New hobby page

I recently started writing a little on the hobby of coin collecting and posted it on my page https://www.facebook.com/collectablecoins.us. I have worked in the numismatics industry and now I am just an enthusiast. I will write about coin collecting's many aspects and the history of numismatics. It is new and I just started so feel free to check it out. Any input is gladly accepted. Thanks, Kasey Roney

 

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An article about the first American coin-operated vending machines would be interesting. Another article could be about how cash registers affected the type(s) of coins minted.

For instance, why do cashiers hate $2 bills and half dollars? It's because (as far as I know), there's no place to put them in the cash drawer. With only 4 spaces for bills, you encourage the use of $1-5-10-20 bills; cashiers accumulate any $2 bills and send them back to the bank, and virtually never order that denomination. Same for half dollars; fifty years ago, cash registers had 5 coin bins, the 5th being for halves.

edit// Plus the bewildering array of (unwanted) dollar coins: Ikes, Sacagawea, Presidents, Susan B. Anthony, etc., etc.

CASH for transactions is disappearing anyway, and I think I read that credit card usage is declining too -- it's pay by debit card, or electronically, with a smartphone. Personally, I nearly always pay cash at fast foods, drugstores, and gas stations. The grocery is the main place I use credit cards. And I write lots of checks -- just habit.

Wonder what cash boxes looked like in the 1850s, when we had half cents, large cents, small cents, 3 cent pieces, half dimes, dimes, quarters, halves, silver dollars, PLUS gold in half a dozen denominations? Shortly thereafter, we also had 2 cent pieces, standard nickels, 20 cent pieces, fractional currency, and standard federal paper money.

 

That's very interesting I never have thought of that. I will have to look into it. Thank you Doug

 

One further expansion of the cashbox/cash register subject. I forgot that up until 1857 (?), many foreign coins were legal tender in the United States. Also, at the start of the Civil War, there were over 25,000 kinds of paper money circulating in the U.S., including issues of the so-called "wildcat banks," state banks, cities and towns, railroads, insurance companies, and mining firms. Few of these circulated more than ten miles from their point of issue.

Here is an image of something related, early credit cards, which were metal disks with a machine-stamped number (but no name) and often a monogram of the Company that issued them:



The first is from Gimbel Brothers Department Store, a chain eventually located in New York. The second is from (John) Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia, with a J. W. monogram at the top. The penny is for size comparison.

A clerk copied down the details on a credit slip, after matching the number with the name signed by the buyer.

 

that's very tantalizing, I cannot wait to start researching the whole aspect of it.

 

Leaping off Doug's comment and just in case you don't know - I had forgotten - the magic word is "Cambist".

The 3rd definition at dictionary.com defines it as "a manual giving the moneys, weights, and measures of different countries, with their equivalents." - so when you tendered your French 'Gold' coin, the merchant would look it up, find that they had been assayed up to 1853 as consistently worth 93c and give you your change.

Reprints of the originals from 1830s on to 1900s are available. Originals are going to set you back a pretty penny... given they were published annually and heavily used, most were just discarded when the next year's was published. Worse than old Red Books.

 

In the true sense of the (Greek) word, you really don't want something to be tantalizing -- see the gruesome story in Wikipedia.

"...The English verb tantalize originates from the story of Tantalus. When someone is tantalized, they go through something akin to Tantalus' punishment: having something desirable always just out of their reach," LOL.

I guess that means everybody's Want List is tantalizing, hmm?

 

Lol ya I was a little hesitant on using that word but decided to go with it. I am excited about researching these topics as to my knowledge no one has really delved into it. And it also combines two things I love history and coins

 

Might I suggest correcting the title of the Facebook Page? "Collectible" is misspelled.

Or is it too late for such trivialities?

 

It is spelled both ways, the far more common being "collectible". Thank you as I have been wondering if I should just change it.