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For those of you that typed on envelopes, do you miss it?
Zoins
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I just ran across this envelope and it got me thinking about what collecting must have been like collectors typed out these envelopes themselves. These days, I just get a slab and it goes into a box.
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I never typed on those envelopes, though I did plenty of manual typing back in the day, but I did place copious notes on quite a few coin envelopes.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Do you miss writing on envelopes? I have some ATS slabs that have a big white sticker on the back for note taking along the lines of provenance and former auction appearances, but most slabs I have don't have any notes on them.
I was born in the early 80s and grew up with a typewriter. I wanted something that worked my fingers so it was like "the cat ran over the car so he could try to get in the zoo later" or whatever. Typed it a million times. Then when home PCs got popular I was a wizard.
I miss all my type written slips. I never made any myself but I bet it sure was fun.
It took me a few years to realize some coins could be easily forgotten (and some remembered forever) but the notes left by my father and his father and my mom's dad, and grandma's notes she would send with merc dimes, were my prized possessions all along. I can put new coins in flips all the live long day, but those.. those are irreplaceable.
I came across some 1981 and 1979 mint sets today going through the closet and the front label was typed and it was her old address and I could only help but smile. She was a great gal, you guys woulda loved her, hah. She loved the old stuff and her Morgans and dad's Krugs and press 33 Liberty, his random art bars as an investment to financially protect his family. Grandma loved her eagles but boy she sure had a lot of Roosies and Franklin around. When I go through those types of coins it makes me think of her and smile. Or like when I find nickels in small 2x2's that have been cut out, remind me of my first coin show with my brother and his childhood friend.
I've heard some people make light of some of these Silent Era heroes hoarding their metals. But now the world is burning and I'm scrambling to swap USD to Ag/Au. And he was right about China, guy died in 89. Taught me how to swing on dangerous vines above rocky creeks, still love the guy forever for that, never felt so free.
Sometimes.
There is some sort of connection (not the right word, but I can't come up with the proper word at the moment) when you do this by hand. At least, when I write on an envelope I attempt to write neatly and place on it the information that I desire in a logical and aesthetically pleasing manner. Having a double-row box of paper envelopes with their associated coins is a cool memory.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I typed my Masters Thesis, wish it fit on a coin envelope.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I learned to type in high school...and it served me well in communications in the Navy... but coin envelopes were always hand written...(never had a typewriter at home). My penmanship was never award winning, so I always printed. Cheers, RickO
Very impressive catalog info on that envelope. I really appreciate research data on every coin. Peace Roy
BST: endeavor1967, synchr, kliao, Outhaul, Donttellthewife, U1Chicago, ajaan, mCarney1173, SurfinHi, MWallace, Sandman70gt, mustanggt, Pittstate03, Lazybones, Walkerguy21D, coinandcurrency242 , thebigeng, Collectorcoins, JimTyler, USMarine6, Elkevvo, Coll3ctor, Yorkshireman, CUKevin, ranshdow, CoinHunter4, bennybravo, Centsearcher, braddick, Windycity, ZoidMeister, mirabela, JJM, RichURich, Bullsitter, jmski52, LukeMarshall
Personally I was glad when the typewriter went out. Hated it.
I learned to type on a manual typewriter. I was certainly happy when the electric came along
70 wpm is my tops, for speed, but for Kraft envelopes, I prefer pencil.
Aren't typewriters ancient ?
Used a Royal manual in college. Got an IBM Selectric and thought I was special. 60 wpm was my best. Never typed on a coin envelope.
I have two. One is an Olivetti 22 portable I use for typing submission forms. The other is an IBM Selectric II that belonged to my mother-in-law that I'm trying to bring back to life. No electronics in it at all. Lots and lots of levers, springs, and linkages that have gummed up in the 15+ years of non-use.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
@messydesk I have a Smith Corona Sterling from 1938 :-D I take a lot of notes on how I light and photograph coins at work, but I have a feeling I'd annoy my coworkers in short order if I brought in the typewriter, so I use a journal and fountain pen!
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.
It was harder than it seems. The little envelope would not always roll up perfectly horizontal with each carriage return. And line spacing wasn't always uniform. It took some care.
No, I don't miss it.
Lance.
I used a fine tipped pen. I have excellent handwriting.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Still have a few small envelopes saved from Newman, Ford, Tanenbaum, etc. but never did it myself. They are fun to save especially from "Name" collections.
Lincoln Vanderblatt was famous for writing his coin
descriptions in an antiquated Old English cursive.
Remember the old days of television news ? One could hear typewriter keys pounding in the background, then in the head; long after the sports and weather.
before computers, typing was a skill.
Somewhere in my files lies my USAF typing school certificate.
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt
I started typing when I was just a little kid and never could remember where the letters were.
