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Side Collection?
pruebas
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On the US Forum, @asheland posted about his side collection. As coins from my primary collection are so few and far between (and now, very expensive), my side collection had been Mexican medals.
I have since sold most of my gold medals to fund my primary collection, but I happily note that most of my silver medals are now $100-$250 items (which I purchased from $15-$50 over the years).
With the increase in prices of my side collection, and with my many more primary collections, I no longer have a side collection.
What’s your side collection, if any? If none, why not?
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I have many different numismatic interests. I collect medals… mostly ones that I feel have artistic merit and/or historical significance. Afew years back I came across the 1933 LaGuardia medal; the GM 1908-1933 silver plated medal and FDR inaugural medals.
As for coins, there are what I call side projects that provide an incentive to look carefully at shows. I believe that the coins I appreciate the most were not a primary interest at the time I saw and acquired them.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Well, I like to go for coins that are attractive, scarce, well struck and if possible from an area "they ain't". So that would be the circulation strikes or currency versions of the Franklin Mint, and especially from the 1981-85 era - well I did have to include the proofs that have been so much maligned. These were hard to find at one point, and now they are hard to find and unfortunately getting more expensive!
Well, just Love coins, period.
Spanish Colonial coins, emphasis on pillars, are my primary focus, I have five side collections.
-British monarchs, one per monarch
-Roman Rulers, one per ruler
-Bolivia republic
-Story Coins (box of 20 with cool stories.)
-lowball US
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
I've given up the sport but for over a decade I was a competitive fencer so I made a side collection of coins depicting fencers, often from Olympic issues and the somewhat frequent and maybe not officially licensed issues. Many are silver or gold issues. Here's a few:
World War II countries that no longer exist in their WWII form (think Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, and others), occupation coinages, and government in exile coinages. I shy away from the nazi coinage of Germany itself.
This side collection involves a lot of base metal coinage that is quite commonly encountered in circulated grades, or environmentally damaged condition, but quite scarce and sometimes rare in mint state, pristine condition.
This collection is not overly expensive, but I find it very rich in history and the stories of human tragedy in 1938-1945 Europe.
http://www.victoriancent.com
None, because my main collection is "Coins I Like". I'm not interested in spending money on "Coins I Don't Like Quite As Much".
I think that the "Panama pills" look great. I've had a few
My main collection is Canadian date and varieties up to 1967. Only need two dates and about 155 varieties (per PCGS). I also collect the pre-confederation tokens of Canada. I've also just started collecting French Colonial issues used in North America. These are listed in the front of Charlton and the Red Book.
Life member #369 of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
Member of Canadian Association of Token Collectors
Collector of:
Canadian coins and pre-confederation tokens
Darkside proof/mint sets dated 1960
My Ebay
As someone whose "main collection" is all coins worldwide by type, ancient through to modern, my "side collection" would be "anything in my collection that isn't a coin".
"Banknotes from countries that never got around to issuing coins" is one key side collection of interest. Tokens that have some kind of "geographic" context such as Conder tokens and US sales tax tokens would be another.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
My primary collection is a 1840 to 1907 run of Liberty $2.50's. Stoppers like 1854-s and 1864 make it certain I will never complete the set by date and mint mark.
My side set is the 1 coin per century set in gold or electrum from the 7th Century BC to the present. That set is complete but is constantly changing as I upgrade and replace.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163
March of Time - 27 Centuries in Gold
https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=36590
My primary collection is chopmarked US trade dollars. My secondary collection is US gold. My tertiary collection is chopmarked world coins.
See showcase here -> https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/world-coins/chopmarked-world-coins/15982
I have other quaternary, quinary, etc collections consisting of moderns, sample slabs, etc.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
I began 'side collecting' about the same time I began my collection of Karl Goetz material back in 2004. In honesty, my side collections intrigue me far more than my Goetz collection.
Ludwig Gies tops the billing here in my studio. Art medals from his beginnings in 1910-1918 Munich, Germany. The collection, The Caldera Collection, contains 60+ cast iron, bronze, and silver medals of utmost rarity and beauty.
