Do You Ever Worry That Your Collection Is "Unclean"?

Any 'uncleanliness' I'd be worried about is if I had unknowingly purchased stolen items... That might put a bad taste in my mouth.

Like @Collects82 has mentioned in his great story, coins I think can have a certain "unclean" feeling to them, especially if where they have circulated or were made can be tied to an era that isn't exactly known for its high virtues. One piece in my collection that comes to mind is this 1912 Chinese dollar:




On one side are carved the words "Korea" and "1950-51." On the other side, the letters "USMC," "SGT," and "Johnson" are crudely carved into the coins periphery. My guess, coming from the graffiti, is that this coin was owned at one time by a man named Johnson. He may have been a sergeant while serving in the US marine corp? The dates given indicate that he was active at least during 1950 and 1951.

Now, the Korean war, from what I've been able to research online, was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century. The total number of casualties from all sides, given the number of years the war went on, would mean that the rate at which people were killed was far greater than other wars. The Korean war is also remembered as being a war where hand-to-hand combat was a real common occurrence. I always ask myself how "Sgt Johnson" came to acquire this coin. Did he loot it from a Chinese soldier whom he may have either killed or captured? Was it given to him by Korean refugees running from the North in hopes of obtaining some provisions or food? Did he acquire it from regular commerce or while gambling with his comrades? Although I'm making some assumptions here, there is no doubt that this coin (if it's authentic) was circulating among a generation of people who experienced unfathomable suffering. It may not carry any demons or evil spirits with it, but it was definitely present in a pretty dark time in human history; it was highly desired by the people there, it overheard their conversations, it traveled with them, it exchanged many cold/hungry hands, it may have even been present in moments of combat (gun battles, bombs exploding, people screaming). For those reasons, it's a pretty "unclean" coin in my opinion.

It's not for certain if the marks are authentic or not, but the actual carvings themselves have toned over with time and the word "Korea" is historically accurate, as "North Korea" and "South Korea" did not exist until after the war was finished. If only there was a way to identify who "Sgt Johnson" was, and whether or not that is still possible or not. I've tried, but Johnson is a pretty common last name for Americans. The clues we do have is his rank, last name, years active, and military branch (I'm assuming marine corp from USMC). If I ever find something, I'll let y'all know!

I don't "know" this about any of my coins. And since grave-robbing is illegal pretty much everywhere (even if the graves are thousands of years old), I doubt I would ever know, since someone making this claim when selling their coins to me would be admitting to a crime.

That being said, looters know that ancient graves often have valuables, including coins. And unless you insist on only buying coins with impeccable provenance, it's likely that at least some of your ancient and mediaeval coins were looted from graves.

The ancient Greeks had a belief that you had to be buried with two obols (medium-sized bronze coins) on your eyes, to "pay the ferryman" (Charon) to take you across the river Styx to the afterlife. It is believed this tradition started because people wanted to place small weights atop the eyelids of deceased persons to keep the eyes closed (because dead people with open eyes are creepy), and coins were convenient eye-shaped weights for doing this. Thus, ancient Greek graves often have two bronze coins in the skull's eye-sockets. Looters are fully aware of this fact.

So anyone with ancient Greek bronze coins in their collection, should be prepared for the possibility that their coins might have been removed from a skull's eye-sockets. And looters aren't known for being careful with whatever it is that surrounds their treasure.

From a legal point of view, such coins are of course illegal (and this touches on another aspect of having an "unclean collection", in terms of owning coins that are "hot" or otherwise illegal to obtain or possess) and possessing them is rightly frowned upon. From a moral point of view? The person died long ago. Their ferry sailed and they made it to the afterlife. I'm pretty sure the ancient Greeks didn't believe that Charon would come running back to deport people from the afterlife again just because some far-future grave-robber had stolen his money.

"Shipwreck coins" are another matter; while some shipwrecks are protected sites, many are not, and owning "shipwreck coins" with proven provenance to specific wrecks is quite popular with many collectors. Gold coins from the "SS Central America" wreck are highly popular with collectors today; 425 people died in that wreck.

Owning "shipwreck coins" is even inevitable in some cases. The passenger ship "Dunbar" sank while attempting to enter Sydney Harbour in a storm in 1857. Only one person out of 122 on board survived. Among the ship's cargo was a shipment of advertising tokens issued by Holloways Pills, intended for circulation in Sydney. These tokens were recovered shortly after the ship sank, and put into circulation. The only Holloways tokens that circulated in Australia were the tokens recovered from the wreck, and these tokens usually show distinct signs of seawater corrosion. So it is essentially impossible to complete the set of "Australian trade tokens" without owning a "shipwreck coin".

@Sap Sorry, I didn't mean actually digging it up from a grave or knowingly buying it from someone who dug it up from a grave, because you're right - that would be illegal. But anything that's over 500 years old, or even newer than that, has a real possibility of coming from underground or underwater. After it's sold enough times, the provenance would likely be lost, or intentionally hidden. But the person who ends up owning it would still have something that came from a tomb. To me personally, I would feel kind of weird about that. But I guess the mega rich collectors probably don't care that their 2,000 year old Roman, Greek, or Chinese items came from robbing an emperor or king's grave. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it, but I would still feel a little weird, you know? Maybe it's just me.

Funny, I have never even considered such a thing. I tend towards the glorious history of coins and the people who "touched" them. Because I collect US coins only, it's MY great countries history :) Having a blast !

Oh, and WRT coins. I don't collect coins from Nazi Germany or other historical times where the existing governments represented by the coins were doing horrifying things. I don't really feel like they carry any spiritual influence so much as just not especially wanting to memorialize those parts of history in my own collection. They do give me an icky feeling.

A great summary SAP ... before this post, I hadn't even considered such a thing.

As for the original question. I'm an Atheist (large A for fun) that doesn't believe in afterlife. Nothing to haunt me.