Probably choosing the wrong flips for storing my coins. I spent hundreds on inferior flips and then decided to get better quality ones and spent hundreds more buying those.
Quote: "neilithic"Probably choosing the wrong flips for storing my coins. I spent hundreds on inferior flips and then decided to get better quality ones and spent hundreds more buying those.
It feels like I have made this same mistake. Which ones did you originally choose? Which ones did you opt for at the end?
I think my biggest mistake was to "come in hot": I've collected coins here and there for a while, but then, in a short time frame, got all excited and idealistic and got a lot more coins, with many more on the "want" list. Coin collecting is now beginning to feel like a chore and I am very close to just putting all of them into a box and forgetting about it...
Quote: "neilithic"Probably choosing the wrong flips for storing my coins. I spent hundreds on inferior flips and then decided to get better quality ones and spent hundreds more buying those.
It feels like I have made this same mistake. Which ones did you originally choose? Which ones did you opt for at the end?
Initially when I was in my "collect anything and everything" phase I went for the non plasticised vinyl flips. When I started to fine down my collection I moved to the "Importa" brand self adhesive flips. But I found that they did not seal very well around the coin and often the coin slipped out of the window and stuck on the adhesive inside the flip. Now I use the Lighthouse brand self adhesive flips and they are great.
Quote: "neilithic"=1em
Initially when I was in my "collect anything and everything" phase I went for the non plasticised vinyl flips. When I started to fine down my collection I moved to the "Importa" brand self adhesive flips. But I found that they did not seal very well around the coin and often the coin slipped out of the window and stuck on the adhesive inside the flip. Now I use the Lighthouse brand self adhesive flips and they are great.
+1, I personally use the black ones for my main collections, and the white ones for my secondary collections!!!
some folks will say they are expensive, but if you wait for the right time to buy them, there is always a sale every now and them... your coins are going nowhere! and after you make the correct decision of what to collect there will be a decent amount of coins in your collection, not to mention that they have like 8 different sizes so you will be able to make a freaking good looking album with them.
I spent $25 for a Cuban coin worth about a dollar. The top price I will pay for a coin is about $50. I have had a couple of others like that deal; so I am much more careful about spending these days.
Quote: "MonaSeaclaid"For everyone talking about flips, do you have any experience with the staple ones?
I was burned once with regular flips. I use albums and 20-pocket pages. The flips I was buying for a while were fitting the pockets perfectly, were easy to push in and pull out. A few years ago I was offered to buy some flips in bulk and got like 3,000 of them in all different sizes. They were considerably whiter than those I was using, like very bright white that was pretty nice actually. The problem was that they were about 2 mm too wide to fit the pockets nicely. They do fit in the pockets but very-very tight and when I need to move a coin in this flip into another pocket it becomes a bit of a challenge as the pages get firmer over time and if the flip fits the pocket in a new page that is a bit stretchy I may need to apply a lot of force to push it into a new pocket. I chose to shave off that extra using a good set of scissors but as it can be done on one side of the flip only it "makes" the hole not being perfectly centered. Also, when a coin in a normal flip needs to go into a vacant pocket it often is a bit too lose in there as the bad flip stretched it too much.
These flips are called "two-by-two's" (2x2) as they are about 2 inches wide (and long when folded). But the good ones are actually about 1.9 inch x 1.9 inch. Those "bad" ones I had were exactly 2 inches. Go figure!
I eventually gave them to someone who's selling on eBay and does not put the flips into any pages. But I still managed to use about 500 of them. Now I slowly replace them with better ones.
Besides this bad experience I had no issues with the stapled flips.
Regarding that Cuban coin I mentioned, MonaSeaclaid, I paid so much for it because I took it for granted that the owner of the coin shop correctly graded the coin. If the coin was MS-60 it would have been a $25.00 coin, but it was really more like like fine or perhaps vf. This particular owner has a habit of incorrectly grading coins, not only over grading coins but under grading them as well. I just gave him the benefit of the doubt because he is an economics professor at our state's leading university. I thought he must know more than I do.
But even very intelligent people can see what they want to see in a coin or just make a mistake. I have even found myself giving my own coins a higher grade than they deserve because of wishful thinking. So now I always look at coins closely with a magnifier when possible or to at least look at a good photo or scan for online purchases.
