Are you a "Lotsa" collector?
291fifth
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A "Lotsa" collector is the opposite of the "Box of 20" collector. The "Lotsa" collector just wants lots of coins and isn't that concerned about rarity or quality. He is not an investor and often has no plans to ever sell his collection. I knew a "Lotsa" collector who just wanted to assemble as many foreign type coins as he could that were listed in the Whitman Brown Book. He had more than 5000 different types and still had many to go the last time I talked to him. He had been working on the collection since 1964.
All glory is fleeting.
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I think most collectors span the spectrum from Bo20 to Lotsa/Hoarder. Collections (and collectors, too) have a tendency to expand over time.
Couple of folks in our coin club do this, many for decades, buying any thing and everything incl lots of junk
"Lotsa" collectors aren't hoarders. They don't want more than one of anything. "Lotsa" collectors are quite common among stamp collectors ... at least those that are still left.
no.
I like picking up cool looking coins but I'm minimizing the junk recently. I am also willing to sell, so no, I don't consider myself a lotsa collector
I suppose some people think that I should have more MS-65 and better coins, but I have never collected that way. I generally like Choice AU and lower level Mint State coins with eye appeal. I've ended up with "lotsa" coins on that level, and I very happy with them. A mere box of 20 would leave me very dissatisfied. I like coins from all eras.
As a collector I've gone through a lot of different phases in my collecting from my childhood hoarding to being much more selective these days. I've also haven't been much of seller over the years so most of my early collections and purchases are still in my collection. It adds up to a lot of stuff. I am indeed concerned with rarity and quality but haven't always had much in the way of resources to put into collecting so there is some lesser quality stuff in my hoard.
+1
I am a complete series by date & mint mark collector. Aside from just a few other collectibles that I've purchased; I have remained incredibly strict with myself, in order to keep that plan on course. I have always sold coins when a good upgrade came along. At this stage in the game; I like what I have and I will not upgrade anything else. A few weeks ago; I bought my first ever duplicate coin just because I liked it. So, I guess that I could be headed in that direction. I'd like to eventually branch out a little bit with GSA Morgans and some Standing Liberty Quarters.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I've been collecting most of the last 10+ years...my current collection is 14 coins, so...no.
I do have a new one on the way though!
My wife thinks I have "lotsa" coins.
I think I could use a few more.
Virgil Brand was a "lotsa" collector.. Collected on a scale that will never be duplicated. And he had plenty of rare and high grade stuff. He just had "lotsa" money.
I prefer the term "hopeless generalist". If it could have been spent sometime, somewhere, it's of some interest to me. In an attempt to bring some focus, I've tried to focus on getting just one significant coin (or banknote) from every century since coinage began. The problem is I'm so picky about those coins that they don't come around very often, leaving me susceptible to impulse buys.
I guess I might be guilty. I'm not necessarily a high grade coin seeking individual as I am a attractive coin seeker.
So! Guilty as charged
I hoard silver. I pretty much always have.
Guilty. I bought a completely random thing at Long Beach.
I'm somewhere in between. I want "lotsa" high quality coins that someone else might want in their box of 20. I have never been a hoarder, though.
Decades ago, I started with German/Austrian thalers, then sold them to switch to U.S. coins. Then I started and finished ChAU sets of SLQs and Barber halves and sold these in 2007. Since, then I have 'defocused'---I have exonumia (medals, tokens, cut coins, counterstamped coins), some 19th-century federal currency, half cents to double eagles, some foreign, and error coins, enough for two heavy safety deposit boxes. The only things that I have managed to steer clear of are ancients and post-1945 U.S. Mint products. So I guess that I am now a 'lotsa'. It's been fun, but not smart. In my next life, I will specialize again.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
The mint relies on them.
I'm kinda a lotsa collector, though most of the 'stuff' came from when I was more active as a part time dealer, and some deals that came my way were 'all or nothing' deals. I've sold enough off profitably that I could probably spend the rest and still be ahead, but they do take up a lot of space LOL. I've gradually been selling off bits and pieces, but not enough to make my wife happy.
On the true collecting side, I've become very selective in my purchases for my sets, (walkers and large cents), although I do not mind owning multiples of nice better date coins in either series when I can find any reasonably priced.
