If You Had a Time Machine?
RichR
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If you could...would you go back in time to the 1970s or 1980s world of coin shops, coin shows, and department store coin counters to do your collecting of raw unslabbed coins...or buying new Mint products via postcards and telephone directly from the Mint...
Or do you prefer the world of today?
As things get crazier and the world moves faster and I get older...I'm starting to prefer the "good old days".
And I also wish I could still experience the sheer thrill of getting a [usually] blue shipping box arriving via registered mail from [usually] the San Francisco Mint!
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Both have positives and negatives, mostly I prefer how things are today, the one thing I would like to see is proper grading without all the subjective garbage like color and eye appeal in the mix. Give me a grade that is biased on the coin and let the market decide the price, TPG grading should not be pricing the coins imo, that part of the gold old days I would like to see make a return. The hype and overgrading of the past can stay in the past.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
I think we spoke of this once before. 1970's, Levittown or Hempstead NY department store. A&S, JC Penny, Modell's, May's, W.T. Grant, Wollworth's, not sure which one. There was a small glass counter/cabinet display case in the back of the store with coins on a rolling shelf type display. The one where you push the button and the display case would turn! I loved looking at those coins when I was kid!
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
The farther back (or forward) you go in a time machine, the riskier it is, so I’d only go back to last week to win the Mega Millions jackpot. Then I could buy pretty much any coin I wanted.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
Numismatically, i prefer to be around today. We’re in the Information Age, there is unlimited data at our fingertips and one can advance much quicker in the hobby than they would be able to decades ago. Publications, auction records, high quality images etc.
Overall, if we’re talking about general life excluding numismatics, I’ll take the 70’s and 80s any day. I think we, as a country, peaked in the 90s and now we’re on a steady decline downward.
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I'm old school and had my Seated Quarter collection in a Dansco. Collecting in the old days was more fun, but mail order junk was always a problem.
If I could go back to the 80's I would put $10000 into Microsoft stock in 1984 and I would be the richest person in the world right now.
Successful BST with ad4400, Kccoin, lablover, pointfivezero, koynekwest, jwitten, coin22lover, HalfDimeDude, erwindoc, jyzskowsi, COINS MAKE CENTS, AlanSki, BryceM
Ah, another time-travelling-for-coins thread. Let's get into it.
First, if one is motivated by profits, one does have to consider exactly how one would obtain the bargains one is seeking. Because you couldn't take modern cash with you, and taking "contemporary" money might look suspicious - if somebody came into your store today, in funny clothes, with a funny accent, and bought things with cash using coins and notes dated "2023" but they looked 50 years old or more, you might be tempted to phone the CIA - or the MIB. Obtaining 50 year old coins and banknotes in mint condition with which to make your purchases might seriously eat into your expected profits.
Then there's the paradoxes to consider. Suppose you go back in time, to obtain a rare coin. You presumably bring that coin back to "now" with you, so you can enjoy it "now". But suddenly, the entire time period from "then" until "now" is missing that coin - which will have unpredictable knock-on effects, especially if it's an actual rarity. Perhaps that coin you bought "should have" ended up in a museum or famous collection, only it's not available any more for them to obtain, because some stinkin' time-traveller stole it. Meanwhile, back in your own timeline, you might have difficulty convincing the rest of the numismatic community that the coins you obtained are genuine and not high-quality fakes, since they won't "look old", and won't actually "be old" if you subjected them to scientific scrutiny.
Of course, we may already be living in a world suffering from time-travel corruption. Perhaps all the 1964 Peace dollars are "missing" today because an army of time-travellers from the future came back to 1964 and took them all.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
[Of course, we may already be living in a world suffering from time-travel corruption. Perhaps all the 1964 Peace dollars are "missing" today because an army of time-travellers from the future came back to 1964 and took them all.]
I just stepped off my transporter pad with a dozen 1933 Double Eagles...has anything happened since I left?
I much prefer the days of dime store coin sales and brick and mortar dealers. It may be my rose colored glasses but there was less profit involvement and more collecting just for the enjoyment of the hobby.
I do have the best of both worlds, as a much younger man I was always hoping for an opportunity to meet the real titans of the hobby like Ken Bressett and Bill Fivaz. Not only did I get to meet them but we became good friends and I even had an opportunity to teach with them. I have lead a very fortunate life in numismatics living in both eras.
The one thing you definitely don't want to buy are 1933 DEs.
It costs almost no premium for 50 year old coins and banknotes. The coins are still in circulation and 1969 circ paper isn't really collectible
I can say without a doubt there are several coins in my collection that I never would have had the opportunity to add without the internet. They simply did not exist in the shops available to me back then. The emergence of EBay in the late 90's increased my collection immensely.
