1964 Topps Coins

1964 Topps Coins. That's just about all my computer has seen the past few days. Along with the stash my Uncle gave me years ago, were '64 Topps Coins- a Brooks Robinson AS and a Harmon Killebrew. I thought they were really cool and still do. So ever since then I've wanted to complete the set, a tall order considering there's 3 different Mantles and 2 each of Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Koufax, Rose, etc. Plus don't forget, vintage anything costs a bit, so on paper this looked really tough. I picked up a few coins of ebay about a year ago, including a Clemente, but then the set took an unintentional back seat when I started to focus more on my Mets and Piazza collections. Well with this last paycheck, I gave myself a little bit of money to go hit up the bay. I ended up getting 4 "boxes" of some late '90s goodness which I'll post about when they come. What I had left over, went solely to picking up some coins.

Incase you've never heard of or seen these coins before, they may not be what you're thinking. They're not coins, like quarters and whatnot, with a baseball theme. They are metal, but they look more like those old milk caps with a player picture on the front and a sentence or two on the back.

The set is comprised of 167 total coins, with variations on the Mickey Mantle AS (left and right handed), Wayne Causey (AL and NL) and Chuck Hinton (AL and NL) recognized as part of the total 167. #1-120 consists of the "regular" coins, with player photo and info while the last leg of the set, #121-164 are "All-Stars" which carry a different photo and info then that players regular coin. Both the regular and the all star coins are colored by the players respective league. NL coins are Silver for the Regular and Red for the All Stars, while the AL coins are Gold and Blue. Common wear includes loss of paint on the front rims, and scratches on the back.

Now to the goods. These are only the first wave of what I picked up on the bay with the rest (hopefully) coming soon!


I know full well that for me to try and find only "Mint" condition coins for my set is quite far-fetched and costly. Obviously if I have a choice between shiny and new or old and dented with only a dollars different, shiny and new will win. But I have to be a realist. However, looking at the pictures, can be misleading. Knowing that all AL coins are gold painted and all NLs are silver, these look pretty good. That isn't really the case though. Just about all the paint is worn off the rims from both the Maz and Mr.Willey and the Tresh coin has alot of chipping. Just a heads up if you ever look to pick some up offline, that the pics can be deceiving.


Some more from the "Regular" series. Including Vida Pinson. These 7 coins I picked up for well under a dollar each, except for the Maz which broke the bank at 95 cents.

Now we're gonna start to get to the real goods from this pickup!

A Frank Robinson All-Star. I was able to pick this up for a little over $6 including shipping (which accounted for 1/2 the price). Very little wear on the rim and just a nice looking coin. The red really screams "Hey! Look at me motherfucker!!!! while the look on Robinsons face says "If you look at me, I'll fucking kill you..." Decisions, decisions.


Lastly we have the All Star version of Sandy Koufax! I put a real low bid on this coin, hoping it wouldn't go anywhere. I was really looking for quantity to bolster what I have, as opposed to adding big pieces, so I wasn't going to be too aggressive with this. I figured what the hell though and placed my bid. 1 day later, it ended with no other bids at $5 including shipping. Fuck yeah! The condition is great, so there wasn't anything like that to scare people away from it. As an interesting side note, when I looked at were it was shipping from- Red Hook, NY same town I live in. What are the odds.

So that's that for that. As I said, there's more coming including some "big pieces" I got for almost nothing. Check these out, I'm finding that vintage insert sets (especially from the '60s) are a great way to pick up some cards of legend players for a fraction of the cost of a regular Topps base card.

(...Joe)