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Why are you here?
coinrookie
Posts: 794
I must admitt that a few years back that the Lite-side just got too pricey. So out of sheer curiosity I drifted to the Dark-side. I just could not believe the variety and affordable prices. Your imagination is the only limit to your collecting.
Now that is what got me here. But the reasons I stayed are varied. Variety, price(but this also is creeping upwards). But the general atmosphere is what keeps me here. The total lack of competition and the lack of what I consider downright bullying thread topics make it a much more relaxed environment. The folks are great also. I have bugged the holy (well you know what) out of a few members and have never been treated with anything but a timely and kind response. HOWEVER ,that does not mean that I was treated any other way than fantastic on the Lite-side. I always recieved nothing but gracious and positive treatment there. This side is just a more easy going place to be imho.
Steve
Now that is what got me here. But the reasons I stayed are varied. Variety, price(but this also is creeping upwards). But the general atmosphere is what keeps me here. The total lack of competition and the lack of what I consider downright bullying thread topics make it a much more relaxed environment. The folks are great also. I have bugged the holy (well you know what) out of a few members and have never been treated with anything but a timely and kind response. HOWEVER ,that does not mean that I was treated any other way than fantastic on the Lite-side. I always recieved nothing but gracious and positive treatment there. This side is just a more easy going place to be imho.
Steve
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Shep
<< <i>Actually, you said it all quite nicely! The coins, medals and conversations on this forum are very enlightning and entertaining.
Shep >>
And i never agree with anyone (i like to be the odd one out) so i guess this is good thing!
Why am i here?
Well why not? Plus this forum has already shifted the aim of my entire collection... i was doing 17th/18th century UK sixpences by date, but then people started posting such interesting things as Æthelred II pennies and Cnuts and English monarchs and the hammered collector in me i'd kept suppressed for so long jumped out of the box and i sold off all my sixpences and settled down in Anglo-Saxon coins.
So i suppose i should hang around to show these members my appreciation that they pointed me towards an even darker patch of the darkness that makes this place so dark... *thud* owwch what was that? Wybrit how many times have i told you to replace that lightbulb?
While everyone around here uses US coins it's a big world and in some places they've
never even seen a US coin but they've got stuff circulating and stuff that used to cir-
culate. Well, I want some of those too. Most of the liteside collectors have little or
no interest in these so I come to the darkside where there is interest.
While I'd collect world coins even if they were more expensive, it's really neat that so
many can be acquired for a song. The fact that rarity is so much cheaper in world coins
just means your collecting dollar goes much farther.
Another advantage is that each market cycles independently. When the US market is
on the skids or on a tear it can affect virtually all US coins. Since I love to trade coins
that are increasing in price for coins that aren't or are going down this would leave me
with nothing to do much of the time. With world coins there's almost always something
increasing or decreasing so I can stay busy when everything else is boring.
This is a great forum, too.
That said I've only collected Napoleonic and Revolutionary stuff since I was 20. What little liteside I have I have won as door prizes at my local coin club (who primarily collect lite and suffer through my yacking at Show n' Tell). That's why I often giveaway liteside; I'm not interested at all. The only liteside I would collect (1792-1815) costs a fortune for cr-p and for that money I can get gems...
Even a narrow theme like mine (1789-1815) means literally thousands of types and designs. I've collected dozens of examples from German States alone and have not one example from dozens more (yet!). To get that kind of choice on the liteside you need to collect error coins and variants as well as the "normal" strikes.
On another front; the forum represents a virtual collection for me. There is no way I can afford to collect every theme or era that interests me. But here I can see stuff you would have to go to a world class numismatic museum to see; and then another one and another. It's not the same as if it's in my hands but with the photographic skills of the forums' members it's about as good as you can get.
Finally, read the first line.
You want how much?!!
NapoleonicMedals.org
(Last update 3/6/2007)
<< <i>Even a narrow theme like mine (1789-1815) means literally thousands of types and designs. I've collected dozens of examples from German States alone and have not one example from dozens more (yet!). To get that kind of choice on the liteside you need to collect error coins and variants as well as the "normal" strikes. >>
Wow! Now there's an interesting area i never even thought of. You know it's a pity i don't have that Duke of Wellington token anymore celebrating his victories upto Waterloo, i'm sure in thinking it was struck around 1814 sometime. What with the Napoleon link and all i could have sent you that one gratis... if only i had known what you had collected a few months ago! grrr.... oh well never mind.
<< <i>Why are you here? >>
Quite simply I love medieval and early modern British history. My coins are a direct link, the only one avaliable, to those periods. If I am reading about Magna Carta, holding a Penny of King John gets me much closer to that period that anything else I can think of.
For me US coinage lacks the feeling of a direct link with history. I view Thomas Jefferson as one of the most important and influential people who has ever lived, that said I don't feel a connect to him when I hold a 1801 Large Cent, perhaps I should, but I don't.
