Do You Consider Yourself An Ordinary Collector/Hobbyist?

BLUEJAYWAY

From time to time in the print/ broadcast/Internet media I notice the word "ordinary" is commonly used/bandied about to refer to many Americans and folks in general as such. Just what constitutes an "ordinary" designation for all of us. What say you? Are you an ordinary collector? An ordinary collector of extraordinary coinage?

air4mdc

I’m more “ plain” than “ ordinary.” Just humbled here in the presence of some extraordinary collectors/ hobbyists. Ordinary would be driving down the middle of the numismatic road, I weave….lol.

pruebas

Many of us here are eccentric in our own way.

Doesn’t that preclude us from being ordinary?

I think that’s a good thing.

MWallace

From the movie American Beauty: "There's nothing worse than being ordinary."

UncleJoe

Based on many threads on this forum, I must be far from ordinary because a lot of the things people get worked up about on this forum have absolutely no interest to me.

Joe.

yosclimber

Would it surprise you to read that 80% of drivers think that they are better than average? According to research by Applied Cognitive Psychologist Dr Gemma Briggs most drivers tend to be overconfident in their abilities and consider themselves to be better than the average driver.

https://fass.open.ac.uk/school-psychology-counselling/news/are-you-better-average-driver

One of the nice things about coin collecting is that people are free to choose their own path and sets to collect,
and hopefully usually respect the choices that others may make for their own collections.

ARCO

I am certain that MY judgement of eye appeal and aesthetics is far superior to other collectors.

Mr_Spud

I hope not, but probably many non collectors would consider me to be so.

Walkerfan

I try to be the best version of me that I can in this hobby. Using my knowledge and resources to my greatest potential. Are there people with more knowledge and money? Surely, there are. But I do the best I can with what I have.

To quote D. Brent Pogue:

“There are probably better numismatists out there, as a matter of fact, I’m sure that there are, but I’ll put my custodianship up against anyone. I’ve lived a numismatist's dream and I’ve never doubted that for a single second.”

LanLord

I feel that I have a good eye for what I like. There’s a lot of safety in that statement because there are so many different desired looks. Look at someone like RickO (RIP) versus a Toned coin collector.

I feel like I’ve benefitted greatly through the choice of people that I buy from. I’ve received some amazing recommendations and still very happy with them.

But just an ordinary collector.

Manifest_Destiny

I'm a set builder, so yes.

BillJones

I am better than average, but there are much bigger fish than I. You learn that in every walk of life. No matter how good you think are, there is almost always someone who is better.

seatedlib3991

I live in a Numismatic desert so like the one eyed man is king in a blind world I rule. My slice of coin collecting is pretty narrow though so I usually have more questions than answers at the end of the day. James

oldabeintx

No such thing when applied to an individual.

messydesk

Well, I am a member of the Dull Men's Club on Facebook.

Shurke

I’d say I’m a fairly ordinary collector. I’ve been working on a set of Mercs, so I guess you could say I’m into common coins that are commonly collected.

rte592

@UncleJoe said:
Based on many threads on this forum, I must be far from ordinary because a lot of the things people get worked up about on this forum have absolutely no interest to me.

Joe.

You go in the Odd Section with the rest of us.
I like the Odd stuff.
Ordinary is well ordinary.

yspsales

Not ordinary.

Working on becoming extra ordinary

RiveraFamilyCollect

I'm very ordinary in terms of the quality of my collection but eccentric in what I choose to acquire.

TheGoonies1985

Canadian collecting Latin American coins I guess to some that would be considered weird but to me it all seems normal. I am what I am and I am OK with it.

Crypto

My budget is ordinary, my grading skills elite but my wife’s patience is sub par so
It all equals out to ordinary

ShaunBC5

I’m probably pretty ordinary. Hoping to move into some better category one day. I’m certainly buying better stuff now than I was 20yrs ago, so I’m moving forward on the ordinary spectrum.

Catbert

I’m thinking an ordinary collector is unaware or uninterested in this forum. I think most collect unslabbed coins. As such, they surely wouldn’t give a hoot about some of the controversial topics here.

