Why you collect coins?

YC

One of my friends asked me,"Why you collect coins? You don't really get any advantages and they are expensive"
Then, I answered,"I don't know, I just like coins since I was a kid."

What will be your answer?

spinaker2000

Because I have no life.

tbirde56

They are pieces of history, parts of foreign nations I'll never visit, with attractive designs, different than the ones we use every day, with somewhat rediculously low mintages, as well as sometimes rediculously low comparitive prices, that also may prove to eventually be worth more than I paid for it. And plus I just like 'em because I just do!

prophet

<< <i>Because I have no life. >>



Ditto.....

farthing

Because Spinaker2000 has more of a life than I do

DBSTrader2

I've been collecting as a casual hobby since I was a kid. My Grandfather & Grandmother used to sit patiently by while I showed my collection to them, and even took me down to the smelters down on Arch Street in Philly as a kid to sift thru loaded coffee cans full of silver about to be melted down to look for dates I needed. (If only I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have limited my purchases because of a limited budget - - those coins & dates won't just be popping up for the taking anymore!) My biggest find was an 1876 IHC from a bank roll of pennies!

So, partly, coin collecting is a piece of "continuity" from my youth & a way to remember fondly those times with my Grandparents. And, someday, I hope to pass down this pleasure to my sons.

My collection has never been stocked with expensive or rare coins - - just what fits in Whitman folders. But it has grown from a limited number of series of U.S. coins to a much wider assortment (whatever folders I could find), as well as many international collections - - again based on Whitman folders. These include Canada (which was the second area I branched out to after visiting that beautiful country twice as a kid), Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and finally Mexico. Often, each country was jump-started by finding a lone coin from that country in my collection or from family/friends (such as the 'roo cent from Australia, etc).

Then, finally, while pulling a long shift at the computer during strike duty several years ago, my collecting was once again kick-started after many years of near-dormancy (and just keeping up with each year's new issues from the US Mint) when I ran across this Forum.

Suddently, I was opened up to a whole new world of fellow collectors & ideas. I found a ton of helpful trading partners & built up collections on both sides, and added "1-per-country" Darkside collections to my growing areas of concentration.

There's just something about coins that "take me to foreign places & cultures & history & beautiful designs...................................." Sometimes it's hard to explain an attraction like this.

But it's a fun (and, given that I only collect circulated coins vs NCLT's, slabs, etc) and relatively inexpensive pasttime.

- - Dave

AuldFartte

I've always "collected" something ... started with Lincoln cents in the blue Whitman folders when I was a kid. I always find myself "coming back" to coins.

I now collect a wide variety of coins from a US Type Set, US Half Cents, US Large Cents (inactive at the moment), type sets from Canada, Great Britain pre-decimal (focusing on Victoria for now), Australia, New Zealand, and a large mixture of Darkside coins because of thier beauty, history, and the education involved in learning about the countries the coins come from. Oh, and I have some Conder Tokens and medals around here, too.

This hobby has helped me to meet some fascinating, friendly and entertaining people, mainly on this forum. It's just so much FUN !!!

coinkat

It is a terrific hobby and it can be what you want it to be. I like notgeld and alot of inexpensive items that are just historically significant.

satootoko

Everybody's got to do something.

GDJMSP

<< <i>Because I have no life. >>




Coins ARE my life

elverno

My wife wouldn't let me collect swords.


Seriously... We had two toddlers and I was just about to start collecting Napoleonic era swords. She saw the first one (actually a Brown Bess bayonet) and put her foot down.

"Why don't you collect something safe and portable?"

Aethelred

Some coins give me the feeling when I look at them that, for just a second, they have transported a part of me back to their time. I love that!

Compa

No one here wants to admit it, but we all collect just so we can get rich from our efforts.

Right?

Well, maybe we enjoy them just a little bit. But we really don't care what they look like if the price is right! What other explanation is there for the Churchills we all have tucked away?

ccrdragon

I am fascinated by the little slice of history that each of the coins represent. Whether they are a picture of the political climate of the times or of the cultural climate of the times, each of the coins that I have represents something that somebody, somewhere thought was important enough to preserve and imortalize for the current and future generations. I feel that that by preserving the coins as best I can and passing on my love and fascination with the coins then I am becoming an extension of the past and of the artist that created the designs and I am creating a bridge from thier world into our world and from our world into the future so that the generations that come after us can have that same glimpse into the past that I have had.

When I hold a coin, the first thoughts that go thru my head are awe and wonder at who might have held that coin and what that coin might have witnessed in it's heyday!

Aethelred

<< <i> What other explanation is there for the Churchills we all have tucked away? >>



I don't own a Churchill Crown.

ccrdragon

neither do I, although my mother has one with a big hole in it for use as a necklace (as if somebody would actually where something that ugly around thier neck!!!)

Aethelred

<< <i>neither do I, although my mother has one with a big hole in it for use as a necklace (as if somebody would actually where something that ugly around thier neck!!!) >>



Sounds like punishment!

wybrit

I don't own a Churchill Crown.

