I've been thinking a lot about my collection and my collecting interests recently. I'm not really a "complete a set" kind of guy, so I gravitate toward type collecting. I have the beginnings of a 50-piece classic commem type set going, and a nice start on a toned 20th century business strike type set. But, lately, I've been straying away from those sets and into some very different areas. Lately I've been on a bit of an exonumia kick. I've bought a few advertising tokens and an HK-400 so called dollar from the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. Stuff that's currently on my radar (that I haven't gotten around to buying yet) includes: Gallery Mint concept dollars. These are gorgeous pieces; I wish we had gotten one of these designs rather than the Sacajawea/Native American dollar. Dan Carr stuff. All of it. There was literally a listing for all the Dan Carr overstrikes on eBay recently, and I was quite tempted to spend the $3600 on it. Irradiated dimes. I think these are just a cool piece of history. Food stamp booklets and tokens. Not sure what it is about these that does it for me, but they do. Foreign coins struck at US mints. Before I learned these existed, I never knew that both the smallest and largest coins struck in the US were actually foreign coins (the Panama pill and the 1973 Liberia $5 elephant coin, respectively). Second century denarii. The second century is such a great period to collect, because there are a lot of coins that are very affordable in high grade (e.g. many of the denarii of Antoninus Pius), as well as some real rarities (e.g. anything struck under Pertinax, who was only emperor for 87 days in AD 193). Low serial number notes. I came across what I think is the ultimate low serial on eBay: L00000001*. Yeah, that's right, a serial #1 star note, PMG VF 30 net. It was a little outside my range at $8000 , but boy, did I drool over it for a bit. (If you want to buy it, PM me and I'll give you some info so you can contact the dealer who owns it.) Birthday notes. I really want to capture a note with my birthday as the serial number. In fact, since I was born in a one-digit day of a one-digit month, I'd settle for some suitably cool serial that included M/D/YY. I'll probably never find it though. Military payment certificates. These are interesting for the history behind them. For some reason, I'm particularly drawn to the ones from the Korean War. Also, Hawaii and North Africa notes kind of fall into this as well. $100 Trillion Zimbabwe dollars. I love this ultra high denomination. I think it's the highest ever written out in numbers on a note, isn't it? Then there's my side collection: state quarters in PCGS MS66 flag holders. Yeah, I know, not very ambitious, but it's a fun distraction. And, actually, they're somewhat hard to find if you insist on matching grades and the flag holders. I have about a third of them in total by date and mint. Oh, and then there's photography. Yeah, I want to get around to building one of @SuperDave's $400 rigs so I can shoot cool photos like he does. So those are my distractions. What's drawing your attention away from your main collection these days?
Great post. I too have been getting into different collecting. I,m a U.S. type collector mainly, but I love a lot of exonumia too. The French Marrianne medals, and Godess of horticulture medals . I recently started a collection of Liberty or Marrianne themed world coins. I also am thinking of starting a civil war tokens collection. expanding my horizons and enjoying the beautiful artwork...have a good day, and have fun with it!
Ancients pulled me away from collecting Air Force trade tokens. Here lately I've just been working on getting all the tokens imaged. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through.
My greatest distraction has always been myself. I have wasted way too much air, and spittle, mocking a grading system I believe to be the glorification of the flea that is wagging the tail, that is wagging the dog. And as you can see, I have not exactly overcome the distraction. But I am a happy collector of exonumia, (for 10+ years) which is not impacted as much by grading. In fact, if it all reformed by lunch time, I won't go back to U.S coins. I love exonumia!
You have an active mind Paul! I'd love to get into ancients but I have to draw the line somewhere for now. Lol Right now I'm putting together a SuperDave rig too. . Just bought a bellows and the same 50mm Componon-S that he's got for my under used T3i. Now time to start investigating adapters and order up a long awaited copy stand to play with. Sent from my XT1093 using Tapatalk
I sympathize. I can't focus for more than a week or so. All it takes is a trip to another coin show to send me spiraling off on some thing that never previously interested me. Oiy.
Yeah, maybe.... But having a wide range of interests competing for your attention helps sometimes, like when visiting coin shows: You'll probably walk away from most shows with at least something. If you "focus," like I do, your narrow interests often leave you empty-handed.
Haha, funny. You know, I've been reading your posts for some time, and I have no real idea what's actually in your collection. Maybe I just get too distracted by the pretty pictures. BTW, that Ben Franklin proof you posted in your latest photography kit thread looks like a 70 on the obverse.
I'm a genuine ADHD patient, diagnosed, and my collection - such as it is - kinda reflects that. My life crashed 3 years ago and I had to sell a majority of it - I own a total of two Morgans right now - and I'm rebuilding in a different direction. Lincolns - Gem Browns ans woodies - are the current fascination, and I've a growing OFEC. What's better for ADHD than an OFEC collection? The Franklin was a 70, by my standards - I could see no flaw in either face in one of my images looked at full size, like so: I will say, for the purposes of those images I removed a few dust specks in postprocessing.
Hah, me too, actually. Diagnosed as an adult a little over 12 years ago. Fortunately, my life is currently on a general upswing, so I can afford to buy lustrous metal discs. Ancients and exonumia, obviously. Too bad it isn't even worth the grading fees to get it certified. Yet another great pic. This is one of the few modern commems that I think has an actually decent design.
One From Each Country. In my case, and that of many who do it, just cheap possibly-circulating examples you can trade for rather than spending cash.
OFEC = One From Every Country. It's a really cool and inexpensive way to put together a "world type set." Obviously, you might have to skip North Korea and a few others, though.
