Weirdest things about coin collecting

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Owle, Mar 19, 2012.

  1. Owle

    Owle Junior Member

    Think back to when you first started collecting coins. What did you find most weird about the hobby, or others that were collecting or talking about coins?

    My interest in coins have generally been for the art work and classical designs of the various coin series, with the academic or analytical aspects of hard assets and how coins are graded and priced.

    So what I found the most weird were mint errors that attracted collectors and big money; also ugly coins that drew big money and interest. What have been aspects of coin collecting that you have found the most weird or strange?
     
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  3. ow9654

    ow9654 Irish,British collector

    I was surpised at the cheap prices of coins,
    when I was young and went to a museum now and then I seen some coins (British Victorian pennies) and thought if a museum owned them they must be worth a lot!!
    I also seen the age and thought they were worth a fortune like a roman coin or a coin from the french revolution.
    Then when I got eBay and figured I could get one of these for like 1 euro.
    Another thing that surprised me was the price for certain graded coins like the difference in grades MS 63 to MS65 can mean hundreds even thousands of $$$ in some cases.
     
  4. djaeon

    djaeon Member

    While I understand it, the weirdest thing to me is the obsession to get the most perfect specimen possible of any given coin, and the premiums commanded by those coins.
     
  5. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    I was surprised that a coin would be worth less after you shined it up than it was when it was old and dirty! Fortunately, I learned this before I shined up any old and dirty coins.

    I'm still bemused that an MS61 key coin that looks like it got run over by a lawn mower is worth more than an AU58 specimen.
     
  6. valente151

    valente151 Mr. AU64, Jr.

    Graded on a scale of 70...what a weird number.
     
  7. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    [h=2]Weirdest things about coin collecting ?[/h]

    The people who collect them ;)
     
  8. icerain

    icerain Mastir spellyr

    I guess if you collected other things before coins nothing really startles you. The comic book industry is a lot weirder. If you collect comics and have gone to Comicon nothing will ever faze you again. :D
     
  9. Owle

    Owle Junior Member

    In the words of the Quaker or Amish fellow, I forget which:

    "All the world is queer save thee and me, and thee’s a little queer."
     
  10. Johnvan

    Johnvan Member

    Those folders in which you only see one side of the coin.
     
  11. Owle

    Owle Junior Member

    Can you imagine bringing a friend to a coin show where people brag about getting their modern coin in MS/PR69 certified holders with CAC stickers, or competing to spend $$$ on those? There are things that wives, family members or friends will attend only once unless they are paid....
     
  12. Owle

    Owle Junior Member

    Or a Sci Fi or extraterrestrial intelligence convention....
     
  13. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Gotta agree. I didn't start out that way but I've ended up that way. I think it's absolute insanity for folks to purchase high mintage moderns at crazy prices, just because they have a 66/67/68 designation. But that's just probably the cheapo in me, and one collectors' very humble opinion.
     
  14. Mr. Flute

    Mr. Flute Well-Known Member

    I agree on errors. Though, I could be willing to consider an off-metal error like a dime on a cent planchet, etc. Those are intriguing.
     
  15. Mat

    Mat Ancient Coincoholic

    Nothing really felt weird when I got into the hobby as a kid but when I left it in 1995 & returned to it in 2008 I thought it was weird how so many coins now were in slabs. It was like it came out of no where & then the prices which had gone up so much since I left.
     
  16. medoraman

    medoraman Well-Known Member

    My thoughts exactly. I am still PO'ed that the TPGers lied to coin collectors when they PROMISED us that no post 64 coins would ever get graded. I have no problem with slabbing to verify authenticity, and give it their grade for US coins. Fine and dandy. However, promoting new coins as "rare" as MS 70 and selling on HSN simply hurts our hobby. TPGers put cash in their pocket, our hobby is hurt long term in credibility. To many people we are little more than metal "beanie baby" collectors.

    As for the weirdest thing when I started, I simply couldn't believe that defective coins sold for more than good ones. I do not begrudge anyone what they wish to collect, but to me it simply does not make sense to pay MORE for a defective coin. This goes for planchet or strike errors, doubled dies, missing mintmarks, (I think the 22 plain is a scam), overdates, and inferior product. It just me.

    Chris
     
  17. OldSilver

    OldSilver New Member

    The weirdest thing for me at first was the fact that you could hand a dealer 3000 dollars, and get one penny in return. ;)
     
  18. ikandiggit

    ikandiggit Currency Error Collector

    and vice versa.:)
     
  19. JCB1983

    JCB1983 Learning

    I remember looking at a Seated Liberty Half and thinking. "This coin has been around for 160 years... If it could talk to me it would probably ask me who the **** I think I am." I've always been surprised by how much I'm drawn to the history and the art.
     
  20. CoinCast

    CoinCast Member

    The whole VAM thing. Your telling me 2 guys sat and catalogued every Morgan dollar variety and the book costs $100 and I need a microscope to see half the things. What?!

    I still find it strange but I have one of the top 100 I think it is in my collection and I am sure i will end up with more.
     
  21. redwin117

    redwin117 Junior Member

    First Time I saw a white penny with two Images on December 1995. Then certified and graded by the Inventor ( ACCUGRADE 1984 ) of slabbing coins and cards by Mr. Alan Hager at Baltimore Coin Show in Maryland on March 2000.
    Same Year 2000, Presidential Historian Society voted Pres. Abraham Lincoln ( penny images ) as no.1 then followed by Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt as number 2 ( dime images) as the top two great leaders among 41 Presidents served in oval office. Then when I look on all the details of the obverse I read two Full dates of 1995, 2 LIBERTY, 2 IN GOD WE TRUST, P Mintmark, VDB, and another error on error coin of Doubled Denomination a SKULL BREAK attribution as I read the PAST of Abraham Lincoln was shot at the back of the head. *** BANG ! BANG ! BANG! ****
    012-10-2-1-1-1.jpg 097-4-3-1-1-1.jpg 105-4-2-1-1.jpg Reverse Double Deomination Unique 11c 2.jpg 2FullDates1995.jpg At reverse A crack die variety Lincoln Memorial building splint in Half with some images of explosion at the Step...The FUTURE? The Present and stand today Two Great Leaders voted by Presidential Historian Society Lincoln/Roosevelt as top 2 great president among 41 served in oval office.
    ERROR COIN of Doubled Denomination plus another Error such as Skull break and a Crack die variety...
    the WEIRDEST THINGS and Stranged that I discovered on this 1995 Penny On Dime Planchet.

     
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