The guide dog who visited the most money museums

From 2014 until about 2022, I was traveling with my guide dog, Baldwin. He has been to 12 money museums, in 6 countries and 11 cities.

On October 20^th, at the age of 13, he died. While it is not a blog about my guide dog, I still felt appropriate to post this, since many of you who read the blog or the newsletter met him in person. Also, without his passionate work, I don’t think I would have been able to visit all the places we have been to.

Though I don’t have any evidence, but I think I can claim that Baldwin was the dog who visited the most coin and money museums. Since I wrote about all of my numismatic travels, you can read about our trips, here is the list of museums we have been together, mostly in chronological order from 2016 until 2022.

• Cleveland money museum

• The Smithsonian, Washington DC

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

• Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

• Ottawa mintMoney museum in Chicago

• ANS, New York

• The national Bank of Romania

• Currency Museum, Ottawa

• Hungarian national museum

• New Orleans Mint

And the only reason why he didn’t come with me to Cambridge was because his paperwork was late and he couldn’t travel with me.

He also missed a few things in Brazil, India and in Mexico because the paperwork was so demanding and I wasn’t sure if I will be able to safely bring him home.

But these are just the places and numbers, but he actually started his numismatic journey in 2015, when we went to the World’s Fair of Money in Chicago, and also in 2019 which was our last trip before we got grounded for three years.

But we also went to at least three coin clubs to speak, and to countless money shows. I think he really enjoyed these events, when we went to money shows he tried to take me in the direction where he heard the noise of coins. And it is actually not surprising, simply because a dog does everything to please his owner, and he knew it well that I really enjoyed being around the coin tables, checking the coins and talking with the people. And generally he was quick to catch on to what I like or what I need, in hotels for example he took me to the elevator from the front entrance or the breakfast room after I took him out first thing in the morning. We sure were a team, for almost nine years I was only away from him when I was in the restroom, and a few trips I couldn’t take him with me. Once I wrote a post about his life as a guide dog from his perspective, because probably he could better explain what it was like.

I was going to get some pictures for this post when I realized that I don’t have too many pictures of him. First, we didn’t really take pictures of each other, and whenever I had pictures taken in museums, he was mostly under the table waiting for me patiently while I was examining coins above him.

But I found one, when we were in the Ottawa Mint, he was beside me.

The picture I really wanted him on in 2015 was when I met Stevie Wonder. I don’t really care about having pictures with celebrities, but I really admire the work of Stevie and all the great things he had done for us in his entire life, and when we met him at a conference, I asked his staff to take a picture. So, there was Baldwin, but you really can’t see him, we had a table between us, and the only proof of this I have is that you can see his handle in my left hand. I so wish I planned this one a little better.

But on this blog I only wrote about our numismatic travels, we did much more together. Baldwin has been to 13 countries, and I can’t even count the cities we visited. But we also just stayed at home at times and took long walks around the development, I was certainly in a better shape when we worked together.

The first time I didn’t take him with me for an out of town trip was a couple years ago when I went to Boston. At that time he was slowing down, and he could still guide me around the development, but he was almost 11 and it was just too much for him. A few weeks later I completely retired him, and while I could I walked him on a leash using my cane. Even then he was trying to guide but at that point it wasn’t his responsibility.

This year, arthritis really started to impact his life and we couldn’t go out for a walk, though a couple of times he enjoyed swimming in a life jacket.

He had a nice and happy retirement, given his age in the last couple of years I took every day as a gift to have him with me. Almost until his last day he came upstairs to my office just to be with me while as working, and I was so worried that he will hurt himself on the stairs.

In October came the time when he started refusing food (that’s a big thing for a Labrador), and eventually he wasn’t able to walk. When we went to the vet who has helped us to get his papers ready for our trips and kept him so healthy over the years, she said that it was time, and at best he would have a few more days of suffering. Since I already had to carry him in, it wasn’t a surprise, but it still hurt like nothing before. My wife was with me and we called the kids if they wanted to say goodbye.

And now all I have is his ashes on a bookshelf, on top of the softest blanket he traveled with since 2016. Beside him there is his favorite toy, his guide dog id card and his Hungarian passport, with his collar that has all the metal tags he needed. When I pick it up, it makes the little sounds I heard each time he got up when I called him.

On top of his urn there is a 3D printed Baldwin, we designed it to be exactly like him when he was about 11. To me it is much more meaningful than a photo. There is one more copy of it which stays in my laptop bag, so he can continue traveling with me.

Thank you Buddy. It was the time of our lives.