I probably fall into the 'lotsa' category... though not completely as described in the OP..... I have been collecting for many, many years and my interests have varied over time. Since I keep my coins, I have many... and it is nice to go back and look at coins that once were of focused interest and see what I acquired. I enjoy all my coins. Cheers, RickO
Yes and no ... the collection I've actually bought, as in paid real money for, is a fairly concise US type set.
That said, I've saved lots and lots of gem moderns from 1965 forward, generally acquired by digging through rolls gotten at or very near face value. So I do in fact have heavy double row boxes full. But I don't really think of all that as the core collection.
There's also a certain amount of reasonably appealing mid-range and lower-end collector 'stuff' bought for resale. I've been moving a lot more of that 'out' than 'in' this year, so the pile is shrinking. Again, I don't really conceive of that material as part of my collection.
Yes! Without a doubt.
I have my collection from when I was a kid, have foreign, ancients and US coins all over the map. Rolls too... 5 safe deposit boxes full. Lotsa stuff and I seldom sell much of it.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
He also had no wife to restrain him; the executors of his estate reportedly found coins all over the place in his home (located on the grounds of his beer factory!). He wasn't a 'lotsa' collector, he was a compulsive hoarder.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
No
I was a lotsa collector for a while. I'm a type set collector at heart, though I've done a few series, including advanced ones.
I'm trying to obtain one of each US coin design issued for circulation 1793-1964, including all sub-types (such as all 3 kinds of 3 cent silvers, all 6 or more subtypes of each seated liberty series, all 6 or more subtypes of capped bust halves, both no motto and with motto gold, the 3rd type of SLQ, etc. So I'm still in search of a few of those, particularly those dated 179X.
Have also travelled to about 40 countries, and of course during my stays, assemble and keep a type set of one each of the denominations in circulation, in the best condition that passes through my hands during normal commerce (i.e. I don't search rolls or ask for change or anything) so there's a giant bag of Lotsa. and now that I don't travel nearly so much, the in-laws who are still single with no little kids and still travel widely, bring me back similar type sets from exotic locales.
For a while when eBay was new I used to buy and put away a lot of original rolls of 90% from the 1950's and still have a lot of that in SDBs at the bank, and also, I've put away at face some original rolls of state quarters and presidential dollars, and a brick of 2005 buffalo nickels, and the usual (or rather, unusual) other claptrap one finds in circulation on occasion.
Anymore, though, I'm pretty much done with all that, as I certainly don't want or need any more junk. Nowadays, I buy maybe one or two coins a year for my type set, one or two for my large sized quarter set, maybe another coin or two that's either old foreign or newer "designer" or "collectible" bullion.
What I need to do is sell lotsa coins and put he money into one or two coins dated 1793-1798, either need to find 1000 or so hours of spare time to get "all the money" for them or else whole sale them out in a few big lots and take bigger beatings
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I do care about quality, and rarity in what I collect- but those intentions don't stop me from an impulse or two, maybe three, heck, who counts it's all fun right? So long as you can live with yourself??? I'd be in the "lotsa" group.
Here's a last minute impulse I had last night after picking up a couple of Bust Halves. This medal was for $2 over spot, it weighs 6.55 oz., and is .999 fine silver. The medal has a serial number of 412 on the edge, and has Metal Arts Co., Rochester N.Y. stamped on edge too. Not worth much over spot, if anything- but has interesting history if you want to check out link. Pure impulse.
http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n09a13.html
That is a nice Toivo Johnson / Robert Schabel piece. Here is another E-Sylum article on Toivo Johnson's Coin Designer Medal Series which describes how these were made by Robert Stephen Schabel (1909-1995). The dies for this set of 6 were sold on the bay a while back. The were originally offered as a set and then broken up for individual sale.
I started as a "Lotsa" collector while finding the focus of my collection. I have recently started to narrow in on a few themes but still like breadth as I think variety is the spice of life
No After I get the coins I want in my collection there will be no more than 15 coins. Early dollars and some type one DE O mints and a eighteenth century eagle.
I'm a 20 guy. Until that box is full. Then I'm another 20 guy. etc rinse repeat
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