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Coin collectors and Cigar Boxes.

keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
Have you ever noticed that a lot of collectors seem to store coins or Hobby supplies in empty Cigar Boxes??

I don't consider myself "seasoned" by any means but I have spent enough time on both sides of a coin shop counter to see lots and lots of Cigar Boxes being carried by collectors as things are sold to the proprietor. Evidently, we as a group have decided that the container which previously held Tobacco products is a sturdy, compact and properly sized container(plus, it probably comes to us free, always a good point) for our Numismatic treasures. I think I came upon my first box as a child and budding collector when my father still got involved. I don't know where it came from but one has always been there. I recall stopping at a Tobacco shop inside of a local Mall to buy used boxes, not necessarily for coin although they eventually ended up there.

It must be that innate sense which tells a collector that THE BOX is the proper thing to use!!image

Now as an adult and advanced collector image there are many other ways to store stuff, yet I still retain several of the old school Cigar Boxes. And as strange as it might seem I find myself intrigued by them when they come into our shop carrying goods that a collector is getting rid of. I invariably ask my boss if I can have them and although they aren't always used they are there if I need them.

Do you have a Cigar Box that you use? More than one?? Can you post a picture?? Thanks and enjoy.image

Al H.
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Comments

  • Type2Type2 Posts: 13,985 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I put a lot of coins in Cigar box's even today but the box's are a lot nicer then the old one with brass and polished wood i buy them for $5 and they look nice as well. image


    Hoard the keys.
  • bronzematbronzemat Posts: 2,602 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have a couple of cigar boxes. I actually store loose action figure accessories in tiny zip locks in them then coins.
  • stevebensteveben Posts: 4,595 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    when i was a kid, i had some kennedy's, a peace dollar, some silver quarters, and my paper money collection in this box.
  • 19Lyds19Lyds Posts: 26,470 ✭✭✭✭
    If I recall correctly, there are times when the cigar box itself has more collectible value than the coins within it since there are some fairly rare cigar boxes out there.

    My wife has a couple of wooden boxes but no cardboard boxes.
    I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.



    The name is LEE!
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 29, 2020 6:52AM
    the one I recall from childhood was wooden with brass hinges/clasp and it had four wooden inserts along the sides. I think my dad still has it.
  • crazyhounddogcrazyhounddog Posts: 13,776 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Behind the pcgs boxes are my cigar boxes I use for all the stuff that won't fit into my pcgs & ngc boxes. JM'S Dominican Churchhill cigar boxes I got for free when I used to smoke . I must admit they are very handy for storing many collectibles.

    imageimage
    The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 30,977 ✭✭✭✭✭
    When I was a kid, seegar boxes were the cat's meow for storing stuff, coins included. We didn't have the plethora of plastic storage containers, cool whip bowls, etc. like we do now.
  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭✭✭
    For some reason I keep all my Ukrainian paper money in a cigar box. Chit is growing worthless daily.
    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • DentuckDentuck Posts: 3,812 ✭✭✭
    A wonderful and sentimental post!

    Wooden cigar boxes are ideal for storing all manner of things: fishing lures and other tackle,
    sewing bobbins, keys, what-have-you. They're artistic and well-crafted; back in the day they
    would have been useful and handy because there wasn't a Container Store down the block, and
    today we can appreciate their old-fashioned quality and the whiff of "vintage" and "old-timey"
    about them.

    Wooden cigar boxes seem to be where much of the WWII generation's small personal effects
    ended up! Badges and award ribbons, coins brought back from the Philippines and Germany,
    and the like.

    I've smoked cigars since I was in college. (I swear I don't feel a day over 85!) Even though I
    "buy the cigar and not the box," I can't help but feel a bit disappointed when a really good
    stogie comes in a cardboard box. A cardboard box!

    I'm sure I have some photos of coins in cigar boxes. Will try to hunt them down and post them,
    for nostalgia's sake.



  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,946 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Will tobacco residue alert the PCGS sniffer?

    Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.

  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 27,411 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>For some reason I keep all my Ukrainian paper money in a cigar box. Chit is growing worthless daily. >>

    youll be able to throw some extra in there one of these days at the rate its going. just saying.
  • OldEastsideOldEastside Posts: 4,602 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have a Old Whitman Sampler Box (yellow candy) that is probably from the Nixon administration era
    that has a bunch of Indian head pennies and nickels, some old silver certificates, my first drivers license
    High School ID card, ancient Library Card, a bunch of unused Disneyland A, B and C tickets, you kmow
    the kind of stuff, Not Worth a lot, but would never sell it for a Jillion Dollars, Priceless Treasures image

    Steve
    Promote the Hobby
  • MrHalfDimeMrHalfDime Posts: 3,440 ✭✭✭✭
    "A wonderful and sentimental post!"

