For you, have coins been a gateway to other collectibles?
I was in Chicago a few years ago on business and stopped by Harlan Berks office. I was ushered upstairs and Harlan was kind enough to spend maybe an hour with me just looking at a bunch of ancient coins. The room we visited in contained a number of old maps on the walls.
Fast-forward to the present. My wife was re-organizing a room and needed some interesting items for a wall. I remembered the old maps, googled the site (apparently Harlan moved the maps to a new company) and found something quite inexpensive that really fit the bill. It arrived in short order, we got it framed, and it's pretty darn interesting.
This is a lithograph from 1862 that shows the Pacific Northwest. Parts of Oregon and Idaho are labeled "Unexplored" and the borders are quite different from what we know today.
I don't think I'll become a map collector, but this is a fun little piece of history that I can hold in my hand.
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I do collect medieval manuscripts, but both developed independently to a degree.
A thread today reminded me of how much I liked Beer Cans when I was a kid. I spent my Ebay bucks on some. So I would say sure.
I seriously thought about collecting classic commemorative original government packaging at one point wth the coins.
I really liked a Pan Pac box for one of the $50 slugs.
No one asked but I will post a photo anyway.
I have collected on a whim quite often. If at an auction I will buy if I think the item is interesting. I have three maps but I don't display them. We have three cabinets that we slowly fill with items we pick up as we visit different countries, states, towns. Normally from antique shops but not exclusively. Sterling is always on our radar.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
@ironmanl63 ....Nice collection... I always liked Tennents Lager... drank quite a few in Scotland and some in England...
As far as collections...Actually, collecting very old decks of cards started just a couple of years after coins (as a kid)...another kid brought a coin to show me and also an old deck of cards from his Grandmothers trunk...no numbers, wrapped in newspaper from the 1860's....I paid a nickel for the deck of cards, did not want the coin. Still have that deck of cards. Cheers, RickO
I'm five tokens away from a full set of OPA tokens and that's doable. Also putting together an array of Red Goose shoe tokens which is fun. Coin searching for errors small and not so small. Have a good day. Peace Roy
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Not at all. I prefer to go deeper with this hobby instead of wider with others.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
Numismatic literature--there have been some years when I spent more on literature than on coins.
Antique coin balances (17th and early 18th century) and 19th century mechanical counterfeit coin detectors.
Fossils--I bought my first one (C. megalodon tooth) in a coin shop.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
BryceM,
Do you have any idea regarding where the map came from--was it removed from a book?
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Attending the last NYC ANA summer convention, 2002 I think [please correct me if I am wrong]
I met a nice gentleman who was selling Numismatic books.
I was attracted to a Red Book Special edition, which was probably the 1992 special ANA overprint. That plus one that was signed was the start of my collection of Red & Blue books.
I now have a complete set of Red Books in above average to mint [new] condition.
All special editions, a near complete set of Red Books signed by RS Yeoman. [ I am missing one year].
A complete set signed by Ken Bressett.
A complete set of Special editions, all signed.
And Red & Blue book related materials.
BHNC #203
Apparently it was part of an old atlas. This is the description on the website. When I ordered the map, it came with a similar description, nicely printed on bond paper:
not really. I grew up in an old house surrounded by old things so I am rather fond old things. I have many old things but I do not collect them, I use them.
I think that coin collecting has been a gateway to at least one of my other collections. But I know that my experience as a coin collector and my understanding of the science of coin collecting has greatly influenced how I collect in other disciplines.
The most obvious link to coins is my collection of pre-revolutionary war silver beer mugs. I'm attracted to them for many of the same reasons that I'm drawn to coins: they're historical, made of precious metals with intrinsic value, they are made with an exacting purity standard, they're dated, etc.
The other collection not so much: Visual art (paintings) by some of my favorite musical artists.
For both of my other collections, I keep detailed excel files of when and where I got the pieces, prices paid, seller's descriptions, and columns for notes. Condition for the artwork is not really an issue, but the condition of the mugs, and especially their originality, is really important to me.
Provenance with the artwork is really important--so much so that I try to acquire pieces directly from the artists. This has the awesome benefit of putting me in direct contact with some of my idols. I've been able to exchange emails, sometimes phone calls, with people I've admired for years. And I've been able to acquire a note in the artist's handwriting to include with the work's portfolio.
My experience as a Box of Twenty coin collector has definitely influenced how I collect in these other fields: I look for the best representative example I can afford, pieces that really speak to me, rather than randomly hoarding pieces.
And I know that my experience in negotiating deals for coins over the last several decades has influenced how I make purchases and negotiate prices for the mugs and the art.
