Coin Confessional: What are your bad habits and guilty pleasures?

Come one, come all, confess your darkest coin collecting secrets and bad habits! This is a safe space and I'm sure we'll all have many of the same sins to repent for!

I'll go first…

Confession 1: 

I really don't like coins that come in presentation packs and I will normally break them free so they can sit amongst the rest of the collection. What's the fun in having a coin that you can't handle. 

I've never been interested in slabbed coins for the same reason and would probably try and break it out from its plastic prison as well…

Judge me not harshly my fellow collectors

i absolutely agree. My motto is that I collect coins, not packaging materials.

Canterbury17

Come one, come all, confess your darkest coin collecting secrets and bad habits! This is a safe space and I'm sure we'll all have many of the same sins to repent for!

 

I'll go first…

 

Confession 1: 

 

I really don't like coins that come in presentation packs and I will normally break them free so they can sit amongst the rest of the collection. What's the fun in having a coin that you can't handle. 

 

I've never been interested in slabbed coins for the same reason and would probably try and break it out from its plastic prison as well…

 

Judge me not harshly my fellow collectors

Many coins are illegal in my country for unfair reasons, and i cant make myself obey the law

Carol51

Canterbury17

Come one, come all, confess your darkest coin collecting secrets and bad habits! This is a safe space and I'm sure we'll all have many of the same sins to repent for!

 

I'll go first…

 

Confession 1: 

 

I really don't like coins that come in presentation packs and I will normally break them free so they can sit amongst the rest of the collection. What's the fun in having a coin that you can't handle. 

 

I've never been interested in slabbed coins for the same reason and would probably try and break it out from its plastic prison as well…

 

Judge me not harshly my fellow collectors

Many coins are illegal in my country for unfair reasons, and i cant make myself obey the law

Really? What kind of coins are illegal? 

Canterbury17

Carol51

Canterbury17

Come one, come all, confess your darkest coin collecting secrets and bad habits! This is a safe space and I'm sure we'll all have many of the same sins to repent for!

 

I'll go first…

 

Confession 1: 

 

I really don't like coins that come in presentation packs and I will normally break them free so they can sit amongst the rest of the collection. What's the fun in having a coin that you can't handle. 

 

I've never been interested in slabbed coins for the same reason and would probably try and break it out from its plastic prison as well…

 

Judge me not harshly my fellow collectors

Many coins are illegal in my country for unfair reasons, and i cant make myself obey the law

Really? What kind of coins are illegal? 

It isnt really specified, it just says something like “Its illegal to own coins that are part of the patrimony” but dosent say which those are. Generally its considered that any coin from any country that was minted before 1800 is patrimony.
But theres degrees of illegalness, the most illegal are the Dacian, Wallachian and Moldavian coins, for those i try to get documents and such that make them more legal to own, to prove I didnt dig them from the ground myself pretty much.

I also don’t like slabbed coins.

I don’t know if this counts, but i’d say the spike in silver has made my collection experience a bit worse. Before the spike i had almost my entire collection on display, I really enjoyed just looking and handling the coins. But now since a lot of the coins have more than doubled in value i’m basically forced to lock the bigger silver in my safe. It’s a bit sad because I can’t see my coins all the time anymore.

Marc16

I don’t know if this counts, but i’d say the spike in silver has made my collection experience a bit worse. Before the spike i had almost my entire collection on display, I really enjoyed just looking and handling the coins. But now since a lot of the coins have more than doubled in value i’m basically forced to lock the bigger silver in my safe. It’s a bit sad because I can’t see my coins all the time anymore.

Why do they need to be locked? I only put coins in a drawer if they are expensive, thats where i also keep gold.

Carol51

Marc16

I don’t know if this counts, but i’d say the spike in silver has made my collection experience a bit worse. Before the spike i had almost my entire collection on display, I really enjoyed just looking and handling the coins. But now since a lot of the coins have more than doubled in value i’m basically forced to lock the bigger silver in my safe. It’s a bit sad because I can’t see my coins all the time anymore.

Why do they need to be locked? I only put coins in a drawer if they are expensive, thats where i also keep gold.

It’s simply a matter of me being comfortable. My collection is not insured yet and i wouldn’t want any of it to be stolen or lost.

Just about everyone who knows me thinks I collect coins but I don't. I have a tiny collection because I bought a few non-circulating PM coins but it is very small (& insignificant). I have more bullion than coins. I have never studied Canadian coins (& know next to zero about World) but despite that, some of my closest friends/relatives still believe I collect them. My wife bought me a Canadian coin set back in 2017 (before we were married) even after she's seen me yap on about banknkotes. I did not have the heart to tell her “I don't collect these” & stashed them in my safe with my paper money collection. 

