This time let’s talk about something else, and put the coins aside for the sake of this post. I have received many questions about blindness in general, and about using technology as a blind person. It felt almost natural to me to talk about things which weren’t necessarily obvious. Such as talking about seeing something, or using the computer.
Identifying New Coins
Since we moved, I’m happy to observe that the mailman usually arrives before 9 AM. Often with new coins. And then the fun begins. I get to figure out what’s in the envelop. For other collectors, probably it is relatively easy. They look at it, and chances are they exactly know what it is. To me, it takes a little longer.
Today I got two envelops, one had one coin in it, the other had 14. This time I will tell you what it takes to figure out what the coins exactly are.
I will give you a hint, 7 of the coins are on the picture, probably you can tell much faster what these are than what it took me.
Of course, there would be a very quick way around it: I could just ask my wife to describe the coins, read what’s on them, and I would place them into the catalog one by one, and I would write down the descriptions. I take the easy way sometimes. But other times, I don’t need to, or just like to challenge myself if I can identify all of them.
Would you trade coins with a blind guy?
Let’s say you have a nice collection of swap coins. You are keeping them hoping you can make some good trades and get some great coins you always wanted to have. Somebody offers you a swap, when you find out he is blind. Will you get the same quality, or you will be sending you nice coins to get some half decent ones in return?
I understand your worry when you get into a swap like that. If I knew about other blind collectors I could tell you how it works in general, but I don’t. So, this is how a trade works with me.
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Why date matters
I have mentioned that I collect by type. Partly, because I cannot tell the date of a coin, so the same type of coin from 2002 and 2003 is the same when you touch it. In this post I would like to tell you why the date of a coin is still important.
The Value of A Coin
When you can’t see a coin, the value has a different meaning. In regular collecting, among many things, the value is determined by the quality of the coin. To me, besides the fact of how much I want a particular coin, the value is in how well I can feel the details.
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The cataloging system
Once a coin is identified, I don’t want to have to do it again. It is time to put it into a system where it can be identified again.
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How can you recognize coins if you can’t see them?
Before answering this question, I need to clear a couple of things here. I love independence. It really bothers me when I need to depend on other people for no reason. There is a time and place when you ask for help, we all do. But being blind, I feel that sometimes I need to ask for more help than others. Now, why did I pick a hobby that one would associate with being able to see, or if you can’t see, it requires help.
I’m the first one to admit, there is a stage in recognizing the coin when vision is required. Once you learn to recognize a particular coin by touch, the next identical one is easy to tell. However, writing is so small even on large coins that you cannot spell it with your finger. I need somebody to give me enough information about a coin to get me started.
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What do I collect?
Coin collecting is not a science. It is a hobby, mostly determined by external factors. Therefore, we all collect differently, different coins, and according to different criteria.
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What made me interested?
Partly it was the challenge. Little or big. This is something that never changed in my life. I enjoy taking a concept and develop it. Not to completion, to me nothing is completed. Only finished. And this fits very well into coin collecting.
Imagine that you close your eyes and hold a piece of metal in your hand. That’s a piece of metal, nothing else. Then you start examining it; it has a shape, a texture, weight size, smell, etc. It is still just a coin, it could be anything. Real, fake, old or new, you may even find out that it isn’t really a coin just a piece of metal.
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How it started
It was one of the usual coin collecting stories. I was about six when I got a plastic treasure chest. I really wanted it, but then I had no idea what to store in there. After bugging my mom for a while, she gave me a handful of coins which they brought back from Czechoslovakia from a recent trip. I put them into the treasure chest and declared that I’m collecting coins.
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