Sets you've lost interest in, that were once the core of your collection...
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lkenefic
Posts: 8,156 ✭✭✭✭✭
Hello Everyone... It's bound to happen. You collect a set for years and years and get to a point where: there are few (if any) upgrades to make; or your attention goes to a different set; or that series just doesn't grab your attention like it used to; or a combination of all the above....
I think I've reached this point on Lincoln Cents. It was the first set that I collected as a kid (usually from circulation) and have completed the Wheat Cent run a couple of times. I've done 1930's, 40's, 50's and 60's in mostly MS, and I even kept up with Memorial Cents until after the mid 1980's and the introduction of Zincolns. When I sold off the bulk of my collection 8-9 years ago, the semi-key and key date Lincoln Cents were easily sold, but I kept the more common dates mainly because the effort to sell them really wouldn't justify the meager return I'd get. It was just easier (and a lot less work) to keep them.
Now that I've taken up collecting again, my Lincoln Cent collection (what's left of it) just languishes in a drawer... to the point where I'm considering selling them all as a lot and maybe just keep one album as a "throwback" to my formative years. I don't think I've looked at the box of 2x2 flips in at least 3-4 years...
How about you? Is there a set you've lost interest in that was once the core of your collection? What did you do with it? If you kept any piece of it, what did you keep, and why?
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All good questions we may all have been through at one time or another.
At the moment, probable my type set (no gold). I was laser focused on it for several years. She's done. I put her to bed. I still have her, tucked way.
Definitely the Whitman Large Cent album! I started it around 5 years ago and It took about a year of saving and buying but by the end I was so burned out on Large Cents I've never even looked to buy another one since. The 1793 is obviously a reproduction as I'm not putting a coin of that cost in a Whitman, and I'm still missing the 1796, but as of yet, have had no interest in looking for one to "complete" the album. (Sorry for the crappy pics) ..........
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
@Steven59 ... funny you mention Large Cents. I had a fascination with them in the past that I've recently rekindled. But, this go around I'm not looking to complete a date set or Redbook varieties, I'm just looking for pieces with nice color and clean surfaces. By this metric, less than half of my previous collection would have been acquired... the early dates take a bit of patience...
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
Morgan dollars. At one time I had quite a few date/mintmarks but I totally lost interest in Morgans except for having a type.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
I believe we all go through various iterations of this . . . .
I did Morgans . . .got to top 50 on the Registry . . . sold. Did Commems . . got to top-20 . . . sold. Now doing older LOC and Oberwise Boards of traditional series . . . . down to just the 1918-17-D on my Buffs in VG-BU . . . and will probably part with that once done. Lincolns BU Post-33 and XF+ prior . . . sold. But the thrill was in the hunt . . . . !!! (Oh . . . yup . . .I had a certain history with the Doilies too . . . )
It is a compulsion to finish for many of us . . . . . and along the way we develop relationships . . . . grading skills . . . .appreciation of history . . . . . ALL . . very worthwhile.
Keep it up !!!!!
Drunner
Toned Proofs 1950-1964
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
I’ve discovered that I’m not a one series guy. Type coins are my thing so the several series I started collecting by date and mint mark have been sold. These include Lincoln’s, Liberty Head Nickels, SLQs, Peace Dollars. I kept the best coins of the bunch and sold the rest for better type material and haven’t looked back.
However, these sets were started when I was younger and value shopping. If I had a nice Lincoln set that I spent years acquiring and upgrading with nice eye appeal then that would be hard to part with. I’d probably tend to set it aside to work on other sets. It just takes one special coin to get excited again in a set. That may happen to you!
Yes and no, I have been collecting Lincolns for as long as I can remember and still do. My set is complete in mint state thru 58 (except for a very varieties which I have little interest in) and I am actively looking to replace/upgrade some that I now realize were not good buys. But actively searching can be a sliding scale as I'm not diligently searching for those like I was when I wanted to complete that set. And on occasion I add a new memorial or shield in a lackluster attempt to finish off the entire set to date.
