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 Replies: 16 / Views: 3,399 |
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Valued Member
Canada
306 Posts |
Hey people. I was just curious as to what made you decide to collect or focus on collecting the type of coins/banknotes that you collect. Before you read this, you should know I am only 18 so "old" to me as a kid was likely stuff a lot of you grew up with! The stuff I am focusing on collecting right now are the Canadian small cents (1920-2012 R.I.P.) and the older 12 sided (and earlier) Canadian nickels. I am collecting the small pennies to complete a set of all of them from 1920-2012, with as many years from circulation/roll hunting as possible. I was inspired to do this for several reasons, one of which was the announcement that 2012 would be the last year of the penny  . Another event that inspired me to do a full set of them was finding a 1920 King George V penny in the till at my job. I had also been interested in pennies since I was a kid because they were the easiest coin to find old examples of in circulation ("Old" to me when I was young was the 1953-1963 portrait of Elizabeth II. A George VI was mind blowing!  ) Working on completing a set of small cents is what got me interested in more advanced coin collecting. Like the pennies, my love of older nickels came from when I was a kid. On my first day of Grade 1, my Dad gave me a "lucky" nickel (a 1962). Up until that point in my life, I hadn't cared about seeing different years on coins. Seeing a nickel that was noticeably different than the common variety of nickel I was used to (the 1962 has flat sides and the oldest Elizabeth II portrait) was what started my interest in older varieties of coins. From then on I always saved any flat sided nickels I got in change. I do not focus on collecting silver coins as much (yet!) because they are so hard to find in circulation (A single dime and quarter in 2 and a half years working at a small store). I also did not start buying coins until fairly recently. Edited by CanadianCollector
08/19/2012 02:54 am
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
I have a complete set of Canickels by type to 1967. Had lots of fun building the set!
Doing the same now, with 50 Centsers, nearly finished.
Fair way along the track with silver dollars as well.
The Canadians are part of my World collection.
Australian coins? Been there, done that, decades ago.
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Valued Member
Canada
68 Posts |
sel, does that mean you have every coin intended for circulation in australia?!
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1554 Posts |
 I collect Canadian business strikes, all six decimals, 1858-1967, varieties included. I've completed my Collection, now I'm just focusing on the odd upgrade here and there! >reason I collect only Canadian coins is because of my unconditional love for this magnificent Country we live in. It connects me to the Canada's Heritage more than anything else I can think of collecting. >I collect all six decimals since I never had a favourite and enjoy all the denominations. >I stop at 1967 since the most exciting Canadian coins were minted during this period and the majority of scarce/key dates can be found in this time range. Also the mintages are unbelievably low compared to post '67 Era. >all 553 of my coins are I.C.C.S. slabbed, so when it comes time to sell, it makes it easier to do so. Glenn  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
Glenzy: I must admit, your collection sounds tight and focussed. Dense, almost. Concise.
Anyways, I started noticing varieties when I got a 2000P nickel in change. That's when they started changing the composition from coppernickel to nickel plated steel. Even before that the nickel and coppernickel looked pretty much the same to a youngin'. But this "P" made it very clear to me that I had something different so I held onto that coin for a good while.
Do any of you guys know the "coin spiral fountain" where you insert a coin in this metal tub and it spirals around until it finally drops in the middle? Well, that's where I discovered that some pennies (1982-1996) really sucked at doing this because of their odd polygonal shape that they even made an awful noise going down.
When it comes to nickels, my dad would always call the old 1950s-1960s nickels, "square nickels" (yeah, he's not the smartest whip in the shed) and any coin that's in Fine condition he'll say that it's in "good shape". I had to teach him about how to hold a coin by its edges.
My first purchase ever was a January 1999 quarter for 50 cents because I found them very hard to find in circulation. To this day I only have 3 of those (the one I bought, the one I found recently in circulation, and the proof from the 1999 set I got as a gift back in the day). The guy I bought it from thought I was crazy and he was happy to sell it.
I don't collect many banknotes unless they are radars and they must be very high grade.
The one coin I looove collecting is toonies. They are prone to lots of errors and I have pages and jars of these suckers for my own enjoyment. I'm also working on a year set of loonies from circulation. Believe it or not I find the 2002 loonie hard to find because people must've hoarded these up hard.
Edited by Libertad
08/19/2012 11:00 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36832 Posts |
My 7070 type set and Large Cent collections are the favorites. I love the history that goes with these coins, especially the Large Cents. They were there working when this country was being built.
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Valued Member
Canada
111 Posts |
I collect all the decimal business strike except the loonies and toonies for now. I'm amost done with the pennies and nickels post-1922. For the dimes I don't have many victorians. For quarters I'm not too bad with that missing about 20 of them and I started to upgrade those. I really like those quarters. I have a lot of 50ยข mostly after 1940, but they are quite expensive for me. The silver dollars too are quite expensive. So for 50 cents and silver dollars, it is going to take a few years to fill those empty spaces.
