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What was numismatics like for you BEFORE the internet?

ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭

I'll start.

There was nothing coin related in my hometown other than a small section of numismatic books in our local bookstore. But there was a show every April in Knoxville (Tennessee) which was about 20 miles north of my house. Probably had 75 tables and it was circled on my calendar every year.

I had a close friend who collected (as did his father). I would occasionally spend the night at his house (or he at mine) and we would barter with each other.

There was a small coin shop in the neighboring town that had all sorts of low cost circulated pieces. When I was a teenager, I would sometime ride my bike and chat with the owner. I loved trying to find AU pieces in his large binders that were marked XF. I'd usually buy something even if it was only a dollar.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, there was a coin counter at a department store we would occasionally visit in Knoxville. Again, I could spend all afternoon looking at the over priced, and often overgraded stuff behind the counter. It was great fun.

Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
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Comments

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The internet got me into coins.

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sort of getting me out as well. :#

  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭

    The hobby was certainly much slower back then. At least it was for me.

    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • Walkerguy21DWalkerguy21D Posts: 11,638 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was much less selective back then. Early walkers in better grades were tough to find at shows and non existent at b&ms. So minor problems were ok, as who knows when you'd see another 19D in xf, etc.
    However the bigger shows were great back then. Lots of nice stuff available that you rarely see now.

    Successful BST transactions with 171 members. Ebeneezer, Tonedeaf, Shane6596, Piano1, Ikenefic, RG, PCGSPhoto, stman, Don'tTelltheWife, Boosibri, Ron1968, snowequities, VTchaser, jrt103, SurfinxHI, 78saen, bp777, FHC, RYK, JTHawaii, Opportunity, Kliao, bigtime36, skanderbeg, split37, thebigeng, acloco, Toninginthblood, OKCC, braddick, Coinflip, robcool, fastfreddie, tightbudget, DBSTrader2, nickelsciolist, relaxn, Eagle eye, soldi, silverman68, ElKevvo, sawyerjosh, Schmitz7, talkingwalnut2, konsole, sharkman987, sniocsu, comma, jesbroken, David1234, biosolar, Sullykerry, Moldnut, erwindoc, MichaelDixon, GotTheBug
  • MoldnutMoldnut Posts: 3,113 ✭✭✭✭
    edited September 10, 2017 10:30AM

    I remember watching a guy on tv with a show, mid 90s I think. I want to say it was Southern Coins?
    This got me started and I would go to my local coin shop to purchase a few coins every month.
    So yeah, buying coins was much harder back then.

    Derek

    EAC 6024
  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭

    Auction houses? What was that?

    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 10, 2017 11:38AM

    There used to be many more small coin club shows in this State. From the first of October to the middle of March, you could find a 20 table to 40 table coin show almost every weekend except around Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were always bigger regional shows too, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee. The small club shows were really important in binding the community of local collectors and dealers together.

    The coin newspapers, Coin World and Numismatic News, loomed much larger too. There was a local newsstand that got three copies of Coin World each week (and they always sold out)!

    Before 1978, there were only three area B&Ms. One was a junk store, one was a stamp & coin store (stamps first), one was a solid nice coin store but it was a point of honor with the owner that he would insult every single person who entered his store. There were good enough reasons to visit all three, however.

    For me, eBay provided a lot of great coins from 2001 to 2006, and it has declined every year since. There is still good stuff there if you look. There are few bargains there now, most good stuff is either fully priced or wildly overpriced.

    The internet chat groups have always been a mixed bag. A lot of tyros, with a few psychos, and a handful of people who are the real deal.

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

    SF is on my bucket list, really hope to go there in the next eighteen months. Don't exactly know how I have missed it before now. It was probably much better in the 1960s.

  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,699 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 11, 2017 4:25AM

    What was numismatics like for me before the Internet?

    Different, but not totally different. I use auctions more than I used to, which might be a bad thing. Dealer's websites and the "shop" function provided by our hosts help me find coins. Email lets me correspond with dealers faster answers easier.

