Can you recognize a coin that you owned decades ago?

dan1ecu

Hi, Everybody -

I was just curious about how good peoples' memories are when it comes to coins that they've owned. I don't just mean the spectacular, unforgettable ones, but even the average ones.

If you went into a coin shop, do you think you'd recognize a coin that you owned as a kid, even if you haven't seen it for a long time?

If you're a dealer, do you often recognize coins that you've sold before - even if it's been many years?


Dan

nwcs

I would be 11 years old so no.

mtnman

I would because I don't sell anything. I still have all of them.

shylock

I've only bought (and sold) IH's during the past 5 years but I think I'd recognize any of them 15 years from now. Of course, 15 years from now I may not even recognize myself when I look in the mirror

kranky

No fair asking shylock. He recognizes coins he didn't own.

I remember one of the instructors at the ANA grading class telling us that he recognized a coin submitted for grading as a coin he had sold over 10 years earlier.

haletj

I can remember almost any coin I've looked at before.

mgoodm3

Probably. I like to look at huge pictures of my coin and tend to get to know them.

kieferscoins

I'll let you know in 20 years. I'm only 22

Cameron Kiefer

mrearlygold

Yeh, my first Oregon and I would definitely recognize it.

Ditto on my first 1833 dime. Oh, it's been 20+ years on the Oregon and almost 35 on the dime.

I'd pay the moon too.

Alas, have never seen them again.


Tom

relayer

I've been known to buy the same proof set over and over from sellers who use stock photos, so my guess would be no.

ms70

Some of them I would. I'm really attentive to the small things about my coins that bother me that probably wouldn't bother anyone else.

seanq

I've had a couple of people offer coins to me that I sold months or years before. These are error coins, though, mostly clips, and by the time you combine the date, grade, clip size and position, those are plenty of markers to trigger my memory.


Sean Reynolds

ColonialCoinUnion

<< <i>If you went into a coin shop, do you think you'd recognize a coin that you owned as a kid, even if you haven't seen it for a long time?

Dan >>



Yes, without any doubt whatsoever.

Hedger

I have seen a couple of coins that I sold a few years ago back in the dealer's case now and then.

MICHAELDIXON

When I was stationed in Korea (1997), I bought several coins off the internet without pictures. One coin was a large cent I had sold in 1990 in Hawaii which I had crudely plugged and the other was a 2c that had a strange shaped hole in the shield. The descriptions didn't list any damage or the plug. When they arrived I had to laugh, as I never thought I'd see either again!

gemtone65

Unfortunately, yes. During the past year or two, I've recognized in auctions perhaps 10 coins I can think of that I sold 10-20 years ago. Most are upgraded significantly and, as for the prices, well, we won't go there. Actually, it makes me angry that the grading services undergraded my coins, and I didn't play their regrade game with sufficient intensity. I mean, I did give some of these coins a second chance, (not that you should have to), but it seems that only later when someone else submitted them did they reach their full potential. I hate spending my coin money on regrades, but what are you going to do?

It's almost as if to get the proper grade for a high quality coin, you've got to pay a grading fee commensurate with the value established by the grade -- through repeated regrades until the correct grade is attained.