We decide to return to Venice via I-75 and its famous Alligator Alley where the Boxster was able to play for several hours.

Rather than having the Porsche transported back to the the Maine homestead, it was decided to "kill two birds with one stone". On April 12, I departed for a solo three day drive to Maine and explored the southern mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee via US 23 and I-26 before reaching I-81 and moving into western Virginia. The following image was taken at an I-26 scenic overlook on an early April 13 morning. How I relished this retirement moment given the solitude and view.

 

I was finally able to truly appreciate and comprehend why six figures were spent on the 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 during the three day solo drive without a speeding ticket though there were many moments when fully warranted. Driving through mountain passes and sharp curves was exhilarating to say the least. The Sport mode allowed for engine braking when traveling down steep grades without touching the brakes. Time at the Hallett Race School taught me to accelerate through those sharp curves to maintain weight transfer on the rear wheels. Of course, with a premium sports car, there were some downsides including the constant focus on avoiding potholes and driving behind trucks without mud flaps. On several occasions, others on the road felt a need to "race"with me and after demonstrating how quickly the Porsche can climb from 70 to 100 mph, I let then go along their merry way with a conversation point. Rest stops typically brought "nice car" comments though I always tried to park away from the crowd.

The final road trip day took me from a bit south of Wilkes-Barre PA to Raymond. It was a warm and utterly beautiful spring day to the point where I went top down from the New Hampshire Wine and Liquor Outlet on I-95 until arriving home. The Porsche is now resting in the garage as my focus promptly shifted to homestead opening tasks and meeting with Dave Wilkinson and Chris from Tip Line Tree Service towards staging mid May back acreage park projects. My desire for speed has been saturated for the time being along with the Boxster needing a wash to remove all the front end bug splats before taking her out on Maine roads.

Getting back to "killing two birds with one stone", the second reason for the early drive to Maine was to secure a head start on spring clean-up tasks along with staging May park building projects. Unfortunately, summers and autumns in Maine move along much too quickly and even adding several weeks to time at the homestead is a big deal! For example, today brings Atlantic Heating on site and the installation of a new oil furnace upgrade with a large boiler and modern electronics. I'm a huge believer in being proactive and this is an example given the time that the homestead is unoccupied during the frigid Maine winters.

Another initial homestead project was upgrading an old Netgear router with a current technology TP-Link Deco BE63 Mesh router three pack. The advancement in router technology is profound along with the cellphone app. The Fortin homestead is now bathed with a strong wireless signal that extended down to the barn and gazebo.

Let's shift attention to the homestead back acreage park that now becomes my primary focus during the forthcoming May and June months. The park will be officially titled the "Fortin Family Park" with individual trail being named after the grandchildren. The overriding goal is the creation of special Fortin family retreat for the adult children and our children being constantly welcomed to visit and enjoy nature. One of the many May projects is cutting a new bisecting trail down to the pond for multiple reasons. This trail will become the primary construction access road for the planned pond expansion. Heavy excavator equipment will be limited to this trail allowing me to complete the wood chip surfacing of the perimeter trails. Yesterday, I spent the morning physically marking the new trail through the trees followed by documenting all of the trail locations via Google Maps and a screen capture image printout via Google Earth. This map will become the Fortin trail directory signage upon entering the park. Following is that baseline map for Renee, Matt, and Diane to reach consensus on trail names. I've reserved one short trail segment for myself and entitled "Grandpa Way" given the early settlers' agricultural stone wall that is so impressive and has become my favorite park location.

 

The forthcoming summer months and early autumn months will be quite busy. July is nearly fully booked with the Yamatin family spending the first two weeks at the homestead followed by Renee and family visiting during the final week of the month. August brings a trip to Pittsburgh for the Summer ANA World's Fair of Money event followed by IBM friends Dan and Patti driving their 50ft cabin cruiser from Long Island to Maine for a visit. The first week of September brings the arrival of Blake Gibb and Meliza for a stay and touring across coastal Maine and into the NH White Mountains. With all of these planned visits or events, May and June are the primary two months for making substantial progress on the additional bisecting trail and pond expansion goal, thus the need to work through winter property clean-up during late April as a head start.

What about Liberty Seated dimes and my plans to sell the remaining web-book plate coins? Those plans are on hold and will probably remain in that state until our return to Venice come mid-November. There is zero energy or desire to photography and market raw Liberty Seated dimes at this time. After spending over a decade working 10+ hours per day seven days a week focused on the GFRC business and its host of clients, my mind has shifted 100% to spending time in the woods building yet along long term legacy.

