Famous folk who collected coins....
Swampboy
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I'll go first...
Octavian, Caesar Augustus
& John Quincy Adams
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
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Buddy Ebsen - a.k.a Jed Clampett.
"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
Heifetz
Kareem Abdul- Jabbar - Early and Pioneer Gold
Dennis Rodman - Early Federal, classic rarities, Medals
Trey Parker (South Park) - Ancients
Nicole Kidman- Ancients
Jack Black - Ancients
Wayne Gretzky - ?
Jay Leno - ?
Nicholas Cage - ?
Jerry Buss - Classic Rarities -(1913 nickel, 1804 dollar, etc)
James Earl Jones - RIP
Penny Marshall - ?
Thomas Jefferson - ?
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Jack Black, Nicolas Cage, James Earl Jones(RIP), Nicole Kidman, Jay Leno and Wayne Gretzky to name a few.
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
King Farouk I of Egypt.
Hillbilly Jim from wwf wrestling collected notes if anyone remembers him
Danny Kaye, with over 300 of his coins finding thier way into PCGS Regency Holders
It's all about what the people want...
The most famous collector now and probably of all time is. . .
I saw him at a distance at the Long Beach coin show ten years ago and couldn't muster up the courage to introduce myself as I was too star struck.
peacockcoins
OH!
Here is his photo:
peacockcoins
Enrico
peacockcoins
Scrooge McDuck.
I remember Mr. Wilson who was the neighbor of Dennis the Menace collected silver dollars.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
One should perhaps differentiate between "famous people who collected coins" and "famous people who have paid people to assemble for them a coin investment portfolio" or "famous people with lots of spare money who then bought a few coins because they think that's the kind of thing rich people with spare money do, but they don't actually know much about the things they are collecting". Not all the people named in this thread so far fall into that first category.
Roman Emperor Augustus is a prime example. We "know he was a coin collector" because of this line from Suetonius' biography of Augustus:
Collectors often focus on that bit I've put in bold, but the broader context of the passage clearly implies that he wasn't a "coin collector" by modern standards, since giving away old historical coins to random strangers or family members at Christmas just as gag gifts for funsies isn't what modern coin collectors tend to do with their collections. He clearly had access to a supply of obsolete coins, but his attitude towards them seems to be more in line with the "wealthy antiquarian" that was once common in the 18th and 19th centuries - someone who is kind-of interested in history and old artifacts, and being wealthy enough to have possession of a large assortment of such things, but not really treasuring them as artifacts.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
The Beverely Hillbillies was such a great show.
peacockcoins
I heard Rob Gronkowski is a collector and had his house broken into during a super bowl.
2019 Heritage sale.
We asked Janis about her coin collecting, and she responded:
"Collecting...wow. It was about 1975, "At Seventeen" was just charting, and I passed an interesting-looking museum on 6th Avenue in New York. I went up to Harmer Rooke Galleries and met Leo Dardarian, now sadly passed away. He asked what I was interested in purchasing and I was stunned; I had no idea you could buy rare coins, let alone artifacts. Over the next decades, until he passed away, Leo guided me. He said, always buy things you love. If you buy something just as an investment, and it goes down, you'll be angry. But if you love it, no matter what, you'll still have something you love. Always buy the best coin you can afford, even if it means buying only one.
I bought some of the coins for love, knowing they probably wouldn't increase in value, but most of them, I bought because they excited me. I learned Roman history from coins. I learned that Greece valued beauty enough to have its coins designed by its best artists, unlike the Romans, who were big on absolute reality with not much care for artistic merit. I learned that Roman coins circled the globe in a way nothing else could. And I bought many for the sheer beauty - a chariot whose horses clearly showed their musculature, a shekel that might have been held by one of the disciples or even one of my forebears."
Frank Sinatra, the first to record "3 Coins in a Fountain," was buried with ten dimes. (Allegedly he always carried ten dimes with him in life subseqent to the kidnapping of his son when the captors insisted on his communication with them by payphone - and reportedly he always wanted to be able to have dimes available in case such a demand repeated itself.)
His real hobby though was model railroading and he was an avid collector throughout most of his adult life.
I remember when the Adolphe Menjou collection was auctioned.
George III. Caroline, wife of George II (medals anyway). Probably many European kings and queens.
I always remember the comic book story in which Uncle Scrooge hoards all the 1916 quarters (I believe it was the Barber type) and destroys all but one ... and then loses that one remaining example into the ocean. He then mounts an expedition to recover the lost coin. The story and art was by Carl Barks, who was the originator of Uncle Scrooge in a newspaper comic strip in 1947.
You know this reminds me.
My wife and I once stayed at The Schloss Hotel, in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany.
Named Friedrichschof when it was built, the hotel belongs to The House of Hesse and we loved looking at a cabinet in the lobby with medals and coins commemorating Emperor Friedrich III and his wife, Queen Victoria's daughter, Empress Victoria.
There were lots of medals commemorating their marriage as well as the few coins issued during Friedrich 's 99 day reign.
