Once a Collector, Always a Collector
“My mother seems to think that part of it had to do with that fact that I was among the more frugal of her children; I could keep the coin in my pocket, No. 1,” recalled Dr. Brown, who practices in public health at Cornell University, New York. “No. 2, the art of collecting early [in life] is probably what motivated me. I learned that there were different years of different coins, and I learned that different mints made different coins: Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco.”
If he obtained paper money he would convert it into coins at the grocery store or at the bank. “At that time, you would commonly see a buffalo nickel or a Mercury dime,” said Dr. Brown, who is also senior vice president at the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation in Brooklyn. “It amazed me that there were so many different topical reasons for our coinage, unlike now, when all of our coins are due to deceased presidents, which I think is a major mistake. I don't disagree with history; I'm a history buff. But we lose some of our artistic display when we focus just on people and not on other artistic subjects.”
Early on, one of the favorite coins he obtained was a 1909 penny designed by sculptor Victor D. Brenner. Known as the VDB Lincoln, the front of the coin features the head of Lincoln while the back features a coat of arms. “I was overwhelmed, because that was like a needle in a haystack,” Dr. Brown said. “It wasn't in the best condition, but to find it was amazing.”
In the early 1970s, he purchased a subscription to a U.S. Mint publication, which enabled him to buy proof sets and mint sets each year. His devotion to collecting waned during medical school and during a military tour of service in Vietnam, but it was rekindled in 2000 when he learned that the American Numismatic Association was staging its annual meeting nearby, and he decided to attend.
“There are different ways to collect coins,” he explained. “You can collect a particular denomination, such as a penny; you can collect within a single denomination by year, or by year and mint mark: Philadelphia, Denver, or San Francisco.”
The goal of his current collection, known as the Erasmus Hall Collection in a nod to his Brooklyn high school, is to assemble complete sets of modern coins by year and by mint mark. Modern is defined as any coin minted after 1960. “I focus on getting at least one type of a coin and add to the full completeness of a set,” said Dr. Brown, who spends about 1 hour each evening on his hobby. “Then, I will work to improve the quality of the coin. In coin collecting, that's called a grade: how robust is the strike by the U.S. mint, how much wear is on the coin, and a number of other factors such as luster.”
Dr. Brown displayed the Erasmus Hall proof set (1968-present) at the 2007 American United Numismatists convention. (Proof coins from the U.S. Mint are struck twice while circulated coins are struck once.) At the time, the proof set comprised 361 coins, but it has since grown to 382 coins. Overall, Dr. Brown estimates that he owns more than 1,000 coins.
“It provides a sense of the value of history,” he said of his coin collecting hobby. “Why was this coin produced in this design at that time? Who were the stakeholders involved in the decision making? It also gives us a sense of beauty looking at the design of coins. Artistically, how have they evolved over time? With new technology, we do see some differences.”
Coins also shed a light on the state of the economy when they were produced. For example, he said, prior to 1960, “the silver coins—the dime, the quarter, and the half-dollar—had a higher percent of silver. When there is a demand for these precious metals, it tends to result in the federal government reducing the content… in the circulating coinage.”
He added that the U.S. Mint's 50-State Quarters Program, a 10-year initiative that ended in 2008, “increased the number of coin collectors in the United States, because every person wanted to get every state in the union,” Dr. Brown said. “It also helped teach young children what the key symbols are for each state.”
Dr. Stanford T. Shulman has collected about 3,000 medically themed stamps.
Source Courtesy Audio Visual Dept., Children's Memorial Hospital