However even tho I am not super active with the set at this point I have no desire to sell it. Morgans come a bit closer to your situation. I have a mostly complete date set and many dates have multiple mints, this set has been stagnate for years and just recently I did sell off a couple of Morgans and have been really considering selling the bulk of what I have left. Not quite ready to pull that trigger but really close.
I have many albums of several series most complete some just missing a key date or two, and most of those sit with all the rest in a bank box in solitude that I have not looked at in years but again no real desire to downsize just yet.
For me I just refocused my attention to collecting a few year sets that interest me from a historical or personal perspective.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
Indian Head cents in the early 1970s. I put the collection together through out high school and college, but once it was done, type coins grabbed my interest.
I recently lost interest in completing date sets of US Large Cents and Half Cents. I'm just keeping the ones for my 7070 Type Set and a few of the older ones. I've decided to focus on finishing my 3rd 7070, British Victorian Type Set, and English Shillings 1551 thru 1970 (pre-decimal). I lost interest in Lincoln cents a loooong time ago.
My OmniCoin Collection
My BankNoteBank Collection
Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
I had a nice set of XF-AU Barber halves that after completion I lost interest in it. Took a few years to assemble. I now work on coins I like without really trying to complete any series as such. Gold before 1870, Seated, and Bust. heavy on CAC.
funny you mention Large Cents. I had a fascination with them in the past that I've recently rekindled. But, this go around I'm not looking to complete a date set or Redbook varieties, I'm just looking for pieces with nice color and clean surfaces. By this metric, less than half of my previous collection would have been acquired... the early dates take a bit of patience...
I started with average VG-VF Large Cents in the mid-1980's and it became a longtime fascination as well. Over the years, I upgraded to some much better examples - nice color and clean surfaces in as high a grade as I could afford. I haven't bought a Large Cent for a couple of years, but I'm still quite enamored with them.
I knew it would happen.
That is a cool set though. I am surprised the maker of the album didn't fit the holes correctly for the later dates.
peacockcoins
Although I have not collected coins in albums for many years, that was my experience with the "Library of Coins" albums for half cents and large cents. I am not sure why that is. I thought that the later dates had a uniform diameter.
@braddick , Thanks and most all of the cents did not fit very well. I had to make little spacers from leftover Black Ring air tite materiel to stop them from flopping around.
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
If you like exactly the same stuff you you did when you started you might not have learned much along the way. Sometimes pruning away a few healthy branches and removing some of the lesser fruit results in a better tree.
I ended up selling my set of the major doubled dies of the Washington 25c that took around 15 years to complete. It was, at one time, the core set of my collection. The current core set of my collection is my proof and major variety coins for Buffalo nickels. My heirs will be selling those.
South Africa Union was my primary set when I resumed collecting in 1998, until 2010. I liquidated most of it in 2009 and 2010 when prices increased substantially. I couldn't buy ungraded coins cheaply anymore, I wasn't about to pay the new higher prices, there is no market here at their prices, and I like my current interest better anyway. I sold the majority this series and my biggest regret is that I did not dump most of what I still have before prices crashed.
Now it is pillar coinage from Bolivia and Peru which I plan to stick with to the end. I don't buy hardly anything else since I will never have the budget to even complete all denominations in this one. The coins mostly aren't available anyway.
The closest I have to sideline collections are 1864-1909 Bolivia Republic decimals and the Spanish colonial Lion & Castle (1796-1823), but I have not bought anything in the latter in over five years.
I still retain some other coins as odds and ends.
I’ve been collecting walkers since the 7O’s and I’m still interested in them, though most of the duplicates are gone.
Since I was getting bored not finding walkers at shows, I decided to do a type set. This was fun, but it turned me on to middle date large cents, which then morphed into chasing the whole series, which eats up a lot of time and capital. Still very interested in these.