On a somewhat related note: Several years ago we were able to excavate a bottle dump / privy at one of the historical buildings I owned. Several of the bottles were very good, including a few that are pretty collectible. As a coin collector, my instinct was to protect the original surfaces of the 120+ year old glass. That custodial role we often feel as numismatists. While that philosophy seems to have taken root in the antique automobile and antique furniture hobbies, I was a little stunned to find it does not seem to have infiltrated "bottle collecting". It's common practice to tumble highly collectible bottles, stripping off the top layers, to make the bottles look brand new and shiny. Even worse, many bottles are exposed to UV light to turn them purple--apparently what many collectors want.
--Severian the Lame
Weiss,
I would very much like to see images of what is in your box of 20. I have found your posts and images interesting.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Antique silver for me, and lately, currency.
My YouTube Channel
Nope, I’ve not engaged in other collectibles. My other hobbies (I rotate between them) is photography and astrophotography.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
Thanks, @Sonorandesertrat . I think I'll be changing one of these in the next month...
--Severian the Lame
Was that silver Wiener medal the one CRO had a while ago? I tried to buy that piece, but it was already sold. Nice set!
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
This was a CRO purchase, but that was back in 2013. It's listed on their archive / hall of fame page:
https://www.coinraritiesonline.com/index.php?page=archive&task=det_item&item_id=595931
--Severian the Lame
@ironmanl63 Very cool cans. I collectected them,too, when I was a kid. I have 3 or 4 cone tops, which are cool. I had the solid steel Tennent's Lager can 'Penny in the Evening'. I think I still have it around somewhere.
Front:
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
If you want to call tokens and medals, "other collectables" sure. I also collect politcal pin back buttons. History and a good stores gets me going.
Nice! There was a man who lived down the block who had a huge collection when I was a kid.. All the walls in his basement were full. He had even built rows like in a library. Every thing you could imagine cone tops and all. I would pester him every time I saw him to show me his collection. Maybe once every couple years he would let me walk thru.
The thread that mentioned beer cans brought back some good memories from that time. When I saw those cans on Ebay I had to have them.
Nothing else for me at the moment. I dabbled with assorted stuff as a kid, but it's all coins now. If I were to purchase a decorative collectible item (a map, for example), I would do so with a collector's eye and practicality, getting the equivalent of a nice type coin, and not a reprocessed 1943 cent.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
Yes
I dabbled in some other items, like a complete 60's collection of graded Mickey Mantle Topps baseball cards (since sold to buy gold coins), and then a few unique autograph pieces (among them):
I've branched out into large type currency in the last few years. The last note I purchased:
LIncoln cents to all sorts of Lincolniana. Stamps, medals, currency, campaign and mortuary ribbons and badges, photos, prints, books, busts, cartoons, plaques, post cards, 1909 and Chicago Worlds Fair items, then on to Republican convention badges and Ike/Abe Ike election items, Civil War CDV's. Collecting is in my DNA. Yes, I need professional help.
Original oil Paintings by my favorite artist
R Atkinson Fox. (1860-1935) Still popular today with collectors. Prints can be had on EBay. Original oils are a bit harder to find. 19 and always looking.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
@ironmanl63 There was an old guy like that in my neighborhood, too. He had collected since the Seventies. He had his whole basement redone and all of the walls were shelved with beer cans. Also, a leather couch and a wet bar that was fully stocked....It was his man-cave. He only had one or two cones but lots and lots of tough flat and tab tops. He had a Tam 'O Shanter, which was a really tough flat. He advertised his cans for sale in the late 1990s or early 2000s IIRC. The exact year is a little fuzzy to me. I went over there and just had to buy some of them for nostalgia's sake. His wife looked really glad LOL.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I have cracked a few rocks open that I find in the field. I usually lay the nice flat pieces next to the foundation to keep the grass from growing.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
I also have some old maps, a few pulled from atlases and more within old books that have not been parted out.
The research I did for Robert Scot included eighteenth-century books that had copperplate engraved illustrations. The first one I bought was interesting, from a Canadian firm that parted out old books to sell the engravings for huge markups. The engraving I bought was advertised as engraved by Robert Scot in 1794 for Rees Encyclopedia. As it turns out, they were wrong with everything. It took a year to figure out the actual history of the engraving, and led to the first big break in my research of Scot. The engraving was from 1791, not 1794 as this did not make sense - Scot was engraving for the Mint in 1794. The publisher was not Rees, it was Thomas Dobson. The American edition of Rees Encylopedia was actually published between 1806 and 1820 by Samuel Bradford, and there were on-going lawsuits between Dobson and Bradford. Scot never engraved for Rees or Bradford. The engraving was not even engraved by Robert Scot, it was done by one of his apprentices, Samuel Allardice.
