Coming Full Circle (My Indian Head Cents)

I originally got started collecting coins as a kid, but have been away from the hobby for more than 20 years. I got a few coins and Whitman folders from my Dad, and I still have a few of his Mercury dimes in my current collection. But when I was a kid my big passion was Indian Head cents. I loved that I could get 100 year old artifacts for a buck. My brother was into Buffalo nickels, so we looked out for coins for each other.

A while ago while I was visiting my brother, I mentioned that I had gotten back into collecting, and it turns out he had our old collections in his basement including my old Indian Head cent collection. I had gone back and forth a few times on whether to keep them in a folder or a 2x2s. I liked the folder because they were all in one compact space so I could look at them all, but I couldn't see the backs so I eventually settled on the 2x2s.

Well, today I finally got a proper album. and had a fun evening ripping open the old 2x2s to give them a proper home. I thought I'd take some pictures and share.


This is the oldest one I had as a kid. It was from my Uncle. It actually doesn't look this nasty, it's splotchy but not actually corroded.


This one IS corroded. It's not going in the album. I was excited to find it as a kid because I got all mine out of my dealer's bargin bin and I never saw the nickel ones. I also had a Flying Eagle that looked like this (worse actually) but I don't know where it went.


This is the oldest bronze one I had.


Most of my collection weren't nasty and corroded though! They are only the common dates, but they were mostly high circulated grades, like this:


I was very serious about upgrading any time I found one that was a slight improvement. I actually had lots of duplicates because I was always upgrading. My sister in law actually started a whole new collection with my dups.

I sold my Statue of Liberty commemorative set to help finance my classic coins, which I was worried about at the time, but these Indians have performed a lot better than modern commems in the intervening years. Here's probably my nicest one I got back then, it still shows some red (more than the picture shows).


Aside from the S mint ones, I had a run from 1888-1909 with just 2 holes. Now that I'm all grown up, I can buy some that weren't available to me on a 5th grader budget.



(actually looks very nice in hand)



I also have gotten some from CCF members, like this one from a recent trade:


And this which was part of my gift from secret Santa:


And I can buy grown-up coins like this now:


And do this with them:


And I can have them all together where they look so nice.