Creative Coin Collections

Many coin collectors are familiar with assembling a collection of all the dates and mintmarks of a particular series or of gathering a type set of coins issued for a particular country. But, there are many other creative and fun ways to put together a collection.

A common focus of a collection could be a theme, such as animals, ships, President Kennedy, celebrities of any of a variety of categories, mountains and so forth.

Now that British Queen Elizabeth II has died, it might be possible to try to put together a type set of all the different coins around the world that bear her portrait.

One of my co-workers is well along trying to collect every coin issued by every country dated the year he was born. Fortunately, not many gold coins were issued that year, making the search more affordable.

Similarly, one of our company’s customers is assembling any coins that have the same last two digits in the date as the year that his son was born, in this case years ending in 97.

Another co-worker not only assembled a type set of coins from a particular foreign country he collected, he also sought to include an example of each different mint that struck a particular type. That made the hunt many times tougher.

How many different denominations could you find for a collection? I know of 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 unit coins. Would a British Guinea qualify as a 21 shillings coin?

One exhibit I saw at a coin show featured the multitude of coins with a different number of sides on the edge. Before then, I had no idea just how many choices there were to seek. The good news is that most of these multi-sided coins were made for circulation and were inexpensive to collect. This could be expanded by finding coins with different shapes of holes.

In modern issues made for collectors, there are a growing number of shapes such as guitars, motorcycles, flags, birds, other animals and the like. This could be expanded to include coins that have embedded objects such as gold nuggets, gems or a historical artifact.

There is also a growing number of 3-dimensional coins being issued. These tend to be pricey as they are sold to collectors rather than meant for circulation.

A real challenge would be to try to assemble a collection of one coin from every decade going as far back as possible. If that were too difficult, then maybe build a one-per-century set. Or maybe put together a coin from every year of a particular century.

Today, it would be more extensive than before to assemble coins from every single possible metal or multi-metal compositions. Alternatively, seek only to put together the variety of bi-metallic coins, where different parts of the same coin are manufactured of a different metal alloy than the rest of the piece.

Just how large would be a collection of coins that depict the same person or people on both sides of the same issue? Be sure to include Roman Emperor Nero pieces, the Daniel Boone commemorative half dollar and Lincoln cents with the Memorial reverse (yes, that tiny blob in the center of the building is Lincoln).

What would it take to assemble the first coin issued in each country that bears the date of issue? It would probably be relatively easy to find coins issued in the first year of independence of a modern nation, but finding coins back in the 1500s that had the first actual date could take a while.

How many different monetary denominations are there? Cent, dollar, farthing, penny, shilling, pound, franc, peso, riyal, euro, lire, mark, kreuzer, pfennig, rupee, yen, won, yuan and louis d’or, are just some of the easy ones to include.

For some people, there can be the opportunity to collect coins that have their name on them. Do you know how many different issues have the word “HELLER” on them?

You don’t have to give up you other collections to take up one of these creative and fun challenges.

Patrick A. Heller was honored as a 2019 FUN Numismatic Ambassador. He is also the recipient of the American Numismatic Association 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, 2017 Exemplary Service Award, 2012 Harry Forman National Dealer of the Year Award and 2008 Presidential Award. Over the years, he has also been honored by the Numismatic Literary Guild (including in 2021 for Best Investment Newsletter), Professional Numismatists Guild, Industry Council for Tangible Assets and the Michigan State Numismatic Society. He is the communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., and writes Liberty’s Outlook, a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentaries titled “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So, And Important News You Need To Know” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio archives posted at www.1320wils.com).