Parameters for your collection

@jamesicus, I'm blown away by such wise words.
At the moment I'm much younger than you are, but after two cancers I have to face immortality with a more humble eye. I've already had this conversation with my wife , and yes, dispose of your collection before the ones you love are stuck with them is the best option.

But, what the heck, I'm not ready !!
I'm not quite dead !!!

Q

 

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I'm fast approaching an age where I must make the hard decisions regarding my own collection. The reasons you have penned are the same that I must consider. My wife is not healthy. She has no interest in my collection. NONE! My oldest son has no interest and is childless. My younger son has always supported me and my collection, but, in reality, has very little interest in numismatics for a hobby. His children are too young to know and live too far away for me and my collection to have any influence. I own somewhere near 900 ancient coins, and a very small modern collection which I have no interest in any longer. For months I have thought to willow down my collection to just the eras of special interest to me, but not only is that hard to contemplate, I have no idea how to go about it. Yes, I could donate to some organization, but for many reasons I do not like the idea that my coins will collect dust in some basement or backroom. Besides, I would like to earn some proceeds to provide for my wife should something happen to me first. None of this is an easy decision, and I applaud you for having made this hard decision. I'm still in turmoil.

 

Very wise, in my opinion, and a very elegant solution. I lived through this difficulty when my wife's father passed. He was a serious collector in a niche field. Disposal of a niche collection by survivors that know very little is no easy task.

 

Great responses, everyone! It is incredible to see the diversity of approaches we take as a group.

Apologies for the delay - I should have asked fewer questions as it's taken me a while to answer them myself!


- What metrics do you choose to add coins?

While I greatly admire those who can focus on a specific series or a single emperor, I am a generalist at heart and love a wide range of coins. My goal is to cover a particular cross-section of history and artistry and to tell the story in a concise and coherent manner. One obvious challenge is that there's a vast number of possible coins to acquire. Every new coin has to be weighed against other possible acquisitions, assessing opportunity cost and whether or not it "fits" or adds enough.

There are some collections that, at first glance, appear to be rather impressive but after pulling back the covers a bit, are merely just expensive. It's easy to buy high grade aurei: there are always a bunch of them on the market waiting for people to pay the asking price. Finding coins of interesting types with truly great style in good condition is vastly more challenging than just looking for a shiny coin.

I like to look at previously sold collections and understand the purpose of each piece within them, trying to appreciate the rationale of the collectors for adding that particular coin versus another. In my worldview, every coin should have a place and a reason for being there.

On the buying side, when an auction has a significant quantity of coins I want, I have to be very deliberate about my strategy. I generally will focus on one or two "big" coins in a sale and try to pick up a few "small" coins along the way.

Overall, I've been prioritizing the difficult-to-find pieces over common types, knowing that those can be found fairly easily and the rare coins I'm interested in might surface only once every few years. This has worked well in some cases and burned me in the past where a rare and expensive coin is coming up late in an auction so I avoid bidding on earlier pieces, only to be blown out of the water on the later coin. If only we could have "re-dos" after an auction!


- Do you have a rough size of a collection in mind (10, 100, 5000, 1000, 50,000 coins?)

My collection size has changed drastically over time. At my peak, I had roughly 600 coins but I realized I didn't "love" each of them. I eventually decimated this down to a mere 15 coins, then have oscillated around, flexing up to 130, down to 80... up to 120... settling around 100 where I currently reside.

To tell the story I want to tell, I anticipate needing roughly 140 coins, although I could potentially see this moving up to around 200 if the right coins came around. One of my concerns is that I don't want to "dilute" my collection too significantly and I don't want to end up with so many coins that I have to spread my focus too thin.

As my collection has evolved, even if I somehow discovered an oil field and had truly unlimited funds, I still wouldn't want to be a "one of everything" collector. I'd like to think that I would be working to build a fairly comparable collection to what I'm doing now, albeit with a few extra prohibitively expensive pieces.

