Do you display your coins and currency? If so, how?
No, I don’t have any parts of my collection visible or displayed. Like many of the older collectors, I have the big black safe in the basement. Unfortunately, coins and bills are so easily picked up or lost without being noticed. Maybe good old Mike on HSC sells products in display cases, but true collectors or accumulators would never put them on a coffee table. I seldom talk about my collection to people other than collectors themselves. Yes, heck of a hobby.
Roy E. Robertson, Annapolis, Md.
Yes. I have since I was young. I build individual displays for educational purposes about coins and currency that I find interesting. I display them at club-sponsored coin shows. Making the displays is something I enjoy, besides collecting coins and currency.
Name and address withheld
What I do is I create photo books of different categories of my coins. First I take photographs that are good enough to use. Someone at the American Numismatic Society in New York showed me how to take photographs in a very simple way. It has worked remarkably well. I then print the books, and I bring them with me to different clubs and give presentations. It has also been suggested to me to donate a copy of my photo books to the American Numismatic Society in New York to share with colleagues.
Michael McKeever, Address withheld
I have always been leery of displaying my coin collection in my home, especially if people were coming in to do pest control or HVAC maintenance. I always felt safe to be careful of whom to tell and where my collection was due to any devious bad decisions by others to make me a mark for robbery.
I would only show my coins to those that I do not feel are a threat of robbery. It is sad, but we must be careful who we share information with, especially when it comes to things of monetary value.
Name and address withheld
With the exception of my Austrian niobium coins, held in an album (love to look at them), I do not display my coins but rather keep them in an insured safety deposit box.
Lorne LaVertu, Address withheld
No! No! No!
Very few know about my collection. I avoid drawing attention to it. I refuse to draw a target on either the collection or myself or my family members. There have been some horrific targeted home invasions reported from around the globe in the time I have been collecting. Many were aimed at extracting valuable collectibles. In the past few years, these have become commonplace. A dealer got hit in Britain recently when he had some expensive rarities at home the night before a major bourse.
Three decades ago I was warned about such targeted home thefts when visiting Australia, where they were no longer unusual. Potential targets were being tracked home from bourses and coin shops.
Shucks, I recall a movie made about one such back in the ’70s. My aging memory has forgotten the details, but I think it was set in New York.
And then there are the smaller-scale thefts that can destroy a collection. In the 1990s, a local collector returned home one day to discover that school kids had broken in and stripped his replacement note albums that afternoon. Their next stop was a local money exchange, where they cashed in what was negotiable. The rest were discarded on a beach. The guy had made no secret of his collection. He often displayed it to local clubs and schools.
No way will I be drawing attention to what goodies I have left.
Dr. K.A. Rodgers, New Zealand
I have a nice cabinet with a glass front, and I added LED lighting. I put my new acquisitions and a few of my favorites out for display. I also display mineral samples in the same cabinet. Additionally, I have my coin albums, so I can grab them and just enjoy!
Mike McGuire, Cocoa, Fla.
To display some of my nicer coins, I’ve taken to purchasing glass display domes and either using a screwable metal caliper or a small plastic tripod to display the coin within the glass dome. The domes come with or without a wood base. I’ve opted to use domes with a wood base.
They make a great display on a shelf or wherever might be easily observable, even by non-collectors. It’s much better than tossing them in a drawer or a safety deposit box at the bank.
Be sure to have some sort of burglar alarm installed, though.
Name and address withheld
Yes, I do enjoy stopping at our curio cabinet while walking through my house to gaze at my display. It contains both coins and paper money and can be changed easily. Because the room is so bright during the day, I moved my prized currency back to albums, leaving only the 4 trillion dollar Zimbabwe notes. When family or friends come by, they enjoy holding a 150-year-old coin and asking why we had to make and use a half-cent. I can’t think of a better way to share and enjoy our hobby.
Joe G., Carlsbad, Calif.
