How many coins did you buy in 2011?

Shamika

Wow! In reviewing how I did regarding my numismatic goals for 2011, I was amazed to discover that I ONLY PURCHASED TWO COINS DURING THE ENTIRE YEAR! Both were excellent additions to my collection, but still...

I guess I'm more patient than I thought.

D

1

-D

comma

Probably 8 or so.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>How many coins did you buy in 2011? >>

A lot. I have no idea how many, exactly (even if one disregards bulk purchases), but several dozen, I'd guess.

richescoin

Not many... Right now, I'm focusing on quality, rather than quantity.

bronzemat

Probably about 40 or 50+.

Shamika

<< <i>1

-D >>



Now I don't feel so bad.

D

<< <i>

<< <i>1

-D >>



Now I don't feel so bad. >>



Haha, It was a CAC MS66 Barber Quarter. I'm not sure if I'm too picky or too scatterbrained to settle on purchases, but when I saw it I knew I wanted it.

-D

coolest

I perchased four coins, a 1823 Lg cent, a 1945-S nickle, and both $5 unc commems.

I saw many others that I wanted but I no longer have any "extra" cash, and had to sell most of my silver commems just to buy these.

BillyKingsley

Total new additions for the year- 381 coins. 187 of them came on January 1st, from a 5 pound lot of mixed world coins I bought on Ebay that arrived on 12/30/10, but I spread out over three days. (I set my personal record for most additions in a year on January 1st!) That includes that lot, roll finds, gifts, and another lot I purchased on the BST. That single 5 pound ebay lot literally tripled my collection.

Actual coins I purchased as "singles"- to use a trading card term- was 28. 16 of those were from a gift certificate for my local shop my mom gave me for Christmas 2010. The certificate was only for $25. I personally prefer quantity to quality and usually gravitate to the dollar boxes

IrishMikey

If we are counting the 25th anniversary set silver eagles as "coins", then about 300. If not, then 25 less
than that. Do I still have to own them on December 31st for them to count?

Gemineye

Too many...I've wasted a lot of money on those rediculous overpriced mint products....!!!

Sonorandesertrat

9 coins, 2 cut coins, 2 medals
But...I spent a lot more on auction catalogs and books than on the above items.

silverpop

none

LanceNewmanOCC

.
500-600
.

Rollerman

Somewhere around 45, but half of them were replacements and upgrades, as I sold a couple dozen as well. The biggest accomplishment was finishing the Gold part of the type set (7070).
Happy New Year to all!
Pete

Shamika

<< <i>I personally prefer quantity to quality and usually gravitate to the dollar boxes >>



I've heard dealers criticize collectors who purchase quantity over quality. But when a person first starts collecting, I personally believe quantity is the way to go. There's something more rewarding about having a relatively large number of items in one's collection when first starting out as opposed to having a few of high end pieces. Big money pieces can come later.

bosco5041

Just 1 coin, the brasher a couple of weeks ago (I wish). Really , probably about 6 or 7.

jonathanb

Lots.

I'm working on some very large sets. There are almost 1400 listed So-Called Dollars; I have fewer than half of them in any condition. There are almost 700 Julian-listed US Mint medals (over 1700 if you include composition variants); I have fewer than a quarter of them. There's lots of room for me to buy pieces that I don't have. And that doesn't even count the pieces that I want to upgrade...

I had almost 500 transactions that I tracked separately where I bought something. Many of those purchases were for multiple coins in one group, so the total is much higher.

I had over 300 transactions where I sold something.

RedHerring

<< <i>How many coins did you buy in 2011? >>



About 300. Sold about 300 too.

RYK

renomedphys

"Coin" coins? About 14 that I can remember.

I bought (ALL CENTS):

1797 in VF30
1812 in AU (raw)
1841 in PR65RB
1854 in PR64BN
1858 LL in PR65CAM
1859 in PR66CAM
1860 in PR65CAM
1902 in PR66CAM
1905 in PR66+RB
1910 in PR66BN
1911 in PR66BN
1915 in PR66BN
1956 in PR67DCAM
and a 2011 in PR70DCAM

All in PCGS plastic (except the raw one)

STONE

I bought somewhere between 60 and 80 on eBay alone, another 25 or so in private trasactions, and maybe 10 more at coin shows and coin shops.

I sold about 40 coins, so a net gain of probably 50-60. This was a much better numismatic year than I expected (for a number of reasons).

2012 will not likely be as fruitful, but my optimism surprises me sometimes

SkyMan

Coin coins I bought 10 and sold 14.

In addition to the above, if you include space related numismania I also bought 1 flown coin, 1 flown medallion, and 3 unflown signed $1 bills. If you include the space memorabilia I spent (net) about $4,200.

09sVDB

Just five. I sold six.

AnkurJ

Too many. 90% are/were CACd.

Lakesammman

2 for the core collection, several for the Scratch My Itch collection.

NewEnglandRarities

As a dealer, I am sure I purchased a lot this year, enough that I dont even know an estimate.

In regards to my personal collection, I purchased about 25 or so, some being upgrades and some being new additions.

coinman23885

20 that I can remember.

GRANDAM

More than I should have but not as many as I wanted,,,,,

GrandAm

ProofCoins

Net or Gross. I sold some so i guess my net number is negative which is a good thing

bidask

I definitely bought some nice US and foreign coins.

Including a gem 1876 and 1877 trade dollar.....

And the highlight of ny foreign purchases were the AU eight and four escudos dated 1734.

I also sold alot of coins.

I was a net seller in 2011 on a dollar basis including the core of my US collection...... all my proof gold.

