I decided to start my own post after some discussion on Inspector43s post regarding the same idea. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-to-do-with-my-accumulation.341614/ I don't have near as many sets to make since I just have 1 child and he is hopefully not having his own children for years to come yet (he's 13). But I am interested in starting this and hopefully getting some organization and focus to my collection. I tend to be very disorganized about it and not really have a focus as to what I'm collecting or doing. I also do not have a lot of time to work on it and seem to fall away from it for long periods of time as life intervenes. Between working full-time and an active teenager and household duties, there's not much time to spare. I do not have a very large collection by many standards but I do have some more modern and a few older coins to work with and I will work on getting examples for what I need. But I will have to do so a bit at a time and attempting to keep it affordable. But it should be a fun project nonetheless. In doing both my husband's ancestors and mine, using birthdates would go back to 1864 if I am able to make it back that far - so that may be tough to do and still keep it affordable. So I will just have to see what I can find and take it from there. I have made my list of dates and my list of types. Now I just need to go through my coins and try to find what I can of those... and then move on. Hopefully I can also get some organization to my collection during the process. I will have to better sort the coins to find what I need anyway. I have been dabbling in coins for many years, but never very seriously or getting into some of the more specific details of it. Mostly just finding/saving or buying what I like. I don't exactly have much progress to report and it will probably be slow going, but would certainly appreciate any suggestions others may have. I am planning to do the birth years, as much as possible, of ancestors. And including other coins for their type using a different year when birth years are not available or no one was born during the time that coin was minted. So that I can at least include one example of most types of coins minted from the late 1800s through today. I think I'll be mostly ok back through the 40s (when mine and my husband's parents were born). No 30s or 50s and 60s birth dates - which might make some of the hunting easier if there were. Mine and hubby's grandparents were early 1900s - 1920s and great-grandparents in the late 1800s. So I have some digging and hunting to do! I am also thinking I may add some quarters for the different states (state quarters and/or parks) where we and our ancestors have lived and/or were born. Especially some where we have had many generations or many different branches in the same states (not just 1 person). And since I do have a bunch of those on hand and could probably find others through coin roll hunting. I do live in a major metropolitan area so we have coin dealers around - although I've never been - any tips what to look for or how to approach it would be appreciated. There are also many different banks to try coin roll hunting. I've done some of that in the past and could certainly do so again. But I don't have a ton of time to spend on that and probably have most of what I would find there anyway (other than maybe some quarters or if I'm missing a specific date of a more modern coin). Sorry for the rambling but at this point mostly just wanted to make the introductory post. I will post more as I think of it or have more progress to share.
My list of dates, just for fun. Any particularly hard dates or suggestions what to include would be helpful as I do not know much about all the options. I can find out what coins were minted when. But what might be a good choice or particularly hard to find would be helpful. I may include some marriage dates if birth dates are unavailable or particular coin matches up with the year or whatever, but will play that one by ear. This could get out of hand in a hurry 2005 - will "have" to include MN quarter as was minted in this year and it's where we live Will probably also include SD quarter as son was born in hospital in SD - even though we were living in MN. And just to keep it even, IA quarter for hubbie's family. There's more going back farther, so will probably include some of those as well. I could just about do a whole project with quarters, but I want to include the other types as well. I can already see this becoming a huge project. But since I don't have many to do that's probably OK. It would also be fun to include some international coins from our ancestor's home countries. Probably not in the years they were born or living there... that might be too hard to come by. But at least some representative samples: Norway, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada - might be more I'm missing as well. 1975 1973 1949 1944 1923 1922 1921 1915 1914 1913 1911 1904 1901 1897 1892 1891 1889 1888 1884 1883 1877 1873 1864 This goes through my husband's and my great-grandparents - there are some duplicate years for the great-grandparents.
That would be a really cool set. Thinking outside of the standard "coin set", I could see a poster-sized (or larger) display (or more than one) with the coins mounted, pictures of your ancestors, maybe newspaper clippings? And descriptions of your folks. If you go to one of those ancestry sites, you might even be able to take it further back than that. Do it in a family-tree style ancestry format, rather than a traditional coin set format. With something like this, I'm not sure I'd tie myself to a "typeset", but would rather choose available coins from the necessary dates. I'll be honest, if I saw something like that, well done, at a major show in the competitive displays, I'd probably vote for that for an award.
I admire your drive. That is quite a list! You mentioned that you may have to compromise on some of the mid 19th century dates. I think you may find that in average circulated condition, that these may be surprisingly affordable.... You also asked about approaching dealers. I am a firm believer in my local dealers. I have two nearby and call both shop owners my friends. I’ll put it like this. Coin dealers have to be overly cautious simply because they are prime targets of the lowlifes of the world. We even have one guy here on the board that was shot by a robber. So understand going in that his approach toward you will be with an abundance of caution. So your initial take may be that the shopkeeper is an uptight snob. When in fact he knows that he has to be cautious with unfamiliar clientele. So it is incumbent on you to be overly nice and smiling. You have to break the ice initially. Get to know your coin dealer so that he immediately recognizes that you are someone that he wants in his place. On your first visit I would be sure to purchase something. It could be anything. Even a small purchase will serve to break the ice. Walk in with a list and show him what your ambition is. Your local dealer does want and need your business and will help you to achieve your goal.... Anyway, I am getting too wordy here. Welcome aboard and I look forward to seeing how this comes along.
