From ancient times to the present, among the ancestral treasures of Chinese families, if the number is large and easy to preserve, coins undoubtedly occupy the first place. These small metal discs, which were once used as currency, have now become collectors' favorites.
Behind it, there are historical vicissitudes, family memories, and unknown pasts.
Looking back, coins were an indispensable medium of exchange in daily life, and the amount of mintage can be imagined. Whether it is a fine official coinage or a rough small coin minted by the people, they have all precipitated in the long river of time and become a witness of history.
The characteristics of the metal material also allow these coins to transcend time and space and present them in good condition.
However, the status of coins in the laws and regulations on the protection of cultural relics was once neglected. They are small and easy to hide, so in recent decades of archaeological excavations, a large number of coins have been rediscovered and dispersed. Every family can more or less own some ancient coins and feel the heavy sense of history.
Speaking of my family's collecting history, it is also a history closely related to coins. When he was a child, the elders of the family had a strong interest in porcelain, coins and other antiquities.
I still remember that when I was young, my father was a keen coin collector, and whenever he came home from work, he would always bring back bags of copper coins stained with mud. At that time, I was full of curiosity about these seemingly ordinary small copper pieces, but I also accidentally lost a lot of them while playing.
His father's love of coins did not last long, and he soon turned to collecting silver dollars. In the early 90s of the 20th century, the ** of a Yuan Datou silver dollar was about 20 yuan.
When my father received his salary each month, he would always set aside a portion of it to buy silver dollars. In this way, the silver dollars bearing the imprint of history were carefully pocketed by my father.
Over the years, my father's collection of silver dollars had grown to a size, with at least 70 silver dollars of all kinds. Among them, there are all kinds of varieties such as big heads, small heads, and boat oceans, and there are even rare varieties such as dragon oceans carved with dragon patterns on the back.
My father had a connoisseur verify the authenticity and keep it in a beautiful booklet.
Of course, there are also some "big treasures" in the collection process, such as Zhang Zuolin, Duan Qirui and other rare silver dollars. Unfortunately, most of these dollars were fakes, and the counterfeiting industry was already quietly emerging at that time.
In those days, although fakes had begun to appear, as long as you carefully searched for reliable merchants, there were still traces of authenticity. However, just as my father was about to embark on the pinnacle of collecting, an unexpected "disaster" quietly struck. Because of my playfulness and ignorance, I secretly sold the silver dollars that my father treasured one by one, in exchange for what I thought was a "huge amount of money" in pocket money.
By the time his parents found out, there were not many silver dollars left, and only two lonely Yuan Datou remained.
This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to my father, who gave up collecting coins and devoted himself to his work.
And I, too, felt deep guilt and self-blame after this incident.
To make amends, I began reading a lot of books on history, archaeology, and collecting as a student, hoping to find a shortcut to collecting.
As I learned more about the field of collecting, I gradually realized that there were many people who had similar experiences to me. They either destroyed their precious coins at an ignorant age, or melted down their old silver dollars into jewelry. Even during a land shoveling experience in Shaanxi, I met a middle-aged man.
He patted his head and pointed to the grove in front of the old house and said: "When I was young, I had hundreds of pounds of copper coins at home, but I didn't take it seriously, and I threw them all away when I played with darts!" "What's even more surprising is that he actually took me to dig in the woods for a while, and he actually dug up dozens of copper coins.
One of the Shunzhi Tongbao backs made my eyes shine, and it seems that there are really a lot of good things that have been thrown away.
When I visit the antique market, I often meet those old vendors. As soon as they opened the conversation, it was as if they had returned to the past full of regret and remorse.
They were talking about the rare coins that could be found everywhere on the stalls more than ten years ago, such as Xianfeng big money, gossip money, etc.
At that time, they may not have understood the true value of these coins, and they just traded them at will. In retrospect, there may be priceless treasures hidden in those "broken copper and iron" that were easily ruined.
However, time has passed, and the numismatic market has experienced several spikes**. Foresighted merchants and collectors are gradually eating away at the market's fine offerings, making it increasingly difficult for the average collector to find valuable varieties. Today's numismatic collecting is no longer the era of the past.
The ** of fine coins has risen to the point that it is prohibitive, while the ** of ordinary varieties has remained low.
In these seemingly challenging and opportune times, can we still find a way to the pinnacle of collecting? The answer, of course, is yes.
Although rare varieties are hard to find, as long as we have a pair of eyes to discover treasures and enough expertise, we can still find our own treasures in the huge coin market.
At the same time, with the advent of capitalization, financialization and specialization, coin collecting has gradually become a more standardized and mature investment method. By constantly improving our ability and collecting, we may be able to make up for it one day in the future and realize our dream of collecting.
Author's Note:
Antique collecting has always been a high-profile field, attracting the attention of many collectors. However, this was followed by many fraudulent methods by auction companies, which caused countless collectors to suffer huge losses. The main reason why many people will be deceived is because they do not have a certain understanding of collectibles.
They always think that the antiques in their hands are valuable, even pricelessAnd others just took advantage of their greed and let them be fooled step by step.
It turns out that it was only in the end that it was discovered that something was not worth anything at allIt took hundreds of thousands of dollars to wake up。If you have a certain understanding of the collection, it is estimated that you will not be easily fooled.
The book "Guide to Chinese Antiques" just records the identification knowledge of porcelain, calligraphy and painting, coins and other antiques, which can make people realize what kind of antiques are valuable.
At the same time, it also contains the knowledge of antique auctions, so that people know what kind of auction companies are reliable, and help analyze how not to be deceived.
The book records various auction routines and acquisition frauds, and the author also summarizes his own experience of being deceived, so that people can recognize the current auction market tricks and understand how the other party is deceived.
The book also contains tips on how to sell your own collectiblesThere was once a Tibetan friend who was deceived and bruised, and later bought this book to realize that those so-called auction acquisition companies are simply nothing, but only after reading this book did he know how to realize the collection.
This book can make people take fewer detours, ** is only a few dozen yuan, which is better than being fooled for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If it doesn't work, feel free to comment on me.
In today's society, the market for antique collecting is growing, and more and more people are joining the ranks of antique collecting. However, as the antiques market boomed, more and more fraudulent methods also appeared.
Some criminals take advantage of people's lack of understanding of antiques and deceive people through various means, causing people to suffer huge economic losses.
Therefore, it is very important for those who are interested in collecting antiques to improve their cognitive level and learn relevant identification knowledge.
The book "Guide to Chinese Antiques" is a very good learning tool. It not only contains a wealth of antique appraisal knowledge, but also records various auction routines and acquisition frauds, and the author also summarizes his own experience of being cheated, which can make people recognize the sinister nature of the current auction market.
By studying this book, people can have a deeper understanding of the operation of the antique collection market, improve their identification ability, and reduce the risk of being scammed.
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