Which coins tell better stories?

Last Saturday I went to a small coin show near Alexandria, VA. It seemed pretty crowded to me, but one of the dealers told me that it had been a lot busier earlier in the day. He was familiar - a guy who had been a regular at meetings of the Early American Coppers club at the Baltimore shows. He asked me what I collect, and I told him: high grade, mostly certified, large cents and half dimes.

He responded that such coins do not interest him because they do not have stories to tell. They were simply tucked away and moved on from one rich guy to another. (And I would add that they never served their intended purpose.) He went on to give examples of the kind of stories that used coins might tell us.

I do appreciate the connections our beloved coins have to history. For example, the addition of arrows next to the date of minor silver denominations mid-1853 through 1855 happened for a reason. Namely, the weight was changed, and the mint wanted to indicate that on the coins. But why? That's where we get into the history: of the California gold rush and its effect of the relative values of gold and silver; of the fact that our coins had intrinsic value approximately equal to their stated denominations; of the reality of widespread removal from circulation and melting of coins that were worth more than their face value, leading to relative scarcity even of high-mintage issues. But any 1853 with arrows coin has that connection to history, no matter what its grade.

And there are the coins that have specific, personal meaning to someone. Gary's (gherrmann44) recent journal about a Brazil 2008 1 real coin is a good example. Such a coin itself has no story to tell, but it becomes part of the story of someone's life. In that way, an unremarkable coin can become special. But again, the grade of such a coin is irrelevant.

There have been real coins with real stories to tell. The thirty silver coins paid to Judas for betraying Jesus come to mind. Were they lustrous AUs, or crappy AGs? Who cares? The story is not in the condition of the coin, unless you want to get into speculation about damage that may have occurred when Judas threw them back into the Temple. My point here is that coins that have real stories to tell can be in any condition. Aside from that, how many coins do we have that have known, documented, true stories of significance? Not many.

That brings us back to the coins we actually collect. I have a nice little set of circulated large cents. They are the kind that dealer likes. Whose pockets were they in? What were they used to purchase? How widely did they travel in circulation? And so on. But all of this is fanciful speculation. Sure, they were in pockets and cash boxes, lost outside the corner store, stepped on by horses, found, and eventually tucked away in whatever state they happen to be. But we cannot know the actual stories of most individual coins.

I also have a pretty nice set of mint state large cents here in the registry. Their specific stories are not the tales of everyday life in early America. But many of them do have true stories of prior ownership. Such provenance information may not be of interest to some people, but others will pay a premium for a piece with a pedigree.

Why did I buy the registry coins? I bought them because I enjoy having nice coins, and because I think they will prove to be good investments. Why did I buy the circulated coins? Well, some were obtained when I was young and had little money. But I recently finished the set (1816-1857) because I enjoy having those coins as well, good investment or not. Both sets together tell something about my life.

I hope you enjoy your coins and the stories they tell...

Alan

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