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Has anyone influenced your decision as to what series to collect?

MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
Has anyone influenced your decision as to what series to collect? If so, who was it and how did they do it?
Andy Lustig

Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.

Comments

  • mkman123mkman123 Posts: 6,849 ✭✭✭✭
    I've been influenced in collecting morgans and peace dollars simply by looking at threads on this site and just being impressed with all the pretty morgans and peace dollars I see. Can't afford them in high grades but I try to find decent deals and at least MS64 ones.
    Successful Buying and Selling transactions with:

    Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
  • I read an article by Bowers on the history of the Morgan Dollar and I was hooked
    "If you hit a midget on the head with a stick, he turns into 40 gold coins." - Patty Oswalt
  • mirabelamirabela Posts: 4,954 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This is not quite the question you asked, but I was influenced to form a purposeful type set by a number of forum members, most notably Baley.
    mirabela
  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,772 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yes, Doug Winter, Laura Sperber, CCU, RS Yeoman, David Bowers, John Kraljevich, "Dahlonega", "MrEureka", "Mirabela", "Baley", "DaveG", and many others.
  • BlindedByEgoBlindedByEgo Posts: 10,754 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My mom loved IHC's, so I chose Proof IHC's as my sole focus, in her honor. She passed in 2003.
  • tightbudgettightbudget Posts: 7,299 ✭✭✭
    No
  • lasvegasteddylasvegasteddy Posts: 10,408 ✭✭✭
    yup...russ with sms coinage

    brian wagner with matte proof lincolns

    how did they you ask...humble attraction as promotion drives away...i became attracted to sms and matte proofs

    that is a key in life...attraction outweighs promotion

    i still think russ and brian gave me focus beyond my wildest dreams
    image
    image
    image
    image
    everything in life is but merely on loan to us by our appreciation....lose your appreciation and see


  • MidLifeCrisisMidLifeCrisis Posts: 10,504 ✭✭✭✭✭
    John Agre and John Kraljevich have both influenced my decision to collect pedigreed colonial era coins.

    Also, viewing and reading about the collections of Garrett, Ford and Roper influenced my decision as well. Does this count? image
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have a longer list than I thought I'd have when I asked the question.

    Tate Chesbrough, who was thoughtful enough to offer me a wonderful 1837-E Costa Rica 4 Escudos, which I bought. That was the coin that got me started.

    Carlos Jara, Louis Hudson and Mauricio Soto. The information they freely shared with me enabled me to determine how viable it would be to attempt to build the finest collection of coins of the Central American Republic. (I still have a long, long way to go, but - most importantly - I know what I have to do!)

    Bill Noyes, Hector Carlos Janson, Jorge Emilio Restrepo, and the Subjack-Davis-Lovejoy-McCloskey-Logan team, for the inspiration to write a state-of-the-art reference book. Without the goal of one day cataloging the collection I'm building, I don't know that I'd bother. (BTW, I don't mind if somebody else writes the book before I'm ready to do it. Working with the goal in mind is enough for me.)

    Tony Terranova and Jim McGuigan get honorable mention, for showing me "the right way" for a dealer to passionately build a great coin collection.



    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • bidaskbidask Posts: 13,834 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Andy Lustig, Mexico and South America coins of all denominations , cause he has alot of coins from there himself.image
    I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
    I give away money. I collect money.
    I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




  • PCcoinsPCcoins Posts: 3,354 ✭✭✭
    Yes, I guess seeing some of their beautiful coins when I was newer to the hobby. Kyrptonitecomics(AKA Shane) with his beautiful mint set toners. image
    "It is what it is."
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,305 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You could say that everybody has affected what I collect. image

    I tend to collect what no one else does. image
    Tempus fugit.
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 23,896 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No.
    All glory is fleeting.
  • segojasegoja Posts: 6,112 ✭✭✭✭
    Of all people Alan Hager.

    He wrote the Ike book and always always bought all my high grade Ikes for pretty big bucks back when I barely had 2 nickels to rub together. He would also buy all the blue packs I could find for $3-4 bucks PER coin over bid. I'd ship him hundreds. So he got me into dealing and collecting high end Ikes.

    Say what you want about the man, but he has made me a lot of money and never once screwed me.