If you'd like to see the collection in its current state, head to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntRefXY4HkM to take a look. The presentation originally had a soundtrack but YouTube blew the music out of the water due to copyright....so, play some quiet moody music while viewing this unique collection. There isn't another like it. HSG
karlgoetzmedals.com
My side collection is memorabilia and medals made for the Tsukuba 1985 International Science Exhibition, a place of wonders when I heard about it as a teenager, but completely out of my reach at that time.
Amazing & beautiful collection! Congratulations on assembling it. Since there is no soundtrack on the presentation, I played it back at 2x and stopped when necessary.
Actually, I have a few side collections, it’s almost like hoarding 😆
But I do like vintage postcards, stuff from that 1900 to 1910 era primarily and of course, as a few of you know, I love old silverware, and definitely love my vintage bullion…
My habits are very expensive 😆
That’s one of my most recent postcards, I really liked that because in addition to being Roycroft, I also noticed it’s my birthday 69 years before I was born! So I guess I as of today that postcard is 119 years old! And it cost around 10 bucks or less, that’s one of the more affordable side collections…
This is my most recent ingot:
And one of my most recent pieces of silverware:
My YouTube Channel
My primary collection is Latin American crowns.
I have collections in varying levels of maturity of:
Chilean patterns
Irish proofs
Southwest Michigan Civil War tokens
Tokens from Kalamazoo MI, my hometown
The problem with my side collections are that they are all difficult to add to given either their absolute rarity (patterns and proofs) or their state of completion (tokens). The combination of my primary plus side projects is more than enough to keep my funds sufficiently utilized.
Latin American Collection
My side collection are the coins...
My primary collection is of medieval manuscripts.
Bolivia 1864-1909 decimals and Lion & Castle 1/4 real, but I haven't bought much of either in a long time.
I have a few collections, and each one gets relegated to "side collection" when nothing interesting has been available for a while.
Bust Quarters
Latin American Republic gold
Large Cents in old holders
Bust Dollars (this collection has been shrinking rapidly due to interest from other collectors)
Bust coin errors
Latin/South American Republic 2 reales
British large pennies for myself
Bahamas Cents for the wife
Sacagawea and Native American Dollars for the Mother in Law
and all the coins from a particular country whenever I get a request for an album I haven't designed yet. Right now that is Uruguay.
Custom album maker and numismatic photographer.
Need a personalized album made? Design it on the website below and I'll build it for you.
https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/.
My main collection is Holed and Creatively destroyed U.S. coins by date and mintmark. Main side collections are birthyear sets of world coins (VG to Proof) for wife and I. The price of silver and gold advancing as it has over the last year has made it more difficult to find and afford holed 5, 10, and $20 gold coins for my sets. I fear many were sold to smelters and I can hardly blame the sellers for not passing up the opportunity of making a very good profit. I was (still am) tempted. Also, postcards and some interesting medals are still purchased when I see them. Trying to slow down a bit, but it is hard to break a lifelong addiction.
I was trying that too, but then I thought what is left for me to enjoy , with only a few more decades to live (I am 58 now)? So my conclusion was ~ no slowing down ~!
My side collection is nice world type in PCGS old green holders. They’re fun.
Can you ellaborate? I didn't even know that such countries existed. I mean, even the short lived Biafra had both coins and banknotes.
Does the wife and/or the MiL know about their collections?
Having seen some examples of your side collection , it's very impressive. Have you ever posted an entire thread dedicated to your primary collection ?
I loved the punchline in the end!
@cacheman: respect.
So are mine!
I wouldn't say that it is like hoarding, but it is definitely related. Pretty much all collectors have it to various degrees.
If the OP question was slightly different and allowed us to include everything that we've collected, acquired, purchased since we started (most of us as kids), regardless if we abandonned most of them and lost or sold them or gave them away,
I believe that the replies would have been much longer and most likely, more revealing of our compulsions to obtain, to preserve and to treasure a wild variety of different objects of different sizes and materials .
myEbay
DPOTD 3
@Syracusian they both started their own collections, I'm just helping them along the way. I've made each of them custom albums to house their sets.
