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Valued Member
United States
230 Posts |
Great post. I won't tell you where it is but so far my tellers have never given me a hard time about rolls. I have'nt got them setting stuff aside for me yet tho.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6326 Posts |
Great article....... And WOW !...  .your six year old son wants to use his allowance for coins !... You definately have a future collector in the making there !....  Edited by eaglefoot
07/11/2008 08:25 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
936 Posts |
You have to help young collectors, I know when I take my son with me to coins shows he is always getting free coins. It's like at work when we talk about our apprentices, if we do not train them to be the best and encourage them, who will be there to contribute to my pension when I retire? It is the same with young collectors, if we do not encourage them and help them out, who will be there to buy our stuff when we retire or go to sell our collections?
I know I started when I was young, my father encouraged me to collect (even though he collected stamps) then life takes a turn (women,school...etc) after I got married my mother brought my collection over and rekindled some fond memories. The memories I have of buying wheat rolls from the local coin shop, going through dads change and finding ones I did not have in the folder are still here, except now I pay a lot more for them rolls. I sit at the table with my children now and we spend some quality time together searching rolls. My son gets real excited when he finds an Indian, my daughter just likes stacking them or putting them in tubes (she is only 2), hopefully later on in life they will look back at this time and have some fond memories themselves!
I have thought about donating some coins but am still trying to figure out a way to make sure they go to children who would appreciate them.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
Ken good topic. Being on a student budget, I mostly refuse to pay over 100 dollars, in fact less than 50 dollars on any coins most of the time unless it's a deal that is very difficult to miss or something that I'll never see again. That said, there are nice coins out there for really good value if you know what you are looking at. My focus area is overstrike coins and there are really rare key date out there for example a 1724 kopeck which I can assure you that it's almost impossible to find and if you did, it's easily several thousands of dollars! To give you an example of what an overstruck coin is, here is one: This is an original coin:  which is later overstruck to this:  For a mere dollar (no joke when the 1728 kopeck is easily a hundred dollars) Now here are some other interesting overstruck coins 1759 2kopeks over 1755 MMD 1 kopek over 1727 5 kopeks - I think I got this under 10 dollars  Normally double overstruck coins are quite scarce in this condition - chances are you'll never find such features if it's overstruck twice! 1757 kopek over Swedish 1 ore - probably about 30?  This coin looks like a normal kopek but if you know what you are looking for, this is NOT a common coin because the original coin is actually a Swedish coin! So far, there are no detailed studies of why and how Swedish coins got overstruck. This is quite bizarre considering that the relationship of Sweden and Russia back in those days are terrible. The reality is that while such coins are actually quite valuable, most of the time these get unnoticed because of the difficulty of interpreting them, much more on low quality images which I get from ebay. But being able to identify what it is makes it much more entertaining.  My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseriesMy numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htmRegularly updated at least once a month. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
651 Posts |
Gx,
Long time no talk, I haven't been working the forums in awhile but it's good to hear you chime in.
You have been talking about affordable finds for some time now and you produced some great examples for this thread. Way cool pics of those over struck beauties by the way!
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
Ken, good to see you around. Hope that things are going well there! There are definately more interesting overstruck coins around the world for example China and Belgium. This is one Chinese 10 cash  which was overstruck over this Korean 5 fun coin  This Belgium 2 cents was overstruck over Dutch 1 cent   (NOT my coin - borrowed it off omnicoin user aglet) Both coins are not that expensive and surprisingly if you look extremely hard, can be obtained under 10 USD easily or even in a coin dealer's junk coin lot. The only exception is if a seller is to declare what it is which will definately increase the price. The key to it is to be able to identify what it is. Kinda like treasure hunt. It does get extreme hardcore here but the benefits are great as I take time to examine the details and appreciate history. Photography does get VERY technical and that's another challenge to take up. The list of overstruck coins goes so long that I haven't got the chance to compile a list of them - it's almost impossible to do so. That said, one famous and unique 1804 dollar coin was overstruck on a Swiss coin so overstriking has some interesting pedigree to it. Most people snub it because it makes the overall coin looks... ugly. But that's up to individual taste - I find the challenge to identify the underlying image much more entertaining. Or if it gets a bit too technical, why not get some nice silver coins such as this:   Ok I admit I'm cheating here as I bought it when silver was around 5usd/oz. But that said, I still see such coins in junk coin lots for perhaps a few dollars, no more than 5 dollars each even in such conditions. There are still some nice silver round coins but I think the objective here to get the best bargain for students like me. My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseriesMy numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htmRegularly updated at least once a month. Edited by gxseries
07/11/2008 4:58 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
2884 Posts |
Great thread and it certainly illustrates what has been said over and over again. Learning what to look for by doing the homework reading and learning first can go a long way to stretching your collecting dollar. Great to see the involvement within the family. This is a great hobby to share with your loved ones. I have great memories of my Father, Uncle and Grandfather helping me along when I started collecting. Mike |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
581 Posts |
Collecting becomes a lot easier if that's what you want to do - collect. I, too, am getting sick of everything costing a fortune and everything has to be a good "investment" and MS-9999 condition. How many of us collected pennies and nickels as a kid only to come back to the hobby 20, 30 or 40 years later and learn they were worth basically what they were during our childhood? Did that bug us? I don't think so. I have great memories of collecting as a kid. I'm sure I "borrowed" more than one nickel from that whitman folder to buy a pack of gum now and again...... Besides roll hunting and State Quarters, no one ever really mentions collecting just good old fashioned pocket change. Costs virtually nothing and you are building up a collection. I don't get why there has to be several rolls of coins involved before collecting modern currency becomes a possibility. If the six year old just collects memorial cents today, he'll have a book of very mysterious looking coins to pass on to his children. Who cares how much it cost or what it's worth! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1840 Posts |
Great post Ken! Unfortunately, many coin magazines choose to ignore world coins alltogether. Here's a couple of Saudi Riyals that I cherry picked from ebay for $9.99 plus shipping:   If a collector is willing to take the time and look, there are tons of bargains to be had for under $10. Edited by snowman
07/12/2008 1:07 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
651 Posts |
Snowman,
Those are just a few dollars over melt. Nice job!
