News:

Sign up for the monthly zoom events by sending a PM with your email address to Hitesh

Main Menu

What do you do with "damaged" junk coins?

Started by Alan Glasser, May 10, 2013, 04:56:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Alan Glasser

In my current ongoing endeavors of cataloging a mass of foreign minor coins that I have "collected" since I was but a mere pup, I have discovered a handful of damaged coins. These include bent, dented, stained, scratched, carved up, holed and otherwise totally mucked up. As a lifelong collector, I can't bear to dispose of these (recycle) but then again, they are of no use to anyone. Just curious...what do you all do with coins that fall into the non-collectable category?

Alan

FosseWay

I quite often buy bulk lots, which inevitably include coins that I don't want, which are either damaged or dirt-common and therefore unlikely to be of interest to anyone I might be swapping with.

Such coins go into a container (such as the cardboard outer that whisky bottles come in) which, when full/heavy/when I'm ready for a clear-out or am moving house, get taken to whichever charity shop I feel like at the time.

I've often mused over the likelihood of any given coin being donated by me in this way, sold by the charity to a dealer and then ending up in another bulk lot I buy...

Have to say, though, I have had 'coins' which have been so worn or damaged as to be completely unidentifiable, or have been really common, which I have put in the metal recycling.

Bimat

You can sell them on eBay with tag 'Hard to find in this condition, RRRR, L@@K!'! >:D >:D >:D

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Figleaf

Have never thrown a coin away in my life. I can't spit out wine at a wine tasting either :)

Coins that are bent, dented, stained, scratched, carved up, holed can be useful. Bent coins are excellent for practicing straightening them. This means making them just hot enough and putting just enough weight on them (don't bend them back, they'll break). If you get metal detectorists friends, they'll love you if you can restore a coin to its flat state. They regularly find folded coins (often quite scarce, because old, thin coins fold easiest and good gold is quite soft). Stained coins are great to practice cleaning on. Dented and holed coins will help you figure out why people want to make holes in coins and which methods they are using. Hint: the place of the hole is important. Hint2: there is a big difference between nailed and drilled holes. Scratched coins may have been scratched because someone was bored, because the coin was in the wrong place at the wrong time or for (political) protest. No government is boring enough to be without its detractors.

Now that you have me thinking about it, I wonder where my bent, dented, stained, scratched, carved up, holed coins went. Do you think my wife had anything to do with it? ;)

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

chrisild

What do I do with them? Depends. Some (really badly preserved ones) I actually trash. Others I may keep in a box and decide later. :)

In the past couple of days I have indeed trashed some pieces. Simply because I was traveling in New England, and ended up with a few Canadian pennies. I kept the "best" one, and left the others at the airport. Maybe somebody else picks them up ...

Christian

Prosit

I too do different things with them. Some (quite a lot actually) I throw in the trash, some go into a bucket of scrap for recycle and some few go into swap packages for free.  >:D

Some I experiment on.

Dale

Alan Glasser

Leave it to Peter (Figleaf) to get all technical! Wow...he's got a great answer for everything. As for me...I 've decided what I am going to do with the junk coins. I'm gonna'  build me a smelter and turn the molten junk into fashion jewelry and sell it on E-Bay. Guess I'll go get me a propane tank and mess around with the barbeque outside and if I don't blow my face off...I'll be a rich man!!!  South Coast of France...here I come!!

Regarding spitting out of wine...spitting is considered gouche here in the States....well on second thought  :-X Last year I was asked to volunteer (can you be ASKED to volunteer?) to be a server at a wine tasting party at the local Old Fogie Center (oooops...I mean "Senior" center). There was on lady who was spitting up a storm...I think she came for the free cheese and crackers...but another lady...well...every time I would go to serve the next person...she would pull my arm and ask for a refill. No matter what kind of wine...as long as it was alcoholic...Well...let me tell ya' she was "feeling no pain" after about 15 minutes of the tasting demonstration. We wouldn't let her drive home.