Perhaps controversially, I sell off coins that are duplicates based on a very broad metric of what defines a duplicate. As an example, last year, I upgraded a Knossos drachm to a stater and sold off the drachm. While many people want to own one of everything, based on my collection size and goals, it doesn't make sense to have two coins with the same obverse/reverse and similar style, especially when the funds could be used to purchase a coin that adds more breadth. That said, I'm willing to bend these rules for some types (what's one more quadriga among friends?)


- Do you work off of a "wantlist"? How has your wantlist changed over time? How rigid are you with following your wantlist and plans?

I wrote my first wantlist in 2010 when I was becoming seriously interested in ancients after my US collecting started to dwindle. I've saved almost all of my subsequent iterations and indeed, my wantlist has changed significantly over time: it's very interesting to watch your own tastes evolve.

Up until about 15 years ago, I never thought I would spend more than $1,000 on any coin. After starting and selling a couple companies, I've been fortunate enough to be able to afford the coins I buy now.

That said, there are always targets out of reach regardless of your budget. There have been times when a truly special coin has come up for sale and I've needed to pass on it because I've bought other significant coins recently. For this reason, I have been very deliberate about the coins I've been adding in the last several years, ensuring I have funds available should something important surface out of the blue. It means I've let some coins go but my collection has had a net-benefit from this strategy.

I'll probably be switching tactics soon and starting to cross off some of the more available types as nice examples appear. Personally, I would lose interest if I could only buy one coin a year and, based on the remaining "high priority" coins in my wantlist, I may be waiting that long for suitable examples to come to market.


- What's the longest you've waited to find a coin you've wanted? How long have you been waiting for your current target?

There are still several coins from my original 2010 wantlist that I haven't owned. I've had opportunities to buy some of them but ultimately passed either because the quality wasn't all there or I had other higher priority targets (or they were overpriced).

I've been fairly diligent about keeping records of the coins I've tried to buy and there are times I look back and thank the stars that I didn't win the lots, saying to myself "what was I thinking?!" and other times where I kick myself for not bidding more, recognizing just how truly difficult it will be to find a comparable example.

- What portion of purchases do you make privately vs from auctions?

I used to buy almost exclusively from auctions but recently, this ratio has skewed significantly in favor of private purchases (roughly 60/40 private now). I was hesitant to send around wantlists to dealers in the interest of avoiding competition with myself but this has proved to be a major benefit to my collection.

- How often do you handle your coins or look at your pictures?

My primary collection is stored in the bank but I have a side collection which I handle regularly. I must have taken a grade or two off of a few sestertii at this point; they make great pocketpieces.

While I can't physically see my coins as often as I'd like, I constantly look at their pictures. The desktop background on my computers and phone are coins, as are my login images for various services. The benefit of smartphones is that I can always carry my collection with me.

- How much time do you spend searching for lost pedigrees?

Roughly a few hours a day. I have had long spurts with no success followed by a string of new finds. Yesterday, I located a 1934 pedigree only days after I found a 1964 pedigree for the same coin.

One of my pastimes is to proactively read catalogs even when I'm not expecting to find a coin. This is invaluable and the only way to try to reduce the asymmetric level of information in an industry with many players that have been in the business for 40+ years. It allows you to develop a feel for overall populations, the histogram of quality, how hoards are distributed over time, and price progression.

Many times, I've also recognized coins coming up for sale that I had previously seen in catalogs where the pedigree was lost in the intervening years, allowing me to buy the coin at a discount to if it had the pedigree intact.

At a show like NYINC, it is necessary to make quick decisions to buy a coin on the spot and diligently reading old catalogs is the only way to spot missed pedigrees.

- How many books/catalogs do you own or have easy access to?

I have a few thousand books and catalogs although most are currently in boxes after a couple recent moves. Happily, there are an increasing number of books available online, especially with the new Newman Numismatic Portal.

