Do you display any of your coins?

I'm afraid the museum is closed to the public for the duration of the present crisis. Once this is all over, no charge!

 

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since 1964 when I started collecting I have never left coins out. always hidden I do have some collectors that I trust and we will look at some from time to time but we keep hush and never put them on the internet so the world knows what we have

 

It's not as if I'm planning to publish my real name and my address!

 

The large fish is a Vinctifer Comptoni from the Santana formation in Brazil, 100 million years old. The Neanderthal hand tool is from the Philip Schupp estate collection (Chicago), is 5-3/4" long, Lower-Middle Paleolithic.

Where are you from in Minnesota? I was born and raised in Duluth.

 

Lol, @ominus1 , she has the look of, “My gawd, you mean I have to clean up this MESS???”

 

Lol, wow on the paranoia. Why have them?

 

@Numisnewbiest, born and raised in Erskine, MN (at the Jct of US 2 & 59) but living in Moorhead. My son and his family lived in Duluth for almost 15 years. But moved from a home on Emerson Road to Moorhead about five years ago.

Steve

 

Wow, your house seems more interesting than many museums I have been too. In fact it reminds me a lot of Sir John Soane's house... Related by any chance? I don't know if you have been in London or his museum, but if you get the chance you will love it.

Fantastic displays from everyone in this thread, and it kinda proves that if you have the collecting bug, it is unlikely that you will stick to one subject. Getting back to my opening question, collectors tend to be sometimes solitary animals, but I always found that many of us will jump at the opportunity to show off our collections especially if someone expresses genuine interest in the artistic and historical nature of our pieces.

 

I don’t leave coins out either but that has more to do with preventing some visitors from knowing what I have as modest as it may be. However, I think it’s OK to share on the internet if you don’t advertise your precise location.

 

I had never heard of John Soane's house, but looked it up, and I must say that you seriously flatter me! For every object I own, he had about 1,000! But if I ever get to London again, I will definitely pay it a visit -- I'm sure I would love it.

One thing I do like about my collection is that it's relatively easy to build an impressive personal "museum" of antiquities if you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend and an art advisor to tell you what to buy! It takes more work, and more time, to build a nice collection if -- like me -- you don't have that kind of money, and make all your decisions on your own. As I've mentioned before, in almost 40 years of collecting, I've never spent more than $2,500 on a single antiquity, and spent that much only twice that I can remember -- on one of my Attic black-figured lekythoi, and on the blue faience reclining figure of the lion goddess Sekhmet (which may be small, but is amazingly well-executed and in pretty much perfect condition). I think the most I've ever spent on a single coin, of any type, was about $800. Again, that's happened only once or twice.

By the way, I also agree with your belief that people who like to collect things rarely limit themselves to a single subject. At least, that's true of me. At various times, I've gone far afield from coins and antiquities. Since people seemed entertained by the other photos I've posted, I hope they don't mind if I post some more.

For example, some of the posts in this thread reminded me that I have a very small number of fossils myself. Here are a couple. (In the second photo, see the fossil to the left and the piece of petrified wood on the right. Both photos are of cases that primarily contain seashells and small figures of porcelain, etc.)






Here are a few of my shelves of old books, including old Baedekers and other travel books, my set of the Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition, my collection of (mostly) 19th-century etiquette and medical books, my collection of old New Yorker cartoon albums back to the first one published in 1928, some of my books of fairy tales and other children's books, and a shelf of books of Japanese prints, etc., quite a few (see the ones in the middle without printed spines) from the 19th century .







And then there are the maps and prints I have up on my walls. Like my map of Rome from the 1630s, and my map of "Syria Moderne" from 1685:

 

Some more maps and prints I have up on my walls. (Unfortunately, I'm out of room -- I have plenty more I can't hang up!)

