Do you ever wonder this about your coins???

dizzyfoxx

Like where they were in history when significant events occured? Like perhaps your 1859 H10 was in a soldier's pocket during the Battle of Gettysburg. Or your 1880 Seated Half was on the poker table in between Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp? Or your 1909 Barber dime was used to buy the pack of cigs that contained the famous T206 Honus Wagner baseball card? Anyhow, I know it's a stretch... But who knows???...

ttown

Abe Lincoln gave my great Grand Father a lincoln cent....that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Zoins

Sometimes for the circulated ones and esp the PO1s. Then the love tokens and potty dollars.

I don't think about the high grade US coins too much because they probably didn't see too much action. It's more fun to look at them.

For high grade items, I think more about patterns and coins/medals in countries disrupted by war. For patterns, the decisions that were made after they were passed around for evaluation and discussion are interesting. For war torn countries, the coins/medals had to somehow survive.

bstat1020

That is a part of why I collect coins. It is fun to think about where they might have been.

Drizzt

Hmmm...I'm pretty bad at daydreaming, I guess.

Kind of like to think most of my raw coins were originally gotten by working for too long, for too little, and being spent at the grocery store, who then gave them to a farmer for some of his vegetables or eggs, who then gave them to the hired man who worked too long for too little....sometimes those same barber dimes were precious things, at other times just one more in a pile...

BlindedByEgo

Absolutely. It's part of the attraction.

ttown

Then why are you guys buying coins that set in a valut for many a decade? You know buy the best you can afford even if it's never seen the light of day.

Cgb

All the time!

It is really half the fun.

Edscoin

Thats why I like circulated coins. While all those high grade MS and Proof coins were sitting in a bank vault or some dark cabinet some where, those circulated coins were out seeing the world. Could you imagine what a hundred or two hundred year old coin has seen and heard ( if that were possible) and the story's they could tell.

tmcsr69

This is one of my main thoughts when I look at a older coin-who owned it, how many times it has changed hands and how it has been taken care of. I'm truly amazed at how nice some of the older coins are and the care that has gone into them for so many years. Knowing that there were no TPG's 100+ years ago, or Dansco albums and the like-it's a miracle there are so many coins still in uncirculated condition.

Bochiman

Nope...can't say that I do wonder.
I enjoy them for the look and for the designs, when appropriate, but I don't often find myself drifting into fantasy around them.

johnsim03

This is a really cool thread. What happened to all of the change from the soldier's pockets at the Little Big Horn Battle? 1876...
A special year. There would have been a lot of change dated 1876, or before. We know what happened to much of the paper
money (Native American children used as sails in mud boats, etc). The soldiers had been just paid, and the nation was gearing
up for the 100th Anniversary celebrations. What kind of pocket or good luck pieces would have been popular? Besides the religious
medals present - which are more or less known by historical accounts, what - civil war tokens?!

What accounting was done when the bodies were hastily buried? The Indians had left in a hurry, but they knew what the value of
the silver coins was. Did most of the silver get recycled later on, at various reservations or other points of interest? How much is
still left on the field?

John

BlindedByEgo

<< <i>Nope...can't say that I do wonder.
I enjoy them for the look and for the designs, when appropriate, but I don't often find myself drifting into fantasy around them. >>



Poor sap. Must be an engineer.

Edscoin

<< <i>

<< <i>Nope...can't say that I do wonder.
I enjoy them for the look and for the designs, when appropriate, but I don't often find myself drifting into fantasy around them. >>



Poor sap. Must be an engineer. >>

Dollarhunter

I recently held an 1801 Drapped Bust Dollar. It was in VG condition. It made me wonder what the USA was like in those days. I wondered who might had handled it what it was used to purchase in it's day.

NumisOxide

Ah, the stories this little busty could tell...

etexmike

<< <i>Like where they were in history when significant events occured? >>



Not until now.

-------------

etexmike

MrHalfDime

It has always been one of the many attractions of numismatics, to ponder who might have held an old coin in your collection, whose pocket it might have passed through, and what goods or services it might have been traded for. That is one of the many points of intrigue for the 1792 half disme, a coin for which we know with a high degree of certainty that Thomas Jefferson, David Rittenhouse, and President George Washington all handled each of the 1500 examples. Our very first coin made under the authority of the United States Mint, and one for which we need not conjecture what famous Americans might have handled it.

And let's watch the disparaging remarks about engineers.

LindeDad

First time I showed this coin one of the comments was "That coin bought some wiskey in it's day". My added question is just what all could of been bought by it in it's many days of circulation.

cvan68

I do.

To me the whole history and who, what, when, where a coin may have been used has always been part of collecting for me.

lkenefic

Definitely!! I think about all of the "Penny Candy" those Large Cents purchased through the years

Leo

RB1026

Absolutely yes. If I didn't enjoy the historical aspects, I doubt I'd still be collecting after all these years.

Roger

GoldenEyeNumismatics

<< <i> Or your 1880 Seated Half was on the poker table in between Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp? >>



Wyatt Earp didn't play poker, he only dealt Faro at his brother's saloon

But yes, I have always wondered.

dizzyfoxx

<< <i>

<< <i> Or your 1880 Seated Half was on the poker table in between Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp? >>



Wyatt Earp didn't play poker, he only dealt Faro at his brother's saloon

But yes, I have always wondered. >>



I knew I should have said Doc Holliday instead. It would have been more authentic.

Gemini

The most fun part for me is exactly that the wondering. For example my 1849 seated dollar easily transports me back to the 49'ers and the great gold rush days. To me its like holding a time capsule because it was there and bore witness to the times. I can spend hours just wondering. I have a couple of colonial notes that were printed by Ben Franklin in his print shop. If stuff like this doesn't excite you or make you day dream and stir your senses then you are not a hopeless romantic and you have my deepest sympathies.

SilverEagles92

This is the reason I collect coins. I love the history.

Myqqy

That was the original line of thinking that got me interested in coins when I was about 10 years old- it intrigued me that these connections to the past could be had for so little...

Texast

How about the amount of work that had to be done to earn that half dollar, that could have been a day's wage, sunup to sundown, in sone cases it could have been a weeks wage.

Eastwood4450

I bought a low grade 1925 quarter at a flea market and it made me think about the time period. Roaring 20's, a few years after the Great War and a few years before the Great Depression. It's great to be able to hold a piece of history in your hands for so little money.

mozeppa

I rebuild and repair antique Pool tables (only those) ....and I've often wondered the stories they could tell if they could talk...the amount of money that traded hands as a result of a friendly game. (or not-so-friendly!)

the times that were changing and what kind of coins.

many times I was able to work on them in the very room that the history took place in!

My job is cool!...everyone wants to be me!

coinkat

Yes... and take it a step further. If one collects world coins, one could wonder if one of the Henry VIII Testoons were actually handled by the king himself...

oxy8890

<< <i>Abe Lincoln gave my great Grand Father a lincoln cent....that's my story and I'm sticking to it. >>



That would be the 1857 Pattern Lincoln!

notwilight

Absolutely--especially my 18th century coins. Good post.

Type2

Yes I do. Like the grate de-pression and when I see a Dime or Nickel from that era in MS that just amazes me that some one saved it. When it could have bought so much. The love of a coin's.

Broadstruck

Thinking about where my coins may have been... I'm Happy Strippers Prefer Currency!

tydye

I do - thats is why I love ones like these

PrivateCoinCollector

I have a coin with Nero's face on it from 65 AD. Just think if that thing could talk?