Okay, technically, not. And not mine, although I've glommed onto them.

Among the other (minor) things I'm doing to help tidy up Mom's 'estate' is helping inspect and catalogue her coin collection. Some of these she inherited, some she collected.

Technically she left the entire collection to the R.C., but in fact I'm the one who likes old coins. With the R.C.'s permission, I've been amusing myself off and on with these over the last week or so. I bought a book! Two books, in fact! (But only for the coins. I haven't started investigating the paper money yet.)

There are the expected bits--"commemorative" coins sold to people who don't realize that the only ones that will appreciate in value are the ones actually issued by the U.S. Mint, a partial collection of the new commemorative quarters (if in true "mint" condition, some of these are worth $0.75 each), great handfuls of pennies from the 50s and 60s (none of which are worth more than a cent since they're all circulated and thoroughly worn), JFK half-dollars, etc. None of them worth more than face value, but many of them interesting to look at.

(hidden behind a cut because lots of little pictures)

And then there are the really fascinating ones. (As always, apologies for the poor quality of my $20-camera digital pictures.)

An Indian-head nickel with a buffalo reverse, sadly so worn that no date appears. (Those were produced from 1913-1938 but without a date, no one would give you more than five cents for the coin.)

(I've tried to digitally enhance the coin above and the one below, with poor results, but hopefully you can at least get an idea of the engraving.)

A "Standing Liberty" quarter in the same, condition (Struck between 1916 and 1930):

Standing Liberty quarters were produced in two designs. In '16 and '17 the right breast was "exposed." From 1917 through 1930, it was "covered." I've peered at the example pictures in the book and, as near as I can tell, what they mean is that the first couple of years featured a breast, complete with nipple-like protrusion, in outline.

The later coins have a scale pattern (maybe faux-armor) etching, like a tank-top, over the flesh. Presumably, sometime in early 1917, boobs became taboo.

In any case, my only example of the coin features a Liberty worn to a flapper-like boyishness of profile, so there's no way to know which one this was originally, except that viewing the slightly more legible pattern on the reverse, I see that the star pattern around the rim (considerably changed between the first and second designs, is clearly that of the earlier coin, placing my neutered Liberty in the 1916-1917 era. It's a shame it's so worn. It could have been worth as much as $3,500 (if it was a 1916 issue), but no one pays that much for coins this badly worn. (Picture me frowning in aggravation at the perverse previous owner, the man who fondled Liberty's breast until he'd worn most of the face of the coin to nothing....)

There are other, better preserved coins as well.

"Walking Liberty" half-dollars were produced from 1916-1947. There are a number of examples in the collection, with the oldest ones being from 1941.

"Peace" dollars were struck from 1921-1935.

(Sigh. Mom had 1923 and 1926 Peace dollars. If only someone had found and kept a 1928 coin, it would have been worth $300-$500. Coin collecting is very subjective - a combination of age, condition, and quantity minted. 30,800,000 1923 coins were minted, but only 360,000 were struck in 1928.)

"Morgan" dollars were struck from 1878-1921.

The winner of the prize for "oldest coin in the entire collection" is an 1881 Morgan dollar in pretty good condition.

There are a few pennies from the 1910s through the 1930s that are very interesting to look at as well but that I was unable to take any decent photos of any of them. I think one of them (a 1929s issue) is worth about ninety cents. That seems to be the "jewel" of the penny collection, with a handful of others being worth about twenty cents each. There are a lot of pennies from the 1950s on, but those aren't worth anything unless they're virtually uncirculated and none of the examples we have are in anything like mint condition.

The R.C. isn't going to retire on the proceeds of this "collection" if she sells it (the entire thing can't be worth more than $200, the moral being that if you want to collect coins, you have to collect brand-new ones, since money that's been used as money is virtually worthless to a collector) but I'm having a lot of fun playing with it. I have pieces of eight felt spread out and the coins sorted and stacked, my two reference books laying open next to them, and a giant, Holmes-style magnifying glass I use for peering at them intently.

Don't you wish you had a new (indoor) hobby right now (when the temperatures are hovering around 97 daily)?