    Still, until recently, became the supplies have dried up, I have still bought most coins at the major shows. The Internet has changed things, but not many of the fundamentals. Personal examinations of perspective purchases is still better than Internet photos. Coins shows are still more fun than surfing the Web. And I much prefer reading a physical book to reading one on a computer screen. The Internet has expanded choices, but it has not replaced live contacts for me.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • SoldiSoldi Posts: 2,177 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I could go on and on, but I won't besides you folks won't read it anyway. LOL
    In all sincerity and I mean this; today there are so many more really nice coins to choose from and pricing back then seemed regional. There is just so much more and the TPGs evolved and are the best starting point for grading, as I would be convinced now, all I ever saw back then was predominantly sliders when it came to Morgan dollars.

  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,956 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 10, 2017 12:30PM

    I left coin collecting many years before the internet, but it was a random eBay search for coins just out of boredom around Y2K that brought me back.

    Then after about 6 years I left again.

    Then a few years later I came back again.

    Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.

  • UncleJoeUncleJoe Posts: 2,551 ✭✭✭

    In the beginning (before the internet) the majority of my collection came from pocket change. Lincoln cents, Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, SLQ's, and WL half dollars. Then I collected a lot of silver when clad coinage was introduced.

    Joe.

  • Jackthecat1Jackthecat1 Posts: 1,122 ✭✭✭

    The two main changes for me were that obviously there was no e-Bay back then and I used to subscribe to publications like Coin World and Numismatic News. Now I get my coin-related information online. I still go to the same shows

    Member ANS, ANA, GSNA, TNC



    image
  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Internet is a must have for major error coin collectors or any other thinly traded coins I would think.

  • CascadeChrisCascadeChris Posts: 2,527 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wait. People collected coins before eBay?

    The more you VAM..
  • cameonut2011cameonut2011 Posts: 10,181 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It blurred the retail/wholesale distinction, provided near instantaneous auction results that were harder for the general public to find, and it made it much harder for vest pocket/small dealers. Now the entire world knows what you paid, so there is somewhat of a defined cap for what you can ask if you want a coin to sell.

  • giorgio11giorgio11 Posts: 3,934 ✭✭✭✭✭

    For me the question is, what was numismatics like before the radio. I would write about numismatics before the internet but I've slept, like, 20 times since then.

    Kind regards,

    George

    VDBCoins.com Our Registry Sets Many successful BSTs; pls ask.
  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 10, 2017 1:26PM

    @ErrorsOnCoins said:
    The Internet is a must have for major error coin collectors or any other thinly traded coins I would think.

    The rarest of coins traded efficiently well before the net was created.

    I collected die cast cars as a kid (mostly Lesney) A few times each Summer my parents would take us into Ontario to search out the many small gift shops dotting the small towns.

    We found plenty of old cars and it was a lot more fun than search and click.

  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,616 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Buy high, sell low.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • koynekwestkoynekwest Posts: 10,048 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Lots of medium and a few large shows here in the Akron-Cleveland-Canton Ohio area from the early sixties to maybe 2008-09 and lots of shops, too, at least up the 21st century. The Akron monthly show was a big deal. Now it only a tiny remnant of what it was. Those are what I concentrated on back then-cherrypicking for doubled dies and such was easy and frequent. Now there's few shows and only a few good shops. Ebay was great from 1998 'till about 2010 but it's gone downhill since tho I know of a few people who do quite well there. I just don't have the patience to go thru all the junk there anymore.

  • Batman23Batman23 Posts: 4,999 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Littleton CC :o

  • rainbowroosierainbowroosie Posts: 4,875 ✭✭✭✭

    Several good bid boards in a Boston, along with multiple dealers on Bromfield Street.

    "You keep your 1804 dollar and 1822 half eagle -- give me rainbow roosies in MS68."
    rainbowroosie April 1, 2003
  • KollectorKingKollectorKing Posts: 4,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    mostly:
    B&M stores
    Bid boards
    Local & Long Beach coin shows
    Coin-A-Rama City in Inglewood every Thurs.
    Hanging around the corner liquor store to see if anything good came in (other than drunks).

