And you think YOU'RE obsessed with coins?
ColonialCoinUnion
Posts: 10,087 ✭✭✭
You might think you're obsessed with coins, but I don't think you can possibly be as obsessed with coins as I am.
Over the last 3+ years (while occassionally skipping lunch) I have created condition census files of every colonial series by scanning into photo shop all relevant images from every old auction catalog, numismatic reference book, internet site, and any and every other source I could find.
I put them all into the same standard format and then collate them into my own reference books by coin type where I can rank them (roughly - you can't really be definitive from old photos), see what coins appeared on the market when in what condition described in what way and selling for what price.
This sample page is from my Nova Constellatio book, where it was the first page (i.e. seemingly finest known) of the '1783 Blunt Rays' variety, ex-Garrett.
This little project has taken over two rooms in my home, filled 7 bookcases, necessitated a new computer system and has taken more hours and money than I can possibly imagine.
Anybody more obsessed than that?
Over the last 3+ years (while occassionally skipping lunch) I have created condition census files of every colonial series by scanning into photo shop all relevant images from every old auction catalog, numismatic reference book, internet site, and any and every other source I could find.
I put them all into the same standard format and then collate them into my own reference books by coin type where I can rank them (roughly - you can't really be definitive from old photos), see what coins appeared on the market when in what condition described in what way and selling for what price.
This sample page is from my Nova Constellatio book, where it was the first page (i.e. seemingly finest known) of the '1783 Blunt Rays' variety, ex-Garrett.
This little project has taken over two rooms in my home, filled 7 bookcases, necessitated a new computer system and has taken more hours and money than I can possibly imagine.
Anybody more obsessed than that?
0
Comments
Tom
You're now official, Bubba 4/24/04
<< <i>WOW - that's one helluva project! When are you coming out with a book on the subject? >>
No book. I started doing this purely for my own education after I realized that I didn't know as much as I needed to know to spend not insignificant money on coins.
What you describe is a tremendous project.
Has anyone else in the field, say someone in the C4, done anything similar? If not, you really should think about some way to share (and profit from) your endeavors--perhaps run what you have past some other experts in the field and then perhaps sell the finished item on a CD. If you sold it on a CD, it would be easy to up-date your work and comments. But regardless, you should think about someway you could spread all your hard work so that you (and others) benefit from it.
Mark
<< <i>CCU:
What you describe is a tremendous project.
Has anyone else in the field, say someone in the C4, done anything similar? If not, you really should think about some way to share (and profit from) your endeavors--perhaps run what you have past some other experts in the field and then perhaps sell the finished item on a CD. If you sold it on a CD, it would be easy to up-date your work and comments. But regardless, you should think about someway you could spread all your hard work so that you (and others) benefit from it.
Mark >>
I suspect some of the dealers and collectors in the field - many of whom have been at this for years and years - have done something very similar to what I have done, though maybe not with photos, making it all match, compiling it on CDs, etc. Probably most people wouldn't want to waste the time.
But I'm really not interested to try to profit from it (if that were even possible, and it likely isn't given the copywrite issues).
Edit to add....can I have a copy?
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
I study the Lincoln cent ad-nauseum. While the coins are quite a bit less expensive and much less significant on the history scale, I have studied them to the point where I can often tell the date of a Lincoln cent from the reverse of the coin - I can tell you the entire date with only the third or fourth digit visible. I can identify over 300 different die varieties just by looking at the coin with a loupe - without books or photos to compare them to.
I have spend countless hours in this education, have met a number of good people, and have spent thousands of dollars travelling just to go to shows to pick up a few hundred dollars worth of coins. Of the 133 hours per week I am generally awake, I spend no less than 85 of them working toward some numismatic related goal.
I have one college degree and am working toward two more only in the name of bettering my abilities on the computer and the internet to feed my insatiable need to study and help others with the series.
I have a $400 microscope, $800 camera, $2500 computer system and over $3000 worth of software I purchased solely for the task of photographing and cataloging the Lincoln cent. I have an office with a 9 foot long solid oak desk with upper cabinets hand crafted at the tune of $2500 solely for this study. That's not to mention the $30-$70 per month in server expense I have absorbed for the past five years while developing the site that surrounds my study. I also have a post office box that costs me $120 per year (negligible) through which I receive solely numismatic related mail.
Down to the coins themselves...My Lincoln cent die variety collection now contains over 2,000 doubled dies, repunched mintmarks, and over mintmarks - every one of them different from the others. I have approximately 5,500 more "duplicates" awaiting an online store I am building myself to sell them - only to buy more. I have no fewer than three dozen mint bags of cents going back to the early 60s, over 2,000 rolls that have never been searched through, and another 3,000 rolls that have. All said and done, I have close to (if not over) half a million cents. Many of them worth not much more than a cent each, but since I haven't seen them all yet I can't say, nor can I get rid of them until that has happened.
I am writing a book on the subject that has consumed 5 hours of each day for the past two months without a single day off....aside from spending time with my family, going to two classes in college (with a total GPA of 3.87), and working a 50-60 hour per week job. Needless to say, I don't get much sleep.
Were we saying something about obsession?
The Lincoln cent store:
http://www.lincolncent.com
My numismatic art work:
http://www.cdaughtrey.com
USAF veteran, 1986-1996 :: support our troops - the American way.