UtahCoin

Maybe 1,000 or so. I don't really know, if I did know, and my wife found out, I'd be living out of a shopping cart underneath an underpass.....

DarkStar

Bought 20, sold 28.

Elcontador

One.

jedm

I bought about 50 and sold maybe 15 or 20. Made a few upgrades and finished my standing liberty quarter set. (Except the '16)

lkeigwin

Several dozen filling in some sets. I think 2012 will be slower as it's mostly about upgrades. My cent collection from 1793 to 1964 is shy only eight or ten. CBH's in high AU needs two upgrades. I don't see starting a new set for a while.
Lance.

66Tbird

<< <i>Lots.

I'm working on some very large sets. There are almost 1400 listed So-Called Dollars; I have fewer than half of them in any condition. There are almost 700 Julian-listed US Mint medals (over 1700 if you include composition variants); I have fewer than a quarter of them. There's lots of room for me to buy pieces that I don't have. And that doesn't even count the pieces that I want to upgrade...

I had almost 500 transactions that I tracked separately where I bought something. Many of those purchases were for multiple coins in one group, so the total is much higher.

I had over 300 transactions where I sold something. >>



How do you keep track of what you need? By memory? I mean if you see a piece do you automatically know if you do or don't have it? Or do you except buying dups as parts of the show and upgrade or resell as needed?

I had a hard enough time with a couple date sets. Sure enough after a few years I find a set I'd started and totally forgot about. Even my Dansco cent album was that way. I was going to sell it empty and the guy says 'Nope, its full and I want to build my own. He left me there staring at a 95% full book I don't recall filling

ambro51

maybe thirty.

Shamika

<< <i>As a dealer, I am sure I purchased a lot this year, enough that I dont even know an estimate.

In regards to my personal collection, I purchased about 25 or so, some being upgrades and some being new additions. >>




Michael - Tell us what your personal collection is.

DIMEMAN

A bunch.

MidLifeCrisis

Not nearly enough!

kiyote

5 sets of 25th Anniversary eagles-- flipped
2010 silver proof set
180 Army Unc half dollars
1 unc Medal of Honor gold coin.

Nothing exciting! I need to work on my $5 gold Indian set this year.

mirabela

A record low here. My records say four. It looks like I sold about 40.

My purchases amounted to about 13% of the funds generated by the sales. The sales netted an average 10.7% profit after expenses.

My wife thought coin collecting was an OK hobby this year.

BryceM

Not counting melt-value stuff, maybe 100, sold maybe 40 or 50. Next year will be slower with more time & effort spent on a few specific upgrades. The newP thrill comes less often as the value and scarcity of upgrades increases. I might get started on a new series. We'll see.

breakdown

I looked it up and was surprised. I purchased right at 30 coins!?! Sold about fifteen but i am pretty well culled down now. I either sell a set or i have no more selling material. Must stick to budget this year which means fewer coins...

WaterSport

35 and that was my lowest year ever being that I am now retired and sets are over 95% complete.

WS

JCMhouston

Net purchases were about 20 for the year, 4-5 were upgrades. Several were extrmely rare pieces, only 3-5 known, 2 of them were the only know examples outside museums.

GAB

Well over 100

I surprised myself when I counted them.

jonathanb

<< <i>How do you keep track of what you need? By memory? I mean if you see a piece do you automatically know if you do or don't have it? Or do you except buying dups as parts of the show and upgrade or resell as needed? >>

That's a good question.

So-Called Dollars and US Mint medals have very different rarity profiles, both from Federal coinage and from each other. In Federal coinage, most series have a whole bunch of pieces that are fairly "common" (which can mean different things for different series), with a smaller number of semi-keys and an even smaller number of keys, something like this:

Common:
************************
Semi-keys:
*****
Keys:
*

Using the distribution of rarities in the So-Called Dollar book (and we can discuss at a different time how accurate those are), the So-Called Dollars are like this:

R-1 *
R-2 **
R-3 ******
R-4 ************
R-5 *****************************
R-6 ***************************************
R-7 **************************
R-8 **************
R-9 *******
R-10 *

In other words, there are a relatively few pieces that are truly "common", and a much higher fraction that are quite rare. My own collection looks like this, using the same scale as above:

R-1 *
R-2 **
R-3 ******
R-4 *********
R-5 ***************
R-6 ***************
R-7 ****
R-8 *
R-9 *

What that basically means is that I'm pretty much done with the easy pieces. I have 94% of the pieces listed as R-1 through R-3, and 86% of the pieces listed as R-1 through R-4.

So, your intuition is pretty accurate. Mostly I'm watching for pieces that I don't recognize instantly. Anything that I recognize as showing up for sale often, I probably already have. The few common ones I still need, I figure will fall into my lap at some point, maybe as part of a group lot or something like that. The ones I don't recognize as appearing regularly... those get more interesting. For those, I can compare against my own inventory and an extensive record of past auction appearances. The rarest pieces are rare enough that it almost doesn't matter if I end up with duplicates.


For Julian-listed US Mint medals, the rarities split something more like this:

Common:
*****
Rare:
****************************
Extremely rare:
***************************
Basically unknown:
********

Some 54 different types account for over 1/3 of all appearances of US Mint medals. In contrast, there are 84 types where I have no auction appearances recorded whatsoever. As with the So-Called Dollars, I'm past the point of worrying too much about the common pieces. It's the rare ones that I'm really watching for.


Fortunately for my wallet, both So-Called Dollars and US Mint medals sell for LOTS less than Federal coinage of corresponding rarity!


jonathan

Hotfootspin

About 65, but only about 23 of those were for my main sets.

Mark