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.

Collecting like a Kid

I was fortunate enough to have grown up when collectors were searching bankrolls and speculators preferred stocks. I hunted for old Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels in pocket change. On rare occasions, I stumbled across a ruddy silver piece smoothed by a thousand fingertips -- a mute witness to decades of saving and spending.
   Now folks lament that the Golden Era of collecting has passed. The silver is gone. And, wheat-back cents are few. Nary a nickel dated prior to 1960 can be found. So, we gather together to sing nostalgic tunes while wondering if coin collecting will ever be the same.

This is Fun! Coins are Fun. Are you having Fun?
Or, have you lost the ability to appreciate a ruddy nickel?

   Slabs are everywhere. Mint products flood the marketplace. Circulating coins made of pot-metal offer little intrigue. But this is not why many collectors feel lost. Rather, they have been seduced by the Angel of Numismatic Correctness.
   Consequently, many collectors have allowed their brain to be white-washed into thinking that new and shiny is the only way to go. The best-selling coin books are filled with valuations. Coins are treated like stocks. So boring.
   Is this how you want to spend your leisure time up until the day you die?
   Once upon a time, a Buffalo nickel found in pocket change was reason enough to huddle together with friends. Everyone elbowed in to see and touch. An old coin looked old. It was exciting to imagine how it survived. The experience was so good that many of us (kids) spent our allowance on old coins. For me, this was a whopping $0.75! But, a cool Buff was only a quarter or less. A deal! 
   It was great fun to search for all the dates. Some nickels could be found, and some purchased. Some nickels just had the last digit showing -- but no matter, it was cool to be able to decipher it. The heavily worn pieces were interesting in their own right. Wear patterns, oxidation, odd nicks and scrapes -- these features added to the allure.
   Nowadays dealers label these coins as "junk" or (pejoratively) "collector coins." What does this clever phrase mean? Collector Coins. I guess it means junk.
   Too bad that many dealers have lost their soul. I see YNs, dressed in sharp suits and ties, sitting behind tables full of slabs at coin shows. They look serious, wielding fancy pens, spreadsheets neatly folded to the side, like stock brokers. A ruddy nickel never gets a look. Too bad. Instead, they obsess about full horns. Who cares about full horns?
   Did you know that some folks have paid big bucks (many allowances added together) for a 1926-S full-horned buffalo? Mushy strikes make the horn a coveted feature. Yet, rarely do you see regular folks elbowing in to inspect the horn. Such a beautiful coins reduced to a horn! Oxidation looks better.
   As for me, and the other necromancers, we want to explore old coins that look their age. These are the coins with stories. Collecting is most fun when we are driven by curiosity and imagination. Collector coins are full of intrigue.
   The way of the necromancer is to recapture this youthful exuberance. It is not about spreadsheets: gray, red, or otherwise. And, it is not about full horns.

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.