Quality, or Quantity?

Very true..

 

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While I do enjoy the highest quality coins that I can afford, there is something to be said for quantity. Hunting for elusive coins, to fill blank spots in my collection, gives me a lot of satisfaction, even if the grade isn't the highest. I can always upgrade, as I go. I guess the question is whether the journey, or reaching the destination, brings the most pleasure to you, the collector.

 

Well, speaking of collecting and meager means at the same time.....

I collect lower grade silver coins of recent vintage (washies, roosies, benjies, Walkers, etc.) I can purchase almost all of them at "about" melt price. I can then choose to spend extra for the few semi-keys (the keys are still out of reach).

Two reasons - I can still be "collecting" and not selling the family farm.

Secondly, the money I've spent is also tied to the price of silver - so I've got the price of silver and whatever numismatic value these coins might have protecting me from coming up empty handed if I ever have to sell out of financial necessity.

I dunno. Does anyone know which slab tastes better - NGC or PCGS?

Oh! So for me Quantity over Quality!

 

Where do you buy those at "about" melt value?

 

Put me down in the quantity catagory. I am more interested in completeness and rarity than I am in just having a few very high grade common coins, It has been said that you will do much better with the few high quality pieces, but I'm not looking to "do better" I'm looking for the enjoyment of as complete a collection as possible. I couldn't care less if it sells someday for 10% of what I have in them.

 

By far the cheapest and easiest is to buy rolls on ebay, your dealer, etc. Even now, with the spike in silver, you can get Roosies and Washingtons for x11 and x12 face which is "about" melt - based on coinflation.com.

I buy the roll, go through them, fill in holes or upgrade and either keep the rest for a rainy day or resell to buy more.

If you have more time than money and want to spend the time on ebay, you really can find deals all the time.

And if you're looking for AG/G/VG common silver coins, you have less to worry about when it comes to picture quality and item description because you always have the silver value, at least.

It can be as fun and exhilerating finding "High quality" G-4 Walkers in junk silver as it is finding those Registry coins!

 

I LOVE this question.
Pondered it and considered wherefores & whys.

Then considered ~
"Do I want the worlds Biggest Baddest Bestest Diamond" in the world....that COULD later be converted into many other Things for many others, thereby reducing it's inherent uniqueness, valued by the endowed fewest.

Or the Bestest baddest single collectible that is equal to or greater in value to many lesser collectibles thereby "worth" more to the total of the many next enjoyers.

Then decided that the only reason to have one worth many is so you can flip them to have many anyway.

So I vote for having many to create a sequence sufficient enough to convert into one unique enough to transport far enough to use to acquire many again.

Short version~It's all good! What comes around goes around.

And the more the merrier.

 

As to quailty vs quantity, quailty is always better, but you can't complicate things
This question was not meant to be, 1 BU wheat cent, vs 5 very fine st gaudens... That is a no brainer, there you would chose quantity, but that this thread was meant more, like, would you rather have 10 very good morgan dollars, or one really nice, of the same year for the same price

No offense but, are you sure that your interpretation of what that question was meant to be? Whether one or ten Morgan's we are talking the same value, correct? Using your example, which would you prefer, the one really nice or the ten very good? I know there is no perfect answer and as always, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder but, say twenty or thirty years from now,again using your example..wouldn't quantity generally always be the better of the two choices (speaking strictly on a monetary scale)? Maybe I'm peeing in the wind, but, I would want the ten.

 

Well Tom, a couple of comments.

1. The original post really didn't say anything about 20 or thirty years from now - just today.

2. One could give a lot of examples where 10 items of average quality did not go up nearly as much as one item of really superior quality. Quick one that comes to mind - 20 years ago, a VG 1949-P Roosevelt was worth silver melt value. The same is true today. While a MS-65 1949-P has gone up 100-fold. And of course, there are counter examples, but I think coins that are common and cheap today will more or less be that way in the near to mid future. Just my opinion.

There are people who collect only the finest - they have the patience to save the money and wait for the right example to come along. I admire that.

Most of us aren't like that and we end up with a hodge-podge of stuff, half-completed sets, piles of foreign coins we're going to go through one day and never enough money to buy our "precious"....

 

Well consitered.

But I don't think of fewer coins as making more of a collection. So this looks like investing vs collecting.

Then again why a man would want one wife can be called a mystery.

Why he would want more than one wife........a Bigga Mystery.
:goofer:

 

1. The original post really didn't say anything about 20 or thirty years from now - just today.

Good point Pocket. I guess I was adding that detail in my own mind instead of reading it. Good point on the patience thing too (something I've never been the best at). Seemed like a simple question..maybe not so simple.

 

Hm...say you could have a VF20 1916-D merc or about 800 normal mercs you choose!

 

I agree, quality over quanitiy. Heck, I would even sell all my gold coins for one really nice problem free pre-1834 early gold coin in the F-XF range, I would be happier with one "super" coin instead of many.

 

I like to collect many different coins. While I respect and desire high quality coins, one coin isn't collecting it's investing. And, IMO, not as interesting.

Bruce

 

If I had to choose between 10 G-4 Chain Cents, all the same variety, or 1 MS-63 Chain Cent, same variety and worth as much as the 10 G-4's, I'd take the one MS-63 any day but that has nothing to do with the question. :goof:

If I had to choose between a partial set of Draped Bust Cents (178 possible varieties) in G to VG conidtion, for one MS-63 Chain Cent (identical value to the DBC set), I'd choose the DBC set any day! :thumb:

Give me quantity over quality but that doesn't mean I can't mix a few better condition coins in my collection and the lower grade ones give me something to upgrade down the road. And like someone said earlier, one coin doesn't make you a collector, it makes you an investor and I'd rather be a collector with investment potential, than a investor with collector potential!

Ribbit

 

I agree I would much rather one MS65 1883 liberty (with cents) rather than 45 G4 with cents

 

Great thread! I've been tossing this around for years and I've decided to sell-off a bunch of coins, proof sets and mint sets. I'm tired of having to rent two large boxes at my bank (and paying them $500/year) and I'm sick of keeping a large Excel sheet updated with prices and values of all these coins. It's a complete PITA. My only dilema comes with the fact most of these were my grandfathers coins. I've held them for sentimental reasons.

My goal is to sell all these and buy just a couple very nice key date coins. I'll keep my Lincolns and sell the rest. My life will be simpler and the key dates will grow in value much faster than all the common junk I have.

 

Very good point, if and when I eventually trade up my collection for more quality I will definitely hold onto anything with sentimental value, and also about how the reason a coin has value is because it may be hard to get, is in high demand, rare, or just its a nice coin...now if one one to invest in a coin like that, the coin will appreciate more because of those reasons...the non rare/common/low quality don't appreciate nearly as much because of those reasons

 

It's a great question.

While it's amost undisputable that one amazing coins is preferable to a large number of lesser coins, I don't think this would be a very satisfactory way to collect for most people. You have your one dream coin. Fine, your done. No more collecting for maybe a dozen years until you save up enough to buy a second dream coin. In the meantime, you can only watch from the sidelines.

So while it's perhaps objectively the better way to go, I don't think most of us have the psychological makeup to do things that way. Sometimes, quantity has a quality all its own.

 

I think it is a balance of both really, I know I could never be happy with one coin...maybe some could just not me..Though I do see myself in the future kind of trading up..I hold on to some things like a lot of wheats because I really feel in a few years they are going to jump in value (IMO) but I don't consider those part of my collection i consider those an investment, truly every coin i have is an investment to a better collection one day