 

Thank you for your input Q! I really can’t claim that great wisdom that you attribute me with (but I thank you for the thought). The path I have chosen in managing my Ancient coin collection at present is based on my observations of the experiences of friends and their families who have faced the same problems. Like you, Q (waxing poetic, as it were ) I have survived some very traumatic medical “events” and, although I am presently in robust good health for my age, I too am very much aware of my approaching mortality.

Great observation Q! I am also not ready to “give up the ghost”. I am still feisty and enjoy every day of my life.

 

It appears you are travelling the same path as me, Bing. Actually my greatest concern is the health of Beverly. We are both old now and she has numerous severe heart problems - several surgeries with stent implants, and two bypass operations - so her well being is my main concern. I certainly do not want her to experience any stress or worry over my coin collection disposal!

All of my research - and the advice of trusted friends - tells me that donating coin collections to organizations or institutions is not the way to go, mainly due to the points you make. I also believe that collectors should recoup as much money as possible when they dispose of their coin collection (I hope that comes across the way I intend it). And I am also still in turmoil, Bing.

 

- What metrics do you choose to add coins?

I like the historical context overall, but artistry sometimes plays a part.

- Do you have a rough size of a collection in mind (10, 100, 5000, 1000, 50,000 coins?)

Not at all. I really just pick up some when I can.

- Do you work off of a "wantlist"? How has your wantlist changed over time? How rigid are you with following your wantlist and plans?

Sort of. There are smaller lists waiting to be cleared, but an overall list still exists. I generally stick to it, but learning about different neat coins makes me add them to the wantlist, thus expanding it. My first list, and an ongoing one, is to get a follis or aspron trachy of the "best" emperor or empress in each Byzantine dynasty. I'm nearly complete, but that leaves the tough ones.

- What's the longest you've waited to find a coin you've wanted? How long have you been waiting for your current target?

I must say I probably haven't kept track of either of these. The longest I remember waiting is for a couple of years for a note from my hometown.

- What portion of purchases do you make privately vs from auctions?

Overall private purchases are the norm for me. Out of twenty ancient coins I have bought two coins from auctions.

- How often do you handle your coins or look at your pictures?

I handle them when I get the chance, and I look at my images daily.

- How much time do you spend searching for lost pedigrees?

None at all. I keep track of any tickets that come with them however, and I keep track of my personal provenance (When it was bought, for how much, etc.).

- How many books/catalogs do you own or have easy access to?

No catalogs, and one book, just Sear's Byzantine Coins. The provenance question kind of supplies my answer as to why I don't have any catalogs. My knowledge is gained overall from online sources.

 

I think the above list reflects my current collecting situation pretty clearly. A decade or so of collecting makes a difference depending on which decade of life it's in.

 

it seems from replies that collections are either very small or very large and that libraries are either tiny or huge, and the size of library doesn't correlate with the size of collection. There's nothing in the middle. No one has ambitions to a collection of 200-300 and no one has ambitions to a library of 50 books. No books/catalogues or hundreds. Fifty coins or a thousand. I can only imagine this is genetically wired into us.

 

- What metrics do you choose to add coins?

Beyond fitting into my general collecting theme, my metrics are not profoundly admirable, nor are they really metrics because they are largely subjective, but I admit that condition/grade/eye appeal has always been a major factor when I choose to buy a coin unless the issue is simply not available in my price range, or at all.

Early on I collected many themes (US Type coins, English coins, Roman Imperial and Republic) and had great expectations to be able to reach some level of cohesion of these themes within my lifetime. With my condition criteria, most years, my means allow me to buy only a few coins, generally 1-10. I finally realized that if I wanted to have a meaningful collection, I would need to narrow my focus to an area that I had deep interest in, but also limited enough to eventually reach a representative collection. So I chose to focus on the origin of the denarius. Generally this includes RR coins of the denarius system before 140 BC, but I also collect pre-denarius Roman silver and do not exclude later RR silver issues if they are interesting. They are all part of the story.

- Do you have a rough size of a collection in mind (10, 100, 5000, 1000, 50,000 coins?)