    If you really think about he is the grandfather of PCGS, as he invented the slab and i think sold PCGS the rights way back when. So he should be considered my almot everyone on this board as having inlfuenced theri collecting patterns.
    JMSCoins Website Link


    Ike Specialist

    Finest Toned Ike I've Ever Seen, been looking since 1986

    image


  • << <i>You could say that everybody has affected what I collect. image

    I tend to collect what no one else does. image >>



    I collect whatever cladking collects.
  • GrumpyEdGrumpyEd Posts: 4,749 ✭✭✭
    No but when people post a coin that I don't collect and my eyes pop out and I think "wowee I wish I had that" it goes into my thoughts as maybe the next serries to start with so there's some influence.

    image
    Ed
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 45,296 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.

  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 30,977 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think to a degree that most of us were influenced in one way or another. These days a bigger influence mite be from where and whom we get our stuff.


  • << <i>Say what you want about the man, but he has made me a lot of money and never once screwed me. >>



    High praise indeed.
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,194 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Has anyone influenced your decision as to what series to collect? >>


    Absolutely.

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I have imitated many over the years.

    I'd like to say I "improved upon" some people's ideas but in many cases, I just followed them down a certain road.

    There are too many examples to list, but here are a few:

    The Atha brothers, Johnny and Jim, of Raleigh, NC, particularly the former of the two. Johnny Atha used to wear a Western shirt that had holed coins sewed randomly all over it. I took his idea and ran with it, adding some tweaks and improvements and artistic flourishes of my own. Those who do not know me need look no further than my avatar picture to see what I am referring to.

    Michael Swoveland (aka "Aethelred" here) has long been an influence over me, though he's younger than I am. We were best friends in North Carolina and my contact with him continued via this site and the Internet when I moved away. When I met him in a grocery warehouse where we both worked in the early 1990s, we were both rather surprised to discover that both of us collected medieval English coins. What are the odds of that, in a small blue-collar community? He knew more about them, though. Years later, and much more recently, I followed his footsteps into Roman coins.

    Andy (aka "Engraved") and Greg (aka "savoyspecial") are two people whose opinions count a lot to me in my current pursuit of love tokens, though Greg is more into counterstamps. Both were met via the forums. I have since had the pleasure of meeting Greg (savoy) once in person. Coincidentally, he happens to live in the same North Carolina county where I met Michael ("Aethelred"). There must be something in that mountain water.

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No... I started collecting as a youngster, just because the coins I received on my paper route were intriguing. After that, I made my own decisions regarding focus or acquisitions. Cheers, RickO
  • astroratastrorat Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Harry Smith...he was a contributor to Larry Briggs' Seated Liberty quarter book. Early conversations with him while I was a poor graduate student led to my interest in (obsession with?) twenty-cent pieces.

    Lane
    Numismatist Ordinaire
    See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
  • Yes..My wife liked the design of the Sac Dollar.I decided it would be a nice series to collect.
    ......Larry........image
  • LongacreLongacre Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
    I was a young, wet-behind-the-ears collector and met RYK on these boards. He got me whipped up into a frenzy over Southern gold, and he encouraged me to contact Doug Winter. Doug and I spoke about various collecting opportunities in Southern gold, and based on that conversation, I decided what to collect.
    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)
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,282 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Snow/Wagner - EERC was nearby in the mid-90's and they got me interested in the IHC/FE series.

    Boiler78/RKay - Patterns beyond the small cents.

    Regulated - Territorials.

    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
    << Say what you want about the man, but he has made me a lot of money and never once screwed me. >>


    High praise indeed.



    image
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • MrHalfDimeMrHalfDime Posts: 3,440 ✭✭✭✭
    For me, I think that others have actually had very little impact on specifically what I collect, but several have had a significant influence on how I collect.

    I began collecting the half dimes, by date and mint, as a logical extension of my having completed sets of the five cent nickels. Many years ago I reached a crossroad familiar to most collectors when I completed date/mint sets of the Jefferson, Buffalo, Liberty and Shield nickels, and wondered what to collect next. I decided, somewhat in a vacuum, to continue with the five cent series, and collect the five cent silvers. I began collecting the Capped Bust half dimes by date, an easy series of just nine coins, and all readily available. I truly enjoyed the series, but it was anticlimatic; I found myself wishing that it was a longer series, or at least offered another excuse for continuing to pursue them. It wasn't until perhaps 1986 that I discovered Jules Reiver's marvelous little 'Variety Identification Manual' (VIM) for the series, and first learned of die marriage attribution and collecting. I was hooked. From that day on, I have devoted 100% of my collecting time and resources to the pursuit of the half dimes, of all series, by die marriage.

