Mutilated & Maimed Coins

Is that Jefferson on the top left cut? or bent? It'd be more impressive if it was bent!

The Washington quarter looks like a 'bullet' went right threw. Probably saved someones hip or somebody's target practice.

mila_

You know something. That is the first completely new idea in coin collecting I've seen in a long, long time. I've seen or heard of type sets, albums, collecting by dates, by types, by denominations, by country, error coins and just about anything else. But your collection is unique. Keep it up and keep us informed of any future additions. You may want to ask forum members to donate such coins to your collection. Really nice.

I still save coins that are totally mutilated and maimed. Some of them have so much character that they must have a story to tell all on their own. Just like wondering who might have touched that circulated coin from the early 1900's. I always wonder who could have held those coins. Just as I wonder what happened to that destroyed coin that just showed up in my change.

Yep! there are collectors who try for the best possible grade of coin in all of their collection. 'top ten' or something like that.
There are also people who collect the bottom 10 as far as grade goes. You'r getting close to the best when you can have a collection of 10 coins with a total grade of 10. That would be the ultimate in this type of collecting. Oh yes, they have to be slabbed and graded by one of the top three grading companies to count.

I see you have "road money". At least that is what I call my collection. I started it about 10 years ago when I retired and I started walking on Doctor's orders. I was surprised at the numbers of pennies and nickels I found on the side of the road, so I started putting them in 2x2's. I gave up on the pennies and started rolling them - I am on my third roll. But the others, I still put in 2x2's.

The strangest so far is a Spanish Peseta from 1957.

The oldest is a 1901 Liberty nickel - I can not call it a V nickel since there is nothing at all left of the reverse. The coin was in a very well worn path reverse up in the dirt. It looked like a slug laying there. Thousands of people must have walked over it and never bothered to pick it up. I was very surprised to see it was a 5 cent coin. The obverse is G-4.

I also found a 1920 Buffalo nickel in the sand near a reservoir in Massachusetts. I was walking in the woods looking for an old cemetary when I found that one. It too was on the path right in plain site.

I guess this is actually quite similar to using a metal detector only without the detector.

One other comment - when I was in grade school - the desks had very substantial hinges which resembled a dull paper cutter. If you put a penny under the "blade" you could snap it into two pieces with a quick forceful drop of the desk lid. But there were some desks with slightly more open hinges (bent from overuse in snapping pennies)which could produce a folded penny similar to your nickel. Mine was just such a desk.