My collection now is perhaps 120 coins of my specialty area. Before I’m done I hope to have 200-250 examples. Even with my narrow focus, this will be nowhere near complete.

- Do you work off of a "wantlist"? How has your wantlist changed over time? How rigid are you with following your wantlist and plans?

I have a virtual want list, but generally its useless. I typically look at what is offered in a sale and decide if something roughly meets my thematic and condition criteria without being a duplicate. MANY of the coins on my virtual want list are common coins that rarely emerge in high grades or when they do, I’ve spent my funds going after another coin recently and haven’t enough to bid competitively. (This happens a lot)

- What portion of purchases do you make privately vs from auctions?

20% private, 80% auction. Increasingly more at auction.

- How often do you handle your coins or look at your pictures?

I look at photos often, but the coins are in a safe deposit box. I frequently bring a selection home to improve the photos that I have, or on the occasions where I meet with a fellow numismatist.

- How much time do you spend searching for lost pedigrees?

I have a fair selection of auction catalogs, many going back to the 70’s and 80’s. When I buy a new coin, I often do a manual search of my library and online auction history sites, but so far, I’ve found few sites that have much comprehensive history before 2000. I rarely visit numismatic libraries for more thorough searches but doing so is in my future.

- How many books/catalogs do you own or have easy access to?

Hundreds of catalogs, but only major references (Crawford, Sydenham, Grueber, RBW collection (Russo, et. al.) RIC, Seaby, Spink, Peck, Yeoman). I live about 2 hours drive from the ANA library but have not been there for a few years. When I was younger I sometimes would take a day off from work and drive down to spend the whole day in the library.

 

Great thread AJ!
Sorry, i am kinda late to the game....but I have a good excuse. We had 60 cm. of snow over past 4 day period, so I have been busy clearing clients driveways, shovelling in minus 20 celsius temps But I was thinking about coins while doing that.
OK, I have 850 AV coins, 120 AR Denari.
I have had no real goal in mind, other then to have fun, I fell in love with coins as a teenager, now I am married to them. My collection spans 27 centuries, I guess I did achieve one tiny thing, I have at least one coin for every century. I collect by "eye appeal", thus my coll. is 95 percent MS. In the Winter when I am unemployed (except for snow), I look at my stuff every day. I keep my 300 slabbed coins in PGGS/ NGC boxes, my 2X2 flips (coins) in two albums)
I have never sold any of my coins that I personally bought, but did "upgrade" ones I got as a teenager for Christmas/ birthdays since they where not high quality.
I obtained 98 percent from auction houses like Kunker/ Gorny&Mosch/ CNG/ Sincona/ Tkalec/ NFA/ Stack's/ Heritage/ Nomisma/ Cayon etc. The other 2 percent from reliable dealers.
My goal is to keep on working hard to make $$$$ for many more sweet coins/ keep in shape
Almost forgot, I did send my great banknote coll. to Heritage, this will enlarge my coin budget for 2019 by 60K, maybe add three MS aurei !!!!
John
PS: I hope to reach 1000 AV coin plateau by 2020.....

 

I freely admit a few things. One, I have a family history of hoarding, (not ruin your house with garbage "hoarding" like tv shows, but way too much stuff). Two, absolute pristine condition, or spending $50k for a coin does not interest me much, I am more interested in collectible grade coins. Three, life circumstances has allowed me to be able to afford a more expansive collection than I otherwise would have thought possible. Those three things I am sure have driven me to my numbers, and continue to push me. I truly respect those who have the discipline to limit themselves to 100 coins, and never resent those who can afford to spend $50k for a single coin, that is just not me. Good for them, they have gorgeous coins.

So yeah, I agree it was wired into me, and life circumstances has allowed it to "flower" maybe more than it otherwise would have. My main limiter right now is myself. I have 2 of the largest SDBs stuffed full, and debating how bad it would be to rent out a third, (in addition to the house safe which is almost full as well).

 

Well, let's see...

- What metrics do you choose to add coins?