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Valued Member
Canada
54 Posts |
I started collecting because my older cousin collected coins. He showed me cool stuff including his book about coins and the fabled 36 dot cent (which if I remember was going for about $5000 at the time). Then, coincidentally, a friend of the family gave me some (all?) of his coin collection when I was about 9 years old. It had some great stuff, but nothing truly amazing. Still, as a kid it was amazing to have the 1958 dollar, some large cents, and a few really interesting foreign coins (plus lots more that I don't remember). I started collecting small cents at about that time and easily found 1940 to present (it was the 80's at the time) in circulation. I also was a big fan of both Richie Rich and Uncle Scrooge comics as a kid. To this day I still have dreams of finding large piles of amazing coins in odd places (e.g. under bushes, the middle of the street, etc.). Then I went to university and was poor, poor, poor! I sold almost all of my collection. I regretted it, but that's life. Then, about 15 years ago I started collecting again very very casually, mostly keeping stuff from pocket change and once in a while buying an uncirculated set. Only in the last two years have I gotten more serious about it. I'm currently focused on getting a good set of small cents with varieties from coin roll hunting. I'm also still working on all the common circulation denominations as well, but still relatively casually (pocket change mostly). I've only ever attended one coin show and was mostly overwhelmed by both the variety and the prices. I don't really want to spend a lot of money on coins... I just like the satisfaction of finding something cool in circulation. I still buy things from RCM, but I don't every try to be complete about collecting that stuff. Still mostly uncirculated sets and the odd special coin that I really like the look of (e.g. the Toronto Map coin). Edited by mberteig
08/19/2012 6:04 pm
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Moderator
 Canada
10460 Posts |
Quote:
I stop at 1967 since the most exciting Canadian coins were minted during this period and the majority of scarce/key dates can be found in this time range. Also the mintages are unbelievably low compared to post '67 Era. glenzy1, I am surprised with that comment, that you did not venture into the business strike nickel dollars. Have you checked out those mintage figures? Not to mention that those dollars were the last of the voyageur series, which started in 1935. Just saying... "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
Edited by SPP-Ottawa
08/19/2012 9:27 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1554 Posts |
 Yes SPP Ottawa, I understand what you are saying about the post '67 dollars, however, I had to have a cut off date and I used 1967 across the board. Also, the silver coinage suffered several "melt" periods reducing their mintages vastly compared to the nickel coinage. Just saying.......... Glenn  |
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Moderator
Canada
10460 Posts |
Quote:
Also, the silver coinage suffered several "melt" periods reducing their mintages vastly compared to the nickel coinage. I suspect you will see the same with pure nickel coinage over time, as the mint's alloy recovery program continues... "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Valued Member
United Arab Emirates
242 Posts |
Well, I've noticed that almost all of you guys are into coins (which is pretty much understandable), but, at this stage, let's divert a little bit from "coins" path and take "Banknotes" path! Although I'm a foreigner, but I really liked Canadian Banknotes (1935-1954 " Devil's Face") as well as, Canadian Bank of Commerce issues (1917-35) ... The reason I'm into Canadian Banknotes (in general) that I collect relatively Worldwide banknotes depicting: - Allegorical Motifs - Statues - Sculptures - Mythical Gods Early issues of Canada (1935-1954 " Devil's Face") did have "beautiful" figures pertaining to my area of interest. Needless to mention, the "fabulous" & "artistic" figures depicted on Canadian Bank of Commerce (i.e. Mercury, Juno & Neptune) 
P.S. I REALLY admire & am fascinated by Canada $300 Gold Coin -- Four Seasons Moon Mask (2008) and $20 Silver coin - Summer Moon Mask (2009)  Cheers |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
632 Posts |
I collect Twoonies: regular, varieties and errors. Why? Because it is the most important series in Canadian coinage. Some may say I am wrong, I will reply that I am right :-)
When I have nothing else to do with my twoonies, I like to study errors, but I don't collect them, I just have them.
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Moderator
Canada
10460 Posts |
Like yourself CanadianCollector, I started collecting small cents. Then I collected proof-like, specimen and proof strikes of small cents. I found the ultra heavy cameo coins of the early PL and specimen sets to be gorgeous. Then, I decided I wanted to learn how to grade mint state coins, and upgrade my small cent collection, so I started buying BU rolls of cents of various years. Then, I discovered there is a whole world of varieties with small cents. Then, I discovered how cool mint state (red) small cent errors were... ( think you see where this is going)... It was this article, written by Tom Becker, that suddenly took me into the world of nickel dollars... I have not looked back... It can be found at the bottom of this web page: http://www.canadiancoin.com/coin_ar...t&title=+Tom"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
Edited by SPP-Ottawa
08/23/2012 12:19 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1581 Posts |
I'm still not able to get my mind around the desire to own business strikes of lower quality than the PL strikes. Grade rarity among business strike production, is a very strange idea. Especially if the coins aren't really circulating, and are intended for collectors (195x-1986 dollars, 195x-date 50 cents).
The inability of the manufacturer to make consistently highest quality, or handle the product without causing damage, is a value creating situation?
What would people think about:
The most valuable lithograph isn't the specially prepared numbered series, but the best quality mass produced copy.
The most valuable vase isn't one of the special editions to come off the artist's line, but the best quality ones mass produced out of China.
Among a bunch fragile mass produced items sent unprotected via parcel post to the auction house, the valuable ones are those that arrive with the least damage.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
965 Posts |
canadian silver dollars |
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Replies: 16 / Views: 3,399 |
Posted 08/19/2012 04:49 am
