Collector Spotlight: Wayne Karlin

When you think of the Aurora Borealis, your mind probably turns to the fluorescent beauty of Mother Nature’s Northern Lights that vividly dance miles high in the skies over Canada and the northern United States. However, one of the most colorful displays in numismatics is found in the PCGS Registry Set of Wayne Karlin. As a hard-working business and family man with many hobbies and interests, Karlin has been collecting coins for many decades.

“When I was a young boy, most days when I got off from school I would pedal my bike up to the main road through my dad’s farm fields to the local deli,” he fondly remembers. “I would buy Bazooka bubble gum for a penny a piece from the money that was left over from lunch. Every now and then I would get a strange-looking coin back in my change that had ‘CANADA’ written on it with cool designs that had animals and such on them. I would save those coins in one of my dad’s cigar boxes that he gave me, and then my mom helped me paint and decorate the box with sea shells and colored stones.” He adds that he still has those Canadian coins that launched his numismatic journey.

Joining the PCGS Set Registry around 2010, Karlin began building a set of Proof Indian Cents before turning his attention to his famous Aurora Borealis set of toned coins. It’s a venture many decades in the making. “In 1976, I had a good friend of mine who started a coin shop with his dad in our small community at the time.” His first toned coin purchase was a beautiful 1893 Barber Dime, which he kept for a few years before starting a family and selling the coin. “But it was that very coin that got me started for my love of toned coins.”

Nearly a quarter century elapsed before running across the late toned coin dealer Mike DeFalco. “One look at his website rekindled my passion for beautiful, toned coins. He had coins the likes of which I had never seen before,” he remarks. “Unlike collecting before the world wide web became available, at the touch of a button you could now buy a coin and here we are today…” he says, smiling.

Karlin has some pretty whimsical names for his most colorful of coins. There’s an 1885 Morgan Dollar donning blue, green, fuchsia, and gold that Karlin dubbed “Stars and Stripes Forever.” He explains, “It has all the textile gold-colored dots from the mint bag all over its obverse.” Then there’s the MS68+ Morgan Dollar that was already known as “The Killer Tomato” when he bought it. “It’s an amazing toned Morgan that is the first coin posted in my competition set.” He says the surfaces are pristine with amazing luster and vibrant colors.

His toned type coins also include Mercury Dimes, Standing Liberty Quarters, Walking Liberty Half Dollars, and much more. Nevertheless, the coin he really wants someday isn’t known for its color – rather, it’s thought by many to be the first silver dollar the United States Mint ever struck. “Oh, I would love to own the Bruce Morelan 1794 SP66 Flowing Hair Dollar! For such a rarity and valuable coin, it’s not just about that. It has absolutely some of the most amazing eye appeal I have ever seen!”