What coins were considered collectable 200 years ago?

What coins were considered collectable 200 years ago?

 

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In US coins? Not much. Whatever was available back then..

 

Did you put that montage together Paddy?

 

200 years ago almost all US coins were circulating. Ancient and Medieval coinage was most prevalent at the time. Especially roman and greek coinage.

 

To add to this, this is why you can sometimes find roman coins in places like Kansas, Illinois, Arkansas etc. Even sometimes in your backyard of new York. They were collected then too and sometimes lost. NO ancient romans did not travel to the us years ago, these were likely planted, or lost by collectors/travelers.

 

Every coin that has survived from 200 years ago.

 

200 years ago most folks was trying to scrape out an subsistence. Every coin they had was devoted to life sustainability. Back then, coin collecting was the hobby of Kings......

 

I know that Conder tokens were very popular collectibles in England around that time. The US was a young country with perhaps fewer people with means and opportunity to collect coins. If I’m not mistaken, a lot of the Washington pieces were made in the early 1800’s specifically as souvenirs or collectibles.

 

Back then ancient Greek coins were highly collectable...




And Roman coins even more so....






However, Roman provincial coinage was considered very undesirable 200 years ago. Probably the only people collecting Roman provincials were working class people who couldn't afford the official imperial coinage that was seen as more desirable by wealthy collectors. It wasn't until the last few decades that these coins have become highly collectable...





@green18 , I suspect even working class people collected coins back then. Perhaps they didn't have much in the way of Roman or Greek coins, but suveneir coins of all types in base metals such as copper and bronze seem to have been popular enough in the 1700's and 1800's to have been minted in pretty large numbers.

 

PS: Although I no longer collect medieval coins, they were also a popular collecting theme 200 years ago. Here are a few former medievals I used to own.



Ok, if my last two posts did something to you, perhaps it's time you consider adding medieval or ancient coins to your collection. Many are readily affordable, so drop by the ancients section sometime and let us help you expand your collecting focus to ancients and medievals too. You don't have to abandon US coins at all, which are still fun to collect (especially 19th century coinage)...but it doesn't hurt to expand your horizons.

 

S VDB

 

You must be very old! So old you are ancient!

 

Looks like a Misaligned Die Strike on the Obverse

 

Ask @GDJMSP he’ll know for sure.

 

From what I have read, in the US Washington pieces were the most wanted items. They did not limit themselves to only official mint coins as much as collectors do nowadays, with tokens, medals, buttons etc all being desired.

Worldwide, ancients had been collected for centuries at this point, so much so that very good artists were commissioned to reproduce rare pieces.

 

Ancient coins. Here's a coin from antiquity and a listing from Mionnet's catalog in 1822:

 

One would imagine it might have been far earlier actually. By the early 1500s rare ancient coins were being reproduced for rich collectors. Best and easiest way to determine rarity and value would be from an auction. The earliest auctions were held, people learned relative values, and then made new copies of the most expensive and in demand.