I am not an ordinary collector.

pmh1nic

These are all relative terms and depend on what company you're in and can very depending on what segment of collecting being discussed. Among my family I'm an expert, in this crowd I'm ordinary.

Tramp

I'm probably considered ordinary, if the ordinary collector purchases with no intent to ever upgrade an existing coin in their collection.
My supportive wife (that in itself might be extra-ordinary) jokingly refers to each of my purchases as a "One time buy." Lol

mirabela

I don't think so. I've been hanging out here a long time and while the forum draws people in all kinds of niches with all kinds of approaches and budgets and goals, most of us who settle in here over the long term are in one way or another more committed to the hobby than the "ordinary" collector, whoever that is. One person's ceiling is another's floor, here as much as anywhere. That said, I think by most any measure you could come up with I'm probably fairly far from the median in the hobby overall -- time, focus, learning, % of discretionary budget allocated to it, insistence on coins that are 'just right' by personal standards, whatever. And I know many here are a lot further out into the rarified margins than me. I don't think what's normal here is normal "out there."

toyz4geo

Uh, I collect Jefferson Nickels so.........

TwoSides2aCoin

Orbinary

NeophyteNumismatist

Gosh... In this group, I would be flattered to be mediocre.

Typekat

The person working on their circ Lincoln Cents set, and the billionaire pouring mega-millions into his World’s Finest collection, can both be, personally, very ordinary people.

And aren’t they both, in the end, both ordinary collectors? They like coins, have goals that they’re working towards, and both enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the ‘achievement’ aspect of putting together things they like.

It’s a big hobby! Enjoy!

Someone once said (Karl Marx, or maybe it was Zeppo)
“Comparisons are odious”
which I think is the greatest statement of all time.

Sapyx

"Ordinary" seems to have become a polite way of saying "normal". Polite, in the negative sense that saying "you're not ordinary" is not usually considered an insult, but "you're not normal" certainly is an insult.

A politician might say something like, "Ordinary people believe in me", rather than "normal people believe in me", because they know a large proportion of the population don't actually believe in them, but might still be persuaded to vote for them anyway, and those people aren't likely to vote for them if they just implicitly called a whole bunch of people "not normal".

So, in the sense of "ordinary" being a functional synonym of "normal": I'm certainly not normal. I'm not American, for starters, as you can probably tell by the way I spell the word "behaviour" in this post, so that puts me in a serious minority here on this forum. I'm a Canadian-born Australian, if you're curious.

Also from the point of view of numismatics overall, just from talking to people at coin clubs and coin shows here in Australia, I'd say the vast majority of them don't watch or follow any coin forums on the Internet. I follow five coin forums daily (only three of which I'd classify as "active" forums) and am a volunteer moderator on two of them. None of that is "normal" behaviour for a "normal" coin collector.

From a collecting standpoint, I'm a generalist - I collect everything: ancient, mediaeval, modern, American, Australian, world - the lot. I have zero specialization, and zero intent or desire to become a specialist. This attitude makes me "not normal", among coin collectors and especially amongst American coin collectors, where specialization in some way is considered "normal".

Lots of people on this forum are "more normal" than me, in any and all of the categories I've mentioned and in others, but I'm sure everyone, if they examine themselves honestly (or if they have someone else examine themselves for them), they'd be able to come up with their own list of reasons why they're "not normal" too.

TLDR: "Normal" is just a setting on your dryer. It's not something you need to waste sweat over whether that label belongs to you or not, since for humans, it's an entirely fictitious and arbitrary label.

lkenefic

I'm a fairly average collector... it would be a lot easier with unlimited money, but I'm having a lot of fun with this hobby. I've met a few super nice people along the way and I'm learning a lot too.

Slade01

@toyz4geo said:
Uh, I collect Jefferson Nickels so.........

FS -- those are beauties!
I finished my MS Lincoln set except for a nice 23-S and so now I started on Jeffersons from 1938 to 1945 to start, trying to get all FS, but it looks unobtainable to go too far past that with FS as apparently the US Mint lost the ability to stamp small chucks of nickel with any level of quality very soon after WW2.

MapsOnFire

I am extraordinary in every possible way. All the negative ones too.