Any coin nerds out there besides me?

I have a small collection, but was mostly in to old US Paper Money (Silver Certs, Nationals, and fractionals). Still have a few but have sold most of my meager collection off in the past few years for obvious reasons. My grandmother used to work at restaurants all her life (tips) and also always bought coins at flea markets over the years. She had a huge collection when she passed away about 10-years ago, I've offered to go through it sometime and catalog everything, but my aunts have it stashed away in a deposit box.

What types do you collect? Welcome to BB by the way :thumbs:

 

Yes there's a lot of research to it, some get into collecting blocks, and different series, and it all depends on how many were printed, etc. as to their rarity/value. I just always kept it simple and collected what I thought was neat.

Cool, the oldest nickel I have is a lower grade "rackateer nickel" always liked the story behind them.

http://www.coinsite.com/content/faq/RacketeerNickel.asp

I'd better quit talking to you about this stuff, or I'll be heading back to Ebay :laugh: It can be obsessive, but it sounds like you have the right gameplan.

 

Being able to grade accurately always seemed to be the key. I think that's why I was more attracted to the currency for some reason, since to me the grading came a bit easier. I never understood the deal with toning on the coins.

Back when I was active, I was burned a few times buying currency on Ebay, where the seller would brighten the scan or even wash the notes. Its always best to have something in hand, but I've never found a local shop that had much of an inventory and would occassionally buy some when traveling, but prices were typical 25% higher or more than Ebay. I did have some good luck occassionally buying lots, when the seller wasn't familar/researched what they had or provided poor quality pictures/scans. I'd keep the nicer notes and could sell the lower grade notes back on Ebay and usually recover my original purchase price. I enjoyed doing this, but shipping and paypal fees are such a hassle. And I got burned once when a buyer claimed they didn't get their item, and I had to refund their payment. (Paypal didn't care that they had a "history" of getting packages lost).

As for coins though, like you say if they are slabbed the prices can get outrageous. If I buy anymore, probably just buy in lower grades so I can have a wider variety. The upside won't be as high, but you can still easily sell them if necessary.

 

Has anyone ever seen an actual three-legged Buffalo nickel(not the ones that people sanded the fourth leg off, to try to rip someone off), or a copper penny from 1943-45? All the pennies from 1943-45 were called steel cents, because they were made with nickel and not copper, due to WWII. I know that a copper penny from that time is rare, and I think the # of them to be actually known is around 10, maybe even less than that.

 

My father and I shared a love of coin collecting an he told me that he got a couple of 3-legged Buffalo nickels in a handful of shiny new nickels when he was a kid. He was collecting for his paper route and sorting out the change (he liked to keep the shiny coins and turn in the dingy coins to the newspaper people) when he noticed that two of his shiny new nickels looked strange. He compared them an noticed some slight differences, the biggest of which was that the buffalo was missing one of its front legs.

He put those two nickels aside for several months but eventually decided that he had things he needed to buy (he was about 12 at the time) and spent them.

He mentally kicked himself the rest of his life once he realized his shortsighted mistake. :BangHead:

Regarding nickels, one of my prize coins is a 1950-D Jefferson nickel in about MS-65 quality with full steps and a beautiful rainbow luster. When I bought the nickel from a coin shop back in the late 1970s, I complained about the luster, viewing it as an imperfection. I wanted coins to be very bright and shiny looking. I managed to get the dealer to take about $5 off the price to make the sale --> $10.

I haven't had it professionally graded, but it looks better than the MS-66 coin shown online.

 

Have a great interest in Roman coins, particularly those coined (heheh) by generals to pay the troops.

Late Roman Empire/Byzantine period coins are amazing as well.

There is a really cool dolphin coin I must research up on, having seen one but forgotten the details of....