  • Walkerguy21DWalkerguy21D Posts: 11,638 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Several good bid boards in a Boston, along with multiple dealers on Bromfield Street.
    JJ Teaparty was one of the few reliable mail order dealers that I found in those early years.
    I still have a number of their type coins in my 7070 album from back then.

    Successful BST transactions with 171 members. Ebeneezer, Tonedeaf, Shane6596, Piano1, Ikenefic, RG, PCGSPhoto, stman, Don'tTelltheWife, Boosibri, Ron1968, snowequities, VTchaser, jrt103, SurfinxHI, 78saen, bp777, FHC, RYK, JTHawaii, Opportunity, Kliao, bigtime36, skanderbeg, split37, thebigeng, acloco, Toninginthblood, OKCC, braddick, Coinflip, robcool, fastfreddie, tightbudget, DBSTrader2, nickelsciolist, relaxn, Eagle eye, soldi, silverman68, ElKevvo, sawyerjosh, Schmitz7, talkingwalnut2, konsole, sharkman987, sniocsu, comma, jesbroken, David1234, biosolar, Sullykerry, Moldnut, erwindoc, MichaelDixon, GotTheBug
  • crazyhounddogcrazyhounddog Posts: 14,043 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Really, Really quiet to say the least. I think the digital cameras also played a huge role for the way it is now along with the internet.

    The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
  • WDPWDP Posts: 517 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Shamika posted, "What was numismatics like for you BEFORE the internet?"

    I used to correspond by mail with another collector of the early United States silver dollars 1794 to 1803. And with other collectors. I joined Numismatic clubs and organizations and read their Journals. And I was on a few dealer's mailing lists, and occasionally ordered a coin or token from a Coin World advertisement. I'd occasionally attend a local show or a larger one if it was "in town."

    Photos were not as readily available, nor were scanners (before the internet). One day a Registered Mail package arrived. I signed for it, and opened it up. It contained a couple of rare early silver dollars from a collector friend. I sent it back with a couple of my coins for the collector to view and study. We kept this exchange up for a few years.

    Over the years I have collected quite a bit of "old correspondence" between collectors and / or dealers, some dating back to the early 1900s. I learned quite a bit from these old letters and notes. Much today is electronic, for example e-mail notes and texts. I fear that much of this will be lost to future collectors and researchers?

    Oh ya - and all the coins we bought through the middle 1980s were "raw!" I still have about 8 early dollars in the bank in 2X2 envelopes and wrapped in jeweler's tissue.

    W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN

  • JimnightJimnight Posts: 10,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Less expensive.

  • 19Lyds19Lyds Posts: 26,492 ✭✭✭✭

    What was it like "before" the Internet?

    Coin Magazines, Coins Shows, Income Tax Refunds, and collection targets. Specifically, Washingtons, and IKE's.

    There was also the US Mint which sold mail order only and limited orders to specific amounts. You had to have a customer number and wait for the mailers to come out.

    As jimnight so eloquently stated, it was also "less expensive". A LOT less expensive!

    BUT, all that changed with the Net and here we are today, discussing what changed.

    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!
  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    BID BOARDS !!!!

  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭

    @WDP said:
    Over the years I have collected quite a bit of "old correspondence" between collectors and / or dealers, some dating back to the early 1900s. I learned quite a bit from these old letters and notes. Much today is electronic, for example e-mail notes and texts. I fear that much of this will be lost to future collectors and researchers?

    Yes, I too have wondered how much is being lost due to email instead of putting pen to paper.

    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • NysotoNysoto Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    One could come up with a long list of pros and cons with the internet, but in general, everything is faster with email, internet point and click auctions, and searching websites. With the internet, you also get the non-stop entertainment of the PCGS forum.

    Before the internet, I could find the coins I wanted, it just took longer. I attended local, regional, and occasional national shows, and bought from specialist dealers such as Sheridan Downey and Stu Keen for hard to find items. I much preferred coin collecting without third party grading, for many reasons.

