Do you ever imagine how earlier collectors might view your collection?

csdot

One interesting aspect of coin collecting for me is it allows me to consider what life was like at different point in the past and what it will be like in the future. Like many, my interest in collecting coins began when a relative introduced the hobby while I was young. My grandparents were active in the local coin club, and took me with them to the bi-weekly meetings. I remember buying low dollar items during the auctions, and watching my grandmother regularly win the drawing. Some people are born with a natural luck.

My grandparents, born in the early twenties, are now deceased. I have rediscovered coin collecting as an adult, and have introduced the hobby to my three children. They have taken to it in varying levels of interest. Maybe they will pick it back up in later life too.

Now when I look at my coins, I not only imagine what life was like when that coin, an 1859 O Seated Liberty Dollar for example, was struck, but also what this Dollar would have meant if my grandparents came across one. I know that a bag of 1859 O Seated Liberty Dollars was found in the U.S. mint storage vaults when the country was going off of the silver coinage standard. That explains why I can find a MS62 example today. Was an 1859 O Seated Liberty Dollar a common coin to my grandparents when they were collecting in the 1950s - 1970s. Would a Seated Liberty Dollar be the equivalent of a Morgan Dollar to me? My grandparents were not too much older than I am now (45) when I was born. Does that mean that 1850s coinage to them was like collecting 1800 - 1810 coins to them?

http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/coinfacts.aspx?i=1788675&sid=108960

TopographicOceans

They would think Wondercoin was a time traveler from the future

DRUNNER

Very perceptive question in my view . . .and although I don't worry about how preceding collectors might view my current holdings, I really do like to think about collecting in the context of history and how things have changed. So much has varied over the last 100 years or so . . . and US as well as world history has affected much of how we view rarity, collections, and collectors.



Your example of the 1859-O dollar (I keep hearing two bags each of 1859-O and 1860-O) is a wonderful example . . . how sometimes seemingly minor events can have long lasting relevance to future collectors.



I look forward to all replies . . .



Drunner

lordmarcovan

I pretty much agree with what DRUNNER just said. It's interesting to think about this kind of stuff, isn't it.

Mark

One major difference that I think would befuddle earlier collectors is the current emphasis on quality. Yes, I believe collectors have always appreciated quality but I think the huge difference in price between the very best example of a coin versus the next-best examples would surprise old collectors. So current collectors whose collections emphasize quality rather than completeness might strike earlier collectors as weird.

lkeigwin

Originally posted by: csdot

Was an 1859 O Seated Liberty Dollar a common coin to my grandparents when they were collecting in the 1950s - 1970s.

No. Not even close.

Lance.

halfhunter

Just think, while your grandparents were collecting a 1903-O Morgan went from a rare to a fairly common coin. '04-O went from scarce to common as dirt.

The 55 DDO Lincoln cent was minted and discovered. etc . . .



HH

Stuart

Originally posted by: Mark
One major difference that I think would befuddle earlier collectors is the current emphasis on quality. Yes, I believe collectors have always appreciated quality but I think the huge difference in price between the very best example of a coin versus the next-best examples would surprise old collectors. So current collectors whose collections emphasize quality rather than completeness might strike earlier collectors as weird.

In reply to the above posted quote, I'd like to make the distinction between collecting for Highest Numerical Grade to Compete in Registry Sets, versus collecting High Eye Appealing quality coins.



IMO these two things don't always coincide.

WildIdea

I suppose older collectors would look at my collection and say they could buy that stuff all day long for next to nothing. Future collectors will likely say where did you get all this cool stuff! We'll see.

csdot

Originally posted by: WildIdea
I suppose older collectors would look at my collection and say they could buy that stuff all day long for next to nothing. Future collectors will likely say where did you get all this cool stuff! We'll see.

I was sort of thinking that when I typed the OP. I have a date set of MS 64/65 Morgan Dollars (minus 1892-1895), and wonder if my grandkids (if they are interested in coins) might look at those like I might look at a Mint State set of Barber halves today? I can't see Morgans being the equivalent of Seated Dollars (as Morgans were minted in the hundred millions), but Barber halves (albeit rare in MS today) were the workhorse coins of their time.