I should add Lithuania Schillings for my wife. While we were at Bay State, she picked out a 1665 Schilling citing her family heritage. There is only about ten different dates/mintmarks for that short set and the coins are inexpensive.
Custom album maker and numismatic photographer.
Need a personalized album made? Design it on the website below and I'll build it for you.
https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/.
Sure. Two that come to mind from the American series are, of course, the Confederate States (for which coins are functionally nonexistent) and the Republic of Texas (for which coins are actually nonexistent).
Most are indeed, like the CSA and Texas, short-lived rebel states, military occupations from forces that were later forced to withdraw, or disputed territories for which the dispute was resolved relatively quickly. Others that come to mind from elsewhere around the world are Memelland, Japanese-occupied Oceania (as well as Malaya, the Philippines and Burma), Nazi-occupied Jersey, various factions and splinter-states of the Russian Civil War, Netherlands New Guinea, and Trieste. Then of course there's Northern Ireland, perhaps a special case.
Most of these have "short-lived" in common, as well as "resource-stretched" in terms of an occupying power not really having the spare metal to make coins for the civilians in the occupied territory to use. And for some, the "disputed" part of the nature might mean that whoever was nominally in charge realised that any money spent on making coins would be wasted if the dispute were resolved quickly and the coins made redundant.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
Interesting collection. If you ever want to expand it, you probably know that there are a few countries in Asia that existed prior to WW2 but didn't exist after WW2. Manchukuo and Sarawak come to mind, but there must be one or two others as well. Maybe they had coins too.
@Syracusian no, I have never posted a thread about the manuscripts as likely many people here are not into these and I do not want to bother, but here we go with some examples...
French Bible, XIIi century. Attribution to the Johaness Graush atelier
Cistersian breviary, XIII century, Amiens.
Oxford Bible, attributed to William de Brailes or his circle. Fantastic Bible this one.
Same bible leaf (left) with the plate from the book by Peter Kidd...
Italian Book of Hours, last rites.
This is a Breviary from Augsburg, XIV century. Resurrection and 3 Maries. Crazy battle at Christie's...
Just few examples with images I have available now.
Wow, thank you all for your follow ups to my questions.
myEbay
DPOTD 3
As a history major, I enjoyed the manuscripts, for the beauty like I enjoy a beautiful coin or medal. Thank you
Asheland, Roycroft Inn in East Aurora in 1907 is the zenith of the US Arts & Crafts movement. Furniture pictured would all have been made by the Roycrofters.
Nice silver ingot.
Here is one of my office chairs - L & JG Stickely circa 1912. Roycrofter furniture is notably scarcer and is very desirable today.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163
March of Time - 27 Centuries in Gold
https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=36590
I, too, have some Roycroft furniture (modern reproductions made by Stickley). Cool stuff!
That chair is outstanding!
My YouTube Channel
If you have pictures, post them! I would love to see!
My YouTube Channel
The Roycroft logo is on the side (hard to see in the photo). This is called a cellarette, which was originally meant for storing wine. I just use it in my dining room.
If side collections include something other than coins, I also collect Union Castle Line memorabilia but have not bought anything in years. Only bought off eBay, haven't seen anything I wanted, and all of it is now overpriced IMO.
asheland, here are some photos of Roycroft furniture products contemporary to your East Aurora postcard. The chesnut bench/arm chair and mahogany rocker are called out by the dealer as 1905 to 1910.
Unlike the fragile paper labels used by other Arts & Crafts era furniture makers (Gustav Stickley, L&JG Stickley, etc.) the Roycroft logo survives even on refinished pieces.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163
March of Time - 27 Centuries in Gold
https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=36590
The postcard above reminded me of the one I found on eBay that was sent to Bodie, CA (old mining towns are one of my interests) that depicted the Carson City mint.
