From the Experts: Oh, the Things I Have Collected

By Frank Van Valen, Numismatist, Cataloguer

Like most of our readers, I have collected in numerous fields since the day in 1961 when I made my first coin purchase. While playing basketball in sixth grade gym class in Hallandale, Florida, a fellow student asked me if I collected coins. I told him my dad had given me a few Indian “pennies” and asked why he wanted to know. He showed me an 1843 large cent and an 1864 Large Motto two-cent piece and told me he wanted 35¢ for the pair, a figure that amounted to my lunch money for the day. Needless to say, I went hungry that day and have been hooked on numismatics ever since.

Over the past 50 years I’ve dabbled in just about every collectable series in numismatics. Way back then, I routinely plucked Buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes out of circulation, and the only 1950-D Jefferson nickel I ever owned was found in pocket change at a local store, a nice EF specimen that was my pride and joy for years. I never did find a 1950 Jefferson from Philadelphia; 1950 is my birth year and to this day I still have never seen one in pocket change.

Indian cent collections came and went over the years, as did Matron Head large cents by date, Liberty nickels, Washington quarters, Franklin half dollars, and an oddment of type coins. I collected Liberty Seated dimes with a passion in the 1970s and 1980s, but that collection fell by the wayside as other types and denominations caught my attention. By the time I was hired by Ray Merena in 1987 to work for Bowers and Merena in Wolfeboro, NH, my collecting focus had changed yet again. The Liberty Seated dimes were sold to accommodate our move to NH, which was just as well, for I didn’t want to collect anything that would prove to be a conflict of interest.

Today, I collect Conder tokens of the Birmingham Mining and Copper Company, circa 1791-1794, and love tokens. My love token collection is made up of Liberty Seated dimes by date, but only those that are not holed or previously mounted. It’s a challenge that has kept my attention now for 20 years or more. And, to this day, I still can’t resist a Barber dime, quarter, or half dollar in flawless VF or EF condition, a grade level that is easily as challenging as the same types in Mint State grades.

After 50 years at it, I still find numismatics fascinating, and my collecting instincts come to the fore whenever anything unusual, interesting, or curious comes my way, including brass counterfeit coins and odd-ball tokens. The wide world of numismatics is filled with collectable niches, and if you have the collecting bug, hopefully you too will eventually find your own little corner in numismatics.