Captain_Panama

David S. Plowman was born in Bristol, Pennsylvannia on September 13, 1961. His parents became missionaries for an independent Bible mission and moved to the Republic of Panama when David was about four. David's father shares a birthday (August 15th) with the Panama Canal, which attracted his attention to Panama when he first started to think about missions. David was raised in the province of Chiriqui, first in the town of Potrerillos and then in the town of Puerto Armuelles. Puerto Armuelles is a port, and Chiquita bananas are shipped from there. David was home-schooled first and second grade (in Potrerios), was in Bristol, Pennsylvannia public school for third grade, and then attended Las Palmas School in Puerto Armuelles for fourth through eighth grades. Las Palmas is a small private school used primarily by children of English-speaking employees of the United Fruit Company (owner of the Chiquita Banana brand). After eighth grade, David moved back to the United States to pursue his education, and lived near Chicago, Illinois. There he attended high school and college. Today he works as a computer systems analyst in the Chicago area, where he lives with his wife Diane, daughter Gabrielle and son Malachi. He has visited Panama several times since leaving in 1975. One visit was in 1979 and he was there for President Carter's visit to the Panama Canal after signing the treaty that would transition the canal to Panama. Another visit was in 1994 for a family reunion in Panama at Christmas time with his parents and four brothers. During his time in Panama David first started collecting coins. Initially he collected coins of the United States and then he started collecting coins from around the world. Finally, realizing he could not collect everything, David decided to specialize in collecting the coins of Panama. David has continued to collect coins and numismatic items of Panama. He decided to use his computer skills to create a web site about his hobby at www.coins-of-panama.com. He has also authored several numismatic articles.