    Agreed. And very astute and observant, as well. Like many others here I have several cigar boxes in which I keep coin supplies and accessories. A quick scan of my coin room reveals a half dozen cigar boxes, containing coin wrappers, 2x2's, spare loupes, magnifiers and optics, and the ubiquitous colorful lanyards that are given out at most larger shows. Some of the nicer cigar boxes are the beautiful wooden ones with brass hardware, but my favorites have to be the ones which once held "Half Dime" brand cigars.
    They that can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
  • Walkerguy21DWalkerguy21D Posts: 11,114 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If I recall correctly, there are times when the cigar box itself has more collectible value than the coins within it since there are some fairly rare cigar boxes out there. >>


    Back in the early '70's, I used to help work with my friend's dad at local coin shows. His 'junk boxes' were antique cigar boxes that had loose low type grade coins in them, each box with a different price per coin. He had multiple inquiries at every show from guys who just wanted to buy the boxes, not the coins.

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  • sparky64sparky64 Posts: 7,025 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I used to store all my "valuables" in a Dutch Masters cigar box.
    Something about a cigar box. My siblings knew to keep out.

    "If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"

    My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress

  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 30,977 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Will tobacco residue alert the PCGS sniffer? >>



    I don't believe that it's a known doctorant or cleaner.
  • AMRCAMRC Posts: 4,266 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I too have seem to seen my fair share. I think it has something to do with the generation. They were just sturdy boxes that at the time were quite plentiful with the way people used to buy boxes of cigars.
    MLAeBayNumismatics: "The greatest hobby in the world!"
  • BaleyBaley Posts: 22,658 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There's a guy who sells on eBay who builds blues guitars out of the wooden ones. I'd buy one just for giggles, but they're fairly steep.
    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,515 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My father smoked cigars back in the day. I inherited several with all sort of stuff. This is one that I converted
    to coin storage long, long ago. I'll have to look through it and see what I put in it as truthfully, I do not remember
    doing this!
    bobimage
    imageimage
    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • crazyhounddogcrazyhounddog Posts: 13,776 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>There's a guy who sells on eBay who builds blues guitars out of the wooden ones. I'd buy one just for giggles, but they're fairly steep. >>



    Yes my son was showing some for sale. Now he wants to make one for himself.
    The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 7,541 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Cigar Boxes were perfect for storing coins which were in 2x2's in a safe or safety deposit box during the mid-late 1960-s. Coins could be sorted or stacked. A NASA engineer I knew bought USGTC from Lil Abners Coin Shop in Bellaire, Tx plus area coin shows spending about $200 a month. I remember buying a super Gem BU 1907 $20 Arabic numerals there for $83 and a Gem BU 1924 for $60 working as a HS kid various jobs in retail and maintenance. Gold was around $35 an ounce at that time. He showed me a cigar box full of USGTC he had selected over a period of time then neatly holdered in 2x2's filling up a cigar box to go in his bank box. It was quite an impressive hoard, nice coins. He used Red Book for valuation keeping a note book with Coin / Descr / MM / Grade / Valuation / Cost. Also Half Dollars in plastic tubes could be easily stored in a cigar box.

    When Nixon ended the draft in 1972, he was major member in a group to have Nixon put on the $50 bill. I remember attending a show in 1969 and one dealer had cigar box full of interesting type coins with a sign "Show Special, 5-10% off Red Book." For buying, he would simply get out his blue book. People were furiously buying 1968-S and 1969-S cent rolls because they had the S mint mark. A 1950-D Nickel in BU was at $17. A roll of 40 was $650. A 1968-S nickel roll in BU was $3.00 and touted as a fantastic investment buy.



    So Cali Area - Coins & Currency
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    nice!!
  • CameonutCameonut Posts: 7,250 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I've got a grubby Muriel Magnum cigar box I received from my grandfather about 50 years ago. Well worn and the "hinge" is now reinforced with tape. Price for a cigar was 10 cents.

    I used it to keep my coins in until it outgrew the box.

    These days, I use it as a catch all for all those small pieces of paper or important things I don't want to lose. Has been in the desk drawer for about 35 years.

    “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

    My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!

  • DUIGUYDUIGUY Posts: 7,252 ✭✭✭
    image
    “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly."



    - Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 43,794 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • SeattleSlammerSeattleSlammer Posts: 9,953 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Cool thread! Here's one of my favorites.
    image
    image
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Great thread..... I remember having many cigar boxes as a kid.....none now - moved through too many countries and states....guess I will get a couple, there are always neat things to store in them. Cheers, RickO
  • SeattleSlammerSeattleSlammer Posts: 9,953 ✭✭✭✭✭
    let's see some more boxes !
  • bronzematbronzemat Posts: 2,602 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>image >>



    Looked up some on ebay cause I liked a few, yikes....
  • hchcoinhchcoin Posts: 4,825 ✭✭✭✭✭
    El Producto
  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,580 ✭✭✭✭✭
    In my little town a century and more ago there were several cigar makers. Naturally there wee people making cigar boxes as well. One day a few years ago, driving down one of the alleys...someone cleaned out an attic or basement and I picked up three long boards of very old Spanish cedar. Also in the trash were decomposed newspapers from 1911. I used ALL that wood, still fresh and fragrant after a trip through the planer
  • JRoccoJRocco Posts: 14,277 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Don't have any pics, but have a few cigar boxes loaded mainly with Lincoln varieties.
    Hey Ambro - be careful working with Spanish Cedar. The dust is really nasty if you get it in your lungs.
    There is a reason why insects stay away from it.
    Some coins are just plain "Interesting"
  • DentuckDentuck Posts: 3,812 ✭✭✭

    I wish I could say these are all filled with rare coins, but sadly they're not!

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,208 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Guilty. Monarch of the South box. Perfect size.

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Great old thread.... I think I will go to the cigar shop...there is one a few miles up the highway...and see if they have any old wooden boxes....I recall they were great for storing stuff years ago...Cheers, RickO

  • thebeavthebeav Posts: 3,744 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I store a lot of stuff in cigar boxes. More so stuff than coins. It started as a child, my grandfather was a cigar 'chewer'. He would get three chews from a cigar. "Factory Seconds" was his brand of choice.
    Later on, when wooden boxes became more fashionable, a friend of my dads would send his over for me. My garage at my cabin has many, many wooden boxes labeled with contents. "Chisels", "Roofing Nails", 2/38" Deck Screws, etc......

  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

    'sitter, that's funny!! I have a Tampa Nugget box that looks almost identical sitting on the desk in front of me.

    I haven't acquired any new boxes recently but my GF raided my supply last year to do some "Craft" projects. I need to do like RickO and visit a few shops close by. B)

  • OldhoopsterOldhoopster Posts: 2,930 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I use a few to store misc numismatics and accessories. To me, I think the allure of cigar boxes goes back to when I first started collecting in elementary school. My uncle got me interested in coins and he had a cigar box with unsorted “stuff”. I loved looking through it and seeing what kind of treasures I could find. I remember a really beat up 1805 large cent and a cull 2 cent piece, mixed in with the assorted wheats, Indians, war nix, Buffs and old foreign. What un unbelievable treasure to an 8 year old. To this day, whenever I see an old cigar box with misc coins, it brings back memories, and who knows what treasures could lay inside.

    That’s why I use cigar boxes to store my coin junque.

    Member of the ANA since 1982
  • DrBusterDrBuster Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Guilty here for using them to store stuff.

    Content of these from our trip to the Caymans currently in the humidor. I have a ton of others that I was going to do some art project with, but that got sidetracked pretty quick. All of these are tasty sticks.

    These also very tasty, and the box is sturdy as hell.

  • CoinHoarderCoinHoarder Posts: 2,438 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I remember my dad going into K-Mart and drugstores, asking if they had any empty cigar boxes. IF they did, they gave them away for free.

    I do have one or two cigar boxes with trinkets somewhere stored away.

    I have used cigar boxes in the past to store coins. However, I rarely do that anymore.

    But from time to time, I will still pick one up if I like the way it looks.

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

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  • thebeavthebeav Posts: 3,744 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Bullsitter, you might want to consider losing those rubber bands on your flips. They'll bleed right through with some unsightly tarnish lines.
    Ask me how I know.......

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this is the first exact brand of cigar box that I stored my coin collection in - my grandpa chewed this brand, rarely lit one up!

  • Eric_BabulaEric_Babula Posts: 413 ✭✭✭✭

    In the 70s, my dad used to get us cigar boxes - though I'm not sure where he got them from, since he never smoked. But, we only had cardboard ones. My brother and I used to store our "collectible" cards (not coins) in them - baseball, football, basketball, Charlie's Angels cards! Wow! What a trip down memory lane! I wonder where all those cards went. Hmmm.

    Our "better" coins were usually put in cardboard 2x2s. None were of much value, but we loved them. Coins that didn't make it into 2x2s were in other containers - plastic sandwich baggies, plastic pill bottles, glass baby food jars, glass mayonnaise jars, metal coffee (Folgers?) cans, etc. My parents reused many, many containers for holding stuff - buttons, nails/screws, nuts/bolts, etc.!

    Rocking my "shiny-object-syndrome"!!!

  • DrBusterDrBuster Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Weiss I've gotten some nice dovetail boxes from the cigar shops around me. One does them for a couple $/box and another is $1 or free if the guys are feeling good and you pick up some sticks.

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