Somewhere in our past someone planted the seed to start us on our lifelong journey in our quest to collect coins. Perhaps it was your parent, a sibling, a relative,friend, or co-worker. In my case it was an uncle. Uncle Joe. Joe was the youngest of 12 brothers and sisters on my Mother's side. A large Sicilian family. Joe was 12 years old when I was born, so he was still a teenager when I can first remember him. He used to give my brothers( I have 4,and a sister) and I, his old comics. I recall an entire collection of“classics”, which no one seems to know what happened to. Plus all the original superhero comics from the 50's and 60's. Also lost. When I was about 12 years old, Joe introduced me to his coin collection. Mostly cents, which was his favorite, but a few older coins that at the time I didn't recognize.He gave me a cent folder and explained that the object was to fill all the holes. He also taught me about the holy grail of cent collection, the 1909-S VDB, and the 1955 DDO. One of my brothers and I shared a paper route and collected pop bottles to make pocket money. No such thing as an allowance, we had to work for our money.My brother spent his on comics, which he let me read, but kept locked up to keep the others out. I began searching rolls of cents. Every roll I search I expected to find the 1909-S VDB or the 1955 DDO. We lived in a small town in Arkansas which only had two local banks. I would alternate swapping rolls. Sometime I might make two or three trips to the bank in a single day. I had to walk to and from the house to the bank, which was about a mile. Only one car in the family and Dad used it to go to work. My passion slowed down after a few years when I stared to noticed that cars, music, and girls were more interesting than coins and that pursuit was also burning a hole in my pocket. There was also this “police action” in South East Asia demanding a lot of attention. I never really lost my interest in coins but like most of us, it was on a back burner for over 30 years. In 1993, Joe died at the young age of 52. His estate was handle by another older uncle(he collected silver during the early 50's and 60's but is very private about his collection It was about 12 years before my mother received anything from this estate. Somehow she got Joe's collection of coins. She gave all the coins to me. I can't say I got all since it was obvious several of the cents have been removed from the coin books, ( the other Uncle)but it was still a treasure chest to me. Nothing rare or exotic but it filled a lot of my empty spaces and relit the fire.The passion came back stronger than ever. Two days ago, I spent an entire day cleaning out the attic. I came across the old suitcase that belonged to Joe. My mother(who lives with me) asked me about the suitcase. She said it used to belong to dad and that he gave it to Joe many years ago. I opened it and showed her the remnants of Joe's coin collection.A lot of empty boxes and empty coin folders. I removed all the contents and set them aside when she picked up the coin folders and asked me if their were any coins in them. I told her no, they were empty. She then proceeds to open them and found an 1899 Barber Dime in G4 condition. How in the world did I miss that? I also found a safety deposit key envelope with 5 uncirculated 1971-S cents. Mom asked if the coin was worth anything and I told her about $4. I gave the suitcase to Goodwill with mom's permission) and finished cleaning up my mess. I got an eerie feeling about the lost coin. Was there anything special about it? An omen? Why was it hiding up there all these years? The only significant thing I could attach to the coin is that on 11/26/12, Joe would have been 72 years old. Mom now has only one brother and one sister living. She is the oldest. I am putting that lonely 1899 Barber Dime in a special coin holder and giving it to mom on Joe's birthday.I think that would make it special and reveal why it has been in hiding all these years. I read an article last night in the October 2012 issue of COINage about an 1945 article written by Dr.Dean Miltmore. He reported after studying at least 1000 cases of mental illness, that not one was even remotely interested in collecting coins or any other object. “For the average person, with the cares and worries of everyday life, a collector's hobby should have a definite place in mental hygiene”. That proves that I, and all the rest of us are “not crazy”. Thanks, for reading, and share the passion. Mike
Marvelously wonderful and poignant article Mike. Truely heartfelt in content and beautifully written.
And NOTHING you/I "bought in a (coin) shop" will EVER have this extraordinary 'treasure-value.' Period. (Beyond the coin rarity, Silver, etc.) Thanks for sharing something of REAL value with others, here.
Great story and I have to agree with Juan. No other coin will ever measure up to that starter coin. I have my starter coin still too (1857 FE maybe g4 given to me by a childhood friend) but I wouldn't trade it for even an MS70DMPL 1895 morgan
Mike, that was a great read full of wonderful sentiment. It really hits home for me with the reasons I collect now. Thank you for sharing.
If I were you, sonlarson, I would print up (record for posterity) that little bit of family history for every niece & nephew - well, maybe edit the parts of the scheming brother LOL I think it's really important that the next generation and those thereafter have these stories to know what it was like (now and back then.) Also, contextualizing prices (kids in 20 years might not even know what a "penny" was "worth") wages, etc. is good reference. I met a guy who (as a high school kid) worked in a midwest factory in 1970; he BANKED $5k in summer savings! $5k would've bought a new car, then - or paid 2 years of college? I could scarcely believe that. That's a factoid for the history books, to be sure. 'Never again in my lifetime' etc.
I actually started recording stories of what life was like growing up about 10 years ago. Have several "stories". Whenever I come across something that let's me recall I write it up. Almost have enough to do a book. I've already did a book on my dad's childhood and military career. Had it published and had 3 copies made. One for me, my mother, and my daughter. My son "borrowed" my copy a couple of years ago, haven't seen it since. Oh well, I can still have more copies printed. My first real full time job was a Sears making $2 an hour. I was married, going to college at night and first child in the works. My first new car was a 1972 Plymouth Gold Duster. Paid $2700 for it. Looked at the Demon 340 but decided it wouldn't make a good family car. Besides they wanted $3450 for it!
Oh really... I would trade my childhood memory for a $23,000,000 coin. I make no claims to the contrary.
Great story teller up there sonlarson, I felt it and so did many others' here. As a tribute to your Uncle Joe maybe you can pass on the hobby of collecting coins to a nephew or someone else you meet in the walk of life. :thumb:
Looks good to me. You story reminds me of a sheldon retort -"I am not crazy, my mother had me tested.". Enjoy.
Really cool story - made me all warm inside. Since I'm new, it's stories of collections spanning generations that really get me fired up.
I also enjoyed your story very much sonlarson. Thanks for sharing it with us here on CT. Hope to hear from you often. Bruce