Mostly, I collect Roman Republican coins - the simplest metric is "Do I already have it?". If not, I will usually try to buy it, subject to cost. Many of my earlier purchases are in need of upgrading, so that's also a consideration. Then, there are several issues with interesting symbols - Piso Frugi, Papia denarii, so there could be a branch collection of these. I also have other collecting areas - one was "Iconic Greek City Coins" - Owl of Athens, Pegasus of Corinth, Turtle of Aegina, Wrestlers of Aspendos, Satyr/Nymph of Thasos and so on. Where to stop there depends on how iconic they need to be and how many versions are needed and the quality. Coins of Sicily have also interested me, but I have more quantity than quality there. And Irish coins - not ancient, of course, as the series only starts around 995AD.

I got 10 coins in the post today - 7 RR asses - types I mostly didn't have or represented possible upgrades, 2 small Greek bronzes from Myrina and Kyme and a countermarked Augustus, bought for its collection of countermarks. So, as well as more organised collection areas, anything which doesn't break the bank and is interesting is worth a look.

- Do you have a rough size of a collection in mind (10, 100, 5000, 1000, 50,000 coins?)

I've got about 2000 ancient coins at the moment; around 550 of these are Roman Republican. I don't currently have any limit in mind. As far as the RR coins go, they will get more expensive over time as the gaps get harder to fill and eventually cost and availability will probably restrict me to a few coins a year, but I think I have a couple of decades yet. After that, there are a few hundred symbols on the denarii mentioned above.

- Do you work off of a "wantlist"? How has your wantlist changed over time? How rigid are you with following your wantlist and plans?

I don't have a wantlist - I have a reasonably accurate list of what I have (for RR coins) and in principle anything not on that list is on an imaginary wantlist.
Obviously, if something rare and affordable appears, that's a target of opportunity, otherwise I'm interested in anything new.

- What's the longest you've waited to find a coin you've wanted? How long have you been waiting for your current target?

I have no specific targets - there are a few coins I've wanted for years but have always frittered away funds on other things, so they will have to wait


- What portion of purchases do you make privately vs from auctions?

Privately as in from other collectors, a small percentage. In recent years, mostly I've got things at online auctions, a decreasing percentage from fixed price lists (though there are occasional bargains) and a few each year from fairs.

- How often do you handle your coins or look at your pictures?

As with everyone else, my most expensive coins are kept in a safety deposit box, but what's at home gets looked at a lot. I've recently got a macro lens and improved my lighting a bit, so I hope to take better photos. From time to time, I rearrange them, to include new additions or whatever, so there's a bit of handling.

- How much time do you spend searching for lost pedigrees?

Not much, but I did find one coin in Banti with a 1913 pedigree, so that was nice.
I'm interested in tracing lost pedigrees, but don't spend much time at it yet.

- How many books/catalogs do you own or have easy access to?

Somewhere over two hundred books - I made a spreadsheet of them, because I accidentally bought a few duplicates - plus a lot of catalogues. I don't read the books as much as I should, but have a reasonable selection. Online references are OK in a pinch, but there are many errors, propagated when people don't refer to the main references themselves.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

The genetic/familial tie-in observation is very interesting and I suspect there is merit to this (without being too much of an armchair psychologist). I grew up in a fairly stark household where everything was kept in a particular place.

I follow a similar regiment in my home now and this certainly correlates to my collection. In speaking with family members about my collection, ~100 coins is perceived as an excessively high quantity, with them not having any context about what a "usual" collection constitutes.

There must be something underlying and psychological which is driving this, a subject which is primed for academic study... I'm afraid of pointing that introspective lens too closely...

 

Have enjoyed reading the responses in this thread. My small collection pales in contrast to most on here, but I'll answer the questions anyway.

What metrics do you choose to add coins?

