Sir Sisu

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Sisu, while I agree, for the most part-- with sales tax/VAT taxes like they are, stores will have to list prices with tax already included..which is rarely done in the USA. Movie theatres are the first example that comes to mind.

 

Ciao, and Hook 'em Horns,

Capt-AWACS, Redheads are nuts

Oh yeah, I forgot about that quirk in the system. So much much for my theory.

I started collecting passively about 25 years ago as a child, probably around the age of 7-8. (My parents did not collect anything, my brother collected stamps.) The only thing I collected acitvely was US nickels.

I started actively collecting in 1990. The overhaul of Finnish coinage designs was the catalyst.

How about coin watches? Those are cool, but way wayyy out of my budget.

Not all of them. I have a cheapy 10 markkaa (1990's type) watch that I received as a gift from a summer job I had a few years back.

Part of me likes the idea of free listing for sellers. I would be more likely to list on a free site rather than a charge site.

The main auction site here offers free listing. However, as a buyer I dislike it because I end up seeing the same overpriced stuff week after week because no one buys the stuff and they are constanly relisted.

Yes, indeed, the much reviled Churchill had to make an appearance eventually. ...

It would probably have been here much sooner (and in more threads) if bakeded had made the crossover.

Okay what era/eras does your collection focus fall within? Is there a certain date you will not go back beyond?

Are you a modern, early modern, medieval, antiquity/classic or an ancient coin collector?

My primary focus is Finnish (proper) coinage, which begins after the mid 19th century. Of course I am not limited to that. However, I have finicky tastes regarding the coins I collect- meaning I prefer the full rounded forms of struck milled coinage. I find hammered/pressed/etc coins interesting on their historical merits, but they do not appeal to me so much as a collecting item (except for those examples that have a nice rounded, full, struck appearence).

So as a generalization, I would be a modern/early modern collector.

I recently saw a debate on this at another forum, and I thought it would be interesting to start the debate here.

 

Would you like to discontinue the $1 bill and let it be replaced by a $1 coin??

Keep the note for now. It is lighter for me to send in the mail.

The dollar note will eventually go as will the cent, but I do not think it will be mandated. It will happen with time and inflation. My guess is that it will eventually happen, but business will lead and government will follow. Large retail chains (where margins are small and are always looking to squeeze some more profit) will slowly began to price more items at $0.05 intervals. With each transaction, this will reduce the transaction time (more customers through a line, less cashiers needed), reduce banking costs of dealing with large amounts of 1 cent coins, etc.

I think that this process would already have been underway more vigorously if electronic payment methods were not so widely used. That is the cent's lifeline IMO. Stores/restaurants/etc get all the benefits of added cents (think $29.99 instead of $29.95) without the downsides of dealing with physical coins. Take all cards out of the equation, and I would guess that businesses would have already begun the switch to a 5-cent rounding. I guarantee big companies have made the calculations. When those calculations turn and weigh against using the cent, it does not matter what the zinc unions say. Companies will not order cents from commercial banks and they in turn will not order them from the Reserve Banks, and soon they will not be made.

The one I really want most is that shield nickel. 

That and the nickel 3-cent. Beautiful coins!!

Quite a few European mints are "profit centers" in that sense too. ...

Yup. The Mint of Finland has swallowed its neighbors and is the dominant mint in Scandinavia.

And it is no coincidence that when the Mint of Finland became an incorporated company, commems went from costing face value to having a significant premium.

The intrepid Geraldo finally discovers where Perot's "giant sucking sound" really comes from.

Vinnie on the look out, while Leo and Vito are collecting some info.

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I'm so stupid I even shined all my lincoln pennies with brasso this week, was so proud of the shine, then learned that it killed the value (well....not like they had any).

You learned of one the major tenants already. You are off to a good start!

1. I don't have any coin shops near me. Is just going to the bank and getting rolls the best I can do? And car wash change machines as another source for quarters?

If you are new to the hobby than this is probably a good thing. Searching through a mix of uncirculated coins from bank rolls and circulated coins from rolls and change machines and such will help you gain the hands on experience to see how coins wear, what date and mintmark combinations are more uncommon, etc. This way you will be paying face value for your practice. When you get a better feel of what to look for, then when you do find a coin shop/dealer you will not have to pay a premium for your lessons.

4. When deciding which coin to keep and which to ditch, what are the major things to look for first that diminish value? Scuffs to the face? Horizontal scratches? Crap on the coin? Knicks on the ridges? What reduces its value the most or least?

