I was talking with someone at a coin dealer and they were saying they had a coin addiction. When do you all consider buying coins a addiction? I see it as money in the bank. Mainly a hobby that pays for its self. Ok I am addicted...lol
...haha...welcome to the club...remember, its the only hobby you can go broke doing and still have money
Yeah I figure it's better than spending money on wine, women, and song. It's good though, to exercise some self-discipline and structure so you don't wind up with a huge pile of low value stuff IMO...
Very few hobbies that you can have these days that maintain some kind of value after you buy something. That being said, you may loose a little or gain a little in value over time. I don't approach it as an investment mainly but as a diversion and pleasurable pastime in my retirement years. Yes I am addicted. I buy coin magazines, search the internet and participate in some of the coin forums. I don't collect ultra high dollar coins. 99% of my coins are silver like the newer proof silver coins, a few certified, circulated Morgan and Peace dollars, and Roosevelt and Mercury dime folders. That is just me. My collection will be very valuable to my grandson someday considering he won't have any money at all tied up in it. Just enjoy folks.
LOL. I hope the book includes treatment plans for my coin addicition. LOL. Thanks. I'll try to find a copy.
That's my rationalization. I sink money into a hobby that I can get back out if I needed to. More fun than putting it in the bank.
This is the greatest hobby in the world- the "hobby of kings" as you might say. There are few tangible ways which we can see great artistic history, history history, and economic history all in one way. You can see hyperinflation in coinage of different years, you can see rulers on the obverse, you can see the tools of war which were engraved on reverses, you can see the God's people believed in. This is why I collect, and why I never plan to stop.
I'm guilty of being a coin addict off and on since I was a kid. Big gap in my coin collecting hobby when I went to High School till about 8 years ago when I bought one 1855 Naples 120 Grana silver crown. Now thousands of dollars later I'm hooked again. I check eBay almost daily searching for the rare coins that don't have yet. I get withdrawals if I don't have a coin on my current eBay purchase list. I usually have 200 coins on my eBay watch list. I tell my wife it's an investment even-though I have never sold one of my coins.
History is for sure a good side effect of coin collecting. I mainly collect 1700s-1800s Italian coins and I've learned a bit about Italian history, and the different Kings and the Royal families that ruled back then. I went to Italy 20 years ago and went into a coin shop in Milano and the owner showed me some coins from 1700's Naples and Sicily and talked about which King was on them and I didn't know any of them. Now if I went back to Italy I'd know each and everyone of those Kings.
Whether or not coin collecting is an addiction, a coin collection certainly has a lot more resale value than a bunch of empty liquor bottles. They would only be worth the nickel deposit in most states, and I’m guessing that used drug paraphernalia would be worth even less than that...