Throughout my life, I have collected as many unique, beautiful, and interesting coins as I could find. As a boy growing up in Singapore, I had the chance to obtain coins from neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, and even countries as far as Australia and Japan. When I was young, the most interesting part of these coins was the designs, the weight, the color. Now, I enjoy learning about and displaying these coins just as much.
My passion for coin collecting has led to other passions, such as making necklaces out of the coins, or refurbishing until they shine like new. During my freshman year, I made a coin necklace out of a US half dollar that my grandfather gave me. This necklace had both symbolic meaning to me, and historic meaning. The half dollar coin was one of the first I researched about when my passion for coins led to learning about their history. This coin was used in circulation in the US for over 200 years, and initially was made partially with pure silver. Often, it was worth more at the time to melt the coin and sell the silver. However, nowadays the silver half dollar coins are worth far more than the silver, showing how the passage of time can add value to items who’s component parts are not valuable in themselves. This necklace represents family to me, as it was given to me by my grandfather, but also represents my love for coins and their histories, as it was one of the first coins I researched.
Studying the history of coins has led me to some interesting conclusions about the human tendency to find value in random organic items. When coins were first being used, they had value because they were a specific amount of valuable resources. In other words, people would know how much of whatever important metal was in the coin, and that would determine the value. Oftentimes, they would shave parts of the coin off, and after enough coins, would have a significant amount of shaving to sell. This led to coins having ridges on the rim. In countries with this feature, coins without the ridges are not accepted as legal tender. However, as time passed, the valuable metals were switched for copper, brass, and other cheaper and easier to find metals. Yet the value remained in the coins, despite their physical components being worth much less than their perceived value.
The collection of coins led me to learning about the history of coins, and learning about the history only strengthened my love of collection. Learning does not only have to be forced and uninteresting, it can also inform you about your hobbies, and increase your love for these hobbies.
