Hi. My name is Garlicus, and I’m a hoarder. If I see a coin that I like and can get for no more than half of book value, or close to melt, and think I can make a profit on it, or hold for a while and still get my initial invest back, I’ll buy it. Problem is, I never sell anything, lol.
@Eric Babula wrote: Wait, now I'm really off-track from the OP!!! Yikes! I'm like the dog from the movie, "Up"! "Squirrel!" Now HERE'S a man after my own ADHD heart. I have collected nearly everything. My collection looks like my desk: piles, a jumble, oodles of "to do" items. Steve
They say that if you have a messy desk (not literally having @messydesk !), you might be a Genius! I'm sticking with that theory!
Most collected: Lincoln cents, to be sure. Least collected: Judging from prices, there aren't a lot of First Spouse gold collectors. The series is out of reach for a lot of people, just because each coin is half an ounce of gold. As a result, even with mintages of 2000 or less, they trade near melt. (I'm not sure what the mintages are for the last ones in the series -- there's so little interest in them that nobody can be bothered to update the pages reporting them!)
Hey, I'm a recovering hoarder. Of course, recovery is a bumpy path. Meanwhile, at least coins are more compact than (say) books, or tools, or leftover lumber...
I'm one of those who don't collect First Spouse gold. Well, I don't collect any gold, so it's not because of lack of interest in these, specifically.
But, we have to have books, lots of books, so we can learn about our coins! And, we have to have books (albums, binders) to hold our coins! And, we have to have tools: multiple loupes, flat clinch stapler, box of 2x2s and 2x2 sheets, microscope, light stand, camera, laptop, safes, etc., etc. I don't have any leftover lumber that I can think of, for coin collecting. But, I do have some in the rafters of my garage from other projects....."just in case".
The only person who can decide if their collection is "good" or not is the person who owns it. Your opinion is appreciated, but irrelevant to the OP's own opinion.
Yeah, tools. Like microscopes. I've got the student microscope sort of "on display" in the foyer (that's where it landed), three or four surplus stereomicroscopes in the garage (no place to set them up in the office), two ancient optical projecting microscopes also in the garage... I did sell the phase-contrast microscope, it wouldn't have been of any use for opaque objects anyhow. The "recovery" proceeds slowly. But I haven't bought a microscope in years, so that counts for something, right? (Even passed up a "free to a good home" one, that was a proud moment!)
Lol! That described me for a while until I settled on the type set which sort of organized my eclectic habit. American Silver Eagles are very popular right now. Gorgeous big shiny coins, mostly affordable, and in multiple finishes. I started and completed a Peace collection a few years back, nice big shiny coins, don't break the budget, short series with good history. One thing about choosing coins over other collectibles, you have three levels of value, if the numismatic value fades, you still have the precious metal content, and if that goes away, it's always worth face value. Not as true with beanie babies or baseball cards.
I confess I am a hoarder of Lincoln copper pennies with an inventory of over 50K and over 25 lbs copper cull !!