Why do you collect coins?

I think that my answer would have to start with all of the above........some very good posts BTW..............but for me it has been much more........part of a whole lifestyle change........I think that some of the members here can vouch for me when I say that just a few short years ago......... I knew next to nothing about either collecting or coins...........since that time..I have discovered a whole new world that I did not know existed........AWESOME!!.........it has become a consuming pastime.....with my mind trying to absorb everything numismatic.........from mintage figures to die details.........LOL!!
Welcome to the collecting communtiy my friend...........If I can just say three words about collecting to anyone just starting........they would be
READ, RESEARCH, LEARN............

 

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silvereagle82 and joesmom, i'll be glad to upload a picture of it, i'll ask my gf for the digital camera

 

I used to collect coins (everything U.S.) before discovering tokens. While coins have a great deal of history, which I enjoy very much, tokens can have history that is much closer to home, and with nearly endless themes for collecting. I especially enjoy tokens and other exonumia from my hometown and state. Each token can have its own special story, particular to the merchant or company that issued it, as well as the locale where it was used. Reading stories about these tokens has provided an improved understanding and appreciation of how things were in days gone by. I also collect drawings, photos and postcards related to token issuers.

 

To be quite honest I really don't know. I don't Drink, Gamble or run with Wild Women (unless they collect coins). So I have to have something to do..! Right.....?

catman

 

I guess I collect coins for several reasons. When I was in high school I started collecting coins as I liked things that were old and coins had a lot of history as well. Then I found that some of my coins became more valuable and it is interesting to see if some of them increase and by how much. If they don't well, it still is fun. I also like the challenge of trying to complete a set of coins. So, to me it is just fun and interesting.
coinsngolf

 

No longer young and stupid

when I was young, my family being a military family, did not have lots of money. For a birthday We would get a silver dollar for each year of our age. I can remember going to the bank with my mother to get new silver dollars for weddings etc. I never saved one of those dollars.

When my brother turned Fifty- in memory of my mother - I bought and presented him an album of fifty silver dollars.

The bug bit- I was hooked.

So I decided to do something different. collect Australian Coins. I'm married to an Aussie and my children were born there.
The coins are beautiful and the history of both Australia nad the US are coming alive for me.

Yes Australian coins are much harder to get in the US than if I started collecting US coins- but that is the challenge I accepted.
They are beautiful the revers changes yearly. and since I am doing decimal- they have only been decimal since 1966 giving me a chance to catch up with history.

Now I am obsessive compulsive, obsessive compulsive,obsessive compulsive,obsessive compulsive,obsessive compulsive, about my coins.
Thankx for asking

 

I got started when I was young, mostly because my dad collected.

 

Well,I started off collecting,as I used to get a lot of New Zealand 6d.'s,1/-'s,& 2/-'s in my change along with Aussie 5c.,10c.,& 20c.I eventually started to collect world coinage,but nowadays,I am specialising in collecting British Commonwealth coins.I have since branched out into collecting British Commonwealth banknotes,& a few years ago,I decided to branch out into collecting British Commonwealth postal notes & postal orders.

 

I too received coins from my grandma when I was young, for christmas usually in my stocking but the bug never really bit. As an adult I started to collect Nolan Ryan stuff thinking it was a good investment I had cards, balls, jerseys, pictures, autographs, you name it I had it. WELL when I went to buy my first home I decided I would have my collection appraised boy was I stunned. I had a quality collection that people only wanted to cherry pick I could not find anyone who wanted the collection and those who showed interest wanted to pay less than half of what I had into the stuff. the only things I got decent money for were the autographed jerseys. SO I went to a sort of a pawn shop for antiques and the like and sold out everything in 1 shot for my home. Feeling ashamed at my loss I looked for a consulation prize from his shop. I found an UNC walking liberty. I told the guy give me this coin and I will call it a deal. Of course he did. Well I couldn't stop looking at it, I wanted more so here began my coin collecting. 6 years later I can't get enough.

