Why do you collect/invest in coins and precious metals
Golden1
Posts: 208 ✭✭✭
For me, it's part hobby, history, financial and for political reasons.
Coins have always been part of our political history.
I understand why politics can't be discussed on this forum and I apologize for stepping over the line a couple times, but talking about coins only for their value and grade and not their rich history, is only telling half the story.
People are all different in their beliefs and most are passionate about what they collect, what they do and for their country.
I am very passionate about God and country and sometimes it gets the better of me in my posts. Again, I apologize from straying from the forum rules and I'm trying to do better not to ruffle any members feathers.
I wish people wouldn't be so sensitive, but the sad fact is people are very sensitive about everything today. It's not how the world was I grew up in. This is still a great site and I hope to remain here, even though I may slip once in a while.
Regards,
Robert S
Here's a little article from CoinWeek
The Coin Analyst: Silver’s Important Role in American History, Politics and Finance
By Louis Golino -September 12, 201910615 0
By Louis Golino for CoinWeek …..
If you’re reading this article, then you likely have more than a passing interest in silver.
But while you may be familiar with the role the white metal has played in our coinage for thousands of years, you probably do not know the entire story of how the metal has impacted the American political and economic system since the nation’s founding. Not to mention silver’s role as a siren that has tempted and obsessed some of the richest people in history like Warren Buffet and, most notably, Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother Herbert: the infamous billionaire Hunt brothers.
*See the rest here:
https://coinweek.com/bullion-report/the-coin-analyst-silvers-important-role-in-american-history-politics-and-finance/
PS: A little about me.
I lived in Los Angeles from 1998 through 2011, I got serious about numismatic coins and precious metals in 2004 when I dove in.
I attended most of the local coin shows and many at the 'greatest coin show on earth' imo, in Long Beach. I met some really cool people at the Long Beach shows and especially enjoyed talking to Don Bailey, the Dean of Mexican Numismatics, who has since passed away in 2018. R.I.P. I met some of the great people at PCGS at the shows and at their place of business in Irvine.
Once you get the bug for coins and PM's, it's something you get hooked on for life.
I wish more young people would see the value in them.
At this time, I am very bullish on silver as I believe it is extremely undervalued. Time will tell.
Comments
This may read like I am being a jerk, but I think in general when folks or companies put up content on the web they don't mind having a small snippet quoted on another site or a link placed to direct folks to the content, but many entities protect their copyright and do not want an entire article cut-and-pasted onto another site. In my opinion, this is poor form and is essentially "lifting" though not quite stealing content.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I posted the link to the article in this post so there is no confusion, act of plagiarism, or to sell or profit by posting it.
I'm sure PCGS moderators will let me know if this is a violation. Do you consider pasting a photo of a coin someone else took a violation also?
For me it was originally a financial privacy type of investment.
For me, coins are a hobby... lifelong - off and on, but mostly on. Stacking PM's is a hedge.... My stacks are pure profit... Cheers, RickO
Collect for fun, Invest in case the bottom falls out in the economy. ie. History Repeats: Germany 1927 Wiemar Republic, Government printing money in the face of hyperinflation. Socialists in power, and fascism on the rise.
A hobby since 1955 when at the age of 5 I got to go through my Grandmothers change purse and keep anything unusual. Too bad for her I found everything unusual and it went into my secret box. After the first few times she started taking more coins out than leaving them in so i had less to scarf up. That lead her to buying me some Library of Coins cent albums (I really just wanted penny boards but beggars can't be choosers).
My collection grew from there and then as girlfriends and cars made more demands the collection when back into circulation. In 1970, when stationed in Alaska with the Air Force, I used to walk the 4 or 5 miles into town a couple of times a week and always stopped in at the coin shop and picked up things like 20 different Mercury dimes for $4 and circulated silver dollars for 2 or 3 dollars each. Later in England I discovered British Coins and could buy gold soverigns for about $20 each and old silver coins were cheap. Pennies, on the other hand in high grade and scarce dates required me to pony up the cash.
Now, I have fond memories of the days of collecting. In the late 70's, during the Hunt Brothers silver run up, I worked in a coin shop in Laurel Maryland (Coins of Laurel). I was active duty Air Force but still managed to put in 40 or 50 hours a week at the shop. I saw amazing coins come over the counter, always way out of my price range but amazing and lust-able anyway.
Now days I'm old, early 70's, my vision is pretty much gone but I have strong memories and remember many of the coins I have seen over the years. I still buy a bit here and there, after my wife looks the deal over and decides if the coin is a good deal, then she takes time and describes it to me in detail before we put it away in the safe. We are putting together a set of Kennedy halves in Dansco albums just because it satisfies the collector in me.
Coins and coin collecting are not my only passions. I have many sports and non-sports cards and sets but don't "play" with them any longer due to the vision issues. I have many guns including quite a few Milsurp rifles and pistols, but they too live in the safe since I can't see what I'm shooting and I'm not going out to fire them off if I can't see what I'm hitting.
Enjoy your years of collecting, any years that you still have left and have the facilities to enjoy your collection.
P.S. I'm an amateur radio operator (Ham) and have been since the mid 80's. My hearing is going but I can still pound the brass with the best of them and copy Morse Code as well as I did when I was active duty copying the bad guys.