    I also enjoyed traveling to various coin shops, there were always some surprises and you could find some very nice and occasionally rare coins. I seldom go to local shops anymore, a couple of local dealers told me anything nice they wholesale out, rather that waiting for the right buyer that will probably never show, as local shops have become more bullion dealers than rare coins.

    Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,447 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Used to bug EERC immediately after shows to see what the NEWPS were since they were local at the time. Wanted 1st shot before the "Pink Sheet" was published. Was able to make several nice purchases that way.

    Still miss the Pink Sheet - it was a great reference for collectors of FE/IHC cents.

    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose, Cardinal.
  • WalkerfanWalkerfan Posts: 9,672 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Coin magazine mail orders.....never knowing what the coin would look like or what I'd get, when it would show up.

    Local shows and B&Ms.

    Never finding what I was looking for.

    Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍

    My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):

    https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/

  • BaleyBaley Posts: 22,663 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was only a novice 1976-82, and an intermediate collector 1995-2005.

    Really looking forward to being advanced someday in the late 2020s.

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

  • ChrisRxChrisRx Posts: 5,619 ✭✭✭✭

    Oh jeez, Littleton coin co when I was 7-10 years old, then a few local coin shops (and 1 overpriced pawn shop) from say 8-13 years old. Took a break until about 21 (internet made it a heckuva lot easier to spend the cash that's for sure!)

    image
  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Ive only collected during the Internet era and wouldn't own a coin without it. It was my lynchpin.

    As a kid I used to get those random mystery stamps through the mail in those waxy envelopes from Littleton. Glad I didn't get sucked into that

    mark

    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 10, 2017 9:15PM

    @ErrorsOnCoins said:
    The Internet is a must have for major error coin collectors or any other thinly traded coins I would think.

    Agree. The Internet has been great for thinly traded material. As an example, before the Internet coins like the Battle Creek Morgans were just stories for many, if that, but we now know what they look like, at least from photos.

  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Elcontador

    That was an amazing read. Thank you. Wow what a trip

    m

    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • mt_mslamt_msla Posts: 815 ✭✭✭✭
    edited September 10, 2017 11:27PM

    1 - COINage magazine. Redbook price guide.
    2 - Mail-order (from the magazine).
    3 - AU/BU and Choice AU/BU. Unc and even Choice Unc.
    4 - 2 local coin stores here in town.

    That's all there was. MUCH better now. Better selection. Better prices. Better dialogue (like forums.collectors.com)!

    Insert witicism here. [ xxx ]

  • mustangmanbobmustangmanbob Posts: 1,890 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Started Collecting in 1965.

    Periodic Time outs for the Army, Marriage, Kids, etc.

    Internet has ABSOLUTELY changed my whole vision of collecting. I believe it CRUSHED the local "Buy for $10, sell for $80" business model, but not just for coins, for scads of things from dishwasher repair parts, furnace filters, to $200,000 antiques, etc. It also cratered the business model of buying something and letting it sit in inventory for 3 years.

    It destroyed regionally induced biases of price and scarcity. The one 1909-S VDB in the local B&M sat for years, over priced and over graded, because the owner "knew" he/she couldn't get another one, so the price was high, and the buyers "knew" that was the only chance they would have to get one. Now, there are 500+ on ebay at any time.

    I am also biased as I retired at 53 thanks to the DotCom. Chances are, you may be communicating on the internet on a server that contains chips that I worked on. My area was Ion implantation of lightly doped bird's beak P and N drains, billions of them on a chip smaller than a Washington quarter,

    It also "created" my "keep SWMBO off my back" post retirement business selling 65 - 68 Mustang car parts. 35 years ago, set up at the 2 outdoor swap meets per year, run classified ads in the local newspaper and Hemmings Motor New in between, Customers KNEW if they did not buy at the swap meet, it would be 6 months before the next one, and if you needed that door for a 1967 Mustang Fastback, you had to buy it then. Now, just go to ebay and Craiglist.