I collect ancient Greek coins. Nothing specific, what I admire and can afford. Looking to get a representative collection covering all areas and eras. Happy with what I have achieved so far. Have about 70 coins total. I have an abafil case with two trays of 24 spaces each. My aim is to fill the two trays with coins I adore and admire. Not sure if they are different things, but I have 15 coins that I like to look at the most, I adore these coins. They are in one tray. I have the other tray filled with coins I admire. So still looking for 9 more coins I adore....easily found....harder to get hold of on limited funds! The other 20 odd coins I own need to be sold at some stage as I don’t look at them anymore. In short I’m a minimalist and enjoy quality over quantity.

Do you have a rough size of a collection in mind (10, 100, 5000, 1000, 50,000 coins?)

48 – plus a few cheaper one’s for my kids to handle and hopefully get involved in the hobby.

Do you work off of a "wantlist"?

I want an Athenian decadrachm!! Of my 15 “favourite” coins, 5 are from Italy/Sicily, 5 from mainland Greece and 5 from Asia Minor. Of those, 5 are archaic, 9 classical and 1 Helenistic. Vary from tetradrachm to trites. I like beauty, and value centering over condition, though don’t go below VF. Most of those 15 coins would be graded gVF or better.

What's the longest you've waited to find a coin you've wanted? How long have you been waiting for your current target?

Not looking for anything specific, so haven’t really waited for anything as such. My last purchase was a Thurium double nomos signed by Istoros, that is something I’ve admired and very pleased to own. The other coin I really wanted was an archaic Athens tetradrachm. Have a well centred one of those in great condition. They both took a bit of waiting I guess.

What portion of purchases do you make privately vs from auctions?

All my purchases are from auctions. I look at on-line shops, but rarely find anything that grabs me. Usually CNG mail bid sales or Nomos in Switzerland are where I do my business.

How often do you handle your coins or look at your pictures?

Whenever the wife and kids are busy, I like to get into my "library" as I call it and have a look. Don't spend as much time as I would like though. Look at photos of my coins all the time though.

How much time do you spend searching for lost pedigrees?

Not much, mainly because I don’t have the time. It’s something I’m interested in though. Would love to find a surprise Gillet connection one day.

How many books/catalogs do you own or have easy access to?

Have about 100 books specific to ancient Greek coins. I love reading actually, and find the photo plates in some of the really old books to be exceptional. Have a number of first editions from authors such as Percy Gardner, Barclay Head, George Hill, Charles Seltman and others. Also have complete BMC reprints from the 60’s...could never afford the originals of those!

 

1. - What metrics do you choose to add coins?
   
   - Do you have a rough size of a collection in mind (10, 100, 5000, 1000, 50,000 coins?) I never really had a set number in mind, my collection size was large based on opportunity of acquisition and availability of funds. Currently I have about 200 coins.
   
   - Do you work off of a "wantlist"? How has your wantlist changed over time? How rigid are you with following your wantlist and plans? I have always had a pretty extensive want list. My Vcoins global check out was an impressive number at one time. I often dont stick to the wantlist, to the point where I might be to flighty to have a real solid list.
   
   - What's the longest you've waited to find a coin you've wanted? How long have you been waiting for your current target? At least five years and about 6 months for a current target.
   
   - What portion of purchases do you make privately vs from auctions?
   
   25/75
2. 
   
   - How often do you handle your coins or look at your pictures?
3. Some almost never some all the time.
   - How much time do you spend searching for lost pedigrees? Zero
4. 
   - How many books/catalogs do you own or have easy access to?
5. Maybe 100 or so different books, old auction catalogs.
   
   
   

 

I have really no wantlist, since there are endless coins I am after. I usually end up adding 50-75 coins each year to my collection.

On reference books, I have around 20. I do have a library of auction catalogues (1200)+ that I keep for looking up past prices/ provenance etc.

During auctions, I try to stay disciplined not to get into bidding frenzy, one such event event was the CNG e-auction. I had a pristine Otacia Severa AR Antoninous (hippo) reverse in my target zone, however, once coin went past $400US I let it go. I know a perfect MS will come up in future.
John