When I Was A Numismatist

I have nothing to write about on this day, so let me tell you about my stint as a teenage coin collector. When I delivered the morning paper at ages 13 - 15, I collected a lot of change. This led to a brief coin collecting hobby. Every Saturday morning I met with the “manager” from the publishing company to pay for the papers I had delivered that week and to order papers for the next week. Before that meeting I pored over coins I received from my customers that week to see which ones I might not have. Very occasionally, after that, I would take my meager profits to the bank and buy a few silver dollars. The best silver dollars were minted in the 19th century. Those dollars were the ones that had the least wear. I thought it was really cool that I could go to the bank and buy coins minted in a previous century. The silver dollar shown here is called a Morgan type dollar, named after its designer, George T. Morgan. The obverse shows Lady Liberty, so sometimes it’s called the Liberty Head dollar. The reverse side shows an eagle, reminiscent of the Great Seal of the United States. This particular dollar has no mint mark which means it was minted at the Philadelphia Mint in 1886. The more collectible dollars were minted at the Carson City mint because it minted fewer dollars, thus they’re scarcer. Dollars were also minted in Denver, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

I kept the coins in “books” designed to hold coins. I had many coins in every denomination from dollars down to cents. Most of them have a lot of wear on them, so they’re not worth much more than face value. The coins that are most valuable are in excellent condition, and those are difficult to find. But the aim of the hobby wasn’t to collect valuable coins. The aim was to collect coins I didn’t have. Now the coin books sit forgotten in the corner of a closet. These days, a coin collector should be prepared to buy coins from the mint. The coins in circulation are mostly junk. (That’s my humble opinion.)