Life before today's basics...

cypher

Ok. This post isn't raggin' on any ages or picking any jokes, it's basically a post which really got me thinking last night. To all those collecters/dealers who have been in the business for quite some time, what was it like collecting years ago. When I say years ago, I'm talking before the internet came along, before ebay, before certain grading companies. Did you have to hope that something you needed would pop up in your favorite coin shop nearby? Did you have to go way out of your way to drive to a coin shop to look for things you needed? How difficult was it trying to put together collections when the tools we use today were not available years and years ago. Today, you can jump on the boards here, chat about any question you might have, search a few auction sites, look up pretty up to date prices, compair pictures of your collection, and what have you. So when I think about it, the things I couldn't live without today (everything mentioned), wasn't available back then. How did you all do it?! And what was it like?? And when I say years ago, I mean...10 years? 20 years? 30 years? 40 years?

shirohniichan

Dealer mailings were my main "database." I didn't buy from auctions back then, so I'm sure I missed out on a lot of great coins. I didn't use want lists, either, but I'm sure many others did. My collecting was influenced a lot by what the local dealers stocked since my deals through the mail didn't go well very often (that's what I got for buying from advertisers in CoinAge Magazine).

UncleJoe

Back in the 60's & 70's when I lived in New York City there were at least 2 dozen different coin shops and/or dealers within walking distance of my apartment.

In fact both Macy's and Gimbel's (large department stores for those that may not be familiar with " Miracle on 34th Street") had coin dealers in their stores. The dealer in Macy's was very helpful and most of my better dates I purchased from him. Mail order at that time based upon my limited experience was a big turn-off, mostly overgraded coins.

Of course at the time you could still pull out of circulation most Lincolns, Buffaloes (Indian Head Nickels for the purists), Mercuries (Winged Liberty Dimes for the purists), Washingtons and some Walking Liberty halves. Times were different.

But now is good too, just different.

Joe.

CharlieB

Back in the late 50's and 60's it was a fun time for collectors.
Every time you got a roll of something at the bank it was exciting.
You got all the silver dollars you wanted at the bank. I could
take a bus and go downtown to the treasury building in DC and
get silver dollars. My neighbor went down there and wrote out a
check and got a great big silver bar about the size of a small
loaf of bread and brought it home on the bus. He used it as a
door stopper for years. That's no joke. Like he said a burgler
wouldn't know what it was.

We could pretty much complete our collections from circulation
except for the rare stuff. Back then there were no slabs to
help you, coins were raw and so you were forced to learn how to
grade. There were no certification services to do the work for you.

We had small coin shops set up in department stores too.
See the fun you newbies missed?

But today you are much better off because the internet, certification
services, publications, better books, more coins shows, etc. has
brought coin collecting to your fingertips. In that respect you
are fortunate. But diversify, that means some classics to go along
with your moderns.

LincolnCentMan

Back in the 50's and 60's... I hadnt even been thought of yet.

David

UncleJoe

Does David need his diaper changed? (wiseguy)

Joe.

tjkillian

Back in the '70's when I started collecting, you could get a few obsolete coins from the bank. My mother would "lend" us $50 to search for wheats. You'd get about 10 wheats for every 5000 coins. I live in Los Angeles, but had to ride my bicycle as I was too young for a car. Coin dealers were generally friendly and would show you a whizzed coin to teach you what to look out for. For my budget, I remember getting my very first 19th century coin, a 1899 Indian Cent in good. It would be years before I could understand what the red book was talking about when it talked about half-horn, full-horn buffalos as I only saw them in AG/Good. To see liberty on an Indian Cent, did not know where to look as I never saw one in VF!

Tom

Placid

Smoke signals.

Clankeye

One thing that I don't miss pre-internet, was the reliance on a written description of a coin to decide if you might want to purchase it. Got burned a couple times with the "creative writing" some people engaged in. It's a good thing being able to look at a scan. Now that opens it's own set of possible pitfalls, but I still like being able to see an image of a coin before I make up my mind.