"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?"- Calvin and Hobbes
It was in Woolworth's.
There was also a counter in Gimbels, Valley Stream & Garden City- Roosevelt Field.
BHNC #203
Would go further back circa (1966 or further back get silver dollar rolls out of banks at face). Pick out nice pieces. In 1969 just outta hs bought beautiful Gem BU 1907 $20 for $83 probably a 66 or 67 from a coin shop. WB some kinda space time portal phone app bought from aliens huh. Been binge watching Skinwalker Ranch show.
YES!! Thank you for that!!.. Woolworth's and Gimbels. Wasn't there also a small lunch counter back there for milkshakes and hamburgers?
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
I must have lived in a different 70's and 80's. I well remember the BIg coin dealer who would come to our mall twice a year. Every single coin in his huge multi hundred count display was whizzed to death. In fact he had an electric steel wheel machine set up right there in his booth so he could whiz each new coin he purchased.
Then there was the dealer with over 50 1909-S Indian Head cents. You could see that the mintmark had been welded on from 3 feet away, but people were buying them. He claimed his were a recent discovery of a previously unknown variety. So they cost more.
Finally there were the mail order dealers who sent you altered coins. Cleaned, damaged,
miss identified, ex-jewelry you name it. If you lived where I did you had to make sight unseen purchases and there were few reference materials.
Slabbed, authentic coins, PICTURES of what you are buying? Reference books, web-sites, a daily supply of new and various coins and coin related information on a daily basis?
My rose colored glasses from the 70's are crumpled up and thrown away long ago. I will take today! James
I was born in '68, and as a kid in the seventies, I used to go Woolworth's and push the forward and reverse buttons on that same very contraption looking for interesting coins to rotate around into my view.
My Carson City Morgan Registry Set
That's the one @M4Madness! You're singing my song!! 👍🏻 👍🏻
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
there was g. fox in hartford, ct who carried currency as well
My Woolworth’s had one too. Maybe they all did?
The last I’ve seen of those rotating display cases was at a coin shop in Mexico City (now closed).
I remember those too!
I prefer the world of today for knowledge and access to coins that I never had before. From a monetary perspective, I would certainly go back in time if I could know then what I know now!
You might want to return as the world has went nutz!
Treashunt
[There was also a counter in Gimbels, Valley Stream & Garden City- Roosevelt Field.]
OMG...Gimbels! The coin department in Valley Stream was in the basement near sporting goods while the Roosevelt Field coins were located upstairs, near the candy counter where my grandmother bought bad fruitcakes every Christmas!
Somehow I can clearly remember that from 40 years ago, but I can't remember what I had for breakfast!
And the Gimbels in Yonkers/Cross County Center was also good for coins.
But the big kahuna was the Macy's coin department, located way upstairs in Herald Square! I worked near that store and was very fortunately able to vacuum up many CC GSA Morgan dates...for an average of $100 each...before their populations became clear. I just wish I bought EVERY GSA they ever had!
And one last point...EVERY coin department and store was seemingly manned (no women) by old men with glasses on chains around their necks. I now realize those men were very likely younger than present day me!
It was Ebay that got me back into collecting as an adult. The 24/7 Ebay coin store was wonderful. I loved everything about those early ebay days: bidding wars, getting P/O money orders to expediate seller shipping times, scanning coins on my scanner for resale on Ebay. I took great care to create clear and large scans for my ebay sales and I would have many bidding wars for the coins I sold. I remember getting into a bidding war for a VG10 1896-O Barber Half. I bid up to $300.00. The seller was a poster here, took mercy on me and shaved $100 off the price. Good times!
The greatest feeling was taking a chance on a raw coin and then in hand discovering you had found a hidden gem by your own grading talents.
I put together a complete VF-AU Barber half set for about 12K, including the eventual grading at PCGS. All but 2 of my 72 coins straight graded. One had rim filing, which I missed and the other was cleaned.
I kinda sorta think life is meant to be lived in a linear fashion. Those guys had their time. Ours is now. New people will be taking the wheel soon enough.
[New people will be taking the wheel soon enough.]
And steering straight for the nearest ditch!
And when I got home from one of those stores on my bike and showed my dad what I bought. I remember it like it was yesterday... YOU PAID HOW MUCH FOR THAT PENNY!!!! 😂 🤣
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
These kind of threads are interesting "thought exercises" which always lead me to the same old saying: If I knew then what I know now...............!! Based on that, traveling to the 1970's and as a consequence armed with the knowledge I now have it's a no-brainer.
The only question I'd ask is this: Would the traveler be stuck in that time or be able to return to the present day and reap the rewards??
