Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
When you start detecting, you probably never think about ten, twenty or thirty years in the future. You know what you found and where you found it and you know whatever else you've learned about your finds. One thing I appreciate more every year is the importance of good organization, labeling and storage. You'll read something or learn something and all of a sudden decide that you want to take another look at a particular item but can't remember where you put it, or worse yet, remember that you put it somewhere safe, but can't remember where that was. Or you find an item that you found long ago and researched, but now you don't remember what you learned about it. Maybe you can't even identify it anymore. You just remember that you once knew more about it.
The American Numismatic Association is concerned that fewer and fewer people are attending coin conventions. It seems that millennials are more interested in things other than coin collecting and choose to spend there money on things like iPhones rather than collecting. |
| Isle of Man One Crown Silver Jubilee Coin |
That might sound like a memory problem, but if you've been hunting for a few decades and made thousands of finds every year, few people will be able to keep up with the large number of finds and all the research. I'm often surprised by how often I learn something new about an item after I had it for a few decades. Just today I found out that one coin I've had for years could be worth quite a bit more if it has a straight nine rather than a nine that is more curved. You learn things like that, and sometimes its only after years have passed. The bottom line on all that is that it helps to organize your finds, keep records and label them well, and store them safely. I hate when old items get corroded or broken.
This is the first more interesting coin that I ever found. It is 80% silver and it is one of those things that you wouldn't expect to find in circulation or on a tourist beach. I remember finding this one four decades ago on Hollywood Beach. It is one that impressed me enough when I picked it up that I still remember it. At that time I was mostly finding clad spending change. Being over 28 grams and 26 mm in diameter, it was not difficult to detect.
I didn't know much about this coin other than it was a different and nice looking foreign coin. You couldn't find all the information on the internet like you can today, so it wasn't until much later that I learned more about it.
Over the years not only do you learn more about old finds, but more generally you'll look at them differently and perhaps appreciate them in a deeper way. Of course there are also some finds that you'll learn are nothing more than junk, but even with those you might benefit from the journey.
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| Same Isle of Man Silver Jubilee Coin. |
I didn't know much about this coin other than it was a different and nice looking foreign coin. You couldn't find all the information on the internet like you can today, so it wasn't until much later that I learned more about it.
Over the years not only do you learn more about old finds, but more generally you'll look at them differently and perhaps appreciate them in a deeper way. Of course there are also some finds that you'll learn are nothing more than junk, but even with those you might benefit from the journey.
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Here are some recommendations from David Bowers concerning that.
Those in numismatics who emphasize the art, history, and romance of numismatics will stay for a long period of time, even lifetimes. These elements are essential.
Specialization is the key to longevity. If you look at the officers and contributors of articles to Early American Coppers, Colonial Coin Collectors Club,Liberty Seated Coin Club, Numismatic Bibliomania Society, Civil War Token Society, Token and Medal Society, John Reich Collectors Society, and other specialized groups you will see that most have been active for years!
As I mentioned earlier, like it or not, many, if not most, new collectors are attracted by gold and silver, or by telemarketers offering modern coins in high grades, as well as a lot of products advertised in USA Today, by telemarketers, and others, that have no realistic aftermarket. These people leave quickly, never to be heard from again. Neither the ANA nor the PNG is even slightly interested in regulating ethics, giving excuses such as “afraid of lawsuits,” etc. As a proponent of ethics in numismatics, and as having worked with the Federal Trade Commission to put fraudsters in jail, I can say that NO perps ever threatened to sue the ANA or the PNG. Nothing but nothing is being done about ethics. The ANA and PNG act on specific complaints, but that is about it. How sad.
Young Numismatists, say ages 8 to 15, are the brightest and the best. Encourage them in any way possible. As Gary Adkins knows, the ANA already scores high points on this.
One of the greatest potentials for ANA is people past the age of 65, especially those who are educated and have been successful in life. Millions of people are potentials for learning about numismatics and the ANA. With proper promotion and education, thousands of retirees might well come into the hobby.
For Whitman (for which I am the numismatic director) or, if they pass on the idea, for the ANA I volunteer to create a book on how specializing is the key to numismatic enjoyment and longevity.
Here is the link for more of what David Bowers had to say about that.
http://news.coinupdate.com/bowers-on-collecting-changes-for-the-american-numismatic-association/
Many detectorists are also coin collectors although many are not. A lot of what Mr. Bowers says about coin-collecting applies to metal detecting too.
Back a few years ago I conducted a poll in this blog and found that 93% of the respondents were over 35 years old and over half were over 56 years old. The biggest age group was the 56 to 65 age group.
In the future, I'll have more to say about how coin-collecting and how the metal detecting hobbies are doing.
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Alberto is now in Alabama and heading north. We're going to have a few days of small surf.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comc
Alberto is now in Alabama and heading north. We're going to have a few days of small surf.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comc