Finally, many Blog readers are probably wondering where I am with respect to gold and silver precious metals. To keep it simple, I am holding on to all previously sourced physical inventory along with my equity positions. There is a belief that both metals will re-enter an appreciation phase once the Iran was comes to a conclusion. $4800 gold and $80 silver is still a noble appreciation from one year ago with more war time money supply increases forthcoming. Honestly, I can't think of a more opportunistic avenue for the proceeds if selling those positions along with tax implications.

Let's stop here for the moment as I plan to continue blogging later today or tomorrow concerning back acreage park news.

Thank you for the visit and please remember to be steady and well health wise as our truly more precious aspect of life.

 

 

March 3, 2026

Rebuilding an Office Body - First Update

and

Whitman Baltimore Show Insights

 

Greetings again from the Fortin Venice Florida condo and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog second edition!

Let's make one point perfectly clear! Retirement was long overdue and is clearly underrated IMHO. Each day is lived at a much slower and enjoyable pace with business "stress" being eliminated. For years, I lived on a repetitive daily schedule that started with the Daily Blog followed by morning GFRC shipping, customer correspondence, and long days at the laptop processing images and writing product descriptions. On many a day, I worked after dinner to prepare offer prices for the following morning's Blog gallery showcases. The pace spanned seven days a week including some holidays. The consignment backlog infrequently cleared as the ongoing stream of consignment requests kept me occupied for years on end.

Once the Gerry Fortin core Liberty Seated Dime Collection was completely sold, along with the Newtown Liberty Seated Half Dollar Collection, plus the Massachusetts Liberty Seated Dime Collection and Tenafly's CAC approved collection, I was ready to mentally tune out and shift into retirement. This quick transition was not to be as the sale of the Gerry Fortin Rare Coins platform to Darrell Low and Matt Mayers brought yet another project that needed to be faithfully executed along with dealing with the sale of residual consignor coins. During the final two months of operations, consignment requests from loyal clients still arrived and I could not decline. I'm just that type of person who believe that loyalty is a two-way street leading to long term relationship. Finally, the day arrived when Darrell and Matt flew to Sarasota to retrieve the balance of the GFRC inventory. Afterwards, residual shipping was slowly dealt with and full retirement was a reality. Now I ask myself the question of why did I wait so long since turning 70 in a week's time?

Let's jump into today's Fortin Family Blog topics, shall we?

 

Rebuilding an Office Body - First Update

My number one priority for the first stage of retirement is reversing muscle loss and rebuilding a weak body that slowly decayed during years of sitting at the GFRC desk. There were daily morning health walks which simply were not sufficient to mitigate sarcopenea, the natural loss of muscle mass as we age. My upper body was becoming weak along with lower back pain due to shrinking core muscles. This fact was outlined in the initial February 23 blogpost.

Fast forward to today as I've made rebuilding my body a nearly full time job. Each early morning starts with 3.5 miles health walk from the condo to Capri Island Rd along a lovely golf course on that road. I'm back home before 8:00 AM which provides time to relax and shower before catching up on the Iran War, gold &silver pricing, and other stimulating YouTube topics. By 11:30 AM, an early salad lunch is consumed followed by heading the Auburn Lakes HOA clubhouse gym room. You will find me every day working out at 12:15ish with alternative upper and lower body programs along with specific exercises to strengthen the core muscles. I'm slowly adding exercises and increasing weights towards slow reps that lead to reasonable muscle fatigue. Afterward, I'm back in the former GFRC office working on Tidal playlists for the upcoming mid-April Porsche ride back to Maine. By 4:00 PM, the focus shifts to grip strength exercises for 30 minutes followed by walking another 1.5 miles to close out the day's health focus. Happy hour arrives after the second walk of the day is completed followed by grilling dinner and relaxing afterwards. Bedtime is typical 8:30 - 9:00 PM to secure a full 7+ hours of sleep to allow the body to recharge from a busy day.

It has only been a few weeks where I have been seriously holding to the schedule including a three day trip to the Whitman Baltimore show last week. Already, I can feel the improvements with upper body strength and longer lasting legs. The lower back pain is subsiding with residual pain probably due to the walking and weight room visits. I'm confident that the body will be in a much better place come May when park construction work begins back at the Maine homestead. The challenge will be to maintain the Venice Florida schedule on different exercise equipment and a hilly terrain as compared to the flat cement walkways here in Venice.

 

Whitman Baltimore Show Insights

The Spring 2026 Whitman Baltimore show was pretty much as expected. Thank goodness that I flew instead of driving those onerous 14 hours on a Tuesday only to arise on Wednesday to immediately head to the dealer trading rooms. In hindsight, this prior behavior is incomprehensible now that I've savored the retirement fruit. What was I thinking? Honestly, to operate GFRC on a competitive level with other national dealers, there was no choice but to suck it up and do what was necessary. Call it gritty determination as failure is not an option in the Fortin playbook.

