Loving the Unloved: Battered and Corroded Coins

Only a true collector can love the unloved. It is the way of the necromancer.
   Let's take a striking example: here is a battered and corroded coin. Can it be marvelous?

This old cent draws you in. It is beautiful for starters.
This cent has storyline that is familiar to us all: it was
lost, and it laid in the earth while the world churned;
then it was found again, blooming with corrosion,
and shouting out it story.

   Indeed, this heavily corroded cent caked with verdigris and exfoliating at the center is not likely to be found on a collector's want list. Perhaps it takes a rebel to collect something like this. It is clearly outside the accepted realm of the new and shiny. Yet, the necromancer enjoys battered and corroded coins such as this.
   And I assure you, I am not rebel.
   Instead, the necromancer sees something special in pieces like this. There is a storyline here: of being lost, perhaps hunted for, and now found. Some bloke lost this one over a century ago (maybe it was a dark night or maybe he tripped or ...).
   In any case, this cent was the still-point while life roared above it. Folks stepped on it. Moles dug past it.
   There is more.
   The storyline runs deeper, reflecting issues about mortality -- ours and our objects. Nothng lasts forever. We can feel it when we look at this one, even if the feelings go unexpressed.
   Once you get past the initial disdain (which is just a defense mechanism), you can't look away. Herein lies the allure.
   So why are such "heavy" coins unloved. I think it is because many collectors do not listen to their hearts (or their amygdala). Yes, too much cortex, too little emotion.
   The Angel of Numismatic Correctness pulls us away. Too bad. This is an object that is fascinating to ponder. It is a pure collector's coin, full of intrigue. It is marvelous!
   In her introspective book, In Fragrante Collecto, Marilynn Karp -- a Professor of Art, no less -- put it this way: "Of all the faces of collecting, this is the purest: collector and object, no intervening issues of value or competition, wholly unselfconscious choices." Indeed, loving the unloved is one of the hallmarks of the true collector. And the necromancer is standing right by his side.
   So why not collect battered and corroded coins?
   I submit that those who find magic in corroded coins are of a particular bent that is no less astute or fervent than the (so-called) connoisseur flashing his lustrous Morgan Dollars.