 

Sorry for the delay, finally i got the camera!

Here is the picture, hope you liked

 

NEAT!!!!
are all the coins from on country or many?

Speedy

 

Goosen,can you please enlarge the picture,so that we can have a look at the coins.Who knows,there may be some that you may have a bit of difficulty identifying.

 

They are from different countries, also there are a couple of tokens.

I'll try to take a better picture and post it.

 

Thanks,Goosen.How's things been over there in Asuncion? Have you found any good Paraguayan coins lately? Recently,I saw a silver 300 Guaranies with the former dictator Alfredo Stroessner on it. Are you familiar with this coin at all.

 

My attraction to coins took several weeks to work itself out. When I was about 11, I had a friend give me a Mercury dime for a regular quarter (he wanted candy at the 7-11, and the Merc was all he had). I had never seen one before, and thought it was interesting. I thought (except for wheat cents) that the US had always used the same coins. A few weeks later at church we had a "festival of hobbies of the congregation." A member of the congregation had a large table of his coins. (Some of you may know him - Will Mumford. He was featured on the cover of CW on 8 December 2003 for finding a Chalmers threepence in an archaeological excavation in an Annapolis, MD basement.) The collection he was showing was so extensive (to a simple minded pre-teen) that I couldn't tear myself away. I've been hooked ever since.

 

I mainly collect gold coins because it is an outlet for me. It is a way I could escape the harsher aspects of my life and yet still think.

 

That's a great story, and from a Louisvillian, too!

I got my first coin when I was about 5 or 6. I was on the Belle of Louisville, a steamboat tourist attraction, with my mom and grandma. Some old guy said, "Hey, kid, c'mere," and he handed me a 1900 silver dollar.

That dollar sat in a bowl in my parent's cupboard for quite a few years. Then my dad got me started on a LC album. I messed with that on and off for years, never seriously looking for stuff, just occasionally adding things from change (I CRINGE when I recall how, when I was about 10 or 11, I would use my fist or a shoe to hammer Lincoln cents into the album. But likely there was nothing valuable lost that way.)

Anyway, I think that 1900 silver dollar, valued at about $10.00 I'd guess, is likely to be the most valuable coin in my collection. I have hundreds of world coins (Iceland, Ireland, and Australia are my favorites: I love the animals), and a scattering of U.S. coins. Very few of my coins are worth more than a quarter.

And I have no complete sets of anything. I want to complete my LC set, but I have lots of fun just rummaging and reseaching things I can't identify.

 

I began collecting coins when I was 5 or 6 years old.

I remember going to the flea market with my mother and she would let me pick out a couple of coins for a few dollars.

I remember picking out some old Barber Halves and Morgan Dollars for a few dollars. Now, please note that this was in the late 1960's and the coins were very worn.

I'd bring the coins home and put them in a box. My mom and I would sometimes take them out of the box and talk about them.

Unfortunately, I no longer have those coins or my mother (she passed away a couple of years ago). However, I still enjoy picking up a Barber Half or Morgan Dollar and reminiscing.

I think a lot of collectors are in the hobby simply for nostalgic reasons. I enjoy looking at an old coin and wondering where it's been, who used it, marveling at its beauty, considering how it came to be in my hands and thinking about where it will go from here. After all, when it comes to coins, we're simply temporary caretakers of them.

 

Revisiting this old thread.

"Why do you collect coins?"

12 years ago, these posters were collecting coins for:

Hobby, art, history, philosophy, discovery of new world, life style, just to do somethings, fun, nostalgy, obsessive compulsive, etc.

What about 12 years later today?

By the way, what I noticed in the posts above is that most of people started to collect coins when they were 5-10 years olds. Then, their reasons for collecting coins are not for hobby, art, history, nostalgy, etc. Kids at such ages do know such things? No. So, I see some contradiction here in their reasons.

Edit: Ooppss. I thought this thread was in Coin Chat forum. Ok, you can ignore it.