Bodie is a very interesting ghost town to visit. It's been many, many years since I saw it but it probably looks the same.
Great thread…
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
That’s very cool! Thanks for posting. 😎
My YouTube Channel
Those are splendid!
Speaking of Roycroft, a few months ago, I got a piece of Roycroft fairly cheap, it had been polished, and I bought it on a whim, the guy was about to take it to Goodwill, I thought it was fake at first, because it looked a little too good to be true, but I ended up showing it to a Roycroft expert, and he informed me that the piece was indeed genuine, but needed to be refinished professionally.
Anyway, I sent it off to a guy in Georgia that does professional patina refinishing, I’m very much looking forward to seeing this piece when it gets back!
This was it the day I got it, the inside appeared to have the original patina, but the outside had been polished and then lacquered…
When I get it back, it should have an even patina inside and out and look like it would’ve looked originally when it was made, the guy I showed it to said he thinks it was made between 1915 and 1920.
It’s a large piece, very, very cool, I can’t wait to see it when it gets back!
My YouTube Channel
I ordered this from Stickley, it’s a remake from the original 1901 catalogue, made the exact same way as the original piece but made nowadays…
This is the picture from the 1901 catalog:
Here are the pictures from the catalog nowadays:
I ordered it a little over a month ago, hopefully I’ll have it about a month from now…
Very much looking forward to this one!
My YouTube Channel
In the first post of this thread, @pruebas wrote "As coins from my primary collection are so few and far between (and now, very expensive)(...)".
I've experienced the same pattern with my main collection (German states coins from my home town), but came to a different conclusion - I recently degraded my former main collection to become my side collection and decided to offer a good part of the collection for sale, just keeping coins with either historic significance, great eye-appeal or coins with a high personal value (like gifts or newly discovered varieties I submitted for publication).
Simultaneously spending both less time and more money on my collection resulted in less and less fun with my hobby while I also am a little bit worried about the future liquidity of such a collection in a numismatic niche with a shrinking collector base.
So I might be a little late to the game, but decided to make bullion grade coins my main focus, especially mid-grade circulating European gold and silver coins from the mid-1800's to early 1900's.
There is a lot of variety, you can get them close to spot price, they are a far more liquid asset and may be a better option if I don't want to loose too much money in the future when I either want or need the money for other projects, hobbies or priorities.
Really like old(er) furniture. I regret not buying the piece below. I have a nice one, but not nearly as nice as this one. Virtually none of my furniture is "modern".
I'm overly concentrated in my primary collection too financially. I don't know the current actual value (only estimated), but it's in the vicinity of 80%+ of the total. I consider the future prospects favorable relatively, but that's contingent upon economic factors outside of collecting too.
At some point, I intend to diversify for both financial reasons and to collect more variety, but the pillar coins I still want to buy aren't cheap to me.
Something for the Arts & Crafts tables...
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I'd like to buy more for side collections, but everything is so much more expensive even if only proportionately. Increased more or a lot more than my discretionary income to buy it.
All common silver crown sized coins are a lot more expensive from the metal content alone.
I bought three South Africa short proof sets (1953, 1955, and 1956) in 2002 for $20 each, in the original case and all gem. I'd guess $300 or so each now, maybe slightly less. I still have the 1956 which graded "66" and "67".
Shohei Ohtani baseball cards.
My career/entire life has been in baseball and I knew damn well that he was the most talented player who’s ever played the game after his first 2 months in the major leagues with the Angels.
So I wisely picked up a lot of rookie cards.
Then I very dumbly sold vast majority of them for a very tidy profit around 2023 after his first serious arm injury. Now everything I sold is at least 3x what I sold for. Some of the autographed stuff is painful to look at.
Funded some really nice coin purchases with that money at least.
I’m not buying any of his rookie stuff anymore as that ship left orbit long ago but I try to snag some of the scarcer stuff 2nd/3rd year Angel stuff when it pops up.
Keeps me connected to the youthful part of the game that gets completely lost all too often in my real life.
This is me as well.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.