What do you collect and how do you display/show it?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by fiddlehead, Jul 12, 2020.

  1. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    From time to time I've seen folks post some wonderful pics of their collections in a display format of one sort or another. I would love to see some and hear about how you got into your particular corner of the coin collecting world. Me, I decided to focus on an 1840 Mint set some years ago because it involves an interesting but limited number of issues, has a lot of first year of issue coins and can be "completed" with decent coins without needing to be a gazzillionaire. I kind of stumbled into it from an interest in first year of issue coins and when I purchased a nice 1840CC CAC certified half eagle I was on my way. Right now there are 16 coins in the collection and it been the lead collection the NGC registry for 1840 for a number of years. Probably because early on I got the Eagle and the half eagles from all four mints and that brought a lot of registry points. I got interested in the silver coinage more recently - that has been a lot of fun. My latest acquisition is the no drapery dime. I am hesitant to step into the miriad of dimes and half dimes but if I can get a lowball Dahlonega quarter eagle someday I might look for one nice half dime to match it! Here it is - eight gold coins and eight silver. A bid advantage to 1840 is that there is no New Orleans Eagle (1841 is the first year for that- and expensive). There is one VF35 (the 1840C quarter eagle) the rest are 45 to 55. About half have CAC status. 1840 Mint Set full.jpg

    1840 Mint Set full.jpg
     
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  3. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    When I was 5 years old (1948) my aunt gave me an 1883 W/O Cents nickel and an 1885 nickel. When I found that the 1885 was worth $5 the bug hit me. In our town there were mom and pop stores everywhere. I became friends with most of the owners. After school I would walk home and stop at many of them. The owners came to know and trust me. I would walk in, open the register, search the coins, close the register and go to the next store. Most owners got to the point that they didn't even look up.
    When I got old enough to work a couple of them hired me part time. 2 nights a week I would walk out to the amusement parks and help them close. My favorite job was counting and rolling all that change. They hated to do it.
    On Saturday mornings I would go to the bank and sit on the floor of the vault and roll change for the tellers.
    My dad was a railroad engineer. When he came home he would leave all his change on the kitchen table for me to look through.
    These were days when you had to do something to prove that you were untrustworthy. You've seen a lot of the stuff I came across.

    I am at the point now that I am trying to figure out how to display. It is not easy when you have more than 70 years of your life accumulated. I will watch the comments on this thread.
     
  4. Robert Ransom

    Robert Ransom Well-Known Member

    By the length of your experience, I would think a gymnasium floor or two would suffice and you can hang from the rafters and shoot your pics. :) Although, it might take a couple years to set them up.
     
  5. Nathan401

    Nathan401 Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

  6. Nathan401

    Nathan401 Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    This is my only example of that year, 3C0E516B-7536-4C06-8B17-CA92AAA1003F.jpeg B0F975ED-5631-4250-949E-E32849651ACC.jpeg
     
  7. Beefer518

    Beefer518 Well-Known Member

    My primary focus is Silver Commemoratives, and I made a full displays of obverses and reverses, and another one that's an animation. The animation hasn't been updated in quite awhile, but you get the idea. (Give the animation a second to load)

    The image will enlarge so that each coin is actually life size, but in the web version presented here, the quality deteriorates.

    Obverse Display-Web-Version-1800.jpg Reverse-Display-Web-Version-1800.jpg 1224-animation.gif
     
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  8. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    Nice half dime. I could put that to good use (kidding - sort of).
     
  9. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    Those silver commemoratives are really interesting. I’m going to study them tomorrow. Such a great idea because they have historical connections and a variety of art! Nice. Thank you for sharing that.
     
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  10. Beefer518

    Beefer518 Well-Known Member

    That's partly why I decided on them. They're all different, and each one tells a story. Not to mention their mintage numbers are relatively low which appeals to me.
     
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  11. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    I am afraid that I am not nearly as focused as you are. I collected Indian cents and type coins when I was in high school in the 1960s. My interest in the Indian cents waned, but the type coins stuck with me. I completed a U.S. type set from the half cents to the $20 gold pieces few years ago, according the list laid out in the NGC registry. I’ve also collected sets, including the Classic Head $2.50 and $5.00 gold coins, the Type I and II gold dollars and the Indian $2.50 gold pieces. I also have the type sets for the Charlotte and Dahlonega Mints.

    As you can see, displaying my collection here would be an impossible undertaking.

    Of late I have collected British coins by monarch and Roman imperial coins by emperor.

    Putting together a set of all of the 1840 dated U.S. coins would be quite a task. The half cent is a bear, and pieces from the Charlotte and Dahlonega mints are never easy.
     
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  12. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    Display is always an issue. I have been collecting the 3 coin ATB sets from the US Mint for my grandchildren. I have several extras and decided to put them in CAPS Album pages. They come from the mint already in the CAPS type holders. But when you take them out the glue on the back is very visible and distorts the obverse. See the photo below of one with glue and one without.