Mike Hayes (RIP) and the barber guys on the forum got me into those, and I collected and since sold off all three series. Several estate purchases gave me most of the Peace dollars, so I built an album of those 10 years ago, that I sold off over the last 6 months. A local vest pocket dealer rekindled my jr. high interest in Buffalo nickels, and I built a nice set in mostly xf-ms, but haven’t touched it in years. It may be the next to go.....
After I finish a set I sometimes lose interest for a while, but, I have never lost enough interest to sell it. I just put it aside for a while and work on something else. Sometimes the interest rekindles, but if it don't, I still have what I put together. I usually sell duplicates, but always keep my main set. One of a kind is good enough for me. I do not need duplicates. Although for some unknown reason, I am working on my 4th Kennedy half set right now.
I feel like this happens to all of us. I can only do the sets i can afford and if i get bored with it i put it to the side.
Yea it happened with me and Lincoln cents as well.
Pretty much all date and mintmark collecting. I still do it because I can't imagine not doing it, but I generally only do it via circulation finds now.
Once I got most of the stuff you can find in circulation it got really boring really quick, and frustrating as it got to the point where I was going months/years without finding anything I needed.
The variety of quarter designs has kept my interest and the famous women set is something I look forward to. Unlike most of the coins they don't all look pretty much alike.
World coins bring me much more enjoyment. So many different designs, so much history to learn. My One from Every Country collection has become the driving force, but even barring that, getting a new to me type is the most fun.
I recently determined how close I was to s US ,Type set. I want to work on that, but so far I haven't purchased anything new for it in years...I suspect 2010 was the last new addition, when the America the Beautiful quarter series entered my collection. I don't think I've bought any vintage I needed since 2008 or 09. Of course, back then I wasn't actively working on it.
I'm mostly a collector of opportunity. If I have the opportunity to add something I don't have and I'm capable of it, that's usually what I do... my collection is very open ended like that.
I still have, and enjoy, the sets that I did in years past. CC Morgan's, Franklins, Kennedy's... Partials of Mercs and cents.... I pull a set now and then and look at it... enjoy it and recall the acquisitions from shows, sites and shops. No loss of interest here. Cheers, RickO
I cooled off and all but ended my hunt for early date Lincoln cents. There are only two that I would upgrade if I could find them. Believe it or not, it’s two common P dates. I am still happy with my group and don’t feel like parting ways, it’s neat to get them out and relive the journey, excitement an the accomplishment. I’ve been in them long enough that now I have Those used to cost-itis and harder to pop on their new price levels. I’m sure I‘ll always be looking at offerings if I ever get to shows again because early date Lincoln’s are so chiseled and neat.
I was faltering in the hobby for a while dabbling here and there and when I relaxed and wasn’t really paying attention, Medallic Art caught my attention. Odd thing is, I’m even more immersed in collecting medals than I have ever been on anything, just with a more aged, calm and collected approach. Collecting, grading and studying US Federal built me up nicely for jumping into that pool. Neat how one thing prepares one for the next experience, no telling where this hobby will take me next. I just try to stay open to all the possibilities.
I've sold all my sets other than type. I've sold two sets of Lincolns over the years. I may come back them again one day. My first love, as for many. I do regret selling some of the prize coins. Keeping some of the more cherished pieces isn't a bad compromise. Part of my decisions were based on space, since all my US coins are slabbed. Like many things in life, once the hunt is over....
I worked for many years on a complete set of IHC's woodgrain and for the same number of years could not find 5 of them, so I finally sold the set and the gorgeous extras(my regret). Then I completed 3 Buff sets the 2nd was a registry set which I sold and now have completed a circulated set which I plan on keeping. I gave my first set AG-AU to my granddaughter Ellie who is now nearly 5. I had a complete set of Lincoln Cents lacking of course only the 09SVDB, to which I gave to an employee of mine's son who had brain cancer and later passed. Made his day and mine. Since, have completed another set, again lacking the 09SVDB. Working on a Walker set(completed 33 thru 47) I believe this to be my favorite. Wish I had gotten interested in uncirculated Walkers a long time ago. Many completed sets that were only completed because? Buffs, IHC's, and Walkers are my all tiime favorites.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain