Lord Marcovan's "Eclectic Box" collection as of September 27, 2021

Thank you. I really appreciate the attention, and crave this kind of detailed commentary on my collection, since I live in a bit of a numismatic backwater and no longer get out to shows, and have never been active in coin clubs and such. This site (and Collectors Universe, and now CollecOnline, where the new gallery is hosted) are my "coin clubs", as it is. Only once a year or so, when I go visit my dealer friends in North Carolina, do I get this kind of feedback from other coin people.

PS- Guess I'd better never sell that Swiss cityview, huh? It's always been a bit of a crowd-pleaser since I got it. Though it's not Mint State ("only" an AU58), it remained the sole certified example the last time I checked the PCGS cert page (population 1, none higher). I bought that one already in the slab. But of course when one has somewhat esoteric tastes like I do, and go "off the beaten path" a bit, it's not hard to end up having a lot of pop.1, "finest certified" examples. Sometimes I find myself the only person who's ever submitted a particular type of coin to the TPGs. If yours happens to be the only one certified, there's not a lot of competition for the top slot!

 

Well, you could always start with the traditional "Box of 20" concept, which is how this collection began. As mentioned in my intro, I stuck to a Box of 20 from 2013-2016 until the decision-making of what to keep and what to include became too difficult and I decided to let the collection grow. Now, at the threshold of a "Box of 100", I'll be going back to that dilemma of what to keep and what to drop, for a while. There are some pieces in here that are really cheap coins, like the 1972 Tanzanian piece and the 1974 Bahamian, which I bought for sentimental reasons (I spent those coin types as a kid, when I lived in those countries.) I also included my grandfather's 1942 WW2 deployment medal in the collection for sentimental reasons, even though as a private issue and unpublished type, it is ineligible for TPG certification.

Thanks for hangin' in there. I know it's a pretty long list now.

Thanks.

That 1794 Conder token is a real beauty. It's one of those pieces where the colors only "pop" at certain angles to the light, but it's a stunner. And for a Mint State 18th century piece, it wasn't horribly expensive. I had a bit of a dilemma figuring out what kind of Conder token to include, because the variety of designs in them is amazing, and there are some extremely cool types. I liked that type with Queen Elizabeth on it because I used to have a circulated and holed example of that type on my old Holey Coin Vest.

Thanks. Say, wasn't it you who ended up with my old ex-Randall Hoard (presumed) 1818 cent? I quite miss that one, and find myself lacking any US large cents in the collection as of this update.

I miss the Puffin, too. I originally won that one in one of @H8_modern's giveaways. I'd always wanted one, so I sent that one off to PCGS, and it ended up tied for condition census, and remains top-pop today (pop. 6/0). @kazuma78 has it now. Like so many, it's one I probably shouldn't have sold, but that's the dilemma I faced so often in my "Box of 20" period- to add one, I always had to drop one. And now I'm getting ready to do that again, only with a Box of 100 instead of 20.

Thank you for the detailed commentary. This kind of feedback is my favorite.

That 1862 Aussie token with the emu and kangaroo on it came from @Chris B. It is probably about to go to @kazuma78, who has expressed an interest in it. Josh (@kazuma78) has ended up with a lot of my nicer pieces like this, this, and this, during past selloffs. Given that he outright gifted me three of the coins in this collection (the VRBS ROMA ancient, the 1840 French pattern, and the 1909-VDB US cent which was part of a roll his great-grandfather saved in 1909), I can't really refuse him the emu/kangaroo token.

You're right- the 1850s hat token does sort of harken back to my old Holey Gold Hat, in a way.

Aha! So you're who I got that 2014 Ukrainian medal from! I couldn't remember. I was thinking I bought it on the CU forums, for some reason. That one just recently earned a place here in this collection, as of this update, because I was trying to round the collection up to 100. Besides, never mind the fact that it's an inexpensive item- I just think it's cool looking and historical. I've relaxed my stance on going "PCGS and NGC only", and have, as you can see with the 1844 half dollar and your Ukrainian piece, decided to allow some ANACS coins into the collection as well (and there's one ICG-slabbed piece that will be the 100th coin in here when I get it imaged).

 

Well said, even the tongue-in-cheek part.

 

@spirityoda - I thought you might get a kick out of this one. It's off to PCGS soon. Somebody here posted one on the forums a while back, and I knew I had to look for one.

 

Fellow collectors: how often have you seen a neat coin, medal, or token, and thought, “Man, I really like that, but unfortunately it doesn’t fit the primary focus for my collection...” ?

That used to happen to me. A lot. Because I like so many different types of coins.

Well here’s the answer. Listen to that little voice in your head, and make what you like your primary focus! Don’t be a “slave to the set”.

Is the price of those key date coins getting you down? Fuhgeddaboutit! If you go eclectic and freestyle, you’re free of the need to buy something just because you need it, and because some empty hole in an album has to be filled.

Of course if you go freestyle but still want to own a key date or two, go right ahead and buy ‘em, if you can afford it. Because you want ‘em. Not because you need ‘em, to complete some set.

Case in point: there’s a 1915 (-P) Barber half above. That’s one of those tough Philadelphia key dates from the end of the series. For the same money, I could have gone with a much higher-grade Barber half than that.

It’s a decent coin, but in a relatively modest grade. But in this particular case, I chose to go with the scarcer key date coin in F15 rather than getting a higher grade common date coin in XF or AU or whatever the same amount of money would’ve bought.

Why? Because I wanted to, not because I needed the key date to finish a Barber half album.

(* I did do a VG-F Barber half album once upon a time, though, and enjoyed it, so I knew about those tougher, low-mintage, late-date Philly issues.)

 

Ha! So I’m not one hundred percent senile, yet! *whew!*

 

Guess they don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of having to classify every kind of token that’s out there- and they like to abbreviate everything and use as little space as possible on the slab labels.

Just label it “Tk 1/2 D” for “token halfpenny”. Boom. Done.