Do you think well circulated coins have more history?

@Gam3rBlake - there is nothing at all wrong with collecting circulated coins. We all have different budgets, and some of us can't afford certain types in Mint State. (I am one of those people, in many cases.)

The key here is to know your budget tier, and to buy the very best quality coins you can, within your means.

And don't worry about the fact that someone else might have something nicer or rarer or higher grade or more expensive. Someone always will. There will always be someone with better coins than you, and someone with worse coins than you. Don't sweat it.

Within every tier of the market (1-figure coins, 2-figure coins, 3-figure coins, etc.) there are bargains to be found, and wholesome, attractive examples to pursue, and there are also overpriced and/or ugly pieces of junk to avoid.

Show me a guy who collects two-figure coins on a strict budget, but knows what he's doing and what to look for, and I would rather look at his collection than that of the fella who has more money than sense, and who buys expensive stuff just because of some number on a slab label, with little regard for eye appeal or the other things that make a coin collectible.

Know your market, and learn to get the most mileage out of your limited budget, is what I suggest. Develop a keen eye. You can have every bit as much fun with circulated, "everyman" coins as you could with high-end rarities.

Do circulated coins have more history? Well, I don't know about that. Maybe they show their history more, in the wear they got and the marks they picked up. But they're certainly no less appealing than Mint State ones, if they're part of a well-matched, carefully chosen collection.

Morgan dollars are a good example. You see flashy Mint State Morgans everywhere. I actually like to see the circulated ones... with a certain look. Ditto the Barber coins.

Play the game with the cards you're dealt, and enjoy yourself. Buy the best you can with the money you have, and if you assemble a nicely matched, eye-appealing collection, nobody is going to care whether that collection averages VG, XF, or MS65. There's fun to be had and nice stuff to collect within every tier of the market.

 

I love that, and it would be welcome in my collection any day, but it's too expensive for me!

I'm a three-figure guy at best. I've only owned one Bust dollar ever, and it wasn't as nice as that one. It was an 1800 in ANACS VG8, and lacked the nice grey toning of that 1799.

I do have a Draped half. Same grade as your dollar.

 

Mine is a mere sixpence. I’d have gone for a shilling, but they didn’t put dates on those during Elizabeth’s reign. For some reason, only the smaller Elizabethan denominations bore dates, to my knowledge. And I wanted a dated one. So here’s Lizzie, from 1575.

 

Yep. A sound motto to stick by, though I would say “quality” rather than “grade”. That’s an important distinction.

If you don’t follow that motto, you’ll just end up driving yourself crazy. It’s OK to admire other people’s nice stuff, and sure, even envy them a little bit sometimes- within reason. But don’t envy too much, or you’ll only depress yourself.

If you build a collection that you know is admirable, you can be rightfully proud of it- even if the other guy’s collection is worth ten times as much. If you know you did the absolute best you could with the money you had, I dare say other people are going to end up admiring your collection as well. For what it is.

 

I have always loved those, and love the color a circulated example of the type typically acquired over time. So much so that I too have been more than once tempted to collect them (or the similar escudos) by date, just to fill an album with them. (Never took the plunge, though.) I’m always happy when I find them in bulk lots, even when the find is not especially valuable monetarily.