Won't spending a dime take care of that deficiency?

wybrit

"Why do you collect coins?"

My wife asks the same question...often.

I fell into doing it as a kid. I pretty much had the same passion as dbstrader2 - anything that filled a hole in a Whitman folder made me happy.

That's what my daughter and I do with US Coins. We don't care what shape they're in as long as the hole gets filled.

I am a bit fussier about British coins today, but some of my date holes are still occupied by coins I found way back.

Aethelred

<< <i>I don't own a Churchill Crown.

Won't spending a dime take care of that deficiency? >>



Yes, but I'd rather have the dime!

Luvdawgs

My mother used to save Kennedy and Franklin halves for me when I was a kid. Now (for about 4 years) I've added the Darkside and Grayside to my collecting habits because I'm fascinated with their look, feel, design and history. I still collect US and darkside.

bosox

I grew up in Maine. As a kid I used to get a lot of Canadian coins in pocket change. Forty-five years later I'm still hoarding Canadian coins.

DBSTrader2

Bosox:

Well.... you had to be doing SOMETHING during all those years of losing baseball!!!!!!!

Now that the Sox finally won, what are you folks going to do with yourselves - - start ANOTHER drought?!

Time to drag out those coins again!!

(sorry to temporarily hijack this thread!)

- - Dave (a Yanks fan in Phils clothing.....)

Darkhorse

I do it for the chicks.

Aethelred

<< <i>I do it for the chicks. >>



I for one get sick of all the coin-groupies screaming and chasing me every time I open a Spink catalog!

theboz11

They don't take up as much room as Classic cars

Sylvestius

Someone's got to preserve the past for the future... might as well be me.

weresteve

<< <i>

<< <i>I don't own a Churchill Crown.

Won't spending a dime take care of that deficiency? >>



Yes, but I'd rather have the dime! >>



Same feeling struck me last weekend ... must be why I passed up the three Churchill Crowns I was looking at for an early 1930s Sweedish commem.

Steve

trozau

Because of coins like these:



edited to add: Oh , and because of the chicks!

NJMark1

Peoples Republic of New Jersey frowns on Firearms Collectors so I collect coins instead.

Mark

AuldFartte

<< <i>

<< <i>I do it for the chicks. >>



I for one get sick of all the coin-groupies screaming and chasing me every time I open a Spink catalog! >>




Okay, Æthelred, I'll stop

Teg

One of my reasons is somewhat sad,
I was fed up of the postman calling.
Bills, more bills, junk mail.
I would get home from work and the post was all bad news.

I re-started the coin collection - and I had dealers lists, coins,
catalogues - I looked forward to the Mail!

Now I have sites like this to look forward to every day.

Oh, and all the social history, industrial history stuff.

Teg

prophet

2 reasons I collect coins:

1- I lead a somewhat boring life, coins help me cope with it lol
2 - So I can leave something behind for the future generation of my bloodline.

Steve27

I collect art and pieces of history which happen to be coins and medals.

Sylvestius

Stephen pennies won't look after themselves you know!

coachleonard

history history history! of course 'what's it worth?' is never far behind

Sylvestius

<< <i>

<< <i>

<< <i>I do it for the chicks. >>



I for one get sick of all the coin-groupies screaming and chasing me every time I open a Spink catalog! >>




Okay, Æthelred, I'll stop >>




I see you've soon implemented the Æ!

weresteve

<< <i>What will be your answer? >>



Always liked the artistic qualities of coins and their role in history ... and they are a far sight prettier than the junque that the post office turns out en masse. Tho' there is something to be said for the lack of artistic imagination when it comes to modern lightside coins. Guess that is why I have been looking more and more at darkside coins as of late ...

Just have to remember to be careful when I start looking at the Queen Victoria gothic coins ... they pretty and popular ...

Steve

laurentyvan

“Few things eat into the soul as devastatingly as the love of money.” - James Philip


Who among us doesn't enjoy a silver or gold piece with a strong numismatic value, far in excess of face (usually), combined with the history it reflects and the artistry of the engraver of the coin?

Who among us doesn't enjoy the coin that furthers their quest for one from every country, be it valuable or not?

Who among us doesn't enjoy the chase for a coin in a certain condition to compliment others in a collection?

A few among us manage to make a living from Numismatics-they have possibly achieved a sort of holy grail.

Even fewer love the history and artistry of medals (which compliment coins to a rather strong degree).

One among us collects and is known for (among other things) these baubles with holes in them.

Why, one of us is even from the Buffalo NY area.

rhound1977

Cause I ran out of room for more rocks, minerals and what not.....

Sylvestius

<< <i>Cause I ran out of room for more rocks, minerals and what not..... >>




As a former mineral/gemstone collector this is something i can well believe! I've still got a drawer full somewhere, and a cupboard, and a few on the shelf, and some in some boxes....