WNC Coins, LLC
1987-C Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
wnccoins.com
<< <i>Why are you here? >>
Because this is better than grading 7th grade Math homework.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
I also live in the Darkside.
Web: www.tonyharmer.org
Because my wife won't listen to my excitement about getting a new coin (refer to the "significant other" thread). Actually she does listen, but if I were her, I would be bored out of my mind about it, I suppose.
Because I have the occasional question that no one believes is too stupid to ask. The folks here are easy to communicate with.
Because people here know their coins. Many of the coins members trade here are as good as you will get. Some of the very best coins I own are from the members of this forum.
I also like the conusmer protection aspect. Coin collecting is a tough hobby in the sense that consumer awareness is difficult to master without extensive study and experience. This place adds to the knowledge base for everyone, both veteran and novice.
<< <i>
<< <i>Why are you here? >>
Quite simply I love medieval and early modern British history. My coins are a direct link, the only one avaliable, to those periods. If I am reading about Magna Carta, holding a Penny of King John gets me much closer to that period that anything else I can think of. >>
You and me both.
History is my first love, coins my second. Coins without history have no real appeal to me.
Holding a King Richard I penny makes you think of Robin Hood i should think... although having never actually held one in person i'm guessing that's what i'd think of.
John makes me automatically think of Magna Carta* and a rather unfortunate incident in 1216 when crossing the Wash Estuary where he lost his treasure chest (full of pennies just like mine) to the depths of the water... must have been an embarrassment for the king... his country is being invaded by the French, he's running away and he loses his treasure all at the same time.
History you've gotta love it.
*Back to Magna Carta i was in the ancient city of Lincoln a few weeks back (one of my somewhat irregular and sporadic visits to the city i call home away from home), and in the castle there resides one of four surviving original Magna Carta manuscripts as signed by King John in 1215. I've seen it a few times actually.
Lincoln is an interesting place King John was there quite a few times, one of his favourite places indeed when St. Hugh of Lincoln died in 1200, King John was actually one of the coffin carriers taking the coffin through the Cathedral (which is opposite the castle).
Lincoln was also the place where few kings dared to go walking through wearing crowns during the early medieval period. King Stephen had been defeated by the empress' forces there in 1141 and imprisoned for a while at Bristol, but during the 1140s after his return to power he managed to gain back Lincoln and went marching through wearing his crown... not many had dared to do this apparently.
After the death of John in 1216, England was basically under French rule, in 1217 there was a massive battle at Lincoln Fair and the French were defeated and they retreated, leaving the regents of the young Henry III to reinstate English Royal authority.
When I hold a Henry II Penny I see an energetic king who was always on the road and of course I think about Saint Thomas Becket, who was murdered after an outburst of anger by Henry.
When I hold a Richard the Lionhearted Penny my mind is transported to the Third Crusade, the tales of Robin Hood and the castle in the little village of Chalus.
King John's coins bring up images of the nobles gathered at Runnymede and the disappearance and assumed murder of Arthur of Britanny.
WNC Coins, LLC
1987-C Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
wnccoins.com
<< <i>Sylvester, for some reason the Short Cross material grabs my attention in a way that little else does. For starters I am fascinated by that period, Geoffrey of Anjou (the father of Henry II for anyone other than Sylvester) is my 25th (or there about) great-grandfather, so I share the same common ancestor as the Planagenet Kings.
When I hold a Henry II Penny I see an energetic king who was always on the road and of course I think about Saint Thomas Becket, who was murdered after an outburst of anger by Henry.
When I hold a Richard the Lionhearted Penny my mind is transported to the Third Crusade, the tales of Robin Hood and the castle in the little village of Chalus.
King John's coins bring up images of the nobles gathered at Runnymede and the disappearance and assumed murder of Arthur of Britanny. >>
So you're related to the adorable Empress then?
I'm afraid i have no such claim to fame being a common lowly peasant that i am,
It's hard to describe but the nearset i get sometimes is being sat in a quiet corner of York Minster, you can almost imagine the old medieval muddy streets and leaning wooden dwellings in the packed streets outside as merchants and passerbys plus pilgrims go strolling about their business, monks in sack cloth... etc. Or perhaps Thomas Wolsey strolling up and down the minster. Imagination can bring history alive.
Back on topic (sorry i wander off so frequently) Short Cross pennies grab my attention also, they are much nicer than their Long Cross replacements.
<< <i>Why am I here?
Because my wife won't listen to my excitement about getting a new coin (refer to the "significant other" thread). Actually she does listen, but if I were her, I would be bored out of my mind about it, I suppose.
Because I have the occasional question that no one believes is too stupid to ask. The folks here are easy to communicate with.
Because people here know their coins. Many of the coins members trade here are as good as you will get. Some of the very best coins I own are from the members of this forum.
I also like the conusmer protection aspect. Coin collecting is a tough hobby in the sense that consumer awareness is difficult to master without extensive study and experience. This place adds to the knowledge base for everyone, both veteran and novice. >>
Now what more is there to say?
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.