Your Coin Budget

After hearing and reading a lot of different views on coins here, I begin to ask the question, is our financial situation what drives our coin purchasing? Do we have our ideals/ our dream coins too?

For me, I was lucky to come onto a chunk of dough through trading currencies so I thought big.

But I know if I never had that money, I would probably be only investing in 1-$300 cents.

What about you guys?

 

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Its an interesting question. My budget at the moment is a bit skewed. Normally, I only spend around $100 a month on coins. But I've been selling a lot of stuff lately, so that numbers up a good bit.

 

Well, usually my collecting budget is pretty low, but I made some extra money when I came upon a previously unknown type of Seated Liberty coin when I was working on an old building I bought. The coin was in the cornerstone of this old building I bought in San Francisco that I turned into loft apartments. I also found several reducing lathes and defaced coinage dies in the basement. I wonder what the building used to be anyway?

 

My budget is very low at the moment. Maybe, $50 a month at the most. I am in dental school which is eating up over $60,000 a year in loan money...so, I don't have much extra cash to spend.

 

Eek, I am very anti-loan but realize you sometimes need it to succeed in the long term.

However, I really hope you get that paid off because some people don't.

 

Why have you been selling more lately?

 

Changing tastes. I decided that any coins I can replace aren't ones that I need in my collection.

 

That's a good idea. It's fun to sell a bunch of coins and have a really big budget for a while. It makes you feel like a real high-stakes collector! :smile

 

I've never really set a budget for hobbies. Sometimes I might spend $300 a month, sometimes double that, and sometimes I'll go months without buying anything. When I want a coin I just buy it. I obviously can't go crazy and blow every dime I have on coins, but I never buy enough to have to figure up a budget of any kind. Not yet anyways
Guy~

 

I'm the same way. Right now I haven't bought a coin in 4 months :crying:, hopefully that will change at the Baltimore show next week.

 

I follow a fairly strict budgeting process. I set aside a certain amount of money each month for "play". My coin purchases comes out of this fun money.

Unfortunately, I've been accumulating money in this account for some time now, and haven't been able to find coins that I like to spend money on.

 

I only spend what I can afford.

My wife and my CPA are the only people with any right to know how much that is.

 

I have a 'silver' budget, instead of 'gold'. I've caught up on my silver sets and am saving up to be able to start buying gold bullion by next summer. My stereo microscope cost far more than the total of my silver holdings, and I absolutely love it. I've got $1000 in pocket change to look through this winter, and if I don't find anything, that's okay. I have all statehood quarter silver proofs, and I'm working on finishing up my proof ASEs. BNB, are you ready to sell me that '95-W for $1000 yet? LOL I may never be able to afford that coin if it keeps going up, but that's okay. I never have buyer's remorse about anything. I know exactly what I want and budget accordingly. I'm 47 and on Social Security disability, so I don't have the 'gold' budget, and that's okay. I'm in it for fun.
Are we all having fun?

 

I agree with the above except I stay away from the $300 mark, I mean I will pay $300 + a little more but not too often. It's just not in my budget, besides my wife would be on me like white on rice and I don't need the aggravation!!

 

My coin hobby is largely self-supporting right now... sell a few, buy a few. So my budget is based on sales.

 

We must be kindred spirits, Leadfoot because as I was reading the thread I was thinking this exact same thing.

I don't have very much money to spend on coins, so I accumulate it and when I see a coin that I really want then I purchase it. I don't actively pursue any coins other than the yearly mint packaged proof and mint sets.

An example of this was early last year when I ran into a nice 1942 Proof Jefferson Nickel. The shop that I work for had bought it in a wholesale lot and offered it to me because of my interest in Jeffersons for $25.

I am actually thinking about sending this one off to PCGS because IMHO it is better than PF-65 and it displays cameo devices. Not ultra cameo, but cameo and slabbed it may command at auction a bit more than I could resist for a $25 coin. I REALLY like it tho, so I would then be on the horns of a dilemma as to whether or not to sell.

 

That was a good deal! I'm assuming, type I?

 

yes, it's a Type I, but a few weeks later I also found a Type II. It is not nearly as attractive, but a 42-P proof nonetheless.

 

The 42-P proof is one of the top coins on my want list, but what I really want to do is save money for the whole proof set. Hopefully I can strike oil pretty soon!

 

The trick is not to spend say $300 at any one time, but to space it out over the course of five or six weeks. $10 here, $20 there. That way the spouse never really catches on. I've learned a few tricks after being married a while
Guy~