I'd like to find a medal to go with this
I don't suppose they were collectors so, technically, I guess I'm OT in my own thread lol
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
I recall the comic when Scrooge and his rival as the richest duck compared assets and it boiled down to two huge balls of string, which they both collected. The adventure occurred as they unwound the competing balls of string. Funny how those things stick in memory for 70 years. If I could just remember what I had for dinner yesterday.,..
Jed Clampett on Stamp and Coin Collecting
Andy on Coin Collecting
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, Nickpatton, Namvet69,...
Uncle Scrooge won because he had his first dime attached to his jacket pocket on a string. The dime made the difference!
Walt Disney (when he was young):
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/922642/walt-disneys-coin-collection
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
I believe it he collected gold coins. Watching the movie recently with my son, his coin collection was a major component to the story line.
https://www.brianrxm.com/comdir/cnsmovie_dennismenace.htm
I don't know how to digest that Dennis Rodman collects/ed early federal and classic rarities - maybe break out into a frothy frenzy? - I'm such a fan except for the NK thing and maybe a few other things, but I'd call it all water under the bridge and buy what he is selling if he examined his coins on IG or something
Charles Schultz (Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang) was an avid coin collector back in the day.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
Doesn't look like many famous people collected coins. Perhaps that's one of the reasons they became famous.
I understand his collection is largely holed and artificially toned
Not sure, that information was from an article where he has talking about his 18th century coins and Washington medals.
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There was a famous wrestler "heal" (villain), known as “Killer Kawalski” who collected coins. He was big guy who weighed close to 300 pounds, and yet he was a vegetarian. Boston dealers talked about him coming to their shop to buy and sell coins.
I heard him interviewed a TV a couple times. The first time he was soft spoken and didn’t seem anything like the “heal” image he projected in the ring. In another interview he played the tough guy.
Chris Shenkle, who was a well known sportscaster, had an auction that bore his name about 40 years ago. I believe that he had one of the 1801 Thomas Jefferson inaugural medals in silver.
As I mentioned in a previous thread prior, sissy spacek does or at least did. The dealer across town, now closed up used to sell to her quite a bit at the wilmington coin show
I don't remember if I had heard, or read, back in the early 80's, about Michelle Pfeiffer. Evidently she purchased an 1894 S dime at an auction for 80 grand.
I've never been able to substantiate the story however.
Actually it was actress Michelle Johnson ("Blame It On Rio") who purchased an 1894S dime at auction with help from her manager - I can still remember the front page pictures in Coin World. The story and back story of that particular sale as related to me by several different people leaves it as one of my favorite auction tales.
Johnny Cash was an avid collector of ancient coins, mostly Biblical related types. Once when he was in town for an appearance he stopped at a local coin show and spent quite a bit of time and money while there.
Both Bill Cosby and Whoopi Goldberg owned Charleston slave tags as part of their Black Americana collections.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair)
James Earle Jones R.I.P.
Penny Marshall (my Mom's twin sister, my Aunt, was her roommate in college. True story)
This happens to be the same Aunt who started me collecting when she got me a 1969 proof set for my birthday in 1978, also a true story.
Paul McCartney
Celebrities in Coin Collecting PCGS - https://pcgs.com/news/celebrities-in-coin-collecting
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
Cool
Thanks @Kurisu
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
I'm sure there more that dont talk about it publicly...coin collecting isnt exactly the most glamourous acttivity that would make for a good TMZ headline. 🙃
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And from what I have been told/read...many of these "collectors" really didn't collect and certainly weren't ACTIVE collectors....but were told it would be a good investment especially with their name attached to it (like restaurants, perfumes, sporting goods, clothing, etc.).
Scrooge McDuck
F D Roosevelt
Gregg Bingham who used to be an active poster here.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
foodude posted this in 2009. Crazy that I remembered it. I think foodude is still on here so he could elaborate if he sees this:
"One of the members of ZZ Top was at the show on Friday. Several of the dealers knew he was from ZZ Top, but didn't which of the two long bearded guys he was, so they just referred to him as the "ZZ Top" guy- lol. He was Billy Gibbons. He didn't stop by the table I was at, but I saw him walking around."
"Look up, old boy, and see what you get." -William Bonney.
Can we include hoarders?
Ted Binion (Binion's Horseshoe in Vegas)
Fitzgeralds (Fitzgeralds Holtel/Casino in Reno)
Syzmanski (Carson City hoarder)
Redfield (recluse in Reno)
bob
Hoagy Carmichael
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
O.k.
Now this is news to me. I performed one of his tunes on my album.
How did you learn this @coinkat?
TYIA
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Which tune? Stardust is one of the most recorded tunes of the 20th century.
Back to your question- I know this because the part of the Carmichael collection was auctioned by a major auction house- I can’t remember which one. My recollection is that he had a fairly impressive collection.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Did a quick google search - looks as if Superior Galleries handled his collection in 1986. I suspect there were multiple sales
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.