For me to enjoy a wine tasting, all the wines have to be as sweet as soda pop (what do you all call that in your part of the world?). No spitting for me... My wife drove me home...and the cheese was good too!  ...I think... ;D

Great fun, guys. Great answers. Bimat...I think I may have bought some of those "hard to find in this condition" coins on E-Bay. If they have musicians on them...I'll buy anything. Hey, if anyone spots a great deal on Hungary KM-562, 563, 564 Bartok, Liszt, Kodaly small gold coins...no holes, dents, dings, scratches, mutilated, bends, stains, cleaning, not filed, no PVC (on gold?...does it matter?) I'd appreciate a note. Can't afford all...but can handle 1 at a time...maybe. The 500 Forint pieces are way out of my league, sadly.

All the best. Now where did I put that propane starter??? POOF!!
Alan

cmerc

I keep all of them!  Not worth the time or effort to sell them on ebay, and I don't want to throw away any coins.  Who knows, the prices might be high enough when I am old, maybe even pay for a day's medicine.  Look at older US coins, there is demand even for low grade coins.   
Defending this hobby against a disapproving family since 1998.

Figleaf

#8
Quote from: alglasser on May 11, 2013, 02:44:48 AM
Regarding spitting out of wine...spitting is considered gouche here in the States....well on second thought  :-X

(...)

For me to enjoy a wine tasting, all the wines have to be as sweet as soda pop (what do you all call that in your part of the world?). No spitting for me... My wife drove me home...and the cheese was good too!  ...I think... ;D

Now them is important questions! Spitting is the way you make sure you can go home driving your car after a wine tasting. One doesn't spit on someone or something but in a spittoon, that also receives the corks and the wine that has found no favour from the tasters. You do all the tasting when the wine is in your mouth, not while or after swallowing, so none of the taste is lost, but the wine is and that's what's bothering me.

Sweet wine is liquoreux here. That's because the French do not think of port, as the British would, but of "vin doux naturel", generally an awful wine, whose vinification process was stopped by a generous portion of liquor. In Britain, port tends to get served with dry, salty cheese, which I find an affront to both cheese and wine. In France, the vin doux naturel is more often served with sweet fruit (especially melon), ice cream, sweet desserts of all kinds and young goat cheese, preferably sprinkled with some honey.

A borderline case are the sweet Bergerac, Sauternes and Loupiac. Quite sweet, but a far more natural taste, honey and almonds. Several degrees less sweet are Champagne and similar wines, Clairette de Die and Gewürztraminer from the Alsace. These are all used the same way as the vin doux naturel, though not for chocolate and cheese and also for foie gras (fat goose liver)

The final degree of sweetness are spicy wines and those who have had an overdose of sun. The latter category includes wines from the South-East of France and the Mediterranean and are typically cheap and red (try a properly aged Madiran.) The former can grow anywhere, can be expensive and are typically white (aged Puligny-Montrachet, Sancerre and any wine that has "sur lie" in its name.)

The important thing with wine is not its taste anyway, but its "mariage", whether or not it fits with the food that comes with it. Here comes the hard part. If you have one kind of wine, it's best to have no more than two different cheeses. Cheese has as much character as wine and one can easily spoil the taste of the other.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

FosseWay

I've never been to a wine tasting where driving has been an issue, which is probably just as well. Here the promille level is so low that I would think twice, or more likely five or six times, before getting behind the wheel even if I had spat out the wine. But in general I just don't like the concept of spitting out something I have in my mouth. My mother got exasperated with me when I was a kid because I tended not to spit out those things one generally should, such as toothpaste or fruit stones, but rather I swallowed them. Even now I completely fail to see the point of chewing gum and dislike the idea of taking something soggy, sticky and masticated out of my mouth. Something that is designed to go in your mouth should also be designed to go down your gullet, IMO, especially if it is in a form that is difficult or unpleasant to handle once out of your mouth. I also have a deep psychological issue with wasting food and drink.

Prosit

The concept of tasting a wine and spitting it out seems very odd to me. If I am not going to drink a little of it I see no reason to put it in my mouth in the first place. And I am pretty sure I am not going to sample 40 of them either so a little is good.

Dale
I am NOT going to taste a coin but I will trash one if it is bad enough.