Being new to the hobby, I've been doing a lot of reading and found out much, but one thing I don't understand is why did my father roll coins many years ago and then write on them the years of the coins within the roll? Some rolls are from one year, some rolls have multiple years in them. I have two rolls of pennies that are sealed on each end with wax. I'm sure this is simple for you seasoned veterans out there. But since they are sealed, I don't want to just open them to assess the coins. I would like to know why he did it. Any idea? I have dimes, quarters, pennies, and half dollars.
Many collectors are somewhat obsessive, and label anything labellable. And it does help to tell you what is inside. There is no real percentage in keeping them sealed up.
I write on my rolls what they are so I'll know whats inside. The "sealing wax" has me puzzled though since paper is not air tight. BTW, folks used to roll their coins in aluminum foil for whatever reasons.
Ok, its as I thought. For the fun of it, I'll probably preserve the obsessiveness of my father by keeping the two rolls of pennies sealed with wax...
I separate all my coins by the year. Used to put them in rolls, now just in Ziploc bags. If I run across a YN needing a coin from a certain year and I have several, it's his.
Maybe. I used to count money for deposits ( 15 to 20 grand a day). Wouldn't count any until all bills were face up, turned the same way, and the corners were all straight. Keep them in my wallet the same way.
That is nothing but common sense. You are less likely to make a mistake. I've been doing that for almost 60 years. Chris
Makes it easy to catch counterfeits. 99.9% of all counterfeiters worry about what the face looks like instead of the back. I counted looking at the back. Caught many.
I'd be willing to bet that the sealing was a way of identifying what he had already gone through to save time not doing it again. Open them up or you will never know.
Agreed with everyone above. I for a while, was trying to put every coin I had in a 2x2 with the year, mint mark, denomination, country, catalog number, and metal content on the 2x2. Now I've wised up and just do that with the coins I need for a type set and the extras go in Ziploc bags.
When I was 16, I worked 6 months at a McDonald's. It was locally owned. The dude had 8 of them in the Chicago area. We were trained by the McD's book. All dollars needed to face the same way when put in the drawers. That little bit of OCD has stuck with me ever since. BTW, the other week, I dropped by the Mc D's drive through. The price was $6.82 or something like that. I looked in my coin cup for 2 pennies. One of them looked darker than the other, like it was pre-zinc copper plating days. I looked at it and determined, based on my limited knowledge, that it was nothing. I gave the change and bills to the female cashier. She took THE VERY same penny (cent, whatever) and looked at it just like I did. I called her on it. She said she was a nerd and into coins, so of course I told her I collected as well and we got a little chuckle over it. She was in her early twenties. I was pleased to see a YN practicing the craft of numismatics in the field!
There could be any number of reasons he did it. He might have thought, mistakenly so, that it would help preserve the coins. Or it may be that the coins in those rolls are especially nice, perhaps even all unc, and he wanted to make sure the rolls did not open accidentally and let the coins fall out. But whatever the reason, coins we inherit from loved ones are always special, so we should do what we can to preserve them. Now there are different levels you can take that protection to, but at the least you should remove them from the paper rolls and put them in coin tubes - if you want to maintain the rolls as rolls. And any especially nice examples that you find, those at least, you might want to put in individual hard plastic holders like Air-Tites or snap-lock 2x2s.
Ha ha! Same here. I worked part time in my college bookstore, occasionally working the cash register. The veterans taught me to place all bills in the register face up and in the same direction . . . an OCD habit I continue to this day with the bills in my wallet.
I have had friends who are this way, and just to see them squirm, I have crumpled up paper currency and stuffed it into my pocket. The Devil made me do it
