Does your collection have a limit?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Sallent, Sep 17, 2019.

  1. jamesicus

    jamesicus Well-Known Member

    A mantra for each of us ? ………………………
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  3. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    Oh man, that is a good point. Byzantine bronzes and first-century century Roman bronzes are killer, not to mention Ptolemaic issues. I used to have one box with these in it but had to split them among the boxes due to the one box getting too heavy.

    Nothing makes you feel like an old man like not being able to even carry one of your SDBs.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
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  4. Mat

    Mat Ancient Coincoholic

    As a few others have mentioned, the budget is my limit.

    I have a fairly large collection, just below 500, but that doesn't count ANY of my world modern coins with I have 2 long boxes full of nor the few U.S. coins I have left.

    I don't have any limit in size. I recently bought two 3" binders since my 2" ones were getting too full & one split in half.

    But I do let some coins go, it just depends on the circumstances & my mood.
     
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  5. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    I'm up at about 750 coins (including LRB's) and have no limit. I have about 250 nice coins at this point, hopefully will eventually reach 1,000 coins.
     
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  6. wxcoin

    wxcoin Getting no respect since I was a baby

    I keep telling myself to slow down but coins are like sweets, I no longer have any will power.
     
  7. chuckylucky5

    chuckylucky5 Well-Known Member

    Other than limiting my collection to fit my budget, I do have a limit on my collection. It's called the sky.
     
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  8. shanxi

    shanxi Well-Known Member

    Aside from my budget, my only limit is time. I want to look each new coin up in reference works, search for die matches and a possible pedigree, maybe learn something about the history. Only then the next coin can come. This is not possible if I buy too many coins at once. One coin at a time.
     
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  9. Ima Dragon

    Ima Dragon Year of the Dragon

    No Limit to my collection . I've been able to add more since i've retired though . I'm all scattered in my collecting and just buy coins and notes I like . Once they are collected it's hard to part with them even when upgrading .
     
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  10. My wife said when my "small" floor safe [ converted gun safe ] is full i have reached my limit .
     
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  11. Finn235

    Finn235 Well-Known Member

    No real limit here.

    I used to try to limit my Romans to just one per emperor, but I'm increasingly toying with the idea of adding on to the emperors who are hard to capture in just one coin. After I get the last few holes filled, I am thinking about giving the budget a break for a while and then starting the "one each" theme again but in sestertii through Gallienus.

    Indo Sassanian coins I have hit the point where I only add coins that contribute another piece of the puzzle - I still have to be over 500 by now, and have a long, long way left to go.

    Besides these two main areas of focus, the rest of my collection is eclectic and has little rhyme or reason - the only criteria being that if I can't write a short paragraph explaining why a coin is cool, I won't collect it!

    My ancients, unfortunately, are only a tiny portion of my overall collection - before discovering ancients, I spent a few months (and thankfully only a few hundred $) amassing inexpensive world coins. Before that, I hoarded coins from roll hunting... hundreds of BU half dollars and thousands of cents and nickels. Even fairly well-organized it all takes up too much space and weighs over a hundred pounds, but not counting the silver, it's all worth peanuts compared to the "real" collection, so it's hard to part with it.
     
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  12. cpm9ball

    cpm9ball CANNOT RE-MEMBER

    My comment was actually intended to be "tongue-in-cheek" but we don't have an emoji for it.

    Chris
     
  13. red_spork

    red_spork Triumvir monetalis

    It's hard for me to have a limit for a few reasons. The first is simply that the style of collecting I enjoy is targeting comprehensivity, that is to say, collecting all types and varieties(except for control mark varieties) within my area of coinage and the list gets bigger and bigger each year. A year ago I would have said the total number at which point I'd have nothing else to collect was "around 2400" when I generated a spreadsheet of everything in Crawford and then added several varieties discovered since its publication, but I've added 20 or so to that ever-growing spreadsheet this year alone, a couple to my own collection. I suspect at some point it might slow down but I don't know when. For me I get a lot of joy out of finding new types and varieties in this area that I didn't previously realize existed so I hope it never stops.

    Outside of my main focus area of mainline RR I also collect provincials and imitations of those types. The only limit I've decided to place there is that if I ever feel those side collections are getting in the way of my main focus I will likely sell them to focus more on the mainline coinage, but I'm not there yet.
     
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  14. jamesicus

    jamesicus Well-Known Member

    I wish we had that emoji also.
     