[The only question I'd ask is this: Would the traveler be stuck in that time or be able to return to the present day and reap the rewards??]
There's a cute sci-fi picture from the 1970s with Kirk Douglas...where a nuclear aircraft carrier goes back in time to Pearl Harbor 1941...and at the end of the movie you realize that the billionaire who built the carrier was a lowly scrub who was accidentally left behind and started buying stocks!.
...speaking of reaping the rewards.
You are right.
I worked at Valley Stream & Roosevelt Field in both coin departments, they were a concession.
The Valley Stream one was nice, but the manager of Roosevelt Field was an idiot.
BHNC #203
Speaking about Barber half dollars.
I remember bring in a bidding war for an 1892 O.
The seller probably thought he had found two suckers.
It was an AG, and my last bid was $1,000. I was out bid, because I gave up.
It was the Micro O -- I should have bid one more time. But, at the time $1,000 was trends for a Good
I never had the chance for another one.
BHNC #203
Suppose you bought a coin for $10 in 1970 that is worth $2000 today. Fantastic return on your money, right? Not when you consider the following:
The 1970 dollar had 8 times the purchasing power of the 2023 dollar. So you were spending the equivalent of $80 for the coin, not $10.
The coin still appreciated by a factor of 25, but this was over the course of 53 years. So the real return was 6.3 percent compounded per year, respectable but far from fantastic.
And that’s only if you happened to pick the right coin. Many coins of that era, after adjusting for inflation, are worth less than they were half a century ago.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
There is still one at my local bullion shop for all of his problem Morgans and Peace dollars.
70's fo' sho'! While i'm back there I'd buy me one of these too..........
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Funny. The LCS I go to has one of those. He keeps modern single proofs and common date older Lincoln cents and Buffalo Nickels in it.
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Question for the audience...
Did any of the deluxe Class A Sears stores ever carry coins?
We had a few extremely large Sears on Long Island but I don't recall ever seeing a coin counter...next to the Craftsman tools...and that would be somewhat surprising.
If you want to see some there is a local coin dealer here that has 5 or 6 of them with coins loaded on all the trays.
Successful BST with ad4400, Kccoin, lablover, pointfivezero, koynekwest, jwitten, coin22lover, HalfDimeDude, erwindoc, jyzskowsi, COINS MAKE CENTS, AlanSki, BryceM
We have an antique indoor flea market with one of these display cases.
I would select 70's if I kept my knowledge learned over the 50 years since. Imagine the old coppers I could have held?
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
back in time, born in 1960.
and now I would have open Joe's Coins and Collectable store in Monterey Bay on the wharf... Just to meet people and talk about back in the day...
1940 The Numismatist
S vdb red, $2.00
[S vdb red, $2.00]
BUT BUT BUT BUT...$2 bought more back then!!!!
Purchasing power of $2 in 1940: $43.66.
Value today of 1909-S VDB in MS63RB: $2,750.
Real return since 1940, compounded: 5.1% per year.
(Which is about the same return as the Dow Jones Industrial Average with dividends reinvested.)
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Today is much better. I could never have assembled the collection that I have without today’s technology.
Buying raw coins was dicey, back in the day. Many were over graded and cleaned.
Local shows yielded little in the way of variety and selection.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Personally if I had a time machine.....1916 here I come. A handful of D mint dimes, a couple SLQ's and maybe a Walker or two.
I’d rather go back in time and buy stock in Google, Apple, Amazon, BTC, etc on their IPO’s.
Hindsight is 2020; if I had had greater awareness there are many things I would have collected and done, mainly of a personal nature. Since time travel violates all the rules of physics, not going to happen. But if I could have collected coins or currency in the 60s and 70s, would have looked for high grade no problem rarities and things that have gained interest that were not popular then.
I have access to one about 2-3 times a year whenever I stop in. Filled with small item antiques. Maybe do a video next time I'm there.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
I have been working on an article about the Wealth of the South Civil War tokens. From the 1970s until his death, the late Steve Tannenbaum had an incredible stock of CWTs that he brought to every show. Most of the better examples I have of these pieces came from him. Back then you could pieces with estimated populations of less than 10 pieces for a few to sometimes several hundred dollars. Those days are gone. Now they end up in auctions where two determined bidders can take prices up the moon and beyond.
The Woolworths in Boston, which was billed as “The world’s largest Woolworths” had one of these cabinets with coins in it on the second floor. Its swan song came during one of the big run ups in silver prices in the early 1980s. All of the coin prices in the machine were fixed. When the silver price reached the point where all of the silver pieces were priced below melt, it was very quickly sold out and left bare.