    Sales outside of local were based on expensive long distance phone calls, verbal descriptions, checks, money orders, even cash through the mail, and the HOPE the SOMETHING showed up and it was at least close to the description.

    Now, high quality pictures, real time purchase, paypal for security, shipping with tracking, and a truly international market. Today, (Monday) 12 shipments to FedEx and the Post Office, with 3 of them going overseas. There is NO WAY the buyer in Poland, who probably has the only 1966 Mustang in the country, would have ever found me to buy an original optional tachometer 30 years ago, even if the Iron Curtain did not exist.

  • DBSTrader2DBSTrader2 Posts: 3,498 ✭✭✭✭

    I started collecting in blue Whitman folders with the help of my Grandparents. I'd go thru their change dish every time I visited, filling holes in my Lincoln & Jefferson folders. Over time, I expanded into clad dimes & quarters, then halves. We'd take trips (walking) downtown to Woolworth's and its coin counter, or Smelter's Row on Arch St, for me to pore thru coffee cans full of "melt" silver. I was young & poor at the time, so all I looked thru were dimes & quarters - - I only knew then what I know now!

    Over time, I looked thru change after collecting for my brother's paper route, and my parents gave us each a portion of what they'd saved of silver coins. And I went thru bank rolls as well. And the coin magazines to take advantage of the individual coin ads.

    Later, when I worked retail management, I'd search thru bank rolls & the tills and find wheaties & silver & assorted silver certificates, etc.

    All small-time stuff, eventually expanding my library of blue Whitman folders. After receiving some coins in change and a trip to Canada, I started collecting those as well. And, based on an Australian large cent I received from a relative, I expanded into those as well.

    And, of course, there were local coin shops, flea markets, and a show or two.

    But I continued to be just a small-time collector vs into mounds of silver or gold or slabs. Filling holes & trying to get close to filling sets (less the keys) was (and still is) good enough for me.

    But then things slowed down as pickings got fewer & fewer and I got busier at work & with family obligations.

    I doubt I'd be anywhere near where I am now if not for the juncture of 2 things.... the Internet & one of several strikes at work. As "Management", we had to work long days in a row covering the office while others went out in the field as scabs. Projects were at a standstill, so it was just maintenance & emergency outage coverage. With so much time on my hands, I started exploring the Internet and found, among other sites, this Forum and eBay.

    Suddenly, the world was at my fingertips! I met and bought from or traded with tons of people from around the world on-line. I picked up more & more blue Whitman folders from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, & Mexico, and made huge progress filling them. Same (to a lesser extent) with U.S. coins, expanding more into halves & dollars over time. I put together an almost-complete set of Euro coins from the first few years of issue, as well as started a 1-per-country collection which morphed like the Blob over time to a "1-per-phase/locale-per whatever" collection that now spans 8 huge 3" binders full of 2x2's. It was the "second golden age" of collecting for me!

    Nowadays, I spend time online here looking to trade for a few coins to keep our U.S. & Canadian folders up-to-date each year, trading with a few others from here & Canada to help them get their U.S. needs filled, and sending off some extras to YN's who I see taking the same route with their parents/grandparents as I did many decades ago. That last effort is very rewarding, and my small effort to "pay it forward".

    So it's been a fun ride!

  • OverdateOverdate Posts: 7,144 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Before the Internet I would sit at my computer clicking the mouse, but nothing ever came up!

    My Adolph A. Weinman signature :)

  • divecchiadivecchia Posts: 6,688 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @rainbowroosie said:
    Several good bid boards in a Boston, along with multiple dealers on Bromfield Street.

    Bromfield Street in Boston is where I spent most of my free time before the internet was around. At the time in the mid to late 1980's there were 4 coin shops on Bromfield Street, all within 100 yards of each other. Great times.

    Numismatics pre-internet for me was pretty much the way it is now after the internet as I like to see the coins in hand before purchasing them. I also love going to the shows and searching the shows better than clicking search on-line.

    Donato

    Hobbyist & Collector (not an investor).
    Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set

    Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
  • tommy44tommy44 Posts: 2,316 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In the beginning….. probably around 1957(?) all my coins came from change collected on my paper route or roll searching.

