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Coin Collecting Thread


NotActuallyALonghorn

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I believe we had one of these on the old site, but didn't see one here. Anyhoo, I was given these coins by my parents when they cleaned out the safety deposit boxes. Apparently they were given to me as an infant.

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Any comments? Guesses at grades? I really don't know anything about coin collecting, but I do have a few old Soviet coins that I found in the storage building left from the previous owner of my house.

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I like the big hunks of silver. Nice and hefty.

Mopar: Sorry, but that note is not real, it is a reproduction. The brown 'parchment' paper is a giveaway, there are lots of reproductions of different notes on that kind of paper. The signatures ought to be pen signed as well, and yours are printed. There is a real note that looks like that though.

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 12/1/2019 at 1:35 AM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Any comments? Guesses at grades? I really don't know anything about coin collecting, but I do have a few old Soviet coins that I found in the storage building left from the previous owner of my house.

Nice coins! The 1889 is not super-rare, not a grader myself but I imagine you could get double the price of silver in it. The American Silver Eagle (the second one) is really more of a bullion coin, collected for the weight of the silver. They go for price of an oz of silver + a dollar or two.

So, probably not a $$$$ haul, but an extremely cool family gift to find. I have a silver dollar that is worthless as a collectible, looks like it got hit by a belt sander, but every time I look at it I remember the day my grandmother gave it to me.

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That one is real, BottleRocket.

Here are a couple of my Texas notes: The first is from the Republic of Texas era. It is not that obvious from the image, but the note has been sliced almost to ribbons. That is the cancellation from when this was finally paid off in $5 in real money. The Republic did everything that they could to default on their currency, but when it came time to be admitted to the USA, the obligations had to be met, as they were then sort-of US obligations, and the USA did actually pay their bills, and so a bail-out was arranged, and the note holders were eventually paid in full. (Most of the original holders had given up and sold their notes to speculators for pennies on the dollar, and it was the speculators who got paid in full, that is how things go.)

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This one is from the pre-Republic days, from the 1830s I think, for a private bank that hoped to open, under a Mexican charter. (Notice that this is denominated as 1 dollar and 1 peso.) This bank never actually opened (notice there are no signatures), but some of the blank printed notes did survive.

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I’ll have to come back when I don’t have the kids going apeshit. But my grandfather and father were collectors/dealers for awhile. In the 60s, if you wanted a New World Real, they probably got it for you. We talked about it on the other site quite a bit but I don’t want to outright dox myself (although I’m not really hiding). My father published a book about them. I don’t really collect but I do have a few pieces of silver, some carved ones and various exonumia. I’ll post some pics later.

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On 12/2/2019 at 9:33 PM, BottleRocket said:

I posted this one in another thread. Found it tucked behind an old picture frame that I salvaged from a box being thrown out after my Grandfather’s death. It’s in pretty bad shape but cool to have.
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Genuine ROT note. After Annexation, Texas currency was retired by the notes being clipped in that fashion. Have a couple of them myself. Yours is actually in pretty good condition.

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28 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

I’ll have to come back when I don’t have the kids going apeshit. But my grandfather and father were collectors/dealers for awhile. In the 60s, if you wanted a New World Real, they probably got it for you. We talked about it on the other site quite a bit but I don’t want to outright dox myself (although I’m not really hiding). My father published a book about them. I don’t really collect but I do have a few pieces of silver, some carved ones and various exonumia. I’ll post some pics later.

My Dad probably had a copy of your  Dad’s book, as he collected Reales too. I have 1/3 of his modest collection. 
My Dad (whose second career was working for a university in Monterrey) wrote columns for Coin World in the 1960s into the 1970s, and did a number of stories on Mexico and the coin trade there. 
I know very little about the hobby myself.

Edited by Armybrat
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My Dad probably had a copy of your  Dad’s book, as he collected Reales too. I have 1/3 of his modest collection. 
My Dad (whose second career was working for a university in Monterrey) wrote columns for Coin World in the 1960s into the 1970s, and did a number of stories on Mexico and the coin trade there. 
I know very little about the hobby myself.

There is a very good chance they knew each other or of each other.

Our house was robbed when I was about 5-6 years old and got most of my dad’s collection. This is one of his last coins, a fairly rare Real (rare because it has an error I believe).

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I know nothing about the errors, but yours looks in fine condition. Mrs. Brat wears one of those with the same date in a bezel I had made 20 years ago. Hers is in very worn shape though. Damn hand made bezel cost me $100, because a US silver Dollar size would not fit. Lol

Will post some pics tomorrow.

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I want to get one of the 8R coins sometime. I would like to have a collection for the Six Flags, with one item from each nation that controlled Texas. For Spain, an 8R, Mexico City mint, dated 1800-1810, would fit the bill. I just have not got around to finding the right one yet.

 

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3 hours ago, tomahawk dunk said:

How do y'all go about selling coins & paper currency? Who do you use; coin shops, eBay, Heritage Auctions, other? I have some old paper currency and pennies I want to sell. Thanks.

Ask lots of places. Paper currency and pennies will have a huge variety of prices, unlike gold and silver which will at least have the base value of the metal.

I have sold gold and silver on eBay and at a coin shop. eBay was good but I wasn't selling thousand-dollar stuff. The closest I have done to paper currency is collectible games, where they grade them almost like people do with stamps or comic books. What I did was downplay them, ie list every crease or smudge even if it was barely there, and list the minimum bid as what I really wanted. Overall good results, with glowing feedback because it looked better than my description.

