How many coins did you buy in 2011?

Shamika · December 28, 2011 5:48AM

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 · December 28, 2011 5:49AM

1

-D

comma · December 28, 2011 5:50AM

Probably 8 or so.

lordmarcovan · December 28, 2011 5:51AM

<< 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 · December 28, 2011 6:02AM

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

bronzemat · December 28, 2011 6:15AM

Probably about 40 or 50+.

Shamika · December 28, 2011 6:24AM

<< 1

-D >>

Now I don't feel so bad.

D · December 28, 2011 6:24AM

<< 

<< 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 · December 28, 2011 6:24AM

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 · December 28, 2011 6:31AM

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 · December 28, 2011 6:31AM

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 · December 28, 2011 6:46AM

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

Sonorandesertrat · December 28, 2011 6:49AM

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

silverpop · December 28, 2011 6:58AM

none

LanceNewmanOCC · December 28, 2011 7:02AM

.
500-600
.

Rollerman · December 28, 2011 7:13AM

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 · December 28, 2011 7:38AM

<< 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 · December 28, 2011 7:53AM

Just 1 coin, the brasher a couple of weeks ago (I wish).

Really , probably about 6 or 7.

jonathanb · December 28, 2011 7:55AM

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 · December 28, 2011 8:05AM

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

About 300. Sold about 300 too.

RYK · December 28, 2011 8:06AM

renomedphys · December 28, 2011 8:07AM

"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 · December 28, 2011 8:10AM

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 · December 28, 2011 8:28AM

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 · December 28, 2011 8:50AM

Just five. I sold six.

AnkurJ · December 28, 2011 8:51AM

Too many. 90% are/were CACd.

Lakesammman · December 28, 2011 9:04AM

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

NewEnglandRarities · December 28, 2011 9:20AM

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 · December 28, 2011 9:23AM

20 that I can remember.

GRANDAM · December 28, 2011 9:26AM

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

GrandAm

ProofCoins · December 28, 2011 9:51AM

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

bidask · December 28, 2011 9:53AM

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 · December 28, 2011 10:01AM

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 · December 28, 2011 10:12AM

Bought 20, sold 28.

Elcontador · December 28, 2011 11:22AM

One.

jedm · December 28, 2011 11:26AM

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 · December 28, 2011 11:53AM

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 · December 28, 2011 11:57AM

<< 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 · December 28, 2011 12:27PM

maybe thirty.

Shamika · December 28, 2011 12:39PM

<< 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 · December 28, 2011 12:41PM

A bunch.

MidLifeCrisis · December 28, 2011 12:41PM

Not nearly enough!

kiyote · December 28, 2011 1:03PM

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 · December 28, 2011 1:06PM

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 · December 28, 2011 1:51PM

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 · December 28, 2011 1:53PM

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 · December 28, 2011 1:55PM

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

WS

JCMhouston · December 28, 2011 1:55PM

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 · December 28, 2011 1:58PM

Well over 100

I surprised myself when I counted them.

jonathanb · December 28, 2011 2:05PM

<< 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 · December 28, 2011 4:04PM

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

Mark

How many coins did you buy in 2011?

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