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Random musing- snippets of a PM conversation re. my schizophrenic collecting style
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,847 ✭✭✭✭✭
I was just having a PM exchange with one of my buddy list ("bronzemat" from the Darkside- a fellow ancient coin collector).
He said:
<< <i>I have trouble understanding how you can flip flop from one collection to another so fast but then I admire it too and wish I could bring myself to it. Just having photos of "former" coins wouldnt be enough. >>
I think this is a byproduct of my past hard times. I've had to sell off so many collections that I've learned to be a little more detached. They are, after all, just material things, and we can't take 'em with us when we check out, so I tend to enjoy a particular collection for a while and then move on to something else. Sometimes that brings pangs but I do think it makes me more well rounded and teaches me a little more about a lot of different areas in numismatics. I get to keep the pictures and the memories and the knowledge. The coins themselves are only game counters of a sort, like poker chips.
Besides, when you're on a working man's low budget, there's only so much money to go around, so selling one set fuels the building of another. I sometimes use smaller collections as a sort of savings account, to build up funds in, and then when I sell that collection off I can more easily afford the lump sum needed for a bigger single coin purchase.
Future projects?
Hm. I've never done Morgan dollars. They're EVERYWHERE so they tend to bore me, but a one-a-year (not date AND mint) collection in VF with CircCam contrast could be fun.
I've always wanted to play a little with 16th and 17th century thalers, too.
I may revisit the love tokens again with a type set of them.
Usually I'll have these little kernels of an idea and then one day I actually go and try it.
This current US collection of mine might only last three or four years, tops, and then off I'll go again.
I definitely get less sentimental about US coins, though I still enjoy them. They're much more "poker chips" to me than my ancients or world coins. I like the ancient and world coins because they offer much more opportunity for mind travel.
But it's ALL good.
He said:
<< <i>I have trouble understanding how you can flip flop from one collection to another so fast but then I admire it too and wish I could bring myself to it. Just having photos of "former" coins wouldnt be enough. >>
I think this is a byproduct of my past hard times. I've had to sell off so many collections that I've learned to be a little more detached. They are, after all, just material things, and we can't take 'em with us when we check out, so I tend to enjoy a particular collection for a while and then move on to something else. Sometimes that brings pangs but I do think it makes me more well rounded and teaches me a little more about a lot of different areas in numismatics. I get to keep the pictures and the memories and the knowledge. The coins themselves are only game counters of a sort, like poker chips.
Besides, when you're on a working man's low budget, there's only so much money to go around, so selling one set fuels the building of another. I sometimes use smaller collections as a sort of savings account, to build up funds in, and then when I sell that collection off I can more easily afford the lump sum needed for a bigger single coin purchase.
Future projects?
Hm. I've never done Morgan dollars. They're EVERYWHERE so they tend to bore me, but a one-a-year (not date AND mint) collection in VF with CircCam contrast could be fun.
I've always wanted to play a little with 16th and 17th century thalers, too.
I may revisit the love tokens again with a type set of them.
Usually I'll have these little kernels of an idea and then one day I actually go and try it.
This current US collection of mine might only last three or four years, tops, and then off I'll go again.
I definitely get less sentimental about US coins, though I still enjoy them. They're much more "poker chips" to me than my ancients or world coins. I like the ancient and world coins because they offer much more opportunity for mind travel.
But it's ALL good.
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Comments
Or are you a bit more of a wanderer, like me?
I'm sure both styles have their pros and cons.
But I was just thinking, if I'd held onto every coin I'd ever owned that appealed to me on some level, I'd need a pretty big vault to hold them all.
Then again, maybe not. Without periodic selloffs, I wouldn't have had the funds to take many of my little journeys into unexplored territory.
There are pitfalls everywhere, but one side benefit to schizophrenic collecting is learning, so one does learn to avoid some of those pitfalls.
(Edited because I'm typing like a broken-fingered orangutan tonight.)
<< <i>I like the ancient and world coins because they offer much more opportunity for mind travel.
>>
A wise choice indeed
Maybe it's diet. I know a friend who likes his Moderns better after an double expresso shot or three and chocolate seven-layer cake with his Busties.
Shut yourself completely down from buying for the next six months. Look at a bunch of stuff, read a bit. Get a little hormy, if not for anything else then for some action.
Make a list of six favorites and three from out of left field.
Hold the list in your right hand above your head and spin around counter-clockwise three times, the opposite direction twice, kick your heels together twice and open your eyes. When you're drinking ginger ale afterwards to settle your stomach, the answer will come within a hiccup or two.
Wanna stay split? Start in two new areas at the same time.
Coin Rarities Online
<< <i>In my experience, the OP ain't alone. >>
Ain't that the truth!
<< <i>PS- what's YOUR style? Are you longterm, and/or focused like a laser on one particular specialty?
Or are you a bit more of a wanderer, like me?
I'm sure both styles have their pros and cons.
But I was just thinking, if I'd held onto every coin I'd ever owned that appealed to me on some level, I'd need a pretty big vault to hold them all.
Then again, maybe not. Without periodic selloffs, I wouldn't have had the funds to take many of my little journeys into unexplored territory. >>
I don't have a style but I enjoy all my coins no pros or cons for me.
Also I am mostly a longterm holder of the coins that I buy ......
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
<< <i>I really enjoyed ColonelJessup's post.
Me too, except for the part where he said,
<< <i>Shut yourself completely down from buying for the next six months. >>
Aieeee!!! NOOO!!!
Couldn't do it.
Hey, SeattleSlammer, that Feuchtwanger is yummy lookin'! The Swiss ain't too shabby, either.
<< <i>Buy them, enjoy them for a while, then sell them to buy other coins. >>
This. This is me. To a "T".
I sometimes wonder why, but there 'tis.