Why are you a coin collector?
TheGoonies1985
Posts: 5,853 ✭✭✭✭✭
Why coins say versus sports cards, stamps, comic books or whatever?
I love history and the treasure hunt when it comes to coins. I use to collect sports cards as well but as I got older the joy of that hobby lowered and the coin collector in me just keeps growing. Love getting lost in were all these coins have traveled threw time. I still like sports cards but rather focus now on coins only moving forward. The thrill of opening packs is a lot of fun but chances are you will not make your money back over 20 years the most expensive card I found was worth 250$ a Sidney Crosby game used jersey/auto number to 100.
NFL: Buffalo Bills & Green Bay Packers
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Comments
Metal will always be worth more than paper in the end.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
its a way for me to get some space and get away from all the bs and i like what im doing
Philately was my first love and started at the age of eight when I found a United Arab Emirates postage stamp in the parking lot.
Was great fun pouring over books and learning about the various countries and around the same time, came across a collection of coins at my grandparent's place. Since letter writing slowly started going out of fashion by the mid eighties, my hobby stagnated and nope, parents never allowed me to "buy" stamps. A lot of them also got damaged due to improper storing conditions.
Now to answer your query, I am still looking for that certain coin which spurred a ten year old to search for it and dream of claiming the reward.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/13166626#Comment_13166626
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091
I'm working on a U.S. Type set. The set I collect tells a story about our country. When I collected baseball cards they told a story about a player (Nolan Ryan). I guess I collect items with a backstory or history that interests me.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
I have been interested in coins since I was a kid. Old coins, new coins - they all interest me. Something about the metal discs, with images, words and dates just pulls me in. Cannot explain it any other way. Cheers, RickO
Coin collecting offers:
1) Artistry and craftsmanship
2) Strike blunders and associated carelessness
3) Compelling historical designs associated with our country's evolution
4) Hobby camaraderie
5) Endless learning opportunities
6) Potential increased value over time
I don't think anything else compares with perhaps old paintings as an exception.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Very well stated.
I would only add:
7) Rarity (absolute and condition).
8) The completeness and satisfaction of building a set.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
That is one thing if I never complete a series I don't care as long as I get coins I enjoy owning that is the main thing for me. If I do complete a series then great that is just a bonus. But I do stick to my main 2-3 series and I don't deviate much at all.
NFL: Buffalo Bills & Green Bay Packers
I think I have gravitated more to coins than other things due to their ubiquity (in some cases) and familiarity. They were more accessible growing up than currency as well.
I guess I stayed a coin collector due to precious metals, artistry, historical connections, and resellability.
I like history and holding an old coin and thinking about what things were like when it was made appeals to me.
I've asked myself that same question many times over the years. Your explanation articulates it best for me. The bug (whatever that is) probably hit most of us at a young age. Why? I don't know! But we all seem to be like minded.
For the few folks in my life (close friends or relatives) that know I collect coins, look at me like I have 3 heads and can not understand me and this whole coin thing.
That's why I'm here. You guys understanding me. You do understand me......right? Please tell me you understand me!! 😂 🤣 LoL!!
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
I've been collecting coins since I was 7, but I have veered off due to other interests. For a while I collected meteorites as they fit in with my other hobby of astronomy.
I got pretty good on Astronomy, I was published, had 2 gallery showings and made a pretty penny selling my prints.
The little black dot at around 3 o'clock is Mercury transiting the sun.
But there are limits to what you can do from the city and no matter how good I was there was always a better telescope/mount or skies.
Also as each image can take a few nights to several months to capture enough data, I figured out I made about $5 a hour for all the work I did on each image I sold. Couple with the lack of sleep and getting new projects at work, I put astronomy on the side. I actually used the proceeds from the prints I sold to get some gold and a few higher cost coins I needed. After that the bug of completing a few sets I had started kicked back. So for now its coins, in a few years it maybe back to astronomy. I mean I still have the gear.
My current registry sets:
20th Century Type Set
Virtual DANSCO 7070
Slabbed IHC set - Missing the Anacs Slabbed coins
You've gotta love the advantages of CCD cameras and high tech tracking technology. When I went to the Winter Star Party in the FL Keys back in the 90s it was the first time I "saw" the Horsehead nebula with one of the men who was imaging it.
That is OUTSTANDING @hfjacinto!!!! What a beautiful collection!! 👍🏻 👍🏻 It's amazing to think how far they may have traveled, before they found their way into your collection!! 👍🏻
My collection started down the road in Philadelphia. 😫
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Awesome images of space love the set up you have done for your meteorite collection as well!!!
NFL: Buffalo Bills & Green Bay Packers
Lol, another AP guy here. You have some great images. I've been doing more AP lately and less coins so I'm on the tick to your tock. The asiair plus has ben tempted, too. For both coins and AP there is always a better thing waiting in the wings to aspire to.
The astronomy club I was a member of asked the APers to donate a few pictures (files or slides) and they would hold a vote and print 5 in large prints 20 by 30. I submitted 5 and a few other imagers submitted a few. At the executive committee my 5 were the top vote getters , but the committee asked if I didn’t mind having only 3. I was totally fine, I wanted other members to show there work. So we had the California nebula, Orion Nebula and andromeda galaxy as my 3, the other 2 were a full moon and the Milky Way sliver Acadia (which I really liked).
