Do like a Necromancer (Part 1)

In this post, I will begin to share some of the secrets to becoming a coin necromancer.
   Please do not be afraid, as there is no black magic involved. And, there are no mythical beasts that we will be dealing with. Instead, I will show you how to conjure up the spirits that are in every coin and how to spot coins that are animated. These lessons will take some time, so bear with me. Be prepared for some homework.
   First, I must remind you of the seminal quote that was posted at the start of this blog. This quote changed my collecting forever. But it takes some contemplation for it to sink in. This wisdom -- this way of seeing -- has a deep philosophy associated with it. Go find it and read it; then sit on a large rock, palm firmly placed on your forehead -- in the "heavy thinking pose" -- and ponder the past. Fondle an old coin and think about the history in your hand, but also think of the history in your head. Most of the history is in your head. Think about how powerful it is for collectors to create images of history.
   Just let this radical notion simmer. We make history come alive in the moment.
   Of course, we know about history. We study the Red Book. We examine die-variety studies meant for the specialist. We even get a few history books that review the era that captures our imagination. But none of this can take us back. We can never go back. Put bluntly, we really do not know what it was like back then.
   Sure, we have some data available to us. And, we have the objects -- our coins. But other than that, we have nothing. Most history is biased by those who took the time to record their thoughts. Like us, they had faulty, sometimes fanciful, memories. Consequently, we get only a sliver of the truth.
   But, is there a truth? Two folks witnessing the same event are likely to have very different impressions. You see how difficult it is. We don't even have the evidence to show that there was a history at all.
   So what are we to do?
   We can start by experiencing our coins -- touching them, letting them dance in our hands. If you really want to know what it was like to spend a large cent, or what is was like to carry a few of them in a purse or pocket, then the answer is in the doing. Get a large cent and explore it with your fingertips. Get a purse and carry a few around in it.

Here are two marvelous cents doing the two-penny shuffle.

   Here is an exercise to try. It is the first step to becoming a necromancer coin collector.
   First, obtain a pair of large cents that are heavily circulated. Take your time to pick coppers that speak to you -- that is, coppers that have intriguing patterns of wear or corrosion.
   Second, take the coins and carry them around with you for a week. You will find it hard to resist not taking the big coppers out and fiddling with them. Do it. Play with the cents.
   Third, make them do the dance. What dance? The dance that we all submit our pocket change to when we are waiting in line at the coffee shop. The one that involves swirling our coins around in our half-closed palm. I call it the two-penny shuffle. Try it with some Lincoln cents first: see how the coins take turns sliding atop one another as you jiggle your hand (as if shaking dice). Many of us already do this while we work off the tension that builds when waiting in line.
   Fourth, now do it with your large cents. Watch one of them rotate in your palm as you jiggle it. Feel the weight. Feel the coolness of the copper. Now add the other one. Feel the weight of the pair as you shake your closed hand. It takes more gusto to make them slide over each other, but it can be done with a bit of practice.
   You want to go back in time? You want to know how it felt to spend a large cent? You want to feel the two-penny shuffle 1850s style? Well, you just did! And no history book will get you closer to the past than this!
   Now go out and find some more worn coins -- we have work to do!

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.