Why do you collect?
windwhispersintrees
Posts: 605 ✭✭✭
I collect because I enjoy history. I collect from circulation. It's a thrill to hold (yes, fingerprints be damned) the very same old coins a generation or two before me once carried. And of course, there's the excitement of the hunt, of trying to assemble a complete set.
I enjoy the seeing the expensive high grade coins that often get posted on this forum, though they are way beyond my income. I don't collect for investment, though I might consider it if I had more income. My coins, primarily Jeffs from circulation, barely even deserve the protection of a cardboard flip. I can't tell you beans about slabbing, high end grade distinctions, etc.
There's no nitpicking over my coins' grades, no technicalities, no worrying about losing money in grading. A coin either looks presentable or it's crap that gets spent. The only coins I've bought were a few proof sets & commemoratives back in the eighties. Sometimes I stop collecting, and it all lies dormant for years on end.
Since I'm a circulated coin guy, toning hasn't been an issue. They're almost always toned. I do however always choose coins that look closest to how they were originally issued. So if the grades look equal, the brighter & cleaner coin goes in the folder.
I enjoy the seeing the expensive high grade coins that often get posted on this forum, though they are way beyond my income. I don't collect for investment, though I might consider it if I had more income. My coins, primarily Jeffs from circulation, barely even deserve the protection of a cardboard flip. I can't tell you beans about slabbing, high end grade distinctions, etc.
There's no nitpicking over my coins' grades, no technicalities, no worrying about losing money in grading. A coin either looks presentable or it's crap that gets spent. The only coins I've bought were a few proof sets & commemoratives back in the eighties. Sometimes I stop collecting, and it all lies dormant for years on end.
Since I'm a circulated coin guy, toning hasn't been an issue. They're almost always toned. I do however always choose coins that look closest to how they were originally issued. So if the grades look equal, the brighter & cleaner coin goes in the folder.
"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes"--Hugh Downs
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Me, I collect coins because I like the coins. There is nothing more beautiful (except my wife and my children
a coin that is 70-100 years old that still looks like it just rolled off the mint press. I love the color of a perfectly white
buffalo and of perfectly red indians! I also like the artistry of the old coins - the buffalo nickel is one of the few coins
that actually depicts true Americana on both sides of the coin!
I also collect ASE's because the walking liberty obverse and the eagle reverse are simply the most beautiful modern
design on a coin.
Maybe I will use the sets that I collect for retirement (if there is any market left for coins by then), maybe I will pass
the coins to my children, I haven't decided yet. But that day is still far enough in the future that I really don't have
to worry about it yet.
I just know that next to time spent with my family, time spent on coins is the most pleasing and relaxing that I have.
Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!!
'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'