I guess a good question is: what is your experience and comfort in buying rare coins? I see that you say you have "dabbled" for a few years. Are you familiar with grading? I'd highly suggest you buy a current RedBook to see what's out there, a good grading guide such as a the ANA Standards or Photograde, and something that teaches you how to think about coins. I'm sure several members here can recommend some good books. If you want to build a quality set of the scope you mention, spending $100 on books as you begin will be crucial to your success.
Thanks for all the advice. I've read a few things here and there. So I'm a bit familiar with grading but not enough to do it myself. When I say dabbled I just mean I haven't really gotten into it in a big way and haven't bought really expensive coins or had much of a focus. I've never gone into a coin dealer or really purchased from one. I haven't made any "major" purchases where I'm too concerned with whether I'm overpaying. I just buy a few things that are fairly inexpensive or money that is budgeted for my hobby. Yeah, I might have overpaid for a few things. But considering the low level purchases, It's not an amount I"m too worried about. I don't know that anything I've purchased is really "rare". And I don't generally spend a lot on any one coin. As to the poster/family tree idea I do like that. I'm just not sure I have the time, focus or organization to do something like that. But I will definitely keep it in mind. Yes, the list is long and I may not get it all. But it would be fun to get one of each type (to the extent possible) and one of each ancestor's birth year (to the extent possible). I will certainly focus on getting what I can for each date. But I was thinking to add examples of the other types (where available) even if they are not available in the necessary dates or do not correspond to a given family date. We may have some dates further back I just don't have them readily available. And I'm really looking for a set that I don't have to spend too much money on - at least for now. And I'm trying to strike a balance between decent coins and cost. I will definitely include the average circulated coins in some instances. And thanks for the tips on the dealers. Good to know. I appreciate all the input.
Berit, I like your enthusiasm. If you have any questions as you go, please feel free to ask. And I really do hope that you keep reading these forums, as there is a wealth of knowledge here!
I like the concept of thinking outside the box when deciding what and how to collect. Among the "sets" I'm working on is one with coins dated with prime numbers. Birth year sets are quite popular, and you can put as much time and money into them as you want. I know someone who collects nothing but coins dated 1950 by die variety, and in top grades, and it's a big money set. Another type of set that I've seen people assemble is a "birth-100 year." For your son born in 2005, if he has the collecting gene and he becomes interested, that can be as easy or hard as he'd want, ranging from 5 circulated coins costing a total of maybe $30 to including all 3 mints of the silver coinage, 4 gold denominations (2 mints each), and a few from the Philippines (a US territory then), totaling ... a lot more. Anyway, looking at your dates, you're going to be disappointed by 1975. While the quarter, half, and a silver dollar were made that year, they were dated 1976 for the bicentennial, leaving the cent, nickel, and dime the only 1975-dated US coins. All 3 mints made coins, so a complete set for that year would be 9 coins. 1973 has cent through dollar (6 denominations) from all mints, and the silver dollar was made both copper-nickel and 40% silver, so there are a lot more coins here. You could simply buy uncirculated mint and proof sets for coins back to 1973. There are mint sets for 1949, too, but they can get expensive, and you might like assembling such a set rather than buying it all at once. Both my parents were born in 1941, so I felt compelled to put together a 1941 proof set. As for the world coins of your ancestors, you'd be surprised that they may be more available and affordable than US coins. If you put together a set to fill in a family tree, there's a lot of software available (some free) that might help you put together a poster or web site with pictures of the coins as well as your ancestors. Since you say you're in a major metropolitan area in Minnesota, I'll assume that means you're in the Twin Cities somewhere. If so, I'd recommend paying a visit to Gary Adkins. He's one of the good guys in the business and will not steer you wrong with regard to books to buy or coins that are or aren't for you. I hope this thread isn't overwhelming you with possibilities or making you think we're just interested in making you spend all your money and time on this. Feel free to ask for recommendations for coins of specific years and countries.
Sorry - I thought I responded to this but apparently it didn't go through. Anyway, yes it is a bit overwhelming but I do appreciate all the help and I do enjoy it. Sometimes I get impatient and want to do it all at once or can't decide where to start. I like some of the alternate ideas given as well. It gives me more to think about, and a different way to look at things. Helps keep it interesting as well. Yes, I am in the Twin Cities so I definitely appreciate the recommendation. Good to know where to go. I just wish I had more time to spend on all of this! It eats up my free time before I know it. And sometimes I get so busy with life I am unable to spend time at it for quite awhile. That's all for now. I woke up way too early this morning, but I should start to think about getting ready for work! Thanks again.
Now you've gotten me going with this prime # thing... of course I'm a numbers person anyway... But I had to look up a list of dates that were prime # just to see if any popped out at me Some of those are already in my list of ancestor dates but I found other event dates (graduations, anniversaries, major birthdays, etc) for close family that are prime #. Not that I need more dates to collect. But I may try to find some of these. And it’s fun to figure out Recent years (since 1940s) is almost a life in prime number years. Of sorts anyway. Missing some but feels like a lot. Looking at just self, husband and our parents and dates I know fairly well Now I want to dig further into this to find the ones that I need to look up or don’t jump out or know off the top of my head even if I don’t collect all the coins
Welcome to CT and best wishes on your endeavor. Hope you were able to complete this collection as it sounds interesting.
I love this idea! I have too many things going right now, but I do have traceable ancestors on one side going back to the mid 1600s in America. This kinda reminds me of my world collecting project: proof or mint sets from every possible country dated my birth year. So far, I have about 10 sets!
Thanks! There are a few that are going to present a challenge. I got lucky with my USSR set, as they’re crazy hard to find. Some I’m not sure if they exist (*e.g.* China). All in all it’s been a fun hunt so far, but I expect things will start slowing down when I hit 30 or 40 countries.
