COIN COLLECTING CONUNDRUM SUGGESTIONS

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V19 2016 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 13, March 27, 2016, Article 33

Last week David Pickup shared a set of interesting "coin collecting conundrums" from the Oxford Numismatic Society. Here are some responses. -Editor

1. When you started out collecting your uncle gave you a George V crown he had when he was a boy. Before you got married, your future mother in law gave you a George III gold guinea and she said she wanted it to stay in the family. Neither fit in with your collection (the coins, not your mother in law).

You give the crown and the guinea to your WIFE, so that both stay in the family;

Compartmentalizing a collection is quite doable. If certain things don't fit, don't include them in your collection. But that doesn't mean you can still hold onto other coins for other reasons. Store family heirlooms elsewhere, apart from your collection. -Editor

2. One day you see some coins in a charity shop window. It is specimen set 1937, crown to Maundy penny for £18.00. You are later offered £200.00.

IF you take the offer, you give half of your profit [i.e., (£200 - £18)/2 = £91] to the shop, but if you choose to KEEP the set, you give the shop an additional £82 [i.e., £200/2 - £18], thereby sharing the wealth & writing off the additional on your taxes as a charitable donation;

Chip's suggestion is a fine one; of course, not all of us would see it that way. After all, we've all bought things that in the end turn out to be worth less than we thought or hoped, and no one ever offers to make up the difference. The occasional profit helps make up for the periodic missteps. Still feel guilty of taking advantage of the charity shop? Make a donation large enough to assuage it. Just remember - the nice clothes you donate thinking they'll go to some needy local family? They get sold by the ton to a recycler. -Editor

3. You go to your coin dealer and see a Charles I Crown. He says it is a fake but you think it is real. He wants £10.00 for it.

Purchase the crown for £10 because you think it's real & he has had a chance to examine it to his satisfaction--or let it go & move on, because your collection is already too big;

The current size of one's collection shouldn't have much of a bearing one's purchase decisions. Ken Lowe once told me the philosophy John J. Ford shared with him: "If you buy something cute, sell something less cute". Basically, prune some of the old to make room for the new. If you really need and want the coin for your collection, buy it and make plans to sell something you don't need/want as much. And if you don't need or want it, but can still make a profit on it, buy it, resell it, and use the money for something you DO want. -Editor

I *assumed* that was an essential condition of the exercise (e.g., the little woman will kill you if you bring anything else home.) And there IS a finite amount of space, so ultimately it WILL be a consideration.

4. You look in his junk box and see a rare USA token from colonial times. The dealer says all are £1 each but when you show him this coin he wants to charge you £10.00.

Because the dealer appears to be unethical (after all, who put that token in the "£1 each" box?), you walk away & never do business with him again, letting him know exactly why & that you're going to give him a terrible review on "Yelp."

Profit is profit - forget your emotional reaction to the bait-and-switch and if the coin is still worth more than £10.00 to you, buy it. Less, pass. Maybe the guy has his own emotional problem - he has no idea what the stuff is really worth and whenever someone tries to buy something he's afraid of letting it go too cheap. Get used ot it and use his style to your advantage. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COIN COLLECTING CONUNDRUMS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n12a36.html)