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Coin Collecting is a Great way for College-Aged Students to Save Money!

I don't know if this topic has been discussed before, and it may even be pretty obvious...but...

As a college student, I look around at my friends (slightly older and younger) and see how hard it is, if not impossible, to put away money for the future. Granted most college kids are dead broke (as I usually am) and have a long list of things to spend money on if it ever comes around. For me however, after becoming addicted to this hobby (especially those Lincolns!) I have found that certain key-date coins and such have made there way onto my list of "things to buy" and I now own them. Like most of my friends and classmates I am generally still always broke, but today I realized something that brought a smile to my face... the total value of my collection has grown to a couple thousand dollars, of which I would guess %75 has instant liquidity. Not that I plan on giving up my set anytime soon... but it is nice to know that I have accrued some "value" beyond what is in my bank account.

I am not meaning to start an investment discussion or anything like that... we all know that it is wise to invest at an early age. I just wanted to point out the fact that it is really hard for people my age to just put away money for the future... and I have been lucky enough to find a hobby that indirectly lets me do just that. image
Lincoln Cent & Libertad Collector

Comments

  • curlycurly Posts: 2,880
    About 45 years ago, when I was a young man, I would buy dimes on payday. By the end of the pay period, I would be flat broke, and I would use those very dimes on laundry. I guess you could say that I was investing in the future. AHHHH........to be young again.
    Every man is a self made man.
  • pursuitoflibertypursuitofliberty Posts: 7,098 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hey Joe ... glad you are seeing the fruits of your labor. Wether or not you part with the coins at a loss or a gain, it is nice to have that feeling or having something worth value. image

    I started collecting as a young adult while serving in the Navy, and it still brings a smile to my face to see the some of the coins I still have that I first purchased back in 1987 and 88, holding a place in the sets they belong too. They've been with me long enough that they have a second history, so to speak, and sometimes when I look back through them I remember where I was in my life when I purcahsed them.

    image


    “We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”

    Todd - BHNC #242
  • FullStrikeFullStrike Posts: 4,353 ✭✭✭
    Coins for College Students?

    Wow, and I always thought that the only things students wanted to buy was Beer, Pizza, Date-Rape-Pills, and maybe a few Books, once in a blue moon. image

    Are College girls attracted by Coin Collectors? I suppose Coins are cheaper than a collection of etchings?
  • MrSpudMrSpud Posts: 4,499 ✭✭✭
    On a related note, I had lots of spending money for a whole summer when I was in college in 1980 when I sold all the circulated silver coins I had hoarded since I started collecting as a kid about 8 years old. I remember getting $10 in cash for every $1 in silver.
  • joefrojoefro Posts: 1,872 ✭✭
    First of all FullStrike... we are FORCED to buy those books image I would way rather spend $150 on a nice 1909-S or 1931-S Lincoln than on my Kinetics & Reactor Engineering book! Ouch!

    As for what the girls think... I don't usually bring it up so I wouldn't know. I wouldn't want to test it out as a conversation starter and risk any chances of blowing it! image In all honesty though, most of my girlfriends like to look at the coins, once, and that's about it. The chicks like the fact that I'm going to be working for NASA better so I've just stuck to that one image


    Editted for spelling
    Lincoln Cent & Libertad Collector
  • FullStrikeFullStrike Posts: 4,353 ✭✭✭


    << <i>The chicks like the fact that I'm going to be working for NASA better so I've just stuck to that one >>



    Ah yes, now there's something I can take comfort in - college women still going after that M.R.S. Degree.




    << <i>I would way rather spend $150 on a nice 1909-S or 1931-S Lincoln than on my Kinetics & Reactor Engineering book! >>



    Aw come on now - surely you say that in jest? That book will keep you entertained for 100's of hours and hopefully help keep you employed for many decades. How much amusement can you derive from looking at some silly Coin? Your free time would be better spent inspecting the surface texture of a delightful M.R.S. candidate. Spend your coin on cases of Beer - observe the mellowing effect on an overworked human brain. image


    image

    Save time for Coins for when you are deep in the rat race. Or better yet, for the day when you retire from the rat race.
  • I'm still a college student and totally agree. The thing is I'm planning my collection as if it's a lifetime project, like I'm never going to sell, but what about the day I finally meet a girl and want to get married, buy a house etc? Am I going to have to sell everything then or not?

    Edit to fix my spelling of meet image
  • LongacreLongacre Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭


    << <i>but what about the day I finally meat a girl >>




    The kids today use a language with which I am not familiar.
    Always took candy from strangers
    Didn't wanna get me no trade
    Never want to be like papa
    Working for the boss every night and day
    --"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
  • DarkmaneDarkmane Posts: 1,021
    im a 22 year old college student

    i always maintain about 900 bucks in my checking account.... i get too much and it starts to burn a hole in my pocket. i decided to invest in something to prevent myself from wasting money.... i then found a love for coins....

    i have 900 in my checking account.... and about 4k in coins now....


    that's 4k "saved" in less than one year. not too shabby


    edit: "meat" could, when given some creativity, seem rather crude.

    i think "meet" is what he was looking for image

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