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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,302 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
Hey everyone, I have been thinking tonight. A guy in my coin club shared some old, local receipts from Bridgewater, ME. He asked me if I could give him an idea of value since I collect stocks, bonds and cheques. I gave him my answer and thought noting of it until tonight. I picked up some old receipts for a safety deposit box in Woodstock, NB. It is from the late 19th century and has the post master's signature. It is cool, local and kind of numismatic but not quite. My question is would you consider receipts as a part of the larger body of numismatics. I do not have my books with me so I will use Wikipedia. Quote:
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. I won't be searching ebay for receipts but as they turn up locally I pick them up, especially if the company also produced a token. What do you guys think? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I wouldn't consider it to be a branch of numismatics, maybe just antiques collecting in a broader sense?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3843 Posts |
Maybe receipts from prominent historic coin dealers like Max Mehl might be described as exonumia, I know at least some coin collectors seek them actively.
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
 it's not numismatics to me. More like old bonds, stock, etc. I can imagine that it does belong to numismatics according to some. But to me, that's just stretching the boundaries a bit too much. What's next? Are airline bonus points (physical slips of paper in the good old days) numismatic, as they represent an airline's currency? How about the bar codes of a tea package? Collect a hundred of them to get a free towel, so it's a sort of currency... Is it numismatics? To me, it just isn't. Quite cool though (and impossible with today's type of receipt, which just goes blank after less than one year). I'm curious to learn what the initial answer was that you gave to him. |
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Moderator
 United States
34402 Posts |
How about calling them "numismatic ephemera"?
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Moderator
Australia
16826 Posts |
"Related objects" is a pretty broad term. "Related" how, exactly?
My coin club narrowed this definition down some years ago, when there was some debate within the club about exactly what qualified as "numismatic". The agreed definition was: the study of coins, and objects related to coins either by monetary function (which would include banknotes, cheques, primitive money, credit cards, tokens, etc) or by method of manufacture (which would include medals, badges and metal tickets or passes).
On that basis, cheques definitely are numismatic; stocks and bonds are borderline numismatic (they represented items of value and could theoretically change hands just like a banknote or bearer cheque) but receipts, bus tickets and brochures are not.
It still leaves plenty of gray areas. What about coupons? They are "token-like" in having a value they can be redeemed for, but they are single-use only, much like a postage stamp (and I think we all agree that postage stamps are not numismatic) or a bus ticket. What about "funny money" - advertising material made to superficially resemble paper money?
When phonecards first came out in this country, there was considerable debate within the coin clubs on their classification as "numismatic". After all, you bought them for face value, and "used them up" as you made phone calls on the card, which seemed to qualify them as a "form of money". The consensus seems to have been that phonecards were a collectable item in their own right, like postage stamps. With the rise of the mobile phone and subsequent demise of the payphone booth, phonecard technology is of course now obsolete, and phonecard collecting has become somewhat moribund. The only remaining phonecard club in my area survived by merging with a local coin club, and most of the ex-phonecard members have now evolved into coin collectors.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
1118 Posts |
Quote:
I'm curious to learn what the initial answer was that you gave to him. You can find stamp covers for my county and the four that border it for about 10-30 CAD each. I valued them at around 10 CAD as they were quite plain (a name of a doctor in Time Ner Roman type script, no vignette, no collector demand). Quote:
More like old bonds, stock, etc. I consider stock certificates numismatic. Quote:
Maybe receipts from prominent historic coin dealers like Max Mehl might be described as exonumia I could see that. I know if you have a letter signed by a famous numismatics (especially talking about his area of expertise) it gets sold as exonumia/ephemera in several auction catalogues. Quote:
How about calling them "numismatic ephemera"? I call my collection "Atlantic Canada's Queer and Wonderful", I find myself making up new terms all the time. Quote:
When phonecards first came out in this country, there was considerable debate within the coin clubs on their classification as "numismatic". After all, you bought them for face value, and "used them up" as you made phone calls on the card, which seemed to qualify them as a "form of money". The consensus seems to have been that phonecards were a collectable item in their own right, like postage stamps. I also collect gift cards. If a local business issues a gift card I will pick one up with 25 cents on it. It is used in lou of money, to me that is a token. I guess receipts can be called "numismatic ephemera". How I usually treat receipts is the same way I treat advertising envelopes. If they compliment my tokens and help tell the story of my people I am going to add it as an "add on". |
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1533 Posts |
It is called Exonumia. It includes political tokens, and other non-monetary tokens and medals, scrip, postcards, etc. There is a guy in Michigan that specializes in these sort of things. Some of them are amazingly rare, but the market for them is so thin that you can buy them at very low prices.
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Valued Member
United States
434 Posts |
Quote:
numismatics - collection and study of coins, medals, and related objects as works of art and as sources of information. The coin and the medal preserve old forms of writing, portraits of eminent persons, and reproductions of lost works of art; they also assist in the study of early customs, in ascertaining dates, in clarifying economic status and trade relations, and in tracing changes in political attitudes...~ The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. A better definition. Edited by DrDarryl
10/06/2016 9:39 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Numismatic receipts form an essential part of my collection.
I retain a paper record of all of my more valuable purchases to assist in establishing or continuing the provenance of every valuable item that I acquire.
Are they a collectible numismatic item in their own right? I confess that I have never given that aspect of them a thought.
Interesting question nevertheless..........
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
Scripophily is the study of non-currency paper financial instruments such as stock, bonds, and checks. I would say that historical receipts would fit in this classification rather than the broader field of numismatics.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,302 |
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Posted 10/06/2016 8:24 pm