Some prints of Rome that I bought when I was there with my son in 2008, dating from the 18th century if I recall correctly:





Maps of India and Japan, both from 1601:



Maps of the Ottoman Empire and "Tartary" (with what's now Alaska in the right-hand corner), from around the same time:



A map/city view of Freiburg in Baden, from 1549:



A Japanese woodblock print by Kunisada from 1838, depicting Kyoto station (from one of his series on the 53 stations of the Tokkaido Road)



A Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige from 1832-1834, depicting Cherry Blossom Viewing at Asaka Hill, from the series Famous Places in Edo, a/k/a Famous Places in the Bay Capital:



A Japanese woodblock print by Kunisada of the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV, dating from the 1830s-1840s, signed Gototi Kunisada ga (the signature he used until 1844):



Another Japanese woodblock print by Kunisada, from 1854, entitled Autumn Stroll by the seller, but (according to my research), actually entitled Red Bridge Autumn, depicting the Tsutenbashi Bridge at Tofukuji Temple in Kyoto.



Another woodblock print by Hiroshige, from 1848, of Fuchu Station, No. 20 from the series 53 Stations of the Tokkaido Road.

 

A Japanese triptych print by Toyohara Chikanobu, entitled Excursion to the Hills (Go-yûsan), from the series Chiyoda Inner Palace (Chiyoda no Ôoku), dated 1895:



A Japanese woodblock print by Kunisada from 1855 (when he was using the name Toyokuni), depicting Yokusone Heitaro or Hiratoro, portrayed by the actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII, as a death tribute to the actor.



And, finally for now, or I'd be doing this all evening -- as I said, my walls are full! -- a Japanese woodblock print from the early 20th century by the artist Ohara Koson, showing two mallards flying in front of a full moon. I put it on a wall above one of my bookcases, up near the ceiling where I can see them fly.

 

Wow! got to thread late, beautifull displays all, thanks for sharing wonderfull collections. Got to admit DonnaML's house is better then a museum very tastefully displayed.

As for myself, I have a fossil collection which I display, plus still most of my butterfly/ moth collection/ in museum drawers in cabinets/ plus some medieval weapons. My coin are:
250 slabbed in boxes
600 in saflips in albums
rest are still in original presentation cases with in protective holders/ plastic trays to prevent silver coins from oxidation/ handling/ ditto gold ones.
I do bring my coins to coin club meetings for "show and tell"
Here are some bug photos....

 

Beautiful!

 

Your house gets more impressive by the minute!
Not to mention that your collectibles are the type of things I always have been interested in. I am a Japanese woodblock print collector as well. (If 2 prints qualify as a collection). Mine are both from Utagawa Kuniyoshi and are both samurai themed, including a triptych (from the Soga Monogatari series -1836). I am afraid I have no pics as they are hanging in my mother's house. I love Hiroshige, but I do not have any prints of his.

Plus, I like old books as well. My collection is modest, but I have some pretty old stuff.





Some noteworthy titles are:
- Greece: pictorial, descriptive, and historical (Christopher Wordsworth 1850s)
- The lives and characters of the ancient Grecian poets (Basil Kennett - 1697 edition)
- Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese (Frank Brinkley - 1901)
- Visits to the monasteries in the levant (Robert Curzon - First edition 1849)
- The Adventures of Telemachus (1750s)
- ARCHAEOLOGIA GRAECA Or the Antiquities of Greece (John Potter - 1715)

 

Very cool. Love the books.

 

Moorhead, MN? Well, good news: winter should be almost half over!

 

Ya, you betcha. Northern Minnesota: nine months of winter and three months of cold.

I heard that from an old-timer years ago. Hasn’t been true in recent years. But this winter has been a bugger, according to the photos of my home and reports of friends.

If you didn’t like the above saying: here’s two more:
- Minnesota: winter’s near, winter’s here.
- Minnesota’s two seasons: winter and road construction.

Steve

 

Obviously, I agree. However, even I have limits. For example, there's a Facebook group called "Ancient and Medieval Coins" that I follow. I don't know how much membership overlap there is with this forum, but it's very active, and people post a lot of great images of their coins. But, as tempted as I am sometimes to share photos of my own ancient coins, I haven't done it yet and have decided that I probably won't. Because, as I'm sure you all know, on Facebook one has to post under one's real name, and even though I doubt anyone would bother -- because, as I've said before, my ancient coin collection seems to be quite tiny compared to most collectors' -- it wouldn't really be all that difficult for someone to figure out from my real name exactly where I live. I'm just not sure I'd want to risk that; it would make me too nervous.

 

@DonnaML, the 1549 Baden map is exquisite. Wow, what colors!

Steve