Newest Obsession - What did I get myself into now?
How did it come to this?
Prior to our Florida life, I spent many years waiting tables. It certainly wasn’t the best job in the world, but the schedule was flexible and allowed hubby and I to be there for our girls during their critical development years. Hubby drove a truck during the day, and I worked at a busy diner at night. My shift only spanned four nights a week, but many times hubby would barely make it home on time for me to head out the door. In those days, we’d just high five in the hallway, and trade off on our parental duties as I raced out the driveway.
This routine continued for several years until our youngest was old enough for school, after which I gladly moved to the day shift. What a difference it made to no longer have to work from 5 at night to 3AM. My 9AM to 3PM day shift was a game changer, and I no longer felt like a zombie fighting to stay awake during the daylight hours. I could finally enjoy after school activities with the girls, without the constant feeling that I desperately needed a nap.
Cha chink
For those of you fortunate enough to have never had to wait tables, you’ll never have a full appreciation for the amount of change you can accumulate in tips. For years, whatever I didn’t cash in at the end of my shift, was just thrown into jars, jugs, coffee cans and bins of all sorts. You name it, we had coins up the wazoo. Wrapping and bringing coins to the bank wasn’t unheard of, but it was a pain. Coins had to be sorted and rolled by hand, and then labeled with account information before the bank would accept it. As a young family with better things to do, it was just easier to toss the loose change into a jar and forget about it.
Fast forward some 30 odd years later, and we had accumulated quite an impressive collection of jugs, bins, and rolls filled with a variety of coins. After finally deciding it was time to cash in our collection, we ran into another dilemma of how to exchange all of this heavy coinage. Who could resist the joys of sorting and wrapping up a ton of coins, marking each roll, and then lugging it all to the bank? (She says with the utmost sarcasm). Another option was to take it all and dump it into one of those coin machines at the local grocery store, which will convert your coins to cash, but at a 10% fee.
And then it happened…
Enter Google!
You know those google news stories that pop up every now and then about some lucky sole stumbling across a valuable coin? “Check your pockets for these valuable coins still in circulation”. “Rare bicentennial quarter worth millions”. Blah, blah, blah.
Well, with all of the coinage we’ve collected through the years, curiosity got the best of me, and so there I sat, digging through old jars of coins trying to find hidden treasure.
My efforts certainly weren’t wasted. I’ve found Mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, Indian head and wheat pennies of all years.
I have all of the state quarters in practically new condition, as well as every one of the America the beautiful series. I discovered a wealth of Kennedy half dollars that were stashed in a small stocking from Christmas tips long ago, and several, what are supposedly rare, transitional coins that can pull a pretty penny (Pun completely intended).
Welcome to the Collective!
Being completely oblivious to the whole coin collecting thing, and what’s considered valuable, I found myself spending endless hours on Google researching US coin values and the different minting errors that collectors find enticing. My research then shifted to searching recent sales on eBay to see what people were actually getting for coins.
I even acquired a small weight scale so I could measure individual coins to see if I had one of those highly sought after 1983 transitional pennies.
I borrowed hubby’s brand-new clip-on magnification lamp that I bought him for Christmas, “which I’m sure he knows he’ll never get back”, and learned about mint marks, the difference between obverse & reverse, and what common errors to look for in certain denominations, mintages and years.
It has quickly become my newest obsession, although, for the life of me, I’ve had yet to recognize a double die error.
I swear I hear Locutus of Borg in my ear whispering “Resistance is Futile” (Fellow Star Trek fans will get it)
Now What?
So here I am today. Having purchased a multipack of cardboard coin holders, I’ve started separating out coins that seem to be worth trying to sell, from those that don’t seem to hold any more than face value.
Carefully taking pictures, and placing each potential treasure into a protective cardboard coin holder, the next step is to post a few listings on eBay and see what happens.
If all goes well, you just might see a few treasures pop up on this site in the near future.
Wish me luck!