I have noticed, though, that many U.S. coin graders routinely over grade coins, especially grading worn coins as mint state. Jefferson nickels especially foisted off as mint condition when the the reverse steps or pillars are worn down completely. An unc. coin should have no signs of wear; whereas an extra fine coin should have 90% of its design intact, and one in very fine condition should have at least 75% design intact. U.S. coin graders routinely grade coins with wear, especially Jefferson nickels, as unc.
A few weeks ago, I decided to jump-start my collection by buying a 20-lb lot of coins on ebay. To be fair, it was a decent price - $5 / lb. (In retrospect, that should've been a red flag, since the going rate on that site is $7-10 per lb.)
A lot of the coins were coppers in bad condition: dirty, smudged, etc. Being a complete noob, I had a brilliant idea and decided to put them in a large bowl filled with hot water and dishwashing liquid. I planned on leaving them overnight (I know, I know, it's a bad idea for even 1 hour), but then things got a bit hectic at work. I finally got them out of the bowl 3 days later and, well, let's just say 90% of them aren't remotely scavengeable, unless there's someone out there that really likes green-tinted coins.
The upside here is that all of those coins were the most common (and lowest-grade) coins to begin with, so this lesson didn't cost me (or the world's numismatic heritage) nearly as much as it could have. I'm also pretty sure that nothing you guys will post in this thread would come even close to my story, so hopefully I've made a bunch of Internet strangers feel better about their own mistakes.
Back when I was a novice collector (about 2011) I thought in all my naïveté that bright= good in coin collecting. So one time when I recieved a dark patina'ed 1861 Nova Scotia 1 Cent, I may have taken a nail file to it to make it look lighter in colour.
I know.
The sight of that particular coin still haunts me today. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.
Well I made a lot of them. I think my two biggest ones are rushing and not completing and not being able to narrow what I collect. Iam I penny (cent ) nut. So any penny I can get I do. And low value coins . They are the ones going away the fastest. But I would say slow down and think things though.
Quote: "CassTaylor"Back when I was a novice collector (about 2011) I thought in all my naïveté that bright= good in coin collecting. So one time when I recieved a dark patina'ed 1861 Nova Scotia 1 Cent, I may have taken a nail file to it to make it look lighter in colour.
I know.
The sight of that particular coin still haunts me today. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.
A nail file? It sends shivers down my spine! At what point did you decide to stop?
A nail file? It sends shivers down my spine! At what point did you decide to stop?
Funny you should mention that, I actually read an article almost the very same day (or maybe a few days afterwards) about precisely my kind of beginner stupidity, and never did it again. Glad I did, because there's no telling how many great copper/bronze coins I could have ruined had I not.
Like I said above, I kept that 1861 Nova Scotia Cent; and every time I look at it I feel as though it's a skeleton in the closet, which to numismatists probably is.
1. Don't be a dumbass.
2. Watch for foreign auctions which end at ungodly hours of the morning. I purchased for $56 Cdn and I see Sellers are still looking for over $100 Usd. (Funny story: The last time I checked this Seller, he will not ship to Canada).
Now, whenever I am on Ebay, this coin(?) sits right in front of me as a gentle reminder.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so. Mark Twain
Quote: "neilithic"Probably choosing the wrong flips for storing my coins. I spent hundreds on inferior flips and then decided to get better quality ones and spent hundreds more buying those.
Exactly the same!
Restoration addict : Verdigris Removal : Zinc White spot removal : Iron Rust Removal : Silver brooch/necklace mount Removal
Thankfully one of the first things I did when I started getting into it last year was signing up here and making a big ass post full of questions. (I bet Neil and Phil and Fluke remember this one!)
Somebody should start a 'lessons I've learned from my mistakes' thread! I'd have about 50.
here is mine
I paid US$14 for this terrible fake.
"L'An 4"!
I intend to destroy it, but haven't yet. I still get it out and look at it whenever I see a coin for sale that is "too good to be true"
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
A long time ago, back in the eighties I took a subscription for the Franklin Mint "Coin Sets of All Nations". A lot of collectors will know these: http://chinacoinset.info/2017/08/coin-set-of-all-nations-franklin-mint-141-sheet-collection-with-china-1981-1982-ji/
I wasn't that long from school, had a job and so I finally could spend more money on coins. If I'm remembering it correctly I received only two of these cards a month, so on a monthly basis it wasn't that expensive. But I had to pay 950 Belgian Francs (around 23.5 €) per card. So after 4 to 5 years when the collection was completed, it costed me around 2800 €. That was a lot of money, 30 to 35 years ago, and all those coins were very common, no silver in it, no commemoratives, only circulating coins.