I arrived early in Baltimore on Wednesday morning via a smooth Southwest flight. Let's remember that point. Once on the ground and traveling without coins, the light rail from BWI to the convention center was taken for a $4 round trip ticket. This rail has improved since last riding it back during 2014-2015. I immediately went to the convention center to check on the dealer rooms out of habit, but let's face, there was nothing else to do until hotel check in. Walking around and chatting dealer friends kept me occupied followed by checking into the Renaissance Hotel at noon. This was the first time selecting the Renaissance and what an nice alternative to the overpriced Hyatt and the rundown Days Inn. I just can't bring myself to stay at the Days Inn anymore. Life is too short and one needs to respect oneself when traveling. I have a long history with the Marriott international chain during the semiconductor days with retirement bringing me close to that brand again.

Darrell and Matt had a strong show given the weak Friday attendance and not attending Wednesday's dealer session. Anytime that I could walk out of a Baltimore show with six figures in sales, it was deemed a victory as this venue can be erratic for retail traffic. GFRC has a reputation for handling premium coins at retail numbers, therefore selling to other dealers was tough. If having a decently aged consignment inventory that can be sold around bid, then the show could be made with some wholesale business. One needs to adapt strategies based on the type of on hand inventory.

I believe that Darrell was spot on when suggesting that my presence at the Baltimore show was "critical" in the regular GFRC Daily Blog. Since dealing with other professions and their own working styles, I could not take charge but rather played the role as an assertive adviser and cleared up stuff that was hampering their bourse table efficiencies. One needs to have all coins sorted and loaded into double row boxes for a quick transfer to the cases so that other dealers and view the product during Wednesday setup. This was not done during setup. I re-organized the bourse case layout creating two cases dedicated to a silver bullion deal that the boys bought immediately before the show. Finally, a table space was created for viewing walk up coins from other dealers. Lastly, the back table was organized providing Darrell with a bourse office to work with the COIN database and an unencumbered security case. Darrell also recognized the need for a faster laptop for coin shows! The afternoon was spent as a former owner chatting with several local clients that resulted in purchases. Darrell and Matt might not have noticed, but I was also providing background security as it is a natural reflex once in a bourse corner booth. There were also several strategy feedback sessions, no details here, that seemed to be well received.

Friday brought a slower day as silver spot dropped with Matt Mayer being primarily focused on moving junk sell and other silver products to larger dealers. GFRC enjoyed a decent amount of retail traffic on Friday with a moderate walkup yield. My Venice return flight, again on Southwest, was at 8:40 PM so there was plenty of time to take the light rail back to BWI. Around 3:00 PM, I thought to check on my flight status and was annoyed to learn of a delay past midnight. A quick good-bye to Darrell, then I was off to the airport to try to fly standby on other flights to Ft Meyers, or Tampa. Once at BWI and checking the departure boards, it was obvious many flights to the Florida area were delayed along with flights being fully booked on a Friday evening. Everyone wants to get home. Long story short, my flight was delayed until 1:15 AM arriving into Venice a tad before 4:00 AM. Poor Diane was a kind sole to come get me that early.

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

I'm uncertain when the next Blog edition might be published but with Diane going to Austin for a week this coming Friday, I will want someone to talk to and the Blog is ideal. There is a piece of important Fortin Family news forthcoming. So stay tuned.

Thanks for checking in.

Be well!

 

 

 

 

February 23, 2026

Rebuilding an Office Body

and

Silver and Gold on the Move Again

 

 

Greetings from the Fortin Venice Florida condo and welcome to the first edition of the Fortin Family Blog! It is great to be back in the blogger's seat after taking some much needed time off.

So what is the Fortin Family Blog all about?

Simply said, the Fortin Family Blog will be a sharing of personal highlights and interests that are entirely on a non-numismatic basis. The Daily Blog 2.0 is now being published by Darrell Low and Matt Mayers and I have no desire to interfere with their efforts to take the Gerry Fortin Rare Coins business to new heights. Rather, I'd like to maintain contact with the former Daily Blog readership via a platform that focuses on what I am current exploring in terms of new pursuits, hobbies, and of course, the Raymond, Maine back acreage park developments along with Fortin family activities. Perspectives of the current gold and silver market will also be shared given that I'm staying very close to those topics in light of what appears to be chaotic geopolitical developments.

Today's debut of the Fortin Family Blog will focus on two topics. Therefore let's move forward with these ramblings.

