My collection lacks focus

Maybe it's because I'm pretty new to ancient coins and I haven't found a niche yet but I have been collecting every thing from Roman Republic to the Severans and also some medieval to boot. I am drawn to certain aeas but still pretty scattered. Am I the only one that does this? My concern is that if I'm too scattered I won't learn enough about any particular aspect of the hobby.

 

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Sounds perfectly normal to me

Buy what you like. Learn about what you buy. Rinse & repeat

 

TIF has the right idea. Don't rush to specialise. Wait until you found something that catches you. I have too many niches. I have almost as many niches as many collectors have coins.

 

That's exactly what I've been doing. I see a coin with an interesting reverse or an nice portrait and I want it.

 

I was like you for a while collecting anything, until I settled on architecture, my suggestion is look at your coins and the ones that intrigue you the most that you keep coming back to is probably the field to concentrate on. Otherwise you going to end up with too many coins and maybe lose interest.

 

I do like coins that commemorate an event or something specific like the Hardian travel coins but other's just find their way into my collection because they are attractive or interesting for whatever reason.

 

Buy a few, enjoy; research, be wowed; buy a bunch, enjoy; read about, get enticed; buy more, begin to see cool areas of interest; research, that was cool!; get more, nice!; love an area or two of history; find some really cool ones - super!; uh-oh, now I am beginning to specialize in a couple areas!

Purdy simple...

 

You should feel right at home.
This is a few months of acquisitions that I hadn't gotten around to putting in my own flips yet, last year. This group spans 6.5 centuries, 11 denominations, and 4 metals. Anything between the beginning of coinage up to the Late Roman era; If I like it, I'll buy it. I don't specialize in anything; but I do like having several different variations of the same type of coin.

 

Dudes, I love "not" having a concrete-focus (I left that far behind me when I crossed-over to the dark-side) ... now I merely walk aimlessly through the awesomeness ... every fricken time I find a cool coin, it veers-off into 5 more potential routes to follow!! (it's fricken awesome)

=> I feel like stevex6 In Wonderland ... oooow, rabbit-hole!!

 

I collect whatever appeals to me & is within my budget. I tend to focus on Empresses and Roman Tetradrachms, but I buy everything.

 

Sounds pretty normal to me. Although I have narrowed my collecting down a bit to RR coins, if I see something else that sparkles, I go after it,

 

I am not in the least worried about learning all I can learn about as many things as I can. I just look at it as having many specialties and I reserve the right to start another one later today. For the record, I do not specialize in Republicans. I just have 150 or so. Republican specialists have a thousand. There are things you can specialize in that can be covered with just a few coins but that is not one of them.

 

I don't see anything wrong with it. Buying different things gets you a nice variety in your collection. Its part of the reason I lost a lot of interest in US moderns and moved towards ancients. There are so many fascinating eras and regions to look into. Its not only Greek, Roman, and Byzantine which are the 3 biggest interests. When you look at coins like Celtic, Indo-Scythian, Nabataean and many others you see so many different things to learn.

When I first started I wanted to specialize in Greek, but that quickly went out the window when I saw some nice Roman, and Byzantine coins. Now my collection is all over the place and I like it that way. I still feel myself drawn more towards Greek coins, but I really appreciate it when I see a nice denarius or sestertius coin.

 

Alde,
When I began ancients a couple of years ago I was all over the place. Now I'm at close to 100 ancients and am still all over the place.

What is different is that I am finding some repeating coin types that are starting to reveal threads of interest. Those threads are Roman Tetrarchy, Greek Sicilian and Carthaginian. All of this was fine until about 2 months ago when those tiny Greek obols started calling me at odd times of the day.

Guess I'm back to square 1 and all over the place. Oh well...

 

I feel much better knowing I'm not alone. I sold off most of my US coins because they were too many of the same thing. They may all be gone eventually. I put the funds into ancients and am happy I did. I will just relax and enjoy collecting what I enjoy.

 

Focus? What's that? Does it come with chocolate, because if so I want a double serving.

I've learned that focus is for those who've already amazed a massive collection, so best not worry about it when starting. Try everything. There are tons of awesome Roman, Greek, ancient Indian, ancient Middle Eastern, medieval, and Chinese ancient coins to collect. Sample a bit of anything and everything and see what you like best. Only then should you worry about focus.

Come ask about focus once you have a diverse collection of 100 or so coins.

 

Send those babies to me and I'll put them in order. You may not get them back though.

 

Assembling a collection is an artistic pursuit, much in the same way a painter assembles colors, or a composer assembles tones. The best advice you can give a collector is the same advice you would give an artist: follow your heart. Your heart will tell you. You will find coins that may have little to do with each other, but excite you because of their numismatic or aesthetic or historical interest. Collect the coins that excite you. Make your focus your heart. Whatever you do, don't collect any coins for any other reason - you will grow to dislike and even hate those.

 

Well, bummer... I don't think I have any Ancients with a HEART on them... got a few cool Stars, but nary a Heart... gonna work on that. thanks for the idea!

 

I'll be that one defector and say that I jumped into ancient Chinese and stayed there. They are historically interesting and CHEAP!

But for the other civilizations of the ancient world, I buy what I like. It has to have either an interesting story or an interesting design.