Many of you have probably seen @lordmarcovan and his holey Indian cent collection or his holey coin hat and vest: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-rainy-day-project-holey-indian-cents.386440/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-holey-coin-vest-and-holey-gold-hat.286762/ After I won LordM’s giveaway, he sent some extras including a holed 1847 half dime. I like half dimes so I decided to start a collection of holey half dimes. Just by dates, not mint marks. I’ve made a little progress so far, thanks to LordM and it will probably take a while. Definitely will be fun though! Collecting holed coins is definitely an interesting way to collect but it’s just as fun, and cheaper.
@Matthew Kruse nice start to a cool set. Wow, you're going to do a holy war set? That'll be an incredible set. Also a shame and quite difficult finding holed coins between 1095 CE and 1291 CE when the Crusades ended.
It looks AWESOME, doesn't it? I made the backpaper for that set and emailed him the file. His cork board is pretty small (only 17 x 17 cm). But it turns out that was a perfect fit for the half dimes! Anybody else wanna do the cork board thing, I can make you up the backpaper and email you the file(s), like I did for @Matthew Kruse here.
Nope, if you're a true "holey" collector, you only collect contemporary holes that were made a century or more ago. Few would be so dumb as to drill their own. That's "cheating", anyway. Now, if you find an old coin that someone started a hole in, it's OK to finish it. Case in point: This 1856-S quarter eagle I used to wear on my hat had a crude, blackish plug in the hole, which I drilled out. Old hole, but bad plug job- no harm in drilling that. I was also gonna do that with this Flying Eagle cent which I made an offer on recently, but the seller and I never came to an agreement on price. If I had bought it, I would have taken it to a jeweler and had them use a very small bit to finish the hole in the exact spot where some long-dead person unsuccessfully attacked it so long ago. Again, no foul there, since the hole was begun in the 1800s and it's already a damaged coin.