I would also add that while it is good to know what factors will affect value, just remember to also look at what appeals to you. A scratch on the device (the design on the coin) is more annoying to some as opposed to a scratch on the field (the flat part where there is no design), and vice versa.

And welcome to the boards!

By those definitions, I am a generalist with a lot of hoarder thrown in.

This one best fits me. I am a part hoarder in that I keep one of everything, but not a lot of the same. I am mostly a generalist as I have broad interests geographically and historically. If I have any specialization in me, than it leans towards my Finnish collection.

I'm sorry for this question.  I don't know much of the 'coin lingo'. But what does  'type sets' mean?

A very simplified example would be a US cent -type set. One would not look at the year of the coin, but the different types or designs of 1 cent coins: Lincoln w/memorial on reverse, Lincoln w/wheat ears on reverse, Indian head cent, Flying eagle cent, etc. Some people also consider different metal content as differing types. Thus a pre-1982 and post 1982 would be two differnt types. The steel cents from 1943 would be another and so on....

No need to apologize for a question. That is what this is all about.

As a history student, I have been inculcated to look at the past in neatly defined eras. Consequently I (rightly or wrongly) place coinage as being one aspect of modernity or pre-modernity, regardless of method. One school of thought is that 1789 marks the coming of the modern era. Of course this is debatable. And this view of course is Euro-centric. One can find milestones in different eras and locations that differ vastly in how modernity is perceived to arrive.

For me personally, I see modern coinage as milled coinage and would subdivide the issuance of base coinage (i.e. that of moderate/higher valued coinage away from intrinsic value) as a present era of coinage.

I am an absolute Squirrel! If I get a coin with a date/mintmark/error/etc that I do not have, I keep it. (I plan on moving into a storage warehouse eventually. )

Me too, except things get darn expensive this way ;-)  So I limited my Germany (Fed. Rep.) collection to "by year" only, ignoring mint marks. Other coins I collect by type.

 

Christian

Yes, that evil pentagram formed by the current 5 mints in Germany is already taking over my euro collection!

no coin, but a note.

 

In the 1980's the Dutch 5 gulden note was demonitized and a 5 gulden coin was issued instead.

 

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I took some crisp UNC notes that I got at the bank and put them in an envelope and placed that on a shelf in my room.

 

It sat there for several years, I can still point out the exact location.

 

Then I moved to a another house. Things went in boxes, boxes went in cars, boxes went out of cars to attick. Boxes were taken off the attick and emptied and the contents were placed in the appropriate places in th new house.

 

But I never found that envelop again

A similar thing happened to me less than two years ago when we moved to our current home. Just after 12 midnight when €uros became available here, my wife and I walked to an ATM. I withdrew a €20 note and saved the receipt that showed the time and date. I lost both in the move.

Other than that I cannot recall losing any other coin or note.

Hmmmm......I wonder what Patrick's avatar will look like?

Glad you joined Dojo. It is nice to get more people in the same time zone as I!

WOW! Those are really sweet! What term would one use when searching for such items? I am very tempted if they are reasonably priced.

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-papadoc aka jackson aka Dain

 

thanks for the replies....

Ahh, so you are one of the new-namers too! Good to know.

another potty:

I think there should be a roll of TP instead of the cap on the end of that stick.

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1)What was your first album?

2)What would be a good first album for me? Ideally, it would be neither prohibitively difficult to fill, or so easy to fill that it would be pointless and dull. Just a good album to give me an idea of the general experience.

Thanks  .

1. My first and only album was a 1913 to present (1979) nickel album that I filled as a child.

2. Go for the nickels!

The German €2 pieces have "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit", the first words of the national anthem, on the edge. The ones from Finland and Greece have the country names ...

The Finnish 1 markka (1964 type) and 5 markkaa (1972 nad 1979 types) also had incuse edge inscriptions: Suomi Finland and Suomen Tasavalta respectively. I had always liked that feature and was disappointed when it was lost with the redesign in the early 1990's.

The edge of the 2 cent coin is interesting too. While milled pieces have many vertical lines on the edge, this coin has one horizontal line. ...

I found this very interesting myself. The first time I saw this in Germany I thought I had either an error or a coin that had two sides glued together!

I am just guessing from your photo, but it almost appears as if a ring of metal was added to the coin. It might just be the photo, but it looks a bit as though there is some soldering around the edges.