 

Rebuilding an Office Body

Operating GFRC from 2014 through early 2026 required a huge amount of effort and commitment that most collectors could not come to understand. The daily discipline of client correspondence along with processing coins through photography, image editing, COIN database loading, and description generation translated into long hours sitting in a desk chair at a laptop. Prior to launching GFRC, my daily routine was quite similar in that much time was spent in a Fairchild Semiconductor office working at a laptop or attending meetings. The commonality is sitting with a hunched posture at a desk. Over decades, that situation translated into spinal deformities resulting in lower back pain. The constant typing or mouse usage also overworked hand tendons resulting in inflammation in my joints. Though not explicitly discussed in the Daily Blog, as I don't wish to complain about health matters, operating GFRC was taking too much of a toll on my body starting around 2023. Lower back pains were starting to appear and grow more serious during 2024. By late 2024, it was becoming clear that the office work had to be dramatically reduced to mitigate the ever increasing lower back pain. Health beyond the age of 70 became an overriding reason to sell the Gerry Fortin core Liberty Seated Dime collection as the final act before dismantling or selling the GFRC business. Daily Blog readers have witness how 2025 brought about the necessary steps to free myself of the ongoing office setting.

Now that the GFRC business has been successfully transferred to Darrell and Matt, my focus immediately shifted to dealing with the lower back pain issue. I had seen a Venice doctor during early 2025 to confirm that indeed, there was some compression in several lower discs and my back was slowly rounding due to core and upper body muscle loss. Let's remember that turning 70 translates into a slow natural body degradation if counter acting steps are not taken. The muscle loss and lower back issues would only accelerate if I did not get serious about weight and strengthening exercising and staying active, especially while in Florida for the winter months.

Starting last week, I've spent hours watching YouTube videos on aging, muscle loss, and spinal deformities. Let's just say that I've become my own doctor or therapist in the process of what had been happening to my body during all these years of office work. I learned that spinal deformities can be reversed by increasing muscle mass in the right areas. Armed with that conclusion, I then turned to AI Copilot for help in designing the appropriate exercises for rebuilding my upper back, shoulder, and arm strength as a first step. Next came specific exercises to strengthen the core muscles. All that was left at that point was execution and turning my GFRC discipline into a personal body rebuilding initiative.

 

Luckily, our Auburn Lakes Condo HOA made a decision to replace the antique exercise equipment in the clubhouse in lieu of modern exercise machinery during December. The centerpiece of the new exercise equipment is the Hoist V4 weight training system that I've begun to utilize during the past two weeks. Every other day at noon time, or so, you will find me in the clubhouse exercise room working out on the Hoist V4. On top of the exercise room activity, I am now walking twice per day and averaging 14,000 steps across 2+ hours. This is not casual walking, rather moving along at a quick pace in the morning with Diane, and a second solo session in the afternoon. For example, instead of driving the Porsche to the nearby Publix supermarket, I am now walking to the store and carrying the groceries back for a nice to/from one hour walking session.

Furthermore, to counteract the inflammation in my fingers, I've instituted daily grip improvement exercises as designed by AI Copilot.

My near term goal is to bring about relief of nagging lower back pains and increasing strength prior to returning to Maine in mid-April. Once at the Maine homestead, the Hoist V-4 exercises must be translated to an old Macy workout gym in the homestead utility room. If they cannot be effectively duplicated, I will probably remove the Macy exercise machine and purchase my own Hoist V4 as a strong and healthy body is priceless in the grand scheme of life.

 

Silver and Gold on the Move Again

As today's debut Fortin Family Blog edition is being composed, gold has rallied back to $5217/oz while silver is trading at $87. The sharp "crash" in the precious metal sector is now behind us. The "crash" was a manipulation event that removed excess speculation from the precious metals markets in both the US/England and in China. In the west, the major bullions banks, and supposedly the Federal Reserve, held short trading positions that were becoming unbearable as the metals continue to run higher. In China, a new "long only" silver ETF was being heavily subscribed by the Chinese citizenry as their sole option for participating in the silver price rally other than purchasing physical. That new ETF became excessively over bought and was one of the primary reasons that a substantial silver pricing gap emerged between the China silver price and that of the COMEX and LBMA. The "crash" on January 30th was necessary to clear out the accrued over speculation allowing price discovery to operate normally again. The "crash" also allowed the major bullion players with short positions to exit their shorts at much lower prices.

Fundamentally, the geopolitical environment that was present prior to January 30th still remains today and continues to be bullish for all the precious metals. I hope that Daily Blog readers listened to my advice and ignore the sharp price drop. Here we are several weeks later returning to those price levels in a more orderly manner now that excesses have been removed.

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

Thank you so much for reading through the debut edition of the Fortin Family Blog! This blog will be published when there is a need to communicate towards maintaining awareness of what the Fortin family is up to in the coming months. I hoped that you've enjoyed this first edition.

Be well!