Coin Collecting

Every coin collector no exeption strives for a complete collection. What makes the hobby so interesting is the fact that no two collectors have the same definition of the word “complete”. One person’s complete might be, “as many 1956-D Wheat Cents as I can get.” Someone else may want, “one of every coin produced by the Nagybanya mint in Hungary.” The fun is in finding your own complete.

I began coin collecting when I was ten years old. Over the years, I had saved a few coins out of my change that had caught my eye. One day, while we were on a field trip, two of my friends were looking at a coin magazine. The page they were reading had a large picture of a coin on it (the photo was of the back of a Wheat Cent, I would soon learn). I spoke up, “Hey, I have a penny that looks like that on the back, but it’s a different color. Kinda grayish.” (or something to that effect) They proceeded to tell me about the 1943 steel cent that I had. I was fascinated. I have collected coins ever since. That Steel Cent now resides in a place of honor, right in the front of my US coin binder.

I like to collect coins made by the U.S. Mint that were intended for circulation. I won’t consider my collection incomplete if I don’t have a 1970 Kennedy half, an 1856 Flying Eagle Cent, or a 1937-D 3 Legged “Buffalo Nickel”.

The half dollar for 1970 was only produced for the proof and uncirculated sets, not for circulation, so they have their own place in my proof and mint set collection.

The 1856 Flying Eagle Cent was a pattern coin. It was produced for the sole purpose of testing the design of the small cent. Although some may find their way into circulation, pattern coins, in general, are struck in far too small numbers to really be considered a circulating issue. Since their purpose was not to fulfill the needs of spenders, I don’t include pattern coins in my collection.

The 1937-D 3 Legged “Buffalo Nickel” was, by anybody’s description, an error. The mint did not “intend” to make a coin with a 3 legged buffalo on it. Since “intent” is part of my definition of my collection, I give mint errors their own category. However, there is a fine line that divides “error” from “variety”. I have large date / small date varieties of coins in my collection. I do not, however, have any doubled die errors. The question I ask myself when debating whether or not to include a specific coin is this: Does this coin look like it was intended to look? A large date or small date, each by itself, does look as it was intended to, so each is a different variety of a coin. In the case of a doubled die, however, the coin was not designed to have a ghost image on its surface, so it was made in error.

I have completed many of the series in my US “circulated” collection. Flying Eagle Cents (all three of them ;->), Liberty Nickels, Jefferson Nickels (up to date), Mercury Dimes, Roosevelt Dimes (to date), Washington Quarters (to date), Franklin Halves, and Eisenhower Dollars are all done. Outside of series collecting, the next major milestone for my collection is going to be when I complete the 20th Century (1901-2000). I have a little over 150 coins to go. Compared to how many coins I already have, that doesn’t seem like very many, but some of those I still need, of course, are some of the rarest and most expensive coins of the 20th Century.