    It is very difficult to the point of impossible to get all the glue off. Yes, I have tried several solutions.

    Now I am taking an EXACTO knife and trimming very close to the body of the CAPS holder. Then trimming any flashing. This leaves the original backing intact and does not blur the coin details at all.
    200713124455324.jpg IMG_5928.JPG IMG_5929.JPG IMG_5930.JPG IMG_5931.JPG
     
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  13. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    I truly envy you guys with collecting focus. I have one full safe dedicated to Whitman and Dansco sets. Can’t display those. My main safe is Tupperware boxes full of all those beautiful coins I couldn’t have as a kid. No focus at all. If it was blast white or gold, I bought it.
     
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  14. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    I feel the same way. I have a safe full of the same stuff and there is no way to put it out for display. I am trying to come up with some plans. I have all the modern commemoratives in their boxes. Most other sets are complete. But, what do you do with them? Just remember to lock the safe at night.
     
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  15. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    Exactly!!
     
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  16. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    Mine are almost all in bank safety deposit boxes. Photography is the only way I expect to display them. I have a few representatives of my various collections at home, but not enough to lose sleep over.
     
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  17. Gallienus

    Gallienus coinsandhistory.com

    What a very nice set & idea! A good friend of mine whom I've known for many years does the same thing but with slightly later sets. He also links the coins of the year with events in the US that were happening at the same time. He just wrote up a story for his local coin club on his high grade 1850-P set, 1c - 1$, sans gold. Now some of his latter 19th century sets also include the gold. Also he may go back to the year 1800; I'll have to check.

    1840 is a very nice year to do this with. Note that you may want to go back and edit some of the mints you listed, e.g. "1840 CC half eagle" to "1840 C". Also when did you start forming the set? You don't have to mention prices or sources but I'd be interested in knowing how long the 1840 set took you?

    Incidentally I recently had an 1840 episode this week. I had consigned my 1840 Argentine Rebel Peso to be sold at the NYICS in Jan 2021. I was hoping to upgrade to a nicer one. However given the rarity of the piece: 20 or 12? known in all grades, I've decided that perhaps it would be best to get the nicer one before selling mine. Also I display my coins thru a webpage which I program myself.
    Here's the 1840 rebel peso: https://coinsandhistory.com/countries/Latam_Argentina/Argentina.html#Argentina_8R_1836

    I'm going to see if I can get permission repost his article here. This year set seems like a nice way to collect US. Also what is nice about this set, aside from being historical, is that many of the items seem to be unquestionably rare or at least uncommon and it avoids the unwinnable battle of having one's type coin topped by some ultra-rich guy who simply goes out and buys an ms-66 early eagle to top your ms-65.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2020
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  18. TypeCoin971793

    TypeCoin971793 Just a random guy on the internet

    Very well-put-together set! You should be proud!
     
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  19. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    Here is my first finished page. It is 2010 and 2011. IMG_5932.JPG
     
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  20. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    Thank you your kind remarks and interest. Yes, it's an interesting year being the first full year of the liberty series, and hey the year we elected Tippecanoe and Tyler too (Tippecanoe - William Henry Harrison - only served 31 days and died in office). And it's the first year of the Seated Silver Dollar (among others).

    And thanks for catching that typo - weren't no CC in 1840. I was nervous about creating the thread and I just noticed there are some other typos in there as well - but too late to edit - none that I think the reader can't get around.

    I've been gathering these for about 8 years. I kind of stumbled into the four half eagles (the philly half eagle is "wide mill", a somewhat rare variety - but it isn't stated as such on the holder) . I've purchased some from well known dealers and here and there I've gotten lucky in few a auctions. I looked for a New Orleans $2.50 for some time and eventually got lucky, buying it for a really good price from a dealer. It's an AU55 with a good strike - which is very unusual for the year and the issue - and much to my surprise it passed CAC scrutiny too.

    Unfortunately I've never been to a live coin show - partly because I work weekends a lot.

    One of the more interesting coins of that year is the 1840 (O) half dollar - NGC calls it "medium letters" and PCGS calls it "reverse of 38" - but it is really a New Orleans half dollar that doesn't have a mint mark because it was the first year that the mint mark was on the reverse and they didn't have a new reverse die. So they used the new 1840 obverse and the reverse from 38' (which had no mint mark). Oddly, in the NGC registry there is only one slot for an 1840 half dollar without a mint mark so that's the slot it takes. The Philly 1840 half is pretty common so it's much more interesting to have this coin there. I love the look of the 38' reverse and the esoteric nature of it's history. There is an old, wonderful extended article in the Gobrecht Journal by Bill Bugert tracing the history of the dies that were used to stamp the 1840(O) half.

    Thanks so much for your interest and appreciation. I will check out the related link you provided.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2020
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  21. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

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