@joeykoins buying these tickets is not gambling. It's a sure thing you are going to lose. Thin of it as a donation to your state and local government.

@djm said:
@joeykoins buying these tickets is not gambling. It's a sure thing you are going to lose. Thin of it as a donation to your state and local government.

Tell that to the billion dollar winner along with the 20 $1 million and 6 $2 million winners.

One ticket sold in the Land of Lincoln matched all six balls in Friday night's drawing to win the $1.337 billion jackpot, according to the Mega Millions website.
...
In addition to the jackpot, there are more than two dozen new millionaires. A remarkable 26 tickets matched the five white balls to win million-dollar prizes.

Twenty tickets winning $1 million prizes were sold in: California, Florida (2), Georgia (2), Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota (2), North Carolina (2), New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas (2) and Wisconsin.

Six tickets had the Megaplier to win $2 million: Arizona, Florida (3), Iowa and Pennslyvania.

Bought 5 tickets, not even one single number hit. But if I won a top notch $50 Octagonal Pan PAC. Always wanted one, love the shape and weight.

Other than make a nice 50s/60s/early 70s Topps baseball sets, try to get near all the NES/SNES games and perhaps my most recent hobby, coin collecting...I wouldn't even know what to do with most of it.

Though don't get too excited...the jackpot was up this high for a reason.  Even the second prize has about one in 12.6 million odds.  I think I read somewhere you're more likely to get killed on the way to or from buying the ticket than winning the jackpot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBtXieMeVnU&t=217s

PS: Hey, the first number is our anniversary, 17!  And the second number is my birth month, 3!   Wow I guess the Simpsons really can predict stuff!

I would have to re-evaluate the entirety of my collecting. I’d have to learn about entirely new sections of collecting. I can assure you I’d no longer be saving up for months to spend a couple hundred bucks on a Morgan or Walker. Might keep buying Morgans and Walkers, it they’d be a different kind of special.
I’d definitely have a nice Gobrecht dollar

@oih82w8 said:
I had two of the five numbers, no powerball. Not sure what it is worth yet.

nuttin; you need to get at least 3 numbers sans megaball which pays $10.

@GRANDAM said:

What kind of coins would you purchase?

---

All of them,,,,,,,,

Imagine combining the Bass, Hansen and O'Dowd collections?

@ricko said:
If I were to win such a prize, coins would be the furthest thing from my mind.... at least for a couple of years. Such a windfall brings a true 'life tornado' to the winner. Managing the money is only part of the picture. Such winnings have destroyed a few people - the history of some winners was published in the days leading up to this drawing. Cheers, RickO

True, spending $100s of millions on coins right off the bat could have unforeseen consequences.

That being said, spending in moderation is still good as for some coins, the opportunity to buy is as rare as seeing the coin itself, or even more rare.

@ricko said:
@Zoins .... Moderation indeed. And then managing one's life and the untold hundreds of relatives one did not even know existed , the charities - real or contrived, solicitations for causes one did not know existed, etc., etc., etc.. Cheers, RickO

I've read a few of the stories. My thinking is that if you spend as you normally would on "things", it's hard to go wrong. After all, there's only so many cars a typical person will buy. It seems that when people get into "investments" is when things could go really off track.

@ricko said:
@Zoins... I agree... However, it is the major outside influences that never existed before that become the 'life tornado'. One's life just does not continue as before the major winning. Cheers, RickO

A good approach to mange the tornado may be to not tell anyone for a few years. It may be hard but I'm sure some winners do it, the ones not in the news.

While talking about this with another member on the day of the drawing I had not a single numismatic future acquisition in mind had I won.

My first thought was a giant scrooge-mcduckian vault full of gold coins.

I'd probably be one of those stories on the news before the next big drawing.

lol

@Pedzola said:
My first thought was a giant scrooge-mcduckian vault full of gold coins.

I'd probably be one of those stories on the news before the next big drawing.

lol

I'd buy a few monster boxes of one ounce gold eagles or buffalo/es.

Honestly I’d rather win a smaller one in the 10-20M range. A lot less headaches.

I would fill all the remaining holes in my current collections with similar-grade coins. Then I would expand into the series (like large cents, Barbers, SLQ's, etc) which I never managed to get into, and do likewise. THEN, I would get 1 beautiful example of each representative coin in a high grade to fill a type set album. Then I'd be one with the Universe and at peace.................

Well, if you believe some folks (Jeremy might get this...) 17 is the most random number...

A billion? I guess I'm wealthy by most worldly standards, but a billion is a completely different animal. The interest alone would be six figures per day. There isn't any part of your life it wouldn't touch, and in reality, you'd be incredibly burdened by the weight of it. You'd become an instant target for fraudsters, invite endless legal challenges, have loads of "new friends", and those members of your family not trying to get their hands on it would be under constant threat. I would put the odds of being less happy vs more happy at 100:1. Life would be exciting and entertaining, perhaps, but satisfying..... I doubt it.

As far as coins, there's a good chance I'd concern myself with new and different hobbies. If there's no challenge to something, it sort of stops being fun.

@BryceM said:
A billion? I guess I'm wealthy by most worldly standards, but a billion is a completely different animal. The interest alone would be six figures per day. There isn't any part of your life it wouldn't touch, and in reality, you'd be incredibly burdened by the weight of it. You'd become an instant target for fraudsters, invite endless legal challenges, have loads of "new friends", and those members of your family not trying to get their hands on it would be under constant threat. I would put the odds of being less happy vs more happy at 100:1. Life would be exciting and entertaining, perhaps, but satisfying..... I doubt it.

As far as coins, there's a good chance I'd concern myself with new and different hobbies. If there's no challenge to something, it sort of stops being fun.

If you kept it strictly as cash what is the highest SAFE [essentially no risk] return that one could expect to get? A half percent? 2%? More? I assume the lottery folks pick the safest and best place to purchase their annuity from. I haven't heard of any places where the lottery defaulted on a payment and the state assumed the responsibility.

A $400 million sum invested at 1% would generate $4 million per year or about $10,960 per day and more if the interest was compound and paid daily.

It's fun to dream, but it might be more trouble than it's worth esp. considering safety of your family.

Why on earth would you invest it at 1%? Sounds like financial malpractice to me. Not keeping up with inflation doesn't sound very safe.

It was just an example. Also to show that the interest on the lump sum payout would not be 6 figures per day even at a 5% guaranteed return. Even a 1% return would generate more income than most people will ever need. Fortunately, now is a very opportune time to get into the market.

...next coin I'm looking at for my 7070 type set... 1859 IHC in ~AU50-ish.

Only, I'd likely not get outbid... lol...