• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

How has your coin geekiness show lately?

12 posts in this topic

On Sunday my 6-year old had five pennies (I know, they're really cents) on the pew about 5 feet away from me. She put a dollar in the collection plate, but she was busy playing with her pennies. I noticed the relief of one was higher than the current Chucky Cheese version of Lincoln's portrait, so I traded her for a zinc cent (it was a 1966 in RB that looked unc).

 

This story isn't how I cheated my own kid out of a cool coin (it's going in her Whitman folder), but about the look my wife gave me. She said, "Why did you take that one?" I explained that it was an older one our daughter needed for her album. "How could you tell that from where you were sitting? They all look shiny and new to me," she asked. I explained that the higher relief made me figure it was from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

 

I'm not a Lincoln collector, and I don't know when the die hubs changed. However, I am enough of a coin geek that I can tell a 1960s cent from a post- 1982 cent from a few seats away. My wife gave me a you-have-to-be-kidding look.

 

What unguarded display of general numismatic knowledge has shown your family/friends/coworkers you're a real coin geek?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I start talking to people close to me with a wild look in my eyes about 'mint state survivors' of early date Walkers and can rattle off pop numbers and mintage numbers of different issues. Also how VERY few there truely are of that original mintage---one tenth of a one percent OR LESS in MANY instances!

 

And only about 1/100 of a percent are MS 64 or better and OF THOSE 1/100 of a percent only about 10 pecent of THOSE are well struck or undamaged by human hands and/or DIPPING SOLUTIONS.

 

That leaves only about one ONE THOUSANDTH of ONE PERCENT of TRULY GOOD coins that are left out there from the ORIGINAL MINTAGE, which was meager by today's standards ANYWAY......OK it's time for my medication. :screwy:lol

 

This was written for purely satirical, entertainment purposes ONLY. I am not really that crazy. :) Or am I......... ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I work with individuals with developmental disabilities and each one of them receives an allowance every month. When the money comes from the bank, each one gets a bunch of change, for soda pops or other snack items.....anyway, at the beginning of every month I go through all of their change to look for interesting coins. If I find one, I replace it with a normal coin.

I have found silver quarters, dimes, many wheat pennies and even minor cud errors....

My coworkers laugh their butts off!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I start talking to people close to me with a wild look in my eyes about 'mint state survivors' of early date Walkers and can rattle off pop numbers and mintage numbers of different issues. Also how VERY few there truely are of that original mintage---one tenth of a one percent OR LESS in MANY instances!

 

I'd probably back away and not make contact with you, and I'm a collector! ;)

 

Non-collectors sometimes know enough to pull wheat cents and silver from change. Usually they assume wheat cents are worth much more than they actually are. I found a 1910 in Fine or so condition in a penny drawer at work (where the sales managers dump cents they get in change from food deliveries), and one of my former coworkers wanted it in the worst way because he didn't believe me that is was only worth about 10 cents. "How can a hundred year old coin be only worth a dime?!" :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I start talking to people close to me with a wild look in my eyes about 'mint state survivors' of early date Walkers and can rattle off pop numbers and mintage numbers of different issues. Also how VERY few there truely are of that original mintage---one tenth of a one percent OR LESS in MANY instances!

 

I'd probably back away and not make contact with you, and I'm a collector! ;)

 

Non-collectors sometimes know enough to pull wheat cents and silver from change. Usually they assume wheat cents are worth much more than they actually are. I found a 1910 in Fine or so condition in a penny drawer at work (where the sales managers dump cents they get in change from food deliveries), and one of my former coworkers wanted it in the worst way because he didn't believe me that is was only worth about 10 cents. "How can a hundred year old coin be only worth a dime?!" :o

 

:signfunny:

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. It breaks my heart, to see people who aren't real versed in the hobby, smiling ear to ear and showing people with pride all of the 1976 bicentennial coinage that they've saved----thinking it's worth alot when it's usually only worth about face value.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

her: So, are you having an exciting evening so far?

me: Pretty exciting. Finally received an unattributed pattern I cherrypicked in an auction in Europe and just finished performing specific gravity testing on it. SG is pretty low at 8.44, so might be sheffield plate.

her: I see...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There used to be a time when I couldn't put change in my pocket without looking at the dates. I figured it out, that was crazy. Now I just look at the dates before I spend them. :grin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lol... This thread is makes me feel better about myself. My family thinks I am a harmless, but nutty dude who gets way too enthusiastic about "dirty boring coins". I just had to have a medical proceedure done (lovely when you hit that age when you get to have "proceedures"..not), and my daughter, to make me feel better, brought over a large box about half full of change she and her husband had collected for me to sort through. So I have been sitting in the recliner to recouperate and sorting through the change... found a couple of errors and one off center strike... nothing too exciting...yet... I had better luck with a couple of half dollar rolls I got at the bank... all but two of them were 40% silver!

 

My wife just shakes her head and figures she's lucky I like to collect coins rather than cars, women, or a combination of both.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

her: So, are you having an exciting evening so far?

me: Pretty exciting. Finally received an unattributed pattern I cherrypicked in an auction in Europe and just finished performing specific gravity testing on it. SG is pretty low at 8.44, so might be sheffield plate.

her: I see...

 

Wow-- that's intense.

 

I don't think I'd get too specific with a non-collector. My wife's eyes would glaze over or she'd consider getting me therapy if I were to exclaim, "No way! I think I just found a chopmarked 1876-P II/II!" :whee:

Link to comment
Share on other sites