I hate to admit it, but it sometimes gives me pleasure meeting other collectors who show me their precious sets & I smile & make the appropriate “ew & ahs!”  While I smile & nod with them, I really have no idea how rare or tough they are. I do understand about grading & probably more numismatic terms than avg, but for the most part I have to use my acting skills b/c I forget (or just don't know) the rare coin varieties/dates! 😇  

I also don't like coin shops but go to them to buy currency sleeves & supplies (usually) & every dealer typically pushes coins (& then banknotes) for me to look at. I nod & look dutifully at their stock but I always feel they're over graded & have no intention of buying. This may result in getting a good buy but most often does not.  I can usually tell whether the dealer is a “coin guy” or “banknote guy.”  I have also told many the "coin dealer guys" that they have items over priced b/c I usually can remember both the prices (& the Pick #) of the tougher notes. Normally, I just keep it to myself b/c I know they have to pay the rent.

Marc16

But now since a lot of the coins have more than doubled in value i’m basically forced to lock the bigger silver in my safe. It’s a bit sad because I can’t see my coins all the time anymore.

Why? I have my ancient silver and gold coins on display in my house, and I live in thw ghetto. 🤪

There's nonreason so ha e a collection if you're hiding it. It's a great conversation starter. 😊

ngdawa

Marc16

But now since a lot of the coins have more than doubled in value i’m basically forced to lock the bigger silver in my safe. It’s a bit sad because I can’t see my coins all the time anymore.

Why? I have my ancient silver and gold coins on display in my house, and I live in thw ghetto. 🤪

There's nonreason so ha e a collection if you're hiding it. It's a great conversation starter. 😊

I guess so. Still a bit nervous though, as I said in my previous post I don’t have it insured yet. I do still have a lot of my collection out for display but not as much as i used to.

Keeping coins that aren't worth keeping or that I'm simply not interested in. 🙃

I allow the cats to romp over my desk. There is a window they can look out. They have their run of the place.

One of the cats is a big boy, and one day he was watching birds and pee'd a bit on one of my cigar boxes of coins. Sometimes I leave stacks of them on my desk. I didnt discover this for some time. The pee wicked in to the box and ran down into the felt trays.

When I discovered the mess I had a big job to remove all the coins, wash them gently in acetone and then pat them down with clean paper towels.  The box wasnt a disaster, it cleaned up ok. The felt covered trays had to be binned.

A job of work to clean up after, but that's life with cats. C'est la vie avec des chats.

Not sure if it counts as a bad habit, but the coins that haven't been processed and put into my album just get thrown into an old paint tin on my shelf in whatever packaging the owner sent to me.  Every couple of months I'll have a bit of a clean out, put everything into flips and put them into my album.

 Exactly the same here, but I have no paint tins so I use old bread bags. 

Also I check them again every couple of years. 

For all I hate the “Collector coins” gimmick in general, I do actually have some. A lot are from my very, very early days of collecting. I kind of look upon them now as beginner's folly.

However, I did deliberately collect one quite recently…

I just absolutely love Wallace & Gromit. I did get the silver proof version (I think in part to convince myself it was a bullion purchase 😅)

Things like this I do love but I wish they weren't labelled as “coins”. Just make it into a medallion instead. Replace Elizabeth's head with something else from the series.

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I have a very bad habit of simply storing duplicates indefinitely. Never sell, rarely swap. In part because they're circulation grade only.

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Whilst it's well known to my friends & family I collect coins & banknotes, a frustratingly large proportion assume it's just anything vaguely coin-like (or occasionally banknote-like) from across the globe.

I'm a very particular British & British-adjacent collector. Falklands stuff, 100%. Peruvian stuff, not really.

I can, of course, admire the artistry & craftsmanship of global pieces. But most of the coins sit unloved in a shortbread tin, and the notes do actually go into wallets but not into a folder. Just a file.

And I don't do the same sort of deep dive into them (understanding what it represents, where the real pictured object is, etc)

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And one habit I broke. I used to blu-tack all my coins into place on pieces of paper with a fact file next to it.

Lucky only circulation grade coins, but definitely did some damage. 😬

I’m a big Wallace and Gromit fan too. I sympathize With you on that item. 

neilithicman

Not sure if it counts as a bad habit, but the coins that haven't been processed and put into my album just get thrown into an old paint tin on my shelf in whatever packaging the owner sent to me.  Every couple of months I'll have a bit of a clean out, put everything into flips and put them into my album.

My grandfather used to set aside his silver in old tobacco tins. They wouldn't be as big as a paint can but my older brother got first dibs on this. So his coin collection was massive & full of old treasures featuring kings & queens I had never known. When I finally got employed (delivering our local newspaper, making about $10 per month) I quickly realized that I wasn't going to get exposed to the coins my brother was exposed to (not due to the paper route but due to grandpa) so I pivoted to paper. It was something big brother wasn't collecting!

