Significant Coins: Making an Emotional Connection

When I attend the local coin club meetings, I notice that most folks have their Redbooks in hand. It is all about the values. And the mintages. Lists of numbers and letters. Like a code. Many conversations take the same worn path: "I got this VF coin for F money." (Insert some dollar value here.)
   Wait! That's not right. I should have quoted: "I got this MS-63 for MS-60 money." Yes, new and shiny is what it is all about. Just makes the heart flutter, doesn't it? Just knowing you got a deal on a shiny coin is electric. Sort of like getting a new snowman sweater at Walmart for 60% off!
   Sixty Percent!
   Well, I hope that those of you following this blog made some good coin deals in 2015. But I also hope that you discovered something special -- something that you will keep forever. Is a MS-63 purchased at MS-60 money a keeper?
   You notice that I did not say anything about the coin itself. Unfortunately, many folks have little else to say. Oh, maybe they will point out that Ms. Liberty's cheek is free of acne or other scars: "Nice cheeks!" Or perhaps one or two breast feathers are more defined: "Full details!"

This cent was given to me just before my mother passed.
It has a lovely patina with the added benefit of a scabrous
texture that adds depth, stimulates interest, and announces
an authority that only an old cent, once spent, lost, found,
and finally collected, can claim. No mint-state piece comes
close to the relic-ness on an old piece like this one.

   Let's take a moment and sound the trumpets for the smart buyers! HONK! Really, I am trying to be kind here. I want to shout out to those who made the good buys. It takes practice after all. One book likens it to playing a good round of golf. Bravo!

But what about the coin collecting necromancer? What spirits animate a mint-fresh Morgan Dollar that sat in a canvas bag for a century or so? I suppose the artistry is enough. For me however, I want a coin that has some connection to the past other than just being old. Oldness is good, but it is not enough. It has to have been touched, spent, lost, searched for, and so on.
   Have we lost the childlike enthusiasm that we had when we discovered an old coin in the dirt, behind the hutch, in an old drawer? Or even the curious piece found in a junk bin of old coins? I hope not.
   The necromancer cares not so much about value. The necromancer cares about storylines. Yes, coins are mute. But we enliven them. A crusty old piece pulls us to make sense of it. Such "collector coins" wear their storylines on the surface. And the necromancer gets to play a starring role by selecting the piece to be set aside, pondered, and added to the collection. This transformation -- from cull or bullion to something special -- lies at the core of the collecting process. We become attached to the coin. And we give the coin a meaningful role in our collection.
   As I noted several weeks ago, my mother set aside an old large cent when she was a girl. She found it at a dump in Providence, RI, in the 1940s. And now I have it. It is a keepsake. A family heirloom. But its value will not be found in the Redbook.
   For the coin collecting necromancer, there are many similar coins out there just waiting to be discovered. As my upcoming book will point out: it takes some diligent searching to find worn, battered, and/or corroded coins that shout out to be collected.
   So go find your "dump" coin. You do not need to wait for your mother to find it for you.