Coin shops are all over the park as to what they offer. I'd check a half dozen before I sold anything. For pennies I bet you want a store that specializes in that coin, because he's the one the other dealers will sell your pennies to after they buy them.

You may have luck finding an online forum for collectors who buy and sell among themselves.

PS: If there is a coin show in your area, maybe take a couple of your coins there and walk them around and see how dealers react. Might be a good way to figure out who you want to sell the whole collection to.

Edited by RDCanecutter
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3 hours ago, tomahawk dunk said:

How do y'all go about selling coins & paper currency? Who do you use; coin shops, eBay, Heritage Auctions, other? I have some old paper currency and pennies I want to sell. Thanks.

Haven't bought or sold on this site, but they have a numismatic buy/sell section where members deal directly with each other:

http://www.bullionstacker.com/index.php

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  • 2 weeks later...

So what is it that got you interested in coins?

For me it's not really an investment, I mean hell, I won't turn down gold or silver, but it's kind of dead opportunity-wise if you have other safe things for your money.

I can see the mania of completing a set, and getting new coins in a series satisfies that bubble-wrap popping compulsion.

There are the Big Moments in History, sure.

For me, some of my favorite ones are beat-up ordinary coppers. I can see them clutched in tiny hands, their presence telling the owner "you won't go hungry today."

Yeah it's weird. I'm weird. You're weird too.

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So I had a yen for more shiny stuff and I swung by my usual coin place for gold.

No gold, so got some silver-- mostly old art bars/rounds, I especially like the ones from the 70s. Also a boogered-up American Silver Eagle at a smidge over spot.

For numismatic, I got a Civil-War-era Indian Head Cent, a V nickel, and a cute Barber Dime, don''t collect the last one yet but it was my Gramama's birth year and I like those. Prolly none of them very high grade, who cares, they weren't much.

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  • 1 month later...
10 hours ago, Reagan1k said:

I found a forgotten gold coin - Not sure why I thought it was a good idea at the time but I have it.

What's it worth - 2008 Buffalo G $50 MS69  still in the NGC plastic pack?

You are in luck. Gold is bobbing along at a 7-year high. The raw gold in it should get you more than 1600 at a decent shop. As for the NGC slab, that could add something to it, maybe a couple hundred extra, maybe not. Wouldn't hurt to contact a few places and see what they say.

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  • 3 months later...

I have mentioned that my father and grandfather were collectors and that my dad wrote an important book on Reales.  Well, my younger brother has been in contact with UT about donating copies of his book, letters from collectors that were written to him, articles and other materials regarding the provenance of how the book came to be.  Part of that is one of the last coins my grandfather kept, the possibly rare 8 Real from 1772.  I was wondering if anyone here might have a connection at the Heritage Auction in Dallas as we may need to go to them to authenticate it.  If anyone thinks they can help, please DM me.  Thanks.

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  • 5 months later...
On 11/11/2020 at 1:31 PM, Hook1997 said:

While not near as cool as most things posted here I got a liberty quarter as change today.  Judging by what I found online it’s from 1917-1924 edition.

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As of today, you are more than $4 ahead in life!

https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/coin-melt-values.aspx?MeltCategoryID=2&BaseMetal=US-Silver-Coin

That's actually a pretty unlikely one to find in spare change. I could see a silver Washington quarter doing it, but this obviously looks old and different.

My guess is that somebody raided Grandaddy's change jar to buy Marlboro Reds.

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Back in the late 1970s one of my nephew’s “friends” stole 600 of his dad’s silver dollars from their attic after the kids had been snooping around at all the crap stored up there.

My brother found out that the kid had been spending them at the nearby 7/11. Of course the clerk wouldn’t squeal, as he undoubtedly was quietly making bank off them.

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That's the problem with a chain like 7/11. No real roots in the community. In the 60s I trucked down to Mr. Griffin's store with a silver Ben Franklin half that I'd been told not to spend because it was special, and spent it on candy and comic books. Mr. Griffin held onto it until my Mom could buy it back for 50 normal cents.

I don't remember getting it back.

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12 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

That's the problem with a chain like 7/11. No real roots in the community. In the 60s I trucked down to Mr. Griffin's store with a silver Ben Franklin half that I'd been told not to spend because it was special, and spent it on candy and comic books. Mr. Griffin held onto it until my Mom could buy it back for 50 normal cents.

I don't remember getting it back.

Heh, 65 years ago I walked to the local Five & Dime store and used my 1927 sliver dollar to buy a big bag of marbles. The clerk actually asked me if I really wanted to spend it. Eventually lost them all. 
 

Just looked in my old Peter Pan peanut butter jar to count these silver Washington quarters out for the first time. Stacks of ten.

 

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12 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

I'm all about using devices until they fall apart, but that phone behind the coin jar might need an upgrade.

My grandpa modified one of his old wall phones to whittle out the candlestick for table top use, then upgraded to the brass stick on the left. He operated a small town battery-powered telephone system in the teens.

 

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  • 6 months later...
On 3/7/2020 at 7:22 AM, Reagan1k said:

I found a forgotten gold coin - Not sure why I thought it was a good idea at the time but I have it.

What's it worth - 2008 Buffalo G $50 MS69  still in the NGC plastic pack?

I have a couple of 2006 Buffaloes sitting in a safety deposit box. Can’t remember if they’re graded or not. 

Edited by HornPhD
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