The research unfolded connections between Robert Scot, the St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia, and publishers Dobson, William Young, Robert Campbell, and others.
The OP 1862 map is interesting, as Washington was a territory until 1889, and Idaho was not a territory until 1863.
I like to look for old zippo lighters. Some are unique
Upon my first trip to the UK in 1994, right after leaving Gatwick, I found a pub and had what I believe was a tennents velvet ale. Was new to me and the smoothest beer I ever tasted. I was 16 at the time and was overwhelmed at getting away with drinking in a bar and no one gave a flying shat.
Well, that Tennents lead to a love affair with UK beers that manifested in several more trips over the sea and to McEwans and Newcastle. Boy oh boy did I do some partying in Newcastle. Those young ladies were suckers for an American accent. 😀
My God. The things that went on. 😛
Anyways, the pic just brought up memories. Now I’m a firm Guinness man. Stout for life!!!
"Today the crumbs, tomorrow the
loaf. Perhaps someday the whole damn boulangerie." - fictional Jack Rackham
I started with coins at a very young age, my greatgrandpa got me into it. He also collected stamps and sports cards. I never got into stamps, but I did start a collection of sports cards when i was a kid. My interest in cards changed when the original Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh came out and my focus went into those cards. I had hundreds of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and nearly a complete set of the original Pokemon cards, just needed a the holographics. I ruined most of the Yu-Gi-Oh cards playing the game with them. I ended up giving away my set of Pokemon cards to a friend years after I stopped collecting. I did keep these three as a memento.
Now I collect unique rocks that I personally find (petrified wood, obsidian, agate, crystals) from places I visit, but my main collecting interest is coins.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/mysetregistry/showcase/6602
I think I came out of the womb an impulsive, obsessive collector. Both of my parents are collectors. As a kid I collected pretty much anything—gum cards, bottle caps, rocks, shells, stamps, you name it—if I had one of something, I wanted another and then another. I was garage-saling and attending auctions from the time I was 13 years old. I discovered coins at about age 11-12 and that has been the collectible I always come back to — primarily Exonumia. The only other thing I’ve collected as much as coins is antique sports equipment.
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
For awhile I collected Dtate if Iowa trade tokens
I try to do a bit of disaster collecting here and there. It’s hard to come across too much stuff because a lot of it was destroyed.
Fossils. Not sure the connection other than a desire for old unique stuff.
Maps are works of art!
While my focus is on coins, I do dabble a bit it U.S. Gold Certificates, primarily ones from 1882.
Dave
I also collect medieval manuscripts, well pages rather as generally an entire book is well beyond what I can afford. An individual prayer book page with decorations, or a miniature, is a small medieval masterpiece by an unknown artist. It is remarkably obtainable compared with an original painting of the same era. Rather than being something independent, this goes along with my interest in medieval coins.
@Nap Nice!
I've collected things my whole life, bordering on hoarder territory. Sportscards, comics, shells, plants, tools, fishing gear, coins are just the latest. I always end up getting rid of most things and only keeping a few of what I like when moving on to a new thing. Cards and comics are all gone, coins have persisted the longest, although my interest changed a few times. I can think of worse things to be addicted to.
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If not for the interest in coins/currency, I would never have had an interest in this Harnett.
It's titled "A Gentleman's Essentials", basically a commentary on the 1880's with the development of the "upper class" who could read, write and had money over and above that needed for basic necessities.
Nope not for me, coins are the only thing I collect.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
A Harnett.......I’m impressed!
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Absolutely yes. I also collect prints and paintings. And fossils as well.
The main thing I see associated with coins is... guns.
There are others, but they don't seem as prevalent, aside from bullion, tokens and medals that is.
Absolutely, in a roundabout way.
Needless to say, I've bid in a wide variety of coin auctions at various auction houses, Goldbergs amongst them, and have gotten onto their mailing lists for coin auction catalogues. In 2007 I got an auction catalogue from Goldbergs, only it wasn't for coins... it was for space memorabilia. I was SHOCKED to find out I could (hopefully) buy artifacts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions of my youth. It was a very pleasant surprise. Needless to say, I was hooked.
U.S. Type Set
Hmmm...this could go both ways! What other collectible might have led you to coins? A collector is a collector....as others I've collected almost any thing you can think about. Bugs, Rocks, Shells, Bottle Caps, Leaves, Stamps, Sports Cards, Brick a Brack, Small Antiques, … I could go on and on!