PUT SOME FUN BACK INTO YOUR COLLECTING…

BILL FIVAZ

If you’re sick and tired of trying to cope with the grading hassle and feel about ready to chuck the whole shooting match and start collecting 19th Century Peruvian bottle caps (unslabbed, of course), let me try to convince you to consider collecting something a little offbeat (Peruvian bottle caps aren’t?), but at the same time very accessible.

If you’re a collector … I mean really a collector, how about assembling a W.W.T.S. (World’s Worst Type Set). I started this rather bizarre experience about 20 years ago, and I gotta tell you, I’ve had an absolute ball! The idea is, as the title implies, to obtain the absolute worst specimen of every type of U.S. coin you can find. Now, realizing that “worst” like incest, is a relative term, you will have to decide early on if you want to qualify it to mean worst by virtue of wear only, worst by damage and/or wear, worst by having a hole in it, or what.

And it’s not kosher to “manufacture” one yourself just to fill in a hole—no fair hammering an otherwise collectible specimen just to render it uncollectible for your set. The coins must be just as you find them in junk boxes, cull corners, or even in circulation.

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the look on a dealer’s face when ask to see his “throw-away” box of dogs and then reject most of them because they’re “too nice”. It’s also fun to explain to him that you’re working on a set that you need to downgrade, and you want some “real nice bad ones” to plug in.

My collecting M.O. for my set is that any type of wear or damage is fair game, as long as you can tell with certainty what the type is. In other words, you have to be able to see the arrows and date on a Liberty Seated coin for that opening, but who cares if a Barber Half has a date?

Obviously, the earlier type will be very tough to find, but you’ll soon realize that the late date clad coinage is equally as scarce. As I said, this is collecting in its purest form, and I guarantee that you’ll enjoy the heck out of it while at the same time satisfying that savage collector instinct. You won’t have to spend the kid’s inheritance to put together a presentable (?) set of these “once UNC” or “was BU” beauties.

If you want to specialize and concentrate on a certain series like Large Cents or Commemoratives, have a go at it … it’s entirely you to you. Enjoy!!