Bochiman

Actually, no. I've never wondered how older collectors would view my collection....just how I view it and how my son views it (as we do some of it together).



I treat collecting as a hobby and relaxation bit for myself and something to do with him at times....and to share with other collectors, but I am never concerned with what went before.

leothelyon

Sheesh, I know how the earlier (Jefferson nickel) collectors would view my collection. Now, if we can only get these new whippersnappers to think the same way? hmmm and a "laugh out loud"





Leo

BillJones

I not only imagine what life was like when that coin, an 1859 O Seated Liberty Dollar for example, was struck, but also what this Dollar would have meant if my grandparents came across one.

I pulled out a random early edition of The Red Book, #10, 1956. It priced the 1859-O dollar at $27.50 in Uncirculated. That was one of the lower priced coins among the Seated Dollar, No Motto coins. The cheapest one was the 1860-O, which was also found in the early 1960s treasury hoard, at $25.00. Still that was higher than the cheapest With Motto dollars that came in a $18.00 in Unc.

Back in 1956 $27.00 was a lot of money. The people who worked in my father's holly wreath factory made $1 an hour, which was the minimum wage. That met their gross pay was $40.00 a week, less income tax withholding and Social Security. So buying one of these dollars in Mint State was a big chuck of week's wages. Even one in Very Fine would set you back $13.50 which was not a trivial sum.

So yes, to your grandparents, an 1859-O dollar was "a big coin."

csdot

Originally posted by: BillJones

I not only imagine what life was like when that coin, an 1859 O Seated Liberty Dollar for example, was struck, but also what this Dollar would have meant if my grandparents came across one.

I pulled out a random early edition of The Red Book, #10, 1956. It priced the 1859-O dollar at $27.50 in Uncirculated. That was one of the lower priced coins among the Seated Dollar, No Motto coins. The cheapest one was the 1860-O, which was also found in the early 1960s treasury hoard, at $25.00. Still that was higher than the cheapest With Motto dollars that came in a $18.00 in Unc.

Back in 1956 $27.00 was a lot of money. The people who worked in my father's holly wreath factory made $1 an hour, which was the minimum wage. That met their gross pay was $40.00 a week, less income tax withholding and Social Security. So buying one of these dollars in Mint State was a big chuck of week's wages. Even one in Very Fine would set you back $13.50 which was not a trivial sum.

So yes, to your grandparents, an 1859-O dollar was "a big coin."

Great response. If $1 was the minimum wage when this coin was $27 for an uncirculated example, that means an uncirculated example today should be approximately 8 x $27 = $216 since minimum wage today is around $8.

oih82w8

I would believe that collectors of yesteryear would be the same as (the majority of) collectors today...why would someone pay more for minuscule differences (varieties; DDO, DDR, MPD, RPM, etc...) in coins ???

ricko

No... I never think of that.... I do not even care what current collectors would think

of my collection.... it is mine to enjoy, I assembled it because I enjoyed collecting

those coins. Cheers, RickO

Type2

This reminds me of when my wife's grand mother was alive. I would ask her if she had any coins of her birth year she was born in 1916 and then said I sold them a long time ago.

I fill the same way here I don't care what others think of my collection but I think it would be the same as it was back then and money was tight when I was growing up in the 70's. I think we all collect in deferent stages low end, med and high so I think it would be looked at in the same way as back then.

But I do think of the buying power silver coinage had back then like war nickels how some one could keep one in MS and never use it when money was so tuff to come by. But when you think of it old money like a old silver dime still has the buying power to buy items over it's face value and buy something for more then a dime.

ctf_error_coins

I look forward and care what collectors of the future would think of my collection.

rhedden

My grandparents would probably scold all of us for "spending" $100 on a penny. "You'll never get that money back- it's only worth what someone is willing to pay you!"

Baley

I do think along these lines sometimes, I've built a collection that my teenage self, as well as my ancestors, could only dream of, and I think my decendants will admire it as well.



Sometimes I think about the long and convoluted path these coins have taken over the past 200+ years to reach me, and the future they will have, long after I'm gone and forgotten.

MidLifeCrisis

Interesting thread.



DRUNNER,

goodmoney4badmoney

As a modern error collector, if I was to collect "modern" errors from say.. 150 years ago, I would probably appear quite odd. Kind of like now.