How Coins become Marvelous (Part 5)

We complete our list of characteristics that make a coin marvelous with the fourth dimension. Ready?
   Marvelous coins are exalted by the larger community. This means that you are not alone. You might have felt alone with your coins at one time or another; after all, spending time and money chasing old coins, reading about them, examining them with a glass -- all these activities appear weird to incredulous non-collectors who just don't get it.
   But chances are that if you found magic in a set of objects -- coins or otherwise -- then other collectors (somewhere out there in the world) have experienced the same attraction, the same wonderment.
   And coins? Well, collecting them is not so weird to the thousands who are doing it.
   Rare coins attract crowds. And, clubs form. In numismatics, there are many clubs: colonial coin collectors, early copper collectors, silver dollar collectors, and so on for every series in the Red Book, plus tokens, medals, jetons, as well as many thematic domains.

No, it is not proof-like. It is not an overdate.
Yet, this lowly nickel has magic; it would not last a day
on EBay if offered at a Red Book price. It is as beautiful
as a Monet, but it has been painted by a greater hand,
the hand of Mother Nature. This is a marvelous coin!

   The Internet is populated with specialist groups, just fire-up your search engine and explore the many worlds out there. And, not just coins. We have collector groups chasing after bottle caps, comic books, die-cast toys, guns, war relics. Even common household things such as pencils, clothesline pins, kitchen tools are actively sought. Just about anything you can think of has been collected by some group, big or small.
   A marvelous item has a group that is devoted to it. The group provides some measure of security for the collector, as it suggests that the value of the item -- the demand -- goes beyond a single person's idiosyncrasy. This is not to say that a totally unique collecting bent is less valid (I bet you cannot find one), but rather, the support of a group clearly elevates the collected object. The object becomes marvelous!
   One of the benefits of collecting groups is the fellowship that is provided. A collector can be the most shy of individuals, but when you mention, or show interest about, the subject of his or her collecting, the shyness disappears and the collector immediately brightens up, becoming energized and ready to talk excitedly about the objects of his affection, and his plans to seek out the items that are missing in the collection. There is no greater transformation of demeanor and affect that I can think of in an otherwise normal person.
   Indeed, sharing collecting experiences is a powerful social force. It is cohesive enough to bring collectors from all walks of life together -- from bricklayer to neurosurgeon.

Putting it all together, marvelous coins are singular, require special care, have the property of transcendence, and are exalted by a community larger than one. It should be clear that objects -- like coins -- are made marvelous by those who have chosen to collect them. This transition from the neglected or simply used to the marvelous is magical. It show the power of the human tendency to find meaning in the unlikeliest of places. A worn silver dime from a bygone era, becomes something so special that folks congregate to discuss it, thereby giving a lowly dime the power of kratophany.
   I think all this is pretty amazing. We start our trek towards becoming a necromancer coin collector with this realization: we make our coins marvelous. We are the story-tellers, the artists, the meaning-makers. And our coins become magical objects that serve as touchstones to history
while calming the deeper rumblings of our mortality. Yes, you read that right. Our fascination with objects from our past is just that: we are practicing magic. No doubt about it.