and hard labor? Have you ever had the desire to sort the coins by the types and dates, trying to see how many different ones you can find? Have you ever picked through the coins, trying to find the best-looking one?
If you have, you’ve experienced a delicious taste of what it is to be a coin collector. Coin collecting refines a person’s natural desire to accumulate things. Coin collecting teaches about organization, classification, preservation, authentication, verification, and pride in ownership. Coins humble collectors with their ancient stories. The coin you hold in your hand may have witnessed the fall of Rome, been carried by a king, endured the Black Plague, been carried by a GI on D-Day, or may simply be a brand-new coin about to begin its own journey.
The fact that you’re reading this book is a good sign that you’ve already been bitten by the collecting bug. Coin collecting is a passion whose fuel is to find out as much as you can about the hobby and treat yourself with an occasional addition to your growing collection. This chapter helps you get started.
Admitting Your Numismatism
Numismatics (new-miz-mat-ics) is the systematic study of coins, medals, tokens, currency, and the like. Therefore, a numismatist (new-miz-ma-tist) is someone who studies coins seriously.
No, you don't have to know how to pronounce or spell these words to be a coin collector, but sooner or later, you’ll be wearing them like badges of honor. After all, you’ll be joining a rich company of kings, queens, presidents, industrialists, robber barons, brewers, and tens of millions of other folks who have been proud to be known as coin collectors — and a few who actually became numismatists.
Discovering How Cool Coin Collecting Can Be
People love money. People love other people who have money. Coin collectors collect money. Therefore, people love coin collectors.
Don’t believe me? Try this test: Go down to your local coin store, and buy a common Morgan or Peace silver dollar dated anywhere from 1878 to 1935. Pick out a nice one, but don’t pay more than $40 for it. Put it in your pocket the next time you go to a party. At the party, casually pull the coin out of your pocket and show it to your friends. You’ll probably get comments like these:
“Where in the world did you get that?”
“I haven’t seen one of those for years.”
“My grandpa used to give me one of those every year for my birthday.”
“Is that a real silver dollar?”
“Can you get me one?”
Return the coin to your pocket, and pull out a picture of your kid or your dog. Almost everyone has a kid or a dog so the party returns to normal. Boring!
Collecting versus Accumulating
The collecting instinct is a common trait among people; it shows up in many ways. You’ll discover that many of your friends are collectors of something. Who do you know who collects baseball cards, comic books, vinyl, Coca-Cola memorabilia, books, or dolls? Even people who claim to collect nothing probably have accumulations of something they haven’t even realized they’re accumulating — tools, newspapers, shoes, you name it. There’s a special comfort in collecting, in surrounding yourself with familiar objects and building a store of assets — perhaps in response to some primeval instinct that prepares you for a rainy day.
The allure of money is especially strong. Coins represent real value. Coins can be exchanged for other objects we desire. Coins travel throughout the world and through time itself, representing and absorbing history as they pass from one person to the next. Oh, the stories coins could tell if only they had voices! And they’re everywhere, because no one anywhere ever throws away old money.
Pull a dime out of your pocket, and what do you see? If all you see is 10 cents to spend, I’ve got a lot of work to do. But if you look at your dime and wonder at the artistic work of the engraver and the meaning of the symbols and the words, or if you see Franklin Roosevelt, the Great Depression, and the New Deal, groovy you’re hooked! You’re going to make a great coin collector and, perhaps, one day, a numismatist!
1 Visit your local coin store or online, and purchase a folder made for pennies from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s.A folder is a cardboard holder with holes for every date.
2 Raid your change jar, or go to the bank and buy $20 worth of pennies.
3 Sort out the coins, and fill as many spotsholes as you can.If possible, find the best-looking coins to place in the folder.WHAT MAKES A COLLECTION COMPLETE?Completion is in the eye of the beholder. Many years ago, some coin collectors were interested only in collecting by date. Therefore, to be complete, a collection had to include one coin from every year that the coin was minted. Later, collectors developed an interest in mintmarks — the tiny letters that indicate where a coin was minted. Suddenly, to be complete, a collection had to include a coin from every year and from every mint. Then came collecting by variety (major or minor changes in the design of a coin), and the definition of completion expanded even further.Obviously, completion is an ever-changing standard. Taken to the extreme, the only complete collection of coins is one that includes every coin ever made! Striving for completion will drive you nuts. Instead, decide on your own goals, and set your own standards for completion. When you’ve completed that collection, consider a new definition of completion, and go for it! Remember: There’s no “correct” way to collect.
4 After you’ve gone through all the coins, sit back and take a look at your work.Do you wonder why some coins were harder to find than others? Do you wonder why you couldn’t find even a single example of some coins? Are you interested in completing the set? Did you have fun searching through the coins?If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve discovered the difference between being a collector and an accumulator — and in case you’re wondering, you’re a collector.
Collecting Various Types of Coins
Throughout the years, people around the world have experimented with a variety of items used to denote value. The natives of Papua New Guinea valued the dried carcasses of the beautiful bird of paradise. The Yap Islanders valued huge round stones. The early Chinese created copper money in the shape of knives. Native Americans made and used wampum (clamshells, handmade into beads, polished, drilled, and strung on strands of leather) as a medium of exchange. All sorts of innovative methods have been used to facilitate trading, but none of them became so convenient and important as those little round pieces of metal we call coins.
Gold and silver coins
Look at the history of coins, and you’ll notice that two metals have played a critical part in the development of money: gold and silver. These two metals formed the basis of most great civilizations’ systems of money. Greece, Rome, Egypt, Spain, England, the United States, and other civilizations all based their monetary systems on gold and silver at one time or another. When you hear about the great treasures of the world, you imagine piles of gold and silver, not piles of tin and copper.