24 August 2026: 1863 Indian Head Cent

The eighth item in this series has arrived. The Indian Head cent from 1863. It is the second coin from the decade of the 1860's in the collection bringing the percentage total of the entire coin series to 15.4% owned. 

I do not know exactly what condition this coin is in, I picked it up from a familiar local eBay store and I nearly had buyer's remorse knowing what price I paid. 

However, when I researched the possible value of this specific coin, I discovered that even in the worst condition possible, the value of the coin is actually TWICE the amount of what I paid for it and therefore the buyer remorse vanished. 

It is worth noting that the mintage for this coin in 1863 was 49,840,000. For many that would sound like a lot of coins and for others it would seem like a standard amount of mintage for a coin worth one cent. But this 1863 specimen has HISTORIC value as nearly fifty million of them were minted by the U.S. Mint during the time of the Civil War. It was a record-breaking mintage, despite the shortage of small change during war time. Finding this specific specimen in uncirculated condition is extremely difficult to do and would be worth a few hundred dollars all the way up to approximately $1,200 and up. 

One more coin in the series that is in the collection. I believe it will be interesting to see how long it takes to collect them all. Maybe not every single one of them due to the scarcity of a couple, but as many as I can find. 

Honestly, I have been thinking about looking at the Standing Liberty coins, but I know that I would be paying a lot more for those coins than I have been whenever I purchase these cents due to their values. I may have to put that on the back burner for a little while longer. 

21 August 2026: 2008 10 Colónes from Costa Rica

 

Most recently I have grown to make an acquaintance online with a person from Costa Rica and I learned a little bit about their money system and so naturally I went to find a physical example. 

The hunt was very quick and very brief. 

During which time I found the ten Colónes coin. It appears to be in great condition in addition. Collectors just cannot get mad at that. Especially when it was being sold for such a very very very inexpensive price. The eBay seller was located not too far away from me, and it took no time at all arriving in the mail. 

The colleague on the other hand did not comment when I showed them the coin.

Now I have a coin from Costa Rica to go along with the coin that I have from twentieth century Germany. The idea did come to me to have an INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION as well as having a collection from the United States, but I have not made up my mind about that just yet. 

10 August 2026: 1887, 1888, 1889 Indian Head Cents

 

A few days after the German coins came in, a packaged set of three Indian Head cents came in. My apologies for the poor quality of photographs. I have lately been ill and was not at 100%. Thus, the real reason why these posts are coming late. Again, my apologies. 

But really fast - the succession of dates on the coins was something that I recognized only AFTER I received the coins. I knew that I had a few Indian Head cents, but this was the first time I had received more than one in one package. 1887,1888, and 1889! How cool was that???  

In total, as of 10th of August 2026 I have SEVEN Indian Head cents in the collection. 

These coins were not in the greatest of conditions, but after studying and researching them the three of them probably have a total value of around $25-40 USD. That is wild and exciting to me!! 

Late last night I did more research on the Indian Head cents and come to find out these were minted from 1859 to 1909. They left the mint and made room for the new Lincoln cents from 1909 (one hundred years anniversary of President Abraham Licoln's birth year) and going all the way until 2025 where the US Mint has stopped making coins worth only one cent. 

I would learn that of the seven that I have (as of 10th August 2026) that I have collected some common dates. And if I wanted to collect a complete set, then I have 13.7% of a complete set. 

I began to wonder whether or not I could actually afford owning an entire set of Indian Head cents. I am currently missing 45 cents by year. I did read that these coins really should be fairly easy and inexpensive as far as PER COIN is concerned meaning I should only be spending a few dollars for each coin (anywhere between $3-$10 USD per coin) which is amazing. 

But there will be some serious hurdles. There are a few coins that were minted in 1908-S and 1909-S in limited numbers, and they are extremely hard to come by and that is going to make the price go way up. 

When I looked on eBay today for 1908-S and 1909-S I could not find a "BUY IT NOW" option for either coin for under $200 USD. And the ones in auction, were already approaching $80 or even $100 USD. Which is money I do not have. So I may be missing those two. 

In miserable addition: the 1877 version of the coin has very low mintage as only 852,500. The average mintage number of any Indian Head cent was anywhere between a few hundred thousand to over 100 million. That coin is going to be difficult to pay for. I am sure to find it, but affording it is another situation. 

From all of that, I did decide to collect as much of the Indian Head cents by year as I can. Even if I only get one coin per transaction, I will take my time with it and not put myself under any financial strain or ruin. But if anyone wants to assist in obtaining those three coins that are going to be much higher in price, please let me know!! 

As soon as I return to buying more coins, I will update you through this blog. Thank you for reading and thank you for your patience in the matter. Like I said, I've been ill lately and I am sorry that this fell behind a bit. 

6 August 2026: 1922 & 1935 German 50 Pfennings

 

Upon the same day that I received the 1865 Indian Head cent, I also found some pre-World War II Germany coins. They would be the equivalent of the American cent or "penny" or whatever you want to call it. 

Both coins came together in the same auction for a pretty low price. Although I have seen other German coins during the same time period and you can just tell that sellers are trying to profit off of the fact that the coins were minted during a dark time in the nation's history and that's just sad. 

Still though, I thought that the 1935 50 pfennig would have an entirely different design. And I went for it, simply for the historic value and not because of what I thought was on the coin.

But ONE MORE TIME, I made a mistake and thought that I was buying that coin, and I was not so when I received the two coins and the designs were different, it forced me to go back to find what I thought I was going to buy. And it was a different posting. By the time I double checked the coin, it had been sold. It's gone!! 