After the meeting an old timer who submitted about 8 images (most blurry so to manual guiding) accosted me and told me my images were “all digital manipulations”, “I didn’t suffer for my work by having to look through a reticle (eyepiece with cross bars) to guide.”, my work “was subpar and the only reason I got picked was because of my garish colors” (we can assign each channel a color hence why you see blue and green), space is shades of grey and only for a few objects can our eyes see color (mostly green) as that is what our eyes are tuned to.
My response was “your images are all silver emulsion manipulations as you aren’t using glass plates” and walked away.
While I do understand it was a lot of work to capture images on film (you literally had to stare at a star and keep it in cross bars for 30+ minutes hoping your focus was spot on and as was your guiding), we also took boats to get to Europe. I would rather take a plane. Technology marches on.
My current registry sets:
20th Century Type Set
Virtual DANSCO 7070
Slabbed IHC set - Missing the Anacs Slabbed coins
I decided that if i was going to collect something, it might as well be money.
But then I went off the rails and got into exonumia
And we're glad you did!! 👍🏻 👍🏻
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Very impressive!!! I can't imagine how amazing your coin collection must be!!!
Why collect coins? It's fun and there's so much variety. Dates, metals, shapes......the variety is seemingly endless.
History, sound money, impressive designs.
The beautiful art but also the history you can hold in your hand. That and coin collecting was instilled into my bones at a very young age by my dad. They bring back memories of him and the great man he was. I will always love him and miss him, I will be 71 very soon. I would love to hear what he would have to say about the direction our country is going today. He was a very intelligent man to say the least.
I love coin collecting. I also love the PCGS family and right here at the PCGS coin forum. I have made a lot of good friends here over the years.
I don't want to Hi-jack @KingOfMorganDollar thread.
A question for @hfjacinto- Do you have another thread here about your astronomy hobby?
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
I started as a buffalo nickel collector and ended up a Morgan Silver dollar collector.For one I was drawn to the beauty of these coins but now it’s the history.Where has this coin been all this time and who owned it in the past.What was purchased with it.I don’t collect them but I have often thought about large cents from the 1840’s or 1850’s and how they were in someone’s pocket on trails of the old west.I wonder about Morgan dollars and who carried them around before they spent them.Does that seem interesting to you I think it’s historically cool.
Morgan dollars have such a neat look to them I just want to collect as many of them I can afford.I enjoy looking at my accomplishments and I feel the have a true value.
My brothers (2) and I were influenced by our Father. My parents own a neighborhood (Chicago) grocery store in the 60's/70's
My Father would keep the silver coins given to him by customers (put in cigar boxes). They bought us coin albums starting with Wheat cents and silver quarters. I think of my parents every time I find a wheat cent or silver coin (thank you Coin Star).
Now, I enjoy the art, the history and victory of building sets. I love silver coins!
@OAKSTAR , I'll message you.
My current registry sets:
20th Century Type Set
Virtual DANSCO 7070
Slabbed IHC set - Missing the Anacs Slabbed coins
always liked history and coins are part of history as you never know who held the coin, what the coin was used for or if it was part of a collection
shut up or put up i care little
Had my Topps baseball cards (1960s & 70's) up until the pandemic started. Kids/nephews had no interest and I decided to cash out in late in 2020. Started with coins again then after coming across a handful saved from the 1960's, 70's, early 80's. As a kid collected what I liked (Bicentennial qtrs, half) not knowing about mintages or else based on seeing a coin in my change I knew was no longer in circulation like Buffalo nickels, Franklin half, Mercury dimes, Standing Liberty quarters, and Wheat cents.
Pocket Change Inspector
As a kid, I loved the fact there were old coins and with some the design had changed many times since. I associated the discontinued designs with having an extinct animal. Yeah strange kid.
What I loved nearly as much was studying and remembering coins mintage's. I recall thinking a lot about 484,000 at 7 years old.
At 10 I bought a 29c Liberty Seated Dime book in a Models department store. The first coin was an 1863 with a mintage of 14,000. The 1867 has a mintage of 10,000.
This fascination with numbers got me into rarity. After 55+ years of collecting I only collect the scarcest dates I can afford. I will buy a low grade coin at times, but not damaged and try not to buy cleaned coins.
I get depressed, when I go to shows or any coin list and only see the more common coins. It's just my taste. I respect the preferences of others.
It's the Hobby of Kings.
Ah the old memories that got me started. Seeing a whole raw set of uncirculated Mercury Dimes at a coin store in New York City in the 1960’s, wandering through Stacks and marveling at their coin showcases, Going to the N.Y. coin shows and seeing a dealer open an original roll of Standing Liberty Quarters right before my eyes, making friends with Anthony Swiatek and seeing some amazing commemoratives, Looking through coin world and seeing the pages of ads always remembering Dave’s the Collectors Friend. Fond memories of the old days made me the coin collector of today at 70. Coin’s always distract from my troubles, add excitement to life and are your friend when you are sick and depressed.
I like the uncirculated coins I have for their beauty. I have a Liberty Cap half cent that is just a faint shadow on the obverse and smooth on the reverse. I like to hold this coin and try to imagine the other people who have held it a couple hundred years ago. Imagine what life was like when this coin circulated. It's always good to be able to literally hold history in your hand.