We had to take typing in middle school and the teacher was big into "home row."
She would darken the room and we wore blinkers like trotting horses and then she would tally our results.
Occasionally she would give a gentle reminder to the knuckles of offending students whose hands would wander from the proper location (myself included).
I think I was up to 4 or 5 wpm (seriously).
But with looking down I could do 40 or so.
I am still a really poor typist/texter/keyboard person.
Selectric forever baby !
The ONLY reason I can type today is that our high school typing teacher was smokin hot. More guys took typing than normal I’m sure. No fella looked at the keys.
Never did use that skill on a coin envelope.
Actually I can type fairly rapidly probably 70-80 wpm. But I hated typing on the older typewriters because mistakes were a PITA to fix. With keyboards you can just backspace and fix or highlight and fix.
I took a technical drawing course early in high school (well before CAD) and found out I was good at printing, so I've always hand labeled my flips and 2x2s. Hated my typing course.
Took typing in high school but was never really good at it. Was a programmer / analyst for thirty years and back in the old days (late 1960s) used a key-punch machine and / or a computer terminal to write code. Then and to this day I type with two to five fingers and probably remember where more of the keys are than I think I do.
Never used a lot of envelopes but when I did I always used a pencil or pen, same with 2X2s
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
We still had an Underwood MANUAL typewriter that we used for lead ID film tags on our radiographic inspections. Electrics were relatively easy...try pound out anything on a manual typewriter. It was either that or writing them out manually with a pen. Typing on lead tape produced neat, readable results.
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore...
I used to type up coin envelopes all the time, when I wasn't putting my best coins in costom made Capital Plastics holders. I think that slabs and my old typewriter disappeared at about the same time.
Ever look at the guts of one of those?
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
3 words.
Stenographer
Secretary
Typist
With those around, there was no need to type or write
Still write on my envelopes. Just redid my Spanish Colonial collection to kill time during Covid restrictions. It was nice visiting with friends I haven’t seen in awhile.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Back in the 60’s I used 2x2 envelopes for my Lincoln cents with the date and MM type using a old Royal typewriter. If one had the resources pre-printed envelopes could be used.
A favorite Store Card...
"A penny hit by lightning is worth six cents". Opie Taylor
Also the teletype machines in the newsrooms.
Learned to type in high school on a manual. I became known as what's called a "banger". Hard key hitting. To this day can type on a manual well. On an electric not at all. Don't have the light touch. For my PC keyboard I still use the single finger approach. I still have all the old 2x2's from the early 70's that are written on with the error coin description. Some from auctions I took part in. Others from Coin World's Coin Collectors Clearinghouse that the staff was kind enough to ID for me when I sent coins to them for identification.
I have typed on manuals and electrics, but never on a coin envelope. But I do think it special that someone thought enough of a coin to provide information on such a small envelope. But with 6 font you might be able to get it all in?
OINK
I remember people that typed with a single finger were called pckers. I did a lot of 10 key and data entry in my first "real" job so keyboarding is not an issue with me to this day. Guess I was never a pcker.
I think you mean peckers. We called them "hunt and peckers" and I was one of them.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Wow, great envelope from the Fulds!
Have you thought about filling out the fields?
The Fuld envelope would likely be more accurate if it read "From The Inventory Of Melvin & George Fuld". Many of the tokens sold by the Fulds from their ads and price lists came in those envelopes similar to marketing techniques used by a couple current medal & token dealers. IIRC the Fulds did use the same or similar envelopes (I recall black on tan) for their actual collections before they were sold mostly intact but the envelopes definitely were not exclusive to the collections.
I'll tell you what: I was a MUCH better typist when I was using a typewriter with carbon paper, and was confronted with apocalyptic chaos and bottles of white-out if I screwed up.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
I didn’t want to change it in any way. Just keep it in the sleeve with the token in a holder.
"A penny hit by lightning is worth six cents". Opie Taylor
Anyone remember the handheld label makers that were popular for a short time in the 70's? They used different colors of semi-rigid plastic and you would punch a raised letter or number one at a time by turning a dial to select each character. Then you peeled off the backing and stuck it on your item. I had one but it was very time consuming and they did not stick real great.
Then I go to a coin show and as I approached one table I could not believe my eyes. This guy had made hundreds of them and stuck them on as labels on all his 2x2's ! Many of them had multiple labels showing the date, mm, mintage, type of coin. I could not imagine how many hours he must have spent doing it and it did not look professional anyway.
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
At the beginning of the school year of 1966 the typing teacher in our high school died. Her replacement turned out tobe the hottest young teacher that our high school had ever seen. The next monday there were 40 guy's standing in line to sign up for typing class.
We never cut that class no matter what and a couple of us sorta learned to type.
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