Steve’s ongoing Box of Twenty Thread

Hey guys,

I’ve decided to start my own thread regarding my box of 20. The idea here is I will update the thread as I get new acquisitions/upgrades. I’m going to focus a lot on the process and challenges of collecting like this.

If you don’t know what a box of 20 is, briefly: you start with a box that will fit exactly 20 coin slabs and you fill it with nice coins. Once the box is full, you are required to remove or sell a coin to add another in its place. The idea is that over time you will upgrade the collection. Note that I understand there are some very nice wood boxes being produced that hold 27 (or so) coin slabs. I reserve the right to expand up to that kind of box but I will not exceed it.

I am going to adhere to the rules very strictly. I collect many other kinds of things and my hobby money competes for attention. So I will not be impulse buying other items or expanding beyond 20 (or 27). Furthermore I’m going to have to send off a bunch of things to be graded just to get to about 17 items in the short run. So the box isn’t fully fleshed out yet. If you follow this thread you’ll get to see me wrestle with the frustration/tension of hitting the limit of 20 and upgrading. I don’t know where this journey will take me, but I’m fascinated to find out what will happen when I hit 20 items and begin upgrading. Follow along if you like.

Fair warning that sometimes I put coin collecting on the shelf for months or years at a time. But I don’t think I will do that using this method. This is a collecting style I can stick to. If this thread gets extremely home, feel free to nudge me.

So here is the box: (Notice it’s not full and many of the holders aren’t “graded slabs”...that’s coming)

 

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Here’s something old and something new.

I’ve been collecting for years and I have Dansco albums filled with a hodgepodge of coins. But looking over them, There isn’t a lot there that I’m in love with inside them. I actually think I’m going to sell most of them off to fund this project.

Here’s the coin that started at all. When I bought this many years ago I fell in love with it because it was so beautiful. I like original-skin coins. This one made me rethink coin collecting, which is how I found the box of 20 concept. I’d rather have 20 coins like this one than all of my albums.




When I bought this Florin several years ago, they were cheaper than today. Right now if I had to purchase this coin it might break my budget for a single coin.

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And now today’s acquisition. I just got this in the mail today. It’s no coincidence that it’s similar to the Florin. (Yes, I’m a “Vicky Chaser”) This one was also the bleeding edge of my per coin budget, but I thought it was a good mix of numismatic value, gold content and beauty. I’m not ashamed to say that I think I got an excellent deal on it. In fact because every coin potentially may be sold in the future to upgrade I am trying to keep a sharp eye out for bargain coins to help defray upgrade costs.



I like the toning on it. I love toned gold and hope to upgrade into some nice toned gold beauties.

More later:

 

I am going to do something similar. Only, I have over 1900 slabbed coins, so I will do my 20 favorites. I really like your 20 box—great choices.

 

Thanks. I know there’s some serious collectors here who could put together a grouping of 20 amazing coins. But this thread is dedicated more to the process of being confined to a certain number of collectibles and then upgrading the quality without upgrading the quantity rather than showcasing (Not that I don’t enjoy sharing my stuff) . I haven’t found a lot of “blow by blow” threads outlining the acquisition and upgrading like that on the Internet. Perhaps that kind of thing is mostly interesting only to me.

 

That's all fun, but, we all know that "he who dies with the most toys wins". Great collections there.

 

I like the idea and have been toying with doing something similar. I have a book that holds my 36 favorite slabbed coins but I have other subsets that aren't included. It will take time but I would like for that book to be the extent of my collection.

 

It will be fun watching your progress. I like the idea of going over the process of getting to 20 and then staying there via upgrades.

I would have attempted a similar method but by the time I discovered the concept, it was already too late (meaning too many coins to get down to 20).

 

More toys wins? That’s why I’m using this approach....because I collect comics, art, books, telescopes and I also belong to a mini bike club and a car club. I like nice coins but I have so many other interests.

 

Me too. Native American artifacts found in my home territory. WW II stuff (guns and field equipment). US Stamps (collecting them as long as coins). Great Grandkids (up to 20 now). Hey, I could put them in a "box of twenty".

 

A couple raw coins that will be going off for grading soon (NGC).

First is a denarius that I bought off of eBay years ago. I remember that it had some kind of Pedigree because it was owned by some famous author of Roman coinage books but I lost that information and it wasn’t really that relevant. But that helped me authenticate the coin as genuine. I believe this is Severus Alexander. I’m open to all advice about what I should do prior to submitting this. Like should I soak it in acetone or something? The coin has album toning which I love and has pretty good detail. I assume it is worth grading unless someone here tells me it’s financially stupid to send it off.


Note that the coin is in a slab size holder they can be open and closed. I plan to send it off in about two weeks.

The next coin is a beaut. 1949D...not full steps or anything. I bought this in a mall coin show. It has great toning but even if it grades an MS 66 it won’t be worth but $70 plus a premium for toning. This will be sent in for grading. I’m pretty sure this coin didn’t spend much time in a vinyl flip but should I soak it in acetone anyway?




More later. I’m going to focus on posting coins that I’m considering sending out to NGC.

 

People that collect ancients tend to dislike slabs, but plenty of ancients still get graded.

@lordmarcovan would be someone that could tell you more about grading ancients.

 

That copper piece is gorgeous! I have a gold piece very similar to yours but not quite as nice on its way here. I’m using the back of it for my profile picture.

I bought some of those self slabs. I’ve considered it but one aspect of my collection is easily identifiable coins that could be sold in the event that something ever happened to me. For what it’s worth the value of the Pedegree was so minor that it wasn’t worth keeping track of. And it was written on a slip of paper that look like something you could buy at your local drugstore as a certificate of achievement. I might have it around here somewhere or written down but it just didn’t seem relevant.

 

OK I just wrote a long drawn out post that disappeared because I wasn’t logged in. I went through the mental exercise of figuring out what my dream box of 20 would look like. Unfortunately it was a good detailed post. But the conclusion that I figured out that my dream coins would fit in a box of 20 without a strong feeling I was missing out on owning other coins if that level of discipline will allow me to get to that 20 coin endpoint. I would have way more than I needed with 30 coins, however that would just drag out the process. The degree of confinement makes the endpoint more attainable.

I do realize that there will be categories of coins I will own that may not make the final cut. For example, I may do some liberty gold pieces along the way that will ultimately be sold to fund a Saint Gaudens.

 

I've never heard this before but I love it. I collect lots of other things besides coins, though none even closely as seriously as I do coins. Like a modern day "Mancave". Thanks for the info!