Gift for my hard-to-buy-for groomsman.

February 22, 2008 11:39 AM

Gift for a coin collector?

I'm getting married. I'm put off by the typical crap they try to push on you for groomsmen gifts (cufflinks, monogrammed shot glasses, etc.), so I'm trying to make the gifts I give my groomsmen something I know they'll appreciate. For example, I'm getting one of my groomsmen the whole DVD run of the new Battlestar Galactica because I know he'll like it and I know he's not the kind of person to buy it for himself. One of my other groomsmen, however, makes enough money such that if he really wanted something, he could just buy it for himself. So, I'm trying to buy him something that he doesn't know he wants but that he'll like. He's a bit of a numismatist, but I know nothing about the hobby. What coin(s) can I get for around $150 that my hard-to-buy-for groomsman will like? Any suggestions on where to buy them in the DC area without getting ripped off?

posted by Bezuhin to human relations (5 comments total)

Congrats!

How about a set of obsolete US coinage, like half cents, large cents, two cents, three cents, half dimes?

I don't know where to buy these in DC, but a look at the coins section of ebay will give you an idea of what kind of prices you might have to pay.

Anything with a condition of Fine or above should have the amount of detail that will make the coins more desirable. Good and Very Good coins might work, but you should be able to find a coin of each type listed above in the higher grades within your budget.
posted by sciatica at 12:52 PM on February 22

As a sort of half-assed coin collector I have to say that this varies tremendously depending on what he actually collects and how he invests in his collection. Some people collect form one country, some collect US only, some collect weird mis-strikes, some collect Civil War money. You'd have to do a little social engineering to see both what he's collecting and what he doesn't have yet. If he's married, ask his partner. If he frequents a local shop, you might be able to figure something out from them. If he has kids, something that might be neat is a starter set for them, maybe some of the 50 state quarters or something similar, but again this would depend on what he's doing already.

I was sort of hoping that if he collcted US stuff, the National Numismatic Collection would have some good coin porn book but alas they don't. A two year subscription to the Grey Sheet newsletter is a good pricing guide and at about your price point but again this would really depend on whether he was already getting it, and whether he collects what they're pricing. There are also things like Coinworld (basic magazine, assume he subscribes already) and unsexy but necessary material like slabs to put coins in. For holidaytme one year I was given a mint date set (coin year set, don't know exactly what they're called -- proof coins from the year I was born) which is not at all expensive but I've loved it. He may, however, have several of these already.

So I guess the answer, after all this typing is "it depends" Collectors tend to have every appropriate gift item already and a perfect gift, like the one for your other friend, may be the thing that he's had his eye on but not gotten yet.
posted by jessamyn at 1:08 PM on February 22

I would not buy different, personalized gifts for each of your "groomsmen" (I gave all of mine those gigantic flashlights that policemen carry), but that aside, the last time I bought any collectible coins it was either at the Treasury building in DC or at Union Station. I am referring to proof sets from the U.S. government. I would actually enjoy receiving something like that
posted by thomas144 at 1:13 PM on February 22

You can buy an eBay gift certificate that the recipient can use to buy anything sold on eBay for which the seller accepts Paypal. We did this for a coin-collecting relative.
posted by homelystar at 3:11 PM on February 22

https://coins.ha.com/common/catalogorders.php

A one year subscription to the Coin Auction catalogs from Heritage Galleries. THIS is collector porn...the sorts of coins that most people will never own, but love to drool over.
posted by legotech at 4:55 PM on February 22