"Bygones" from the Lord Marcovan "Eclectic Box" collection, 2014-2018

In 2013, I did a major purge of my coin collection and sold almost everything, then started all over again from scratch. I sold a lot of nice stuff and even more that was just plain old ... stuff. I don't regret having done that- it set me on the right track, I think.

Nor do I regret having followed a "Box of 20" strategy for the first four years or so after the purge. It raised the overall quality of my holdings. Fewer coins, but higher quality.

Being a man of modest means, I have built my collection up very gradually since the 1990s (and there were other purges well before that). Usually in small increments, supplemented heavily by "flipping" - that is, buying, selling, and swapping coins - which has given my collection something of a "revolving door" aspect.

I wish I had the finances to buy super-nice stuff and "hold it forever", but coins come and go with me. Some stick around longer than others. I am still a collector and not a dealer, though I once had aspirations to be the latter.

Recently I got to thinking of some of the nicer pieces I've parted with in the last few years. I do miss many - indeed, most - of them, and have palpable seller's remorse on a few, but "flipping" stuff is what has kept me moving forward. Two steps forward, one step back, then two or three more steps forward. On and on.

You sell a nice coin (or coins) to buy an even nicer coin. That's the theory, anyway.

Some got sold just because I needed money for other, boring, "real life" expenses. But that's how it goes with my hand-to-mouth existence, sometimes. ("Savings"? What's that? Haha.)

Many got sold when I was sticking to a strict "Box of 20" format and limiting my collection to a mere 20 pieces. (Want to add one? Well, then you've got to sell another one to make room for it. That's the challenge with a Box of 20.) I did this from around 2013 until mid-2017. I once had a goal to keep upgrading the (then-) Box of 20 until it consisted of all higher-end ($500+) coins. For a while there, I did get it up to where they were all $200+ coins, but finally abandoned the 20-coin limit altogether and have resumed my enjoyment of less expensive material. It doesn't have to be expensive to be appealing, after all.

So since mid-2017, the collection has been gradually growing again. Almost a year after abandoning the 20-coin limit, the Eclectic Box has almost doubled in size, being 38 pieces as of this writing.

Here is a retrospective glimpse at some of the pieces that I've parted with over the past five years or so- just since the 2013 "Great Purge" - and not including some of the more modest sideline collections I've built and sold.



CollectiveCoin album: "Bygones" from the Eclectic Box
CollectiveCoin album: Eclectic Box (present holdings)



"Bygones" from the "Eclectic Box"

Gone, but not forgotten.

Ancient Greece (Pontos, Amisos): silver drachm or siglos featuring Hera and owl, ca. late 5th to 4th century BC


Ancient Greece (Macedonian Kingdom): silver tetradrachm of Alexander III ("the Great"), posthumous issue, ca. 205-200 BC


Ancient Roman Empire: orichalcum sestertius of Hadrian, struck ca. 134-138 AD


Ancient Roman Empire: silver denarius of Septimius Severus, ca. 193-211 AD


England (Anglo-Saxon): silver penny of Aethelred II (978-1016 AD), struck ca. 997-1003 AD


England: silver Short Cross penny of King John (1199-1216), struck in the name of Henry II, ca. 1205


Turkey (Seljuks of Rûm): silver dirham of Kaykhusraw II; lion & sun, AH 638 (1240-1241)


Medieval Croatia (Ragusa): silver grosso portraying St. Blasius and Christ, ca. 1372-1438


Italy (Venice): silver grosso of Antonio Venier, ca. 1382-1400


Netherlands (Gelderland): "St. John" goldgulden (florin) of Arnold van Egmond, ca. 1423-1472


Belgium (Brabant): gold Carolus d’or (florin) of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, ca. 1521-1545


Great Britain: silver "South Sea Company" shilling of George I, 1723


France: silver jeton of Louis XV, "Aurora in cloud chariot", undated (ca. 1740)


French Colonies: copper sou of Louis XV, 1767, with post-revolutionary 1793 "RF" counterstamp

 

"Bygones" from the "Eclectic Box" (continued)

United States: copper Draped Bust large cent, 1803 (small date, large fraction)

United States: silver Capped Bust half dollar, 1834 (large date, small letters)

United States: gold half-eagle (5 dollars); Liberty Head type, 1842-D small date, Dahlonega mint


United States: bronze Civil War token, "Our Little Monitor" type, 1863

France, gold 20 francs, "Angel" type, 1877-A (Paris mint)

United States: proof copper-nickel 3-cent piece, Liberty head type, 1888
German States (Saxony) silver 3 mark proof, Battle of Leipzig centennial commemorative, 1913-E

Germany (Imperial): silver half-mark, 1916-A, Berlin mint

USA: silver commemorative half dollar, Pilgrim Tercentenary, 1920


Canada: gold 100-dollars proof of Elizabeth II, Canadian Unity commemorative, 1978

 

Thanks. Yeah, it makes me wish I had been pickier about photos (and a better archivist) 5+ years ago.

 

Hey, @Mkman123 - good to see you over here.

Nope, I didn't take any of these pix. My personal skills as a coin photographer are marginal at best. I pay the pros to shoot my better coins. It's worth it.

(Though some of the photos above are not professional quality at all- just marginal photos stuck into the Photoshop template. The 1803 large cent, for example. Decent coin, but not very good pix.)

 

Oh- I just remembered.

My most expensive coin just joined this list of "bygones". Just sold it. Technically it has belonged to my daughter all along. I bought it with the proceeds of an earlier collection I built for her.

Now she's about to be working all summer, and wants to get her first car (so I don't have to keep loaning her mine). So this Dahlonega half-eagle has been cashed in. I'll miss it some, but really I belong in the two- and three-figure budget class and have no business playing around with four-figure coins like this.

United States: gold half-eagle (5 dollars); Liberty Head type, 1842-D small date, Dahlonega mint

(PCGS VF30, CAC verified; population 16 with 157 higher as of 3/15/2018.)

 

I'm glad to hear it!

It was quite a stunning thing. Half ounce of bullion, too.

 

Thanks. I did too, but couldn't get that one into a straight-graded slab (due to an old mount removal), so I sold it.