    Friends and fellow half dime aficionados like Jules Reiver, John W. McCloskey, Russel J. Logan, Mark D. Smith, Stan Kubacki, William A. Harmon, Lynn Ourso, Kevin Zeitler, Mark Sheldon, and Craig Eberhart have certainly all contributed to my further enjoyment of the series, and confirmed my decision to collect the half dimes exclusively, and I owe a great debt of gratitude to these numismatists.
    They that can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin


  • << <i>Has anyone influenced your decision as to what series to collect? If so, who was it and how did they do it? >>



    Yes, my grandfather and family who worked themselves to death in the coal mines.

  • STONESTONE Posts: 15,275
    1 word (actually 1 name): ELIASBERG
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,305 ✭✭✭✭✭
    John J Pittman.

    He was certainly inspiration once I read about him around 1974.

    Perhaps the Chicago Tribune editor who thought the story that the
    mint and FED were going to start rotating coin supplies was news-
    worthy back in 1972 should get some of the credit as well. No doubt
    most newspapers didn't bother to publish this little blurb.
    Tempus fugit.
  • DorkGirlDorkGirl Posts: 9,994 ✭✭✭
    I used to think that Morgans were the only coins worth collecting. My dad and grampa both collected them, so I did too. I finished up the albums, that last coin I put in was for all 3 of us, it felt wonderful. Then upgraded, then VAMs, then the rest of the wonderful world of coin collecting opened up and I saw the light!! image Now I have no focus at all.....imageimage
    Becky
  • speetyspeety Posts: 5,424
    Yep, my uncle who got my dad and I into collecting recommended the liberty nickel series and the seated dollars. Both of which we currently pursue. Also, TDN persuaded me to a degree to jump from the XF to AU/MS grades in the Seated Dollar series -- It didn't take much persuasion at all though, the ladies are lovely when they still have luster!
    Want to buy an auction catalog for the William Hesslein Sale (December 2, 1926). Thanks to all those who have helped us obtain the others!!!

  • capecape Posts: 1,621
    The original founder and owner of DAVID LAWRENCE RARE COINS----- Great knowlege on Buffalo nickels!!!!
    ed rodrigues
  • MikeInFLMikeInFL Posts: 10,188 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Has anyone influenced your decision as to what series to collect? If so, who was it and how did they do it? >>



    I wouldn't say anyone in particular, but I was directed towards early copper by the vast array of books available on it at my local coin store when I was a child.
    Collector of Large Cents, US Type, and modern pocket change.
  • when i was 8 there was this creep named joe who worked at the local coin shop. got me into lincolns. if he could see me now.
    ---
    If it ain't about the money lord knows i've gone insane
  • Grandpa gave me a Peace $ to take home every time I visted....
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,282 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Would love to see who has scared people away from a series...... image
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko.
  • BaleyBaley Posts: 22,658 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My Grannie (my dad's grandma) gave my dad a brown coffee cup full of coins to put on the top shelf above the refrigerator until I was old enough.
    By 7 years I was old enough to climb up and find them.. and I'll never forget the contents: 4 silver dollars (1921 morgan, 1922, 23, and 25 peace, in like Fine) one each WLH and SLQ, slick and dateless, one worn 1901 indian cent (grannie's birth year) 32 mixed date silver roosies, one 1951S franklin, 3 or 4 Canadian cents, one 1959 british half penny with young queen E and the boat.

    I eventually got other coins from my dad's parents, and Dad would take me to the coin shop just about every other Saturday from ages 10-13, so I ended up a type set collector because I liked to try to get one of each of the interesting kinds of US coins.

    Much later, I'd get an interesting draped bust half that Nysoto would help me attribute, and that study influenced my decision to collect the series by variety.

    coincident higher prices for the coins, two kids in 3 years, and the economic downturn have conspired to thwart my acquisitons lately but I still love the draped bust halves and quarters too

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

  • Yes, Stanton and Fivaz, my series is die varieties, anything I can make money on or put into my collection.
  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,108 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Peter Shiff. I read his book "Crash Proof." I have been collecting gold eagles ever since.

    The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one.

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