Do Like a Necromancer Part 5: Cultivating Coin Nostalgia

The necromancer coin collector is a person who wants to go back in time. There are many reasons for this longing, but right now, it is enough to appreciate that many coin collectors fantasize about visiting colonial sites, civil war battlefields, and early five&dime stores.
   I was surprised to learn that nostalgia was initially considered to be an illness born of hard times. It is said that immigrants are prone to this ailment when struggling to adjust to a new cultural landscape. For our purposes, we can think of nostalgia as a longing to visit a past that is remembered (or fantasized) as better than today. The old adage goes something like this: Times were simpler then.
   Certainly the past seems safer than today. After all, it has already happened, so there are no surprises. We know how everything turned out. It is the present day that is unpredictable and scary.

Gumball machines can spark feelings of nostalgia.

   Nevertheless, the budding necromancer coin collector is well advised to cultivate their sense of nostalgia. This longing enhances the collecting experience. We cannot animate old coins without it. A purely intellectual approach to history is simply not enough. Rather, it is the nostalgic collector (real or imagined)  that becomes a coin necromancer.
   All nostalgia comes from having had yesterdays. History, too, is an experience that stems from our own prior experiences. But our memories are inaccurate -- that is, we change how we view the past (history) with each retelling. All history is part remembrance and part fancy.
   For coin collectors who are historically-minded, the experience of nostalgia is broadened to include what we have learned about history. And like our memories, the book knowledge we have attained becomes distorted, as it is mixed with our own values, ideas, and memories. Hence, we find ourselves longing for a yesterday we never experienced. All this is very natural, and we want to nurture it.
   One way to do this (or at least get started) is to think about our own yesterdays. For me, this takes me to the late-60s when my coin collecting first began. As I have said on the blog before, you never want to let go of those seminal feelings that started you off on this numismatic journey -- one coin at a time.
   I can remember when I first took notice of the older coins that still circulated. Can you?
   And so, I encourage you to take the first step in cultivating your sense of nostalgia, starting with your yesterdays. Do you remember when coin collecting was fresh? When it was driven only by curiosity?
   Your task then, is to collect (or re-collect) those coins that were in your hand back then. Rekindle that excitement. This exercise will get you thinking about how and why coins became important talismans for you.
   But don't stop with a few cents and nickels from your childhood days. Why not add some items from when you were spending these coins? As we have seen, other objects enliven your coins; for example, a Civil War coin collection is not really complete without a few Minnie Balls and battlefield relics.
   For me, I am thinking about gumball machines. My childhood memories would not be complete without these ever patient and trustworthy vendors.
   Before I began collecting, the gumball machine represented my first act of consumerism. After collecting, I wondered about what cents were inside. And so, I long to go back for the gum, for the simpler times of my pre-teen years, and to see -- first hand -- what cents were inside those wonderful machines.

Coming Soon: A Book about Collecting Battered and Corroded Coins

I am working on a manuscript about collecting battered and corroded coins. It was something I had to do for reasons that I will explain later. In fact, I have been agitating to move ahead with this project for some time now.
   The manuscript is full of colorful photos depicting corroded coins in full bloom. These are evocative pieces, coins that hit you in the gut.
   There have been tentative stabs at this topic from conservative numismatists (e.g., G. Welter and W. White). But their efforts have largely focused on the nature of corrosion itself -- namely, the electrochemical cell, redox reactions, and so on. This is all fine, but these authors are not necromancer coin collectors; rather, they are like meteorologists warning of a destructive storm. Hence, they miss the big picture and leave out the best parts.
 
   As a way of introduction, I will share a few paragraphs of the manuscript's Preface.

A large cent caked with verdigris is not typically found on a collector's want list, but it should be. It is a relic, and like a rusty hand-wrought nail dug from a flowerbed, it has a story. Relic coins prompt questions: who lost it; when did it happen; and how did this lowly cent survive the onslaught of Mother Nature? It is a mystery -- one worth holding in your hand.

Yet, most collectors find relic coins disgusting and are surprised that anyone would want them. Those that do are branded as rebels or as just ignorant. Either way, loving the unloved raises eyebrows and invites misunderstanding.

... . 

This book is about corrosion: the death knell of coins. We celebrate it, not because we are rebels, or because we are in denial, but because we are true collectors who have stumbled on to something engaging. Loving the unloved is not meant to be a declaration boldly shouted to rile our fellows; rather, it is just collecting.

We develop story-lines with objects because we are meaning-makers. In our heads, we are historians; in our hearts, we are post-modernists creating history. We are artists, too. And art often involves seeking out the "awful beauty" that Charles Dickens described when he first set eyes on the ruins of Rome. This beauty finds its energy within the darker emotions evoked by loss, decay, and death. Herein lies the allure of battered and corroded coins.

Stay tuned. It will be a coin book like no other.