Clankeye

coinrookie

Back in the 70`s when I was a kid I collected pocket change. That was all I could afford. I still have some of them.

prooflike

Back when I was a kid, I collected from circulation and did a couple of purchases from the mags, which turned out OK, also went to a dealer a couple of times, I bought something but don;t remember what...

DHeath

UncleJoe,

In 1966 I bought a 55 proof Franklin half from Macy's and picked it out of the first eletric carousel I had ever seen. They were upstairs on the 4th or 5th floor as I recall. Still have the half and the memory of the trip. Thanks for reminding me. LOL, I was buying some moderns back then too!

RLinn

In the early 60s grading was always an issues as Clankeye has already alluded to with his "creative writing" observation. I suspect even in the 70s Clankeye could hold his own in that arena. My bigger problem with grading was the limited terminology for MS coins. Unc, BU, Choice and Gem Standards were all over the place and the lack of comparison pieces made things tough. No abundance of photos of common material so I spent a lot of time in shops and at shows doing a great deal of looking. I do remember the teletype seemed like a huge leap forward in terms of searching other dealers' stock for want list items.

Clankeye

RLinn--
I have a coin you might be interested in... the luster percolates under breath-taking toning, which cascades down the obverse in heart-stopping waterfalls of purple, green, orange and mauve. Grown men have wept, as the incredible strike transported them to worlds of battle and glory, where adoring women cried out for them and children hushed as they passed. The reverse is so clean that Martha Stewart once dined off it, and the shimmering sparks of dew-drop luster shine like stars in a night electric.*



*Perhaps it may have been dipped at one point. And there is a rim gouge. Note also, this is a dutch auction.

Clankeye The Honest Numismatist

UncleJoe

Clankeye, I'll take 2, where do I sign?

Joe.

shirohniichan

I thought it was only fairly recently that ambiguous words such as "monster" came into common parlance. The Internet hasn't replaced creative writing, it has only augmented it with altered scans.

RLinn

Clankeye, place that baby on hold. I've just listed my home with Century 21. Do you will do a contingency sale won't you?

shirohniichan

I believe the contingency is that if hell freezes over, your coin will look just as described.

Clankeye

I'd like to hear more stories like CharlieB and Uncle Joe's... it's really very interesting. Here in Seattle both the Bon Marche and Fredrick and Nelson's department stores had coin shops. Seems like a different world ago.

Carl

Bulldog

It was miserable for me. I was stuck with very few choices. Today, the world is my shopping grounds.

Bulldog

shirohniichan

I have a coin you might be interested in... the luster percolates under breath-taking toning, which cascades down the obverse in heart-stopping waterfalls of purple, green, orange and mauve. Grown men have wept, as the incredible strike transported them to worlds of battle and glory, where adoring women cried out for them and children hushed as they passed. The reverse is so clean that Martha Stewart once dined off it, and the shimmering sparks of dew-drop luster shine like stars in a night electric.*

Clankeye, dealers still use poetic language, they just make it completely nonsensical these days.

"1876-CC dime. Brilliant, charcoal-like effervescense festoons Quixotic surfaces. Original clairvoyance celebrates diverse supercilious luster on phlegmatic devices. $179"

lordmarcovan

The classified section of Numismatic News was my hunting ground. Ah, the Bad Old Days!

(Actually, it wasn't all bad, but I certainly don't miss buying sight-unseen raw coins through the mail...)

cladking

In the old days we just bought more of our coins mail order. The coin shops had
lots more of the old coins in nice collectable grades. To keep up there was Numis-
matic news and then Coin World came around in 1960. It really wasn't all that
much different.

Most of the really good coins were gone from circulation by the later mid-50's when
I started collecting. There were lots of collectors back then especially among the
young. Most mid size and larger schools had coin clubs and it was always easy to
find someone to trade coins with.