Coins for fun, bullion for inflation insurance.
I have a strong interest in history and economics. That has driven most of my purchases. I would have been financially better off if I had bought American Gold Eagles, but they get boring. I have done poorly with buys like a 1795 $10 gold piece, but I have enjoyed the coin. I bought it at the peak of the market. Ditto for the 1808 quarter eagle.
Coin collecting is a hobby for me... part of my entertainment budget. I'm not counting on a huge ROI to pad my retirement. I've got other vehicles for that.
I'm mainly drawn to the historical aspects of the hobby... especially the era that covers the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
You took the entire article and then pasted the link to the article on the bottom. The content generator (the author and magazine/website) likely would not want the entire product shared on a third-party site with a link placed on the bottom after folks have used the product (read the article). It was in poor form and I was being polite.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I collect coins because I think they’re beautiful, like art.
Our forum friend coinsarefun summed it up nicely awhile ago.
I also collect some as a financial hedge and even though coins shouldn’t be viewed as investments, I do anyways, limiting my exposure to a minor percentage of my total net worth.
I’m also very interested in the history aspect.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
I enjoy collecting Hawaiian coins because the whole history of money there fascinates me.
Would you please do me a favor and email the people at CoinWeek to see what their view is on this matter of posting a full article from their site, with the link to the article included and get back to me? Make sure you tell them where it was posted and that it was not reproduced for profit, or sale.
Thanks!
There is such a thing as "Fair Use" which allows for the copying from copyrighted material and posting it elsewhere, but it's quite unlikely that copying an entire article would be covered. On the plus side, the odds of the copyright holder hassling you are slim, you'd be more likely to catch grief from CU in the event the copyright holder contacted them with a complaint.
Your comments are not out of line. On a practical level it's better to quote a snippet of the article and a link to save others from having to do excess scrolling and if someone wants to address the OP the don't have edit the comment to remove all of the original content of the original post.
The other issue is a snippet and link also drives traffic to the original website which is a way to show appreciation to them for publishing the article.
For me collecting is about history, science and art. I became a history buff after college when at some point I realized the only way to properly understand the present is knowing about the past. I started collecting because it intrigued me to have the opportunity to hold something directly connected with the past I'd been reading about. Working in manufacturing (electronic components) I had a natural interest in all the aspects of coin manufacturing (metallurgy, chemistry, production process, art and design, etc.). This led to tours of the Philadelphia Mint, Saint Gaudens museum, Smithsonian, ANA grading seminars, books, more books and this forum.
You are being decent about this, thanks.
In the future I will be more accommodative to the members having a problem with this.
I'm not here to argue with anyone. I can leave off a portion with a note saying "see the rest here" with the article link.
I started the post and if you read a post here, the next time you sign on, the site picks up where you left off.
Scrolling doesn't appear a problem to me.
Problem solved.
Because I can…..
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Art, oddity, uniqueness, and wow factor.
Ditto. Started off as hobby fueled by history, then later continued from a financial perspective etc. because numismatic and philately interests for me began in the late seventies and went on for a while till hormones made me focus on girls, booze and such.
Then it was on the back burner enjoying a long hiatus with the occassional dabble once in a way while seeing something interesting and within budget because twenty years ago Good Ole Tom in CT was my neighbor and mentor of sorts.
Am all done with the stamp collecting
Now slowly even my numismatic interests are plateauing even though trying very hard to whip up excitement with the moderns being released by the mint but no dice.
Only my youngest kids seems to be interested in my coins and that too for selling it, so guess I will have to eventually ask him to sell it and split amongst the three of them
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091
It clicks a bunch of boxes for me. It's fun, it's a challenge, it's intellectually stimulating, it's a source of beautiful photography fodder, it's a way to get outside of my little world and interact with history, it's a non-traditional "investment", and it's a great way to meet people with a similar mindset. Really, many of the folks in the collecting world are fantastic. Like everything, you have to sort through all that a bit to find the gems, but they're out there. Also, on occasion there actually is a Santa Clause in numismatics and the thrill of victory is fun.
However, as others have said, I have multiple other mainstream and non-traditional investments that are the backbone of future plans. Funding all that has really sapped the collecting budget for a couple years, but it was getting to be time to rebalance anyhow.
As for the article, as one who has created a decent bit of (unrelated) published material myself, it's probably better to just quote a snippet and provide a link. To do so is usually quite flattering to the author. While pasting the entire article from subscription-based source might not technically be plagiarism, it sorta, kinda feels like it.
I removed most of the content to appease the natives! I hope this is satisfactory.
Regards
It's the Midas syndrome.
I buy coins for the fun of learning about them and the enjoyment I get from collecting them, like many, I imagine.
It is true that part of coin collecting for many, including me, is placing the coins in the events of their time. I like how Richard Snow does this in his A Guide Book of Flying Eagle and Indian Head Cents, which I picked up a couple of months ago, and I also enjoyed an article in the latest issue of The Numismatist about the Severan War.
As for talking current politics online, I don't do so, and avoid such discussions. I am happy, however, to talk politics in person, though it isn't my first topic of conversation. Hobbies are much more fun to talk about, at least for me.
Putting all seriousness aside, indulging in the 7 deadly sins.