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Part of the fun of collecting coins.
BillJones
Posts: 33,523 ✭✭✭✭✭
I had to go home last week to help my mother prepare to move into a retirement facility. It is a lot of work and it's not a happy time because she has lived in the same house for 56 years. Still there comes a time when ... there is no choice.
To make things a little better I took a "toy" along with me, an 1853 gold dollar in PCGS MS-64. It's a pretty little coin (it looks much nicer in person that it does in this picture), but it's far from my favorite. It is the most common date in the gold dollar series, and it's not even close to being my oldest coin. My favorite era is the early U.S. pieces from 1792 to 1807, which comprise the largest portion of my collection from a value perspective.
Still as I gazed at this piece, my mind did wonder to more pleasant thoughts.
· On a personal level, when this coin was struck, my great grand parents were elementary school age children. My paternal grandmother, who was the only grandparent I ever knew, would be born 30 years later.
· At the U.S. mint production began at a fevered pace to place millions of lighter weight silver coins into circulation. The old coins weighted too much because of the addition gold that had been added to the economy from the California Gold Rush and were therefore subject extensive melting.
· President Millard Fillmore was finishing his partial term in office after the death of Zachary Taylor. In March Franklin Pierce became the 14th President of the United States. His time in office would not be happy either personally or for the country as events brought the nation closer to civil war.
· On the international scene, Commodore Matthew Perry opens up Japan to the western world.
· In popular literature sales of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” reach 1.2 million copies.
· In business and transportation the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reach Wheeling, Virginia, which is now West Virginia. Further north, ten railroads between Albany and Buffalo merge to form the New York Central Railroad.
This is just a taste, but its one of the wonderful things that collecting coins brings to me. It’s “history in your hand” as the ANA called it some years ago in one of their ad campaigns. And collecting coins is one of things that makes the bumps in every day living a little easier to take.
To make things a little better I took a "toy" along with me, an 1853 gold dollar in PCGS MS-64. It's a pretty little coin (it looks much nicer in person that it does in this picture), but it's far from my favorite. It is the most common date in the gold dollar series, and it's not even close to being my oldest coin. My favorite era is the early U.S. pieces from 1792 to 1807, which comprise the largest portion of my collection from a value perspective.
Still as I gazed at this piece, my mind did wonder to more pleasant thoughts.
· On a personal level, when this coin was struck, my great grand parents were elementary school age children. My paternal grandmother, who was the only grandparent I ever knew, would be born 30 years later.
· At the U.S. mint production began at a fevered pace to place millions of lighter weight silver coins into circulation. The old coins weighted too much because of the addition gold that had been added to the economy from the California Gold Rush and were therefore subject extensive melting.
· President Millard Fillmore was finishing his partial term in office after the death of Zachary Taylor. In March Franklin Pierce became the 14th President of the United States. His time in office would not be happy either personally or for the country as events brought the nation closer to civil war.
· On the international scene, Commodore Matthew Perry opens up Japan to the western world.
· In popular literature sales of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” reach 1.2 million copies.
· In business and transportation the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reach Wheeling, Virginia, which is now West Virginia. Further north, ten railroads between Albany and Buffalo merge to form the New York Central Railroad.
This is just a taste, but its one of the wonderful things that collecting coins brings to me. It’s “history in your hand” as the ANA called it some years ago in one of their ad campaigns. And collecting coins is one of things that makes the bumps in every day living a little easier to take.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
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Comments
Ray
I look forward to reading more posts like this.
<< <i>This is just a taste, but its one of the wonderful things that collecting coins brings to me. It’s “history in your hand” as the ANA called it some years ago in one of their ad campaigns. And collecting coins is one of things that makes the bumps in every day living a little easier to take. >>
The historical "aura" is what appeals to me most about coins. I too like to speculate about what was going on when they were made and used.
Perhaps that's why I like my dug coins so much, even when they are usually less attractive or valuable than their nondug counterparts. The "aura" of a found coin is so much stronger than a bought coin, somehow, particularly when you know it's waited there in the ground for you for a century or more. There are no "middlemen" between you and the person who lost it. It's sort of like a gift from a long-departed stranger. A detector is the next best thing to a time machine in that regard.
Sorry to hear about the difficult passage you are making with your mother. I remember when my grandmother had to go into a home, and I do not relish such decisions when my parents' time comes. I hope she settles in comfortably.