POLL: WHEN and HOW WAS MODERN COLLECTING REALLY BORN????????

oreville

Hopefully this will bring a humorous but possibly accurate perspective into the whole history of when and how "modern collecting" was born?

LanLord

Hasn't modern collecting been going on since coins were first made?

So shouldn't 6th century BC be the correct answer?

Cladiator

Where is the "The day they junked the screw press and cranked up the steam press" option?

Hobbyist

I wasn't sure so I asked one of my collecting friends and he says sometime after the medieval period when common, junk, milled coinage (like Trade Dollars and State Quarters for example) began to be produced in mass quantity.

Russ

Moderns collecting was born yesterday, just like those who enjoy them.

Russ, NCNE

cullenbryant

<< <i>So shouldn't 6th century BC be the correct answer? >>



If you come across a coin dated 600 b.c. be very suspicious

oreville

The poll is now updated.

Have fun!

LincolnsRule

1960 when the mint changed the size of the date on the cents. Isn't that when the roll boom started... $2000 for 50-d nickel rolls? $1000 for 196o small date rolls?

rich

It all depends on when you where born!
George Washington would probably have said 1776 with the Continental Dollars.
I was born in '52 . I've always felt that when the mint switched to "Clad " coinage in 65' is when "Modern" coinage began,at least in my opinion.With that respect, Modern Collecting did'nt really start until early 80's.People did'nt think that this new clad junk was worth collecting due to the vast numbers produced and with no siver in them.So few people set any aside and just spent them.Now they are worth some money in high grades. Modern Commemoratives are classified as beginning in 1982.Interesting question,thanks for bringing it up.I would like to see how others here view this also.

cladking

John J Pittman was said to have collected the clad straight from the beginning.

Richard S. Yeoman tried to tell everyone in the '60's that they were missing a bet and that these coins would one day be scarce.

I started collecting them in 1972 when I read a space filler in the Chicago Tribune that said the mint and FED were switching to FIFO accounting and would begin rotating their coin stocks. I had been watching the coins from the beginning but saw no point in saving them for speculation because the FED was always releasing old clads which would destroy a market if it existed. I immediately began seeking the finest coins for "investment" but fell for their charms and became a real collector by the late '70's. I started promoting them in '86 and specializing in '96.

Gemineye

1959 - The year Frank Gasparro, Chief Engraver of the US Mint designed the Memorial Cent reverse and took away our beloved "Wheat ears" reverse

EJB

.................1964 with the Kennedy and yes I love them and everything after that,,,.,,,

Conder101

1858 when the mint began openly selling proofs to the general public and collectors started buying proofs of the current issues so they could have the finest condition pieces of the current circulating coins for their collections.

RegistryCoin

I like 1955 to mark the beginning of the Modern Era because it marks the first year after the "classic" commems ceased to be.

Dabigkahuna

Hasn't modern collecting been going on since coins were first made?









Larry
Dabigkahuna

BuffaloIronTail

MODERN........

I've thought about this. Would any of you consider a Standing Liberty quarter "modern"?

What about a Mercury dime?

What about any 10 cent and up coin before 1965? They WERE 90 percent silver.

Or are you of the pre-1900 crowd?

Anything and everything coinwise is collectable, and stands on it's own merits for what it is.

This "modern crap" stuff should stop, at least in a derisive nature.

Personally, I consider any post-1964 minted coin "modern". Collect what you want or are fascinated with.

It's a HOBBY, damn it.

There. I said it.

Pete

ms70

<< <i>This "modern crap" stuff should stop, at least in a derisive nature. >>

RBinTex

Oreville, you forgot to add a selection for "Orville has too much time on his hands"

fcloud

you need the option of "other."

PerryHall

People have been collecting modern coins since about 600BC. The early top grade US coins were collected at the time of issue by a modern collector. In 200 years the state quaters will be considered classic coins and collectors will be glad todays collectors saved them.