    In the early to mid-60s I bought coins via mail bid, sight unseen, through classified ads in the back pages of Coin World. Lots of auctions listed every week, the ads listed type, date, dealer’s opinion of the grade and that was it. Eventually you would figure out who’s descriptions were accurate and go from there. I seem to remember lots of wins from A.J. Elio? Anyone want to set me straight on that name? Lots of nice uncirculated and proof type coins that I wish I still had today.

    In the later 60s through around 1990 or so it was auctions by Stack’s / Coin Galleries, Kagin’s RARCOA, Superior Stamp & Coin (Goldberg’s), Bowers & Ruddy, Bowers & Merena, Harmer Rooke, Joseph Lepczyk, Steve Ivy (pre Heritage), Paramount and etc. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. Most purchases were via mail bid through printed catalogs, sight unseen, most without pictures and those that were pictured were mostly “actual size” black and white. Occasionally I would attend a Stack’s auction in New York, a Superior sale in Los Angeles while visiting California relatives (actually sat next to Buddy Epson at one of those sales) or a major auction at a ANA show here or there, especially the 1977 show in Atlanta. Also made many purchases at shows and from local dealers in Schenectady, Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo and especially Rochester NY where I bought a good portion of the coins in my set of $5 liberty half-eagles, the better ones from Joe Kuehnert between 1972 and 1975. I remember Joe showing me draped bust $10s for three or four times what I paid for some of the $5s I bought from him but I was only interested in the $5s. In 1975 I moved to Georgia, attended local and regional shows along with an occasional ANA show and had my favorite dealers. Up until this time all of my coins including my “sight unseen” auction purchases were uncertified and as a result when I had all of my US gold and Morgan dollars certified in 2015 and 2016 I ended up with lots of “details” graded coins.

    In 1991 I bought my first and only slabbed coin, an 1868-S VG10 $5, in a Heritage Bullet sale, (remember those?), and sort of lost interest in “collecting” until 2011. I would still attend local and regional shows do a little buying and selling but nothing like the “good old days”.

    In 2011 the internet was alive and well and I jumped back in with both feet. At this point in my life with more money than brains I added over two dozen coins to my set of half-eagles and in 2016 NGC presented me with an award for “Best Presented Set, Liberty Head Half Eagles 1839 – 1908”. It was at that point that I came to the conclusion that unless I settle for a 54-S and 75-P from China I’d never complete the set. I’m trying to decide if I should sell off part of the set and use the funds to settle for a date set since I’m only lacking four dates.

    Thanks for reading my blather if you got this far.

    it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide

  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,699 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @divecchia said:

    @rainbowroosie said:
    Several good bid boards in a Boston, along with multiple dealers on Bromfield Street.

    Bromfield Street in Boston is where I spent most of my free time before the internet was around. At the time in the mid to late 1980's there were 4 coin shops on Bromfield Street, all within 100 yards of each other. Great times.

    Numismatics pre-internet for me was pretty much the way it is now after the internet as I like to see the coins in hand before purchasing them. I also love going to the shows and searching the shows better than clicking search on-line.

    Donato

    Four shops - JJ Teaparty, Boston Towne Coin, Sam Stone and John Dean. I am surprised that you didn't walk around the corner to Worthy Coin which was on Province Street.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • astroratastrorat Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Internet dramatically increased access, for me. I have not been one who is able to take time to travel to the major shows and local shows were never that great for my collecting needs. Mail bids and fixed price lists were great, but "nice" coins tended to go rather quickly so unless you were blessed with early mail delivery, you were often left out of the "fresh" purchases.

    The Internet allows for daily access to sellers and has dramatically improved the ability to purchase coins that were previously offered via fixed price lists or at shows. My "hits" greatly improved from a number of dealers who used to sell only via fixed price lists, but have offerings via their web pages.

    Numismatist Ordinaire
    See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,528 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Computing was not as fun for me, prior to the internet. And coins weren't either.

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