I just absolutely love Wallace & Gromit. I did get the silver proof version (I think in part to convince myself it was a bullion purchase 😅)

That type of NCLT stuff is exactly what I ended picking up myself (& why I remain “not a collector”)

I'm a very particular British & British-adjacent collector. Falklands stuff, 100%. Peruvian stuff, not really.

-Give it time: I was completely into Bank of Canada, then QEII (& Commonwealth nations). Now its Peruvian, African & Lord only knows what else!

and the notes do actually go into wallets but not into a folder. Just a file.

Alright, now you're talking blasphemy! 🤣

We had the original three adventures on VHS. A Close Shave basically wore out from use. Particularly the scene where they're chasing Preston's van in the motorbike & sidecar.

I adore the music that comes up there. It feels very… Dambuster theme style. And I love the aircraft.

And earlier in the story, when they're preparing the motorbike, it's very “Thunderbirds”. And I find Gromit just walking through the door & rolling his eyes, after Wallace has taken the elaborate route, so hilarious.

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And in case you've not seen it, someone recreated the bed/breakfast scene IRL. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv7WVaoJJ0Y&pp=ygUkd2FsbGFjZSBhbmQgZ3JvbWl0IGpvc2VwaCdzIG1hY2hpbmVz

It's about 10 minutes, and wholeheartedly worth a full watch. But if you're short on time, jump to ~7:30 in the video. 

I think blasphemy is a bit strong 🤣🤣

My “core” collection in it's folder:

And my foreign in the file:

For the most part, I do avoid NCLT unless I happen to really really like what is on it. I couldn't be doing with all those hundreds of “nothings”.

I don't really see my expanding outwards. Within the UK, we have six issuing banks (Bank of England, 3 x Scottish, 2 x NI - Was 3 x NI until very recently). Even getting a full post-decimal collection is easily 200, probably nearer 300 individual notes before even accounting for signature variants. (And I am not going down the signature or date variation route!)

And if I chose to go before 1971… it's insane. I think England alone had over 700 issuing “provincials” not allowing for different denominations or different series within the same bank. And I still would have Scottish & Irish/Northern Irish provincials…

And I haven't even touched on the Crown Dependencies or Overseas Territories yet.

I could maybe see me going “Empire” wide, but only token amounts for each place. Well, unless I become stupid wealthy sometime soon 😅

It's about 10 minutes, and wholeheartedly worth a full watch.

-Very amusing video: thanks for sharing! It is unbelievable that he went to such lengths to recreate an animated scene!

My “core” collection in it's folder:  &.  "And my foreign in the file:

-Both look impressive!

Within the UK, we have six issuing banks

-You got your work cut out for you!

Canterbury17

Come one, come all, confess your darkest coin collecting secrets and bad habits! This is a safe space and I'm sure we'll all have many of the same sins to repent for!

 

I'll go first…

 

Confession 1: 

 

I really don't like coins that come in presentation packs and I will normally break them free so they can sit amongst the rest of the collection. What's the fun in having a coin that you can't handle. 

 

I've never been interested in slabbed coins for the same reason and would probably try and break it out from its plastic prison as well…

 

Judge me not harshly my fellow collectors

Agree totally, especially if its tacky design and low quality materials. Packaging from the 1970s and 1980s is really my bain marie with stamps. The 80s was so stylistically challenged and the 1970s was like Fran Drescher (The Nanny) styling. Usually they used acidopherous cardboard (Acid free paper was a very 1990s innovation).

Tacky and dangerous Fran Drescher style packaging, like a plastic couch cover.

Also I really am not a fan of 1970s plastic coin cases, the 70s they just loved every day glo colour on the planet (Still better than the late 60s which only had blue and black plastic cases).

As you can see, we have helvetica lettering on the commonwealth games coin (It is so “development, brutalist architecture” style) and ugly coin cases dig into the 80s, just before neo liberal reforms of the late 80s bought a more modern and less tacky style).

The usage of Acidopherous card continued up to around 1990. If you squint you can see wear on the case of the ones on left and the box on right has toning from acidopherous cheap 1980s cardboard. At least the capsules were good and the coins have survived well.

Confession 2 

I hate cased up and packaged silver and gold. I love to handle, although carefully, a fingerprint is not good but its no tragic. One person I knew had a conniption (Yiddish word I learnt off the nanny) when I took the top most layer off my Perth Mint gold bars. Coins are organic and should be handled.

The top layer is gone, so the coins are not so bubbly looking and appear sharp, it does not void them.

The only coins I refuse to ever handle loose.

Beautiful Morgan restrike proof.