Prethen

1932 - The start of the Washington Quarters and the signaling of the end of allegorical figures on coins instead of dead people.

Coin Finder

I think it was really started on a large scale across a wide range of social-economic classes when our coinage was debased from silver to clad in 1965.

Tbig

rainbowroosie

Year "1" AD....those (-) dated coins are old school.

RegistryCoin

Hobbyist

<< <i>I wasn't sure so I asked one of my collecting friends and he says sometime after the medieval period when common, junk, milled coinage (like Trade Dollars and State Quarters for example) began to be produced in mass quantity. >>



I just talked to another of my collecting friends and he says that my first friend is totally wrong. This friend says modern coins begin exaclty one year after the series that he collects ended.

trozau

I would say the year when they started issuing circulating coins with no silver (1971?). I consider the clads as modern coinage.

darktone

To me the era of collecting moderns started when Rick Tomaska started with those big ads in the coin publications. Must have been about twenty years ago? I remember sitting around with other collectors and dealers wondering who in their right mind would buy such stuff at those prices................

TwoSides2aCoin

The truth is :

Modern coins have been around for centuries, but Classics didn't come until 1955, the year I was born

relayer

I would have voted it started last Tuesday, but didn't see it as an option

cladking

<< <i>I would have voted it started last Tuesday, but didn't see it as an option >>




ROFL

coinkat

Unfortunately Monty, last Tuesady was not an option...

Perhaps there is no answer... I think there are afew that make sense and the one I am about to suggest makes some sense, but not from a numismatic perspective...

I will say the modern era starts in 1945 with the ending of WW II.

Why?

Maybe because the world changed and so did coinage that year and shortly thereafter... the last true circulating classic designs left by 1948 with the introduction of the Franklin Half.

The design aspect is not the driving force, but the rise in lesure time and the fact that more people/collectors could think about coins in a different light... even the Red Book was first issued and made its appearance in late 1946.

cladking

<< <i>Unfortunately Monty, last Tuesady was not an option...

Perhaps there is no answer... I think there are afew that make sense and the one I am about to suggest makes some sense, but not from a numismatic perspective...

I will say the modern era starts in 1945 with the ending of WW II. Why?

Maybe because the world changed and so did coinage that year and shortly thereafter... the last true circulating classic designs left by 1948 with the introduction of the Franklin Half.

The design aspect is not the driving force, but the rise in lesure time and the fact that more people/collectors could think about coins in a different light... even the Red Book was first issued and made its appearance in late 1946. >>



For world coinage I often use 1950 but many of the changes in many countries
did start in 1945. All the axis powers had dramatic changes after the war and
even in the allied countries there were many which discontinued silver coinage
after 1945 or shortly later.

The US was one of the last countrie to abandon silver. Only Canada and Japan
were still using it extensively and essentially unchanged when we threw in the
towel.

frankieboywonder

As of this moment, a total of 45 votes for events in 1964/65 timeframe. Overwhelming number of votes verifying that U.S coinage went through a major transformation during that period giving birth to what many now consider 'modern' U.S coinage.

TitusFlavius

What about the Bicentennial coins? The roll craze was at least as much speculation as collecting. I think the first modern (post-'64) coin to be heavily saved by the collecting public were the Bicentennials. 1976 was also the last year of precious metal coins before the modern commems began.

RegistryCoin

I think, for various reasons, 1955 is second.(?)
Probably depends on the age groups. In general, those born in the fifties, I bet are in the 1955 group. I think this age group represents the largest group of collectors, if separated by decade. There was a post asking ages some time back, and think this was the case.
The '64/'65 votes probably are not so "born-on-date" oriented, but more likely this seems logical due to the metal changes. The '64/'65 would be my second choice, but I was born in the fifties. (I'll do a search for that "age" question.)

LindeDad

I voted 1964 because thats when PCGS says Modern starts.

RegistryCoin

I only found one poll