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  15. akeady

    akeady Well-Known Member

    Interesting question and I have wondered a little about how many coins I'll have and what my collection will look like when I decide it's finished, whatever finished means. I have 1638 coins on Tantalus as of today - that doesn't include everything, but does include a lot of coins which aren't ancient, so perhaps I have about fifteen hundred ancient coins. In the last few years, like several others here, I've been mostly interested in Roman Republican coins and have somewhere between six and seven hundred RR coins. Ultimately, I'd like to have a reasonably comprehensive collection - maybe this means about two thousand coins and will take another couple of decades, at a guesstimate. For Greek coins, I wanted to have an example of each of the iconic coins - owl of Athens, turtle of Aegina, Pegasus of Corinth, Boeotian shield, something wonderful from Syracuse, Ajax of Locris, wrestlers of Aspendos and so on (and on). Of course, one owl leads to five or six, to cover the different types and I still need the later land tortoise of Aegina to go with the sea turtle, and I have worn Syracuse tetradrachms but a decadrachm would be nicer and, and...
    So, for now, I don't have any fixed limits, none that will be reached for many years anyway.

    ATB,
    Aidan.
     
  16. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

    I'm in the process of downsizing my general roman coins collection.
    But hey, I'm a cheater, you know !

    .... Only roman imperial count : I'll keep the RR coins because they are so interesting

    .... And my Trajan Decius : As I'm done with the TD Divi series, I thought a type set of his and family would be fun to assemble, and it avoids having the collection sleeping somewhere

    .... And my Syro-phenician tetradrachms because they are so spectacular and of good style

    .... And my Diana Lucifera mini series

    .... And my Lupa Romana reverses series

    .... Oh, and my greek bronzes collection doesn't count

    .... Of course, no way the Dombes collection is involved (it's necessarily limited as there must be around 400 different coins, including varieties, years and such)

    That said I will try to keep 80 significant roman imperials : some that I've been given, or of nice style, or good preservation or particular interest (to me). It will be quite hard to do, but will lead me to part with around 180/200 coins in a short future (I will be 60 next year and have to start thinking of the after)

    Q
     
  17. rrdenarius

    rrdenarius non omnibus dormio Supporter

    Interesting question. I am sure there are many limits: # of coins, $ to spend, volume, weight, interests which change with time, etc.

    I was thinking about this question yesterday when I moved coins from my home to lock boxes (2) at my bank. My wife and I will fly to London and the Shetland Islands this month. I took several pounds in a large Whataburger bag, and had to come home with a similar volume. I need more secure and dry storage at my home, more lock box volume or to reduce my collection.
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    Cast bronze is relatively large and heavy.
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    Most of my RR denarii are at the bank. Unfortunately pictures of some of them went away when my last computer passed.
    IMG_4780 - Copy.JPG IMG_4783.JPG

    Some recent items and most of my better scale weights moved to the bank.
    DSCN3093.JPG DSCN3091.JPG DSCN3186.JPG

    Most of my US coins and a box of RR bronze came home with me. One of my favorite coins cost 10 euros plus vig and postage.
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  18. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I was surprised when I saw AJ's post that seemed so restrictive from a person I usually consider positively. However, now I realize that we do agree. I just have a lot more 'side collections' that he does. For that matter, I suspect I am second to medoraman in side collections but to few others here. I sincerely doubt that I have 150 coins that do not fit in one of my side collections. I do not collect some things as a main interest but have a dozen or so 'on the side' groups just because I saw something of interest. When I go to a show, I usually don't ask for 'sides' but they just turn up like grits in the South or chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. Sometimes I taste them; sometimes I behave and only look at things I collect.
     
  19. HaleiwaHI

    HaleiwaHI Active Member

    I have an entire room of our home dedicated to coins. But only now that I've gotten too old to collect or rather protect them, I have taken down my "in house" displays and decided to downsize. I'm guessing with the market the way it is and the costs associated with selling them, I'm looking at 3-5years to liquidate. Now if I can only live that long, I'm doing good!
     
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  20. Jims Coins

    Jims Coins Well-Known Member

    Let's see, how many Emperor's of the Roman empire?
     
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  21. Orfew

    Orfew Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

    I love all of your coins James. They are all a little piece of history. By the way, rascal is a great word to describe me. It is also more flattering than some other epithets that come to mind.

    Your passion for history is inspiring, and I read all of your posts with great interest. Here is a poem and a wish for you.

    Dylan Thomas

    Do not go gentle into that good night,
    Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
    Because their words had forked no lightning they
    Do not go gentle into that good night.

    Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
    Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
    And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
    Do not go gentle into that good night.

    Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
    Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
     
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