But I am not against getting currencies and coins from other countries or nations, and still I am NOT just interested in buying currency and coins from JUST Germany. I would love to begin a smaller collection of international coins. It just so happens at this point that I have three German coins that were minted. All before the second World War. 

It would take close to a week to get the next package. And we are going back to the Indian Head cents. 

6 August 2026: 1865 Indian Head Cent

 

Well, I've totally fallen behind in updating this blog and I sincerely apologize for that. Even after the last blog post that I had written about humility and thinking smarter? That did not happen. 

I found an Indian Head cent that was minted in 1865. And the first thing that I thought about was "This is an American Civil War era coin." 

I also knew that this was in poor condition, but the price was right and okay with me at the time, until it came time to pay for it as it was another auction. The shipping added to the auction price threw the total price over $10 USD. I'm wanting to keep things low and under $10 USD in total whenever I am purchasing ONE coin.

I am finding that those other coins that I would love to have just one of in the collection are going to be at a minimum of $20-30, even $40 and $50 USD. But enough about that, I digress and return to the topic at hand.

A lot of the features on this coin do not exist and that's killing the value of the coin. It is frustrating. The crack or the line on the reverse is greater than it is in photographs. Holding that in my hand and the line is awful.

On the other hand, it was minted in 1865, which is wild to think that it is possible that this coin existed in circulation during the same time that President Abraham Lincoln was still alive. It is even a bigger thought to think about the possibility that Lincoln could very well have had this coin in his own hands, or someone in his family or someone else that was featured heavily in American history during this time. 

There is no telling and there is no way of knowing that any of that would be true, you can drive yourself crazy thinking about it. But more coins are to come. I am just slow and behind on detailing and blogging what I have received. I will do the best I can to catch up here. 

27 July 2026: 1899 Indian Head Cent

 

Here we are again! A couple more Indian Head cents. But this is the one that I am talking about because it was a weird acquisition, at least - for me it was weird. 

I was looking over everything, and I started to think just how cool it would be to start to collect from the 19th century and earlier? Well, that means more Indian Head cents. I now have more of them. I suspect that these coins are generally inexpensive as I didn't dish out a lot to get them. 

However, the 1899 cent, this was wild.

Commonly if I am shopping on eBay for anything, I look for the Buy It Now option. I think it is easier. Either I buy it or not. 

I started to do the same thing with the coin collection and of course not all the coins that I would like to have I am going to afford this way. The other way is the old ways of the auction. 

I found the 1899 cent at auction. I have to admit that I was taken in by the description that said, "Historically Significant" and when I saw that, I jumped on it. It did not take very long to realize that this was an auction. but the bid price was low. I put in the maximum bid and suddenly saw that I was the winning bid at that point with just about 25-26 hours left to go in the auction. 

THEN I saw the coin. What... the... heck??

The coin, although encased and kept safe, there's a chunk of it missing. The actual Indian head looks as if there's a piece of the cheek that was missing. I am not quite sure how that happened. 

I figured that there was about a day left in the auction and I also figured that I would eventually be outbid at the final minutes of the auction. The thought was that if I get outbid then I don't lose anything. That spot that is missing in the coin is just unavoidable when looking at it. I was disappointed in myself for jumping so fast over this. 

Ultimately my bid was the winning bid. The lessons have been learned I believe. I need to really check things over before I just try to grab something. Thankfully I was not screwed over with price nor the cost of shipping, but when I find that blemish in the coin after the fact just really took the wind out of my sails. 

Oh well. Forward and onward, and with a bit of humility and a lot smarter for the next one. 

13 July 2026: 1950, 1950-D, 1945-D, 1943-D, 1920 Lincoln Wheat Cents

 

Well this was not what I was hoping for nor expecting to have done as I returned back to looking for coins to purchase online so that I could add them to my own personal collection. In fact, there's some super highs and some super lows.

I shall explain. 

I noticed that in one of my cent folders that I was actually really close to completing an entire page or panel by filling it up with all the necessary cents to place into the collection. 

I decided that I would go online and buy these missing coins all at once. 

In doing so, I found an eBay seller that had offered a "discount" if the purchase included five items. The coins that I actually NEEDED to complete the panel were only FOUR so in order to get the discounted price on the coins, I needed to purchase just one more coin.

Then on the 13th of July these five coins came in the mail and when I finally got the package opened to where I can get to the coins themselves and actually put them securely into the books.

The fifth and extra coin was a 1920 Lincoln Wheat Cent. And I kept thinking that something was weird about it. 

What is wrong with this picture?

Why does this coin look so great?

The packaging was sealed up super tight in such a bizarre manner that I ended up having to cut the coins away from the tape and whatever else was there keeping the coins in place inside of whatever this letter-sized envelope it was mailed in. It was frustrating to deal with, however in the end I got all of the coins free and then placed them all in their spaces in the books of the collection. 

The 1920 was way too shiny and bright for it being almost 100 years old and circulated. I investigated this coin and eventually I would discover: THIS COIN HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY CLEANED. Meaning I have no idea what someone did to the coin specifically to make it bright and shiny as it is, but it definitely is something done that they tell numismatics NEVER TO DO TO YOUR COINS because it ruins the condition in which the coin is originally in and makes things WORSE! 

All in all, this was the worst thing to do. Now I am going to have to keep an eye open for another 1920 Lincoln Wheat cent.

And the discount? It wasn't much at all. It didn't make a freaking dent in the total cost. And I ended up selecting something that is cleaned and therefore... a garbage item. 

More lessons have been learned. 

Stay tuned to this blog as the next coin comes in, which will be a 19th Century Indian Head cent from a much later year.