The Washington times., 1894-09-16
COPPER DEARER THAN GOLD
Some Facts About the Business of the
Collection of Rare Coins.
THE SECRET OF NUMISMATICS
Finest Collection in the United States
Why 1t Does Not Pay to Counterfeit
$1,000 Paid for ITO Cents.

business in which copper is worth more
than silver and gold. How is that? What is
it? Coin collecting.
A few years ago B. H. Collins, chief OF a
tobacco division in the Treasury revenue
service, paid in London 81, 500 fer ITO copper
cents, complete collection of the coinage of
this country. He brought it home, selected
out such as he wanted for his own collection,
and sold the remainder for more than he
paid for them. The collection was unusually
fine, for the reason that when our coins 60 to
Europe it is as curios generally, and as they
cannot be passed they are kept in almost
perfect condition. And it is condition, after
all, more than rarity that counts in coin col
lecting.
Mr.. Collins, after thirty-one years service in
the Army and Treasury Department, resigned
last February. He was urged by his friends
in the tobacco trade to 20 into some line Of
that, and the claims business suggested itself,
as it does to most men who leave the govern
ment service, but he concluded that it would
be more congenial to his tastes to follow out
what had been a fancy with him and become
dealer in old coins.
Il used 10 have a liking for rare Jewels"
he said 10 a TIMES reporter last night, ''and
at one line / had a complete collection of
them. Diamonds, rubies. sapphires, garnets,
carnelian, turquoise, agate, onyx, beryl,
jasper, opals, nfolachite, hiddenite, every sort
of precious and semi-precious stone fifty-f1ve
of them in all. And the tint is the great
point about some OF these-just what people
take fancy to is what tells, you know. For
instance, in the sapphire it is the deep blue,
though sometimes that is not so pretty as the
lighter shade. And in diamonds there are all
tints, yellow, green, red, bronze, blue, steel
blue, black, and pink. The rarest OF these is
the pink, but il is by no means the most valu-
able. Next in rarity is the green, but the most
priced and therefore most costly is the steel
blue. Really think the bronze gem is often
much more beautiful, but the ordinary pur-
chaser doesn't want 1t. It's little of color.
The thing that really tells, however for beauty
is the sparkle. Often the steel blue lacks
this, and then it is like beautiful woman who
is duh. sluggish. lethargic. 1t is all right in
form, but it lacks viyacity.
SOLID AND SATISFACTORY BUSINESS.
"But 1 sold my collection of gems about
fourteen years ago, and fell into collecting
coins l have now the finest collection in the
United States. and | will not sell my rarest
pieces at any price. / buy coins on commits
4 q
that is better than the one have in my col
lection put it in and offer the other for sale.
There are between thirteen and fourteen
thousand collectors in the United States, and
the business is very solid and satisfactory.
When you buy coin at the market price it IS
perfectly safe value. The price will not go
down. In time IL Is bound 10 appreciate.
Your stock is perfectly sure to retain It's value.
About counterfeiters? Well you see il
would be poor business to counterfeit rare
coins Of the kind we principally handle Old
Greek coins and the colonial issues Of this
country are duplicated and not much atten-
tion Is paid TO them. The man who makes
the duplicate is doing an entirely legal thing.
But with our own issues and those OF treaty
powers it's a different thing. 1t is just as
much a crime TO coin them for numismatic
purposes as for use as money Otherwise
every counterfeiter would when caught plead
that he was making coin for numismatic pur-
poses and so get off.
Again, after he had made his old coin he
would have difficulty IN passing it. The
dates would excite suspicion. II he tried TO
sell his counterfeit he would find amateur
dealers referring him at once TO experts be-
fore they bought, and they might as well try
to sell street ear plug for thoroughbred
racer as to try 10 sell counterfeit coin 10 an
expert The weight sound, and fneness are
the first points by which we distinguish the
p
features about the hair lines of the die which
the counterfeiter overlOoks.
Every coin has some popularity in the
placing OF the parts of the design, or some
thing OF the sort, which perfectly distinguishes
it from any other. One thing they do, be-
cause there is no penalty against it, is to
change the date. One of the rarest coins is
the dollar of 1904. 1t is listed at $3.50 TO S4OO.
l had three fellows in here the other day
with their eyes standing out with the certainty
that they had found one. | looked it over
and pointed out the differences between the
specimen and the genuine in the placing of
the eagle, etc. 1t was simply dollar OF 1901,
worth Sl.15, on which the date had been
skillfully raised
VALUE NOT ALWAYS DEPENDENT on RARITY.
1.-The value OF an old coin does not depend
altogether upon its rarity by any means. Its
condition counts fully as much as its rarity
| have plenty of rare cents that turn into
the Treasury at face value because they are
not in good condition. One year | turned in
6,412 of these. 1 put them in the Treasury
because if l passed them into general circula-
ton, people would be coming in here every
day trying to sell them TO me. OF course,
lose on such pieces, but they come in cOllec
tions from which l obtain good coins that
pay me handsome profits. l have been able
to buy many such these hard times.
'OutSlderS are mucl deceived ABOUT THIS.
For instance, paid the other day S12 for a
ten cent piece of 1909, while L have box full
at so cents. 1 once paid S1l0 for a penny of
a date that l sell every week a specimen of
to boys. Just beginning. for ten cents.
"When l was new in the business got hold
of penny from down at Alexandria of the
1911 issue and sold it again for trife. 1t
went over TO Philadelphia and sold there at
auction one day for S67. Then there came a
rush OF cents of 1911. There are plenty OF
them and every fellow who ran across one
rushed to some dealer with it expecting to
get S67 for it. OF course, they were disap-
pointed. The one l slipped up on was simply
in prime condition"
1.-The condition depends upon the sharpness
of the mint lines, the clearness and. to an ex-
tent, the retention of the mint color. That is
one reason the copper coins are more yalua-
BILE than silver or gold. Put penny, silver
dollar, and Il gold eagle on your window sill
over night and the gold will be better looking
in the morning, the silver will be slightly
tarniShed and can be rubbed up easily, but
the copper will be oXidiZed, never to resume
its color by polishing. SO the copper is
passed through many more hands than the
other coins, is not carefully kept and becomes
rare more rapidly. Another reason Is that
there is no danger of the collection OF coppers
being stolen. The thief can melt up the gold
and have its full money value. but his melted
copper would be of little worth, and when he
tried TO sell stolen collection he would find
the theft had been fully advertised and he
would be promptly landed behind the bars.
1T is curious how men come to be collect
ors. Joseph j. Meckley. of Philadelphia,