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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sam_I_am.MiaFLUSA, post: 3129038, member: 84102&quot;]Although you folks are addressing this question from the perspective of ancients, I would add that some more &quot;modern&quot; coins can &amp; do appear so pitifully poor and yet are still highly collectible.&nbsp; I&#039;m specifically thinking of Cut &amp; Countermarked coins of the Caribbean and Latin America (which coincidentally have been addressed in another discussion topic of this morning&#039;s Coin Talk e-mail.)&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; In early 1983 I was most fortunate to purchase a collection of coins from the scion of a family from Trinidad &amp; Tobago who had been merchant traders since early in the 19th century.&nbsp; He &amp; the family had agreed it was time to sell their collection/accumulation of coins they had put aside <i>waaay</i> <i>back</i> when they&#039;d accepted such coins in the normal course of trading! </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Just to give you a taste of the nature of such a collection, included among other items was an 1852 U.S. Assay Office of Gold $20, which as referenced above had been accepted in the course of day-to-day commerce.&nbsp; And to illustrate how poor the state of preservation was of some coins in this collection, there was a <b><i>black</i></b> <b><i>dog</i></b> <b><i>of</i></b> <i><b>Nevis</b></i> <i><b>counterstamp</b></i> on a <b>S</b>panish <b>P</b>rovinces <b>o</b>f <b>A</b>merica <b><i>1•Real</i></b> that was so damned worn thin that if it had been an item in the sand at my feet, I swear I might have not bent over to pick it up!&nbsp; It was identifiable as a basic type coin but without the detail of when and where it had been struck.&nbsp; But it still brought several hundred dollars from the collector who purchased it at that year&#039;s San Diego ANA… and he was darned pleased to get it!&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; [BTW, as a personal preference, I do not identify such coins as Spanish Colonial.&nbsp; Instead, I use the acronym <b>SPoA</b>, as unlike the British &amp; French, the Spanish did not have &quot;colonies&quot; but rather, <i>overseas</i> <i>provinces</i>! Therefore, <b><i>SPoA</i></b>!&nbsp; &nbsp; Ironically, the French finally got to this perspective as well in the 20th century as they now refer to their former overseas colonies as <i>Overseas</i> <i>Departments</i>!][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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