Numismatic Nirvana
KindaNewish
Posts: 827 ✭✭✭✭✭
I just came across this post in the PCGS Set Registry board (this is the Early Dollar thread, in response to a feaking gorgeous small eagle dollar).
SanctionII Posts: 8,864 ✭✭✭✭✭ April 8, 2019 7:26PM
What fun it would be to spend a quite evening at a table, under good lighting, having this collection of early dollars spread out before you. Just you, the coins, a loupe and a favorite beverage.
Numismatic Nirvana.
Even better would be having some fellow collectors with similar coins (i.e. early MS gold, silver and copper) join you for an evening of show and tell, dinner, drinks and later a game of poker (pretend poker, or for those with big ones real poker) in which the poker chips are the slabbed coins in the collection of all of the poker players.
I can see it now:
"I will see your 1795 MS 65+ Dollar and raise you my 1802 MS 66 Eagle" 
So, its a lazy sunday evening, please post your Numismatic Nirvana. (real or imagined, it don't matter).
Mine (real):
I collect 20c coins by die variety, Lane and John from doubledimes.com have been so helpful in my quest to complete this set.
A few months ago at the Baltimore spring show, I happened upon a dealer who only had about a dozen slabbed 20c coins in his case, nothing else. Intrigued, I sit down and whip out my loupe.
After a bit of small talk, the dealer asks if I have any Philadelphia coins in my set. "Ha!" I say, "I have about 30, probably more P mint 20 cent coins than almost anyone else".
Dealer smiles, and whips out 4 or 5 rolls(!) of 1875 and 1876 Phila. mint double dimes!!! I literally said to him "O.K., you win".
I spent the next half hour or so looking through a stash of exceptionally difficult coins. I picked out a few scarcer die varieties that the dealer pulled from the lot, and I hope that he can make some bucks properly marketing these, but they we all die varieties that I already have.
Anyway, as a 20 cent collector, I'll probably never have another opportunity to look closely at 200+ Philly 20c again. That was my Numismatic Nirvana, post yours.
Comments
Any stories involving the words @Paradisefound + Poolside will be understood to be universal and acknowledged and accepted.
Glad to help you with your quest. One of my numismatic nirvana moments was when John and I had our 'double dime' summit and attributed close to 700 different twenty-cent pieces.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
I could definitely think of more than one real one. But maybe I am too easy to please. How about just being at a LCS, with a list of dates and mm you are looking for, talkin shop with the owner or some fellow collectors, going through some 90%, taking your time, using your loupe, and you easily find a few you need. And they all have great eye appeal. Some toners too. And you are getting them for just above melt. Sounds good to me. But like I said, maybe I'm too easy to please.
So far, mine was last year at the ANA in Philadelphia.
Seeing coins and meeting people that I had only read about.
Some of the coins and people have been on my bucket list since I was a kid in the 70's.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
I believe the numismatic nirvana moment for me came when I completed my CC Morgan set and had them set out on a table in front of me...with a glass of Cabernet...after a day of tactical training. I recall thinking "It just does not get any better." Then my wife came in, ... and it got better.
Cheers, RickO
my first numismatic nirvana changed my life. At 16 years old I was at the NYC ANA in 1976. Superior allowed me to hold the 1913 5C-the same one I would own a piece of later on. That feeling left me with such a high I knew coin dealing was what I wanted to do.
Got a call from a neighbor who I really did not know other than to smile and wave at as he passed my house. You know, the thing we do with neighbors...
Asked me to come up and help evaluate his coin collection. Sure, no problem are you looking to sell it? Nah, just kind of want to know what it's worth today. No problem and made the appt for the next day.
Upon arriving we went to the kitchen/dining room and there on the table were piles of small boxes....dozens and dozens of Mint boxes.
Wow, were my first words, I'm sure. Then he said they are all the gold issued by the mint since 1984. He subscribes and buys every issue as it comes out.
I have never seen so much gold in my life, not at shows not anywhere. A cursory look to verify what he said and then again I asked if he's looking to sell.......nope. Going to the kids and need to figure out how to divide.....oh my, can I get adopted????
It was a fun day.
bob
For me it is finding a long sought after upgrade coin and placing it into my best 1950-1970 cameo proof and SMS set. Seeing this collection take a step up in quality and eye appeal is very satisfying.
Mine was looking through the binders that held Grandma's coin collection, with Grandma when she was still with us. It's not often a kid from the 8-bit Nintendo era can find a common interest with someone born in the Wilson administration, but coins worked for us. We both liked the odd denominations in her US collection, and the coins from Australia, and other South Pacific countries, in her world collection. Most of her collection lives on within my own now.