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Valued Member
United States
429 Posts |
Now the devils advocate... If you look at Coin Values you will notice it is for US coins only and that is where the main focus is. Also, the magazine seems to focus on collectors that have a little more money and more for an investment. I notice this more in the way they always have a coin they break down into the grading categories and it seems to be gold or some type of rare coin. Now on the bandwagon... I love the magazine and pick it up when I can but I do have to agree that the items they look at are way out of the hands of a normal collector. I do not remember the last time I went to the coin store and saw someone walk off the street and hand over a list of coins that would cost $100,000+. Personally I think if you look through the magazine you will notice it is not for the basic collector. All the ads are for high end coins, the supplies are for higher end pieces and displays the common person would not have and finally, the point they push graded coins more than common loose coins. I would love to open the magazine and have them do an article on how to add to your collection on a $10 visit to the coin store. There are a ton of coins out there you can do this on and they are fun and exciting. If I can walk in and out and pay a fraction of the actual price, I feel like I conquered the world that day. For example, last week I bought a complete set of LMC from 1940-1970 for $10 where almost all of the coin were MS63+ and the lowest grade was a VF (and that was only one). With this set alone I was able to exchange 17 coins into my nice set and save a ton of money. Here is a simple suggestion, maybe we all need to put our own personal information together and help out others on where to look. There are a ton of websites that most of us do NOT know about and there is always ebay to fall back on. I know it sounds bad but like others have said, if you spend a lot of time looking you can get some great deals. I know that is where I have bought most of my Large Cent collection and paid about 10-20% the actual value of my collection. Edited by penny pincher
07/14/2008 1:14 pm
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Valued Member
United States
204 Posts |
I think you have hit upon one of the biggest problems in the hobby - a focus on coins that totally ignores the collector who spends $100 or less per month. I quit buying coin mags with regularity because of this (in part). From my perspective, being a "bullion" collector, the current issue silver coins (from various mints around the world) are another well-ignored areas of the hobby.
For a kid with a $5 budget I recommend Roosevelt silver dimes - I've been picking up a few here and there for around $2 in EF-BU. It's not the most challenging set, but it is short, sweet and a fun one to collect. I also like your idea of getting a pound of world coins - might be fun to make a list as you sort them with each country and the name of their currency (and if the coin is old, what the current currency is).
Thanks for the post, a lot of good ideas here!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
651 Posts |
I enjoy most of my magazines and running a magazine is expensive so I understand why they publish some of the articles they do. I was just a little irritated at what was recommended for a low budget collector in just this one article and noticed it is common when discussing "affordable" in most mags. I agree there are other options to help collectors and the internet is a great sounding board and valuable resource. There are even some members here at CCF who already do this for free with sites they maintain (like coppercoins.com) but maybe not to this exact focus... cool,I think you gave me some ideas for changes to my own site. Thanks  |
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Valued Member
United States
79 Posts |
Like many others have said cherrypicking is a very useful tool to use. I just picked up a 1916 Barber dime in EF-45 for $8 which the RedBook prices at about $35 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I would think your not recognizing that many people that write articles, books, documents are just like the weather people. No idea of what is really going on in the world. Ever notice how many people say about the weather people why not just look out the window, dummy? Same with people that write articles for coin magnazines or anything that they have limited knowledge about. NO, I don't mean they don't know coins, they just don't know people. If they are in a family that totals over $100,000/year, they just can not understand why you don't have $100 for coins. Remember Enron? There was an interview with one of the big shots wives and she said why is everyone making such a fuss. We too have it bad. We had to sell many of our condos. If you too had a few millions, you would or could write a stupid article about how everyone should be able to spend a few lousy thousand dollars a month on coins. A friend of mine's wife that has it fairly good with money just couldn't figure out why I spent so much time working on my car. She said if it has a problem, just go out and buy a new one. Same principle. No common CENTS.
Don't get mad at people that write articles like that, just move on or you'll just end up with an ulcer and they will never understand why you aren't rich.
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Replies: 19 / Views: 2,820 |
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Posted 07/11/2008 08:25 am
