arthur42

Heh, and I'm 15 minutes away from my CBT class, so... nice.

Yes well, actually, the coin hobby has given me a bit of a reprieve. It's a lot of work and stress, so sitting quietly in a coin shop now and then and looking patiently through a box of old coins has a way of really refreshing me. Holding a piece of history puts my own life into perspective - everything I do goes in the historical record and will be there even after I'm gone (so it's worth it to work hard and do as well as I can). And it's a hobby that I can put money into, and the money in a sense "stays with me" because I could sell my collection at anytime. It's not like skiing or video games where I just put time/money into it and both are gone forever. And I have a wonderful wife who does a great job with the kids when I'm not there. But you are right, it's quite difficult. Luckily, I'm getting a doctorate in clinical psychology, so I sometimes have to use relaxation and stress management techniques on myself!

If you're happy to be a 'type collector' rather than go for date runs, you might find that copper from 1800 - 1900 meets your requirements; start with the 1799 halfpenny (or 1797 cartwheel penny, though in VF that might cost you £25 - £35), and work through pennies, halfpennies and farthings of each major type and each reign. You're looking at a total collection of around 25 - 30 coins from 1797-1900. Yes this seems like something I'd be interested in! I am not so interested in having every date, but maybe each reigning monarch and the major types of coin. That's something I'd love to have. I'll start looking into this. And it will have to be a long-term project of course - I'm a poor graduate student with two kids at the moment. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, it would probably make sense to pay for a few rather than a single coin. Still, shipping over the Atlantic would cost me a little money. For the moment I've been enjoying searching local sources. The advantage is that nobody around here seems to want non-American coins, so I can get them pretty cheap. The disadvantage is that they're in generally poor condition, as they have not been taken care of. I think one interesting thing about having books with universal coin "values" is that it seems to de-emphasize the supply and demand of local markets. Locally I've heard that people have paid $10 for one page of American wheat cents with common dates, but completely pass over foreign coins that sometimes contain silver in them, just based on what local people want and don't want. It's mostly ignorance (genuine ignorance, but not stupidity), really, but partly just a natural local demand for American history and less of a concern for foreign things. Those Conder tokens do look interesting, and I'll look at Chris Perkins' sales. If he puts together packages of reasonably-priced "starter kits" of a certain type of coin, maybe I could be persuaded to purchase one.

So I have a few more questions, then. I might as well ask here instead of starting a whole new thread. I would really love to start a collection of older coins with a focus on Western Europe, especially Britain. Since I'm interested primarily for the purpose of history, I'd like to collect coins that are old (from many eras from the 1700s-1900s, but any time period would be wonderful, including ancient). However, I don't need to purchase rare coins, nor coins that are extremely high grade. I would be find with a collection of mostly VF coins. Does anyone have any suggestions for coins I might look for particularly? They might be coins that are very common, but look nice and come from an interesting period of history - and are not too expensive (I'm talking about the equivalent of 6-10 pounds per coin). Any date runs that are popular, or places many collectors start?

Yes I have always had an intense love of history (though my profession is psychology). As a child I read books about the Punic Wars and the Byzantine Empire (I do have one Byzantine bronze follis featuring the unremarkable Emperor Phocas), and I did like to read lots of British history. The idea of holding or looking at something made hundreds or thousands of years ago really gets me excited. I'm glad I found this forum and will be coming back.

No, not disappointed at all, really. I paid $0.70 for that coin, so if it's worth anything more than that I'm happy. And indeed I will probably keep it. There is a local shop with a large box full of circulated large pennies - mostly British and Canadian - and they told me that they're not highly in demand at all. Thus he has been selling them to me quite cheap - I've picked out most of the pre-1900 ones. I really like British pennies - they seem so much more interesting than American pennies, even from the same era. My family is British in origin - in fact, my grandmother is a British citizen. I was named after my great grandfather Arthur who was from Nottingham. So perhaps this is why I feel more of a connection with historic British coins. I wonder if this shop owner will just let me buy the whole box very cheap? Thank you so much for the information. I take it that, generally, a coin in this kind of shape probably won't be worth much even if it is a scarce coin.

Hey everyone, I posted this on another British coins forum but it seems that there is far less traffic there. I'm hoping for help determining the value of two coins. I'm an amateur coin collector and I'm an American so I'm not too familiar with the following coins. I found them in a "bargain bin" for a very low price. Non-American coins in this part of America are not highly demanded (fortunately for me). In general, both my questions deal with, what if my coin is rare and collectible but is in a generally poor condition? The first is an 1862 India Straits cent. Here is my photobucket for this coin: http://s65.photobucket.com/user/Arthur_Hatton/library/1862%20India%20Straits%20Cent The second is an 1864 penny. I like this one and I realize this is a "good date," however, as you can see it is in generally poor condition, and there are scratches on it that seem deliberate. I chose these photographs because they highlight the damage, though from the naked eye they aren't *quite* as visible. http://s65.photobucket.com/user/Arthur_Hatton/library/1864%20Great%20Britain%20Penny A little more about me - mostly I collect less expensive coins to teach my children history and geography (I don't want stereotypical American children - ignorant about the world around them!). I'll root through bargain coins to find interesting ones, and now and then I'll find coins worth a little more that I can sell - this helps me finance the rest of my hobby. So since these two coins might be a little more valuable than my other coins (that are all worth a few cents at most), yet they may be less desirable due to the damage, I am not sure whether I should sell these or pass them down to my children.