Eureka! Part of my old collection recovered

shirohniichan

My oldest brother called me yesterday to tell me he found a box of coins and asked if they were mine. His ex-wife is selling her (formerly his) house and asked him to clean his junk out of the attic. Along with boxes of old bills, tax records, receipts, etc., he found a box containing a number of Whitman folders, a Roosevelt dime album and a plastic drawer organizer. I have to go through it tonight to see everything in the box.

What he found was part of my coin collection from the early 1970's through 1984 (I collected coins up until about 1984, and I didn't get back into collecting until 1997 or so). Nothing in the collection is worth very much, but the nostalgia value is huge. It went in to my brother's attic when my parents moved to Hawaii in 1991, and I hadn't seen it since I moved to Japan in 1990. Here are the highlights:

- 1864-S half dollar, AU details; cleaned with a test mark drilled in the O of "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" on the reverse. I have an 1859-S silver dollar with the same kind of test mark in the same place, and I've seen drill holes on a number of trade dollars like this. I figure these are test marks to show the coin wasn't a plated counterfeit. While I'd like to think it is a Chinese test mark (since most chopmarked seated half dollars I've seen have been San Francisco issues), there's no way to tell for sure. I'll rainbow tone it by rolling it in toilet paper or a Del Taco napkin and put it face up in my daughter's type folder.

- Silver centennial medal from my home town. It's probably only worth melt value, but its sentimental value is quite high for me. I still live in my home town, after all.

- Mint medals. There's even the souvenir medal I struck on the press at the Old San Francisco Mint back in the late 70's. You used to be able to buy blank planchets and take them to the press operator. He'd set it up and hand you a button to push to strike the coin. At the time I wanted to see if I could sneak in a different planchet. When I visited DC in 1980 I saw a similar arrangement to strike Whitehouse medals in pewter, but the press was out of order. I wanted to see if I could buy a pewter planchet and take it to the Old Mint in San Francisco to make a unique strike, but I never did.

- An unc roll of 1972-S cents. Are there any varieties I should look for?

- British Columbia trade dollars. I took my last trip to my grandparents' old house in the boonies of British Columbia in 1981, and while there that summer bought a number of "trade dollars" at the co-op in town. They were nickel trade tokens that could be used at participating merchants until the end of the summer in the year of issue. I thought they looked so cool I bought a number of them realizing they'd never have much collector value. The Yellowhead Highway series of 1981 had a number of First Nations on them. There's no way to estimate the sentimental value of these tokens. At one time I looked around to find replacements for them, but I never found a seller.

Has anyone else found a collection from his childhood? Did it contain anything of more than sentimental value?

ormandh

It is always nice to go through stuff you have not seen for a while! Enjoy! -Dan

TwoKopeiki

Very cool find! The only thing that comes close in my experience was finding a hand-full of Ukrainian coins in my parents' house that I remember putting aside when we "came off the boat" in '96 (well, a plane, to be more specific)

cladking

Cool.

I'm glad you got them back. ...Any chance of more reappearing?

shirohniichan

<< <i>Cool.

I'm glad you got them back. ...Any chance of more reappearing? >>



My brother said that if his ex knew what was in the box, I never would have gotten the coins back. If she has found anything else over the years the coins were likely spent or pawned.

Hussulo

Thats a nice story. Looking at them must bring back some nice memories.
I'm glad you got your old coins back.

1jester

I'm glad you got them back! Nice to look through them. I'd still like to locate some of my older collection that must be hiding somewhere in my parent's stuff.

Resplandor

How nice you got them back. I also have not seen some of my first coins for the past eleven years nothing expensive but with lots of sentimental value, some of them from the late 1800's early 1900's that were found by my uncle (has passed away) and dad while working together in the farm. I left them in a locked old dresser at my parent's house in Mexico and I know they still have it, now that you got me thinking I'll have to pull them out and photograph them sometime later this year. Thank you so much for sharing

sumnom

Very cool, Shiroh. It's interesting that you and I took a break from collecting around the same time. I stopped around 1981-82 and didn't start up again until 1999. I think it had something to do with puberty but I can't be sure.

shirohniichan

<< <i>Very cool, Shiroh. It's interesting that you and I took a break from collecting around the same time. I stopped around 1981-82 and didn't start up again until 1999. I think it had something to do with puberty but I can't be sure. >>



My collecting hiatus was initiated by after school sports (basketball, football, and soccer) and a part time job. I got back into collecting just before I got married and bought some of my better coins then (before I had a wife to tell me not to).

Going through the collection last night brought back the sins of my youth. My 1909-1940 Lincoln cent folder had a number of orange coins in it. I remember when I was about 7 years old taking copper cleaner and a brush to the dark ones to make them look all nice and purdy (rubbing the skin off my fingers in the process). Some of the Mercury and Roosevelt dimes suffered through my discovery of silver polish.

Another thing I discovered is that the green death got a number of my coins. I have rolls of common Wheat and Memorial cents that were stored in the soft plastic tubes that have grown green spots all over. I guess they're going into my daughter's stretched penny collection as I use them on our vacations. At least my unc roll of 1967 and 1977-D cents didn't suffer that fate. I'm surprised I kept so many AU Jefferson nickels. They're common dates worth only face value. If I release them back into circulation perhaps some collector will marvel that coins from the 1960's survived in such nice shape for so long. I'll let my daughter go through them and add them to her Whitman folders.

The nicest surprise was finding a number of world coins I remember buying years ago. Some even had the original Littleton envelopes (D'OH!). The coolest finds last night were my 1862 K French 2 centimes in AU and a 1915 Pan Pac "California Souvenir Penny" (a bronze token about 35 to 40 mm large with an Indian in full head dress on the obverse).