Login
Fifty years ago John Willem published his revised standard work on trade dollars, "The United States Trade Dollar: America's Only Unwanted Unhonored Coin." The title of this informative book tells a lot, but that is unfortunate because collecting trade dollars can be an honorable pursuit.
My introduction to coin collecting came as a result of skimming and then memorizing R.S. Yeoman's Red Book, "A Guide Book of United States Coins." My relationship with this book began around 1960 and has continued, on and off, since. The organization and perspective of this annual publication has thoroughly influenced the way I see U.S. numismatics.
Coins, of course, represent history as well as works of art. As art, some are quite attractive, although I suspect everyone has different opinions of whether one coin is more appealing than another. I have been thinking about coin aestethics recently, and have seen some blog commentaries related on this point. Here are my thoughts on the five most appealing numismatic Items (not necessarily in order). I say "numismatic item" because four are coins and one is paper currency.
I purchased my first coin in 1959 when I was nine years old. My family lived in Pennsylvania, and we would periodically visit Philadelphia to shop. One stop was usually Gimbels, a very complete seven-story department store on Market Street. On this particularly day, probably Easter Monday, which for some reason became a tradition for us to visit Philadelphia, we went to one of the upper floors and entered the coin department. There my father allowed me to select a coin. I chose a very worn 1825 Coronet Liberty Head Large Cent, which I would generously grade in fair condition. The reason it attracted me was that it was the oldest U.S. coin that I could find that day.
I really enjoy browsing through old auction catalogues, both those of the distant past as well as modern ones. As I have begun drilling down more seriously with my interest in colonial coins, I have picked up three catalogs of great value. The oldest one is the New Netherlands Coin Company catalogue of December 3-4, 1968 (Auction 60). Excellent information on colonial coins and, I have learned, one of the most respected of all coin catalogues in terms of its descriptive information.