Recently I bought a few of these green boxes, with 66 cards in it, for 3 € per card, what a difference.
Of course I made more mistakes, like we probably all do, but this one was the one I regret most.
Quote: "CassTaylor"Back when I was a novice collector (about 2011) I thought in all my naïveté that bright= good in coin collecting. So one time when I recieved a dark patina'ed 1861 Nova Scotia 1 Cent, I may have taken a nail file to it to make it look lighter in colour.
I know.
The sight of that particular coin still haunts me today. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.
LOL I went with sandpaper, im still shamed about it
Hands down cleaning a Bank Of England Dollar. It had quite ugly patina and I thought I could make it look better. I was Wrong.
I've made plenty of mistakes in my time including making swaps for inferior coins when I was new, selling coins I didn't think I needed only to find out I did. And finally selling coins and regretting it down the line.
Over the years I've made more than my share of mistakes and I'm very sure I will continue making them until the day I die. It might give a lesser man nightmares to spend too much time dwelling on them but as the smartest guy I even knew said to me, "Don't be afraid of making mistakes, we can fix them. We can't fix indecision. "
By the late 1970's I had, as a consequence of living largely free and having no other responsibilities, a quite magnificent coin collection. Right up until the time that I decided marriage seemed like a really good idea and sold it to buy a house. I don't regret selling it, it was a perfect time - right before the Hunts brothers silver bubble popped and took the coin market down with it for the next 30 years. Just blind luck, I really had no clue how to predict market trends back then, I'd just discovered the twin joys of alcohol and meaningless relationships. Who needs coins right?
So while I don't have any real regrets (cue Frank Sinatra or Sid Vicious according to taste) I did manage to shoot myself in the foot under circumstances which should have made making a loss impossible. A significant part of my UK collection was made up of coins prior to the currency reforms of 1787 and most of them were half crowns! They are largely unaffordable today but 40 years ago they were very much in reach of the average collector. It's not the fact that I sold them, it's the fact that I undergraded them significantly. I made the mistake of applying the standards of post industrial age issues to coins produced by screw presses. In consequence I let a whole lot of F or even VF coins go for the price of a G or VG specimen. Nobody cheated me, it wasn't bad luck, just youthful ignorance.
Short of being written back into my parent's will or winning the lottery, the latter being by far the most likely, I'm resigned to the fact that I will never have a collection which comes even close to my original one. Our recent legal battles have impoverished us significantly. Oh, I'm not complaining, I enjoy numismatics more so today than I ever did when I had an obscene amount of cash at my disposal. Filling key dates on a shoestring budget is very rewarding, not in the financial sense y'know?
At 20 I had plenty of funds but not very much in the way of knowledge. 40 years later I flatter myself that the reverse now holds true. Despite the rather significant handicap of being a linguistic retard I've developed a really good eye for turning up genuine rarities or significantly undervalued coins. Not all of them are a fit for my rather narrowly focused collection but because I've always had a belief in investing in relationships rather than turning a fast buck I have forged friendships all over the world with whom I can happily trade these for the coins I do need but otherwise couldn't afford.
I guess there are some lessons to be drawn from all of the above.... I don't know, take your pick. Don't screw someone over for $10 today who might fill that $100 gap for you tomorrow. Don't let a lack of funds diminish your enjoyment. Knowledge has as much value as dollar bills but your greatest asset is your reputation. Don't be a choad and trade it for a handful of cheap coins.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
I have to revise my biggest mistake. My biggest coin collecting mistake was trying to clean coins. When I first started I wanted shiny coins. So I tried to lightened coins by washing them, dipping them, or soaking them in vinegar or acetone. I also dipped circulated silver coins. I wound up with shiny silver coins that had scratches and hairlines on them.
I still clean coins once in a while, but only coins that have grime and verdigris dusted on them. I use a toothbrush and dawn liquid detergent, and sometimes a firm toothpick. That is a very safe way to clean coins.
I have a coin dealer who is currently a friend of mine but he graded coins wrong. I bought a 1920 canadian penny for 8 dollars. After i finished my vicious buying streak and spent around 150 dollars on junk (not even silver) The dealer put those pennies for 25 cents each. I still feel stupid when i look at his pennies. But yesterday i got 20 silver 1 krone coins from sweden in the junk bin so...
