When you start a new collection, do you get the keys first or everything else and then the keys? Or do you just collect them as they become available and your budget allows? I like to buy the keys first and then take my time with the more common dates. I find that having the keys gives me more an incentive to finish the series. If I buy the keys last, it doesn't seem to be as much fun. How about you?
Yes....I can if I can.....#1...find them....#2...afford them.....and #3 like them I'm watching 2 right now..... Speedy
Every serious collector that I have met in this hobby (i.e., shows, dealers, clubs, etc.) has told me to buy the keys first and then worry about the commons later. After all commons will alway be common but those keys have only so many surviving numbers for a growing population base. Hence, they increase in prices/values far faster than common dates. Boy...do I wish I would have taken that advice years ago! Now, when I go to a coin show, I may purchase two or three key coins, instead of 20 or 30 common coins as I did in the past. It has paid off handsomely.
it depends on the cost of the keys. I have started a type set and while I would love to just go out and get a 1796 or 7 half or a 1792 half disme, it's just not in the budget right now, so there are other coins I am pursuing, but if the budget could be stretched to allow it I prefer to start with the keys.
Any coin I'm trying to finish by series I usually try to finish off the common ones first, then go for the keys; mainly due to budgetary constraints. I'd rahter have an almost complete series then cap it off with the keys than have a few key coins with most of the series missing, but maybe that's just me. So far the only key that I've bought, since the series is otherwise finish, is the "key" of the Kennedy Halves, the 1970-D. At 2.5 million minted it's hardly rare, lol, but that's as rare as they ever got (counting only business strikes). Do plan to get the 1950-D Jefferson soon though because I almost have thes series complete.
But if you buy the Keys then the other ones will seem cheap and will be easy to find....and it is also nice for someone with a wife to say....Ok...you didn't like me spending that $500 on that one coin so I only spent $20 on this one Speedy
Well I've also liked to get the easy stuff out of the way first and then move on to the harder stuff, lol... not just with coins but with everything else in life. That's just my personal preference. I have no wife to answer to, lol, so that is not an issue. My parents are about the only people I see face to face that know I buy coins often, and if I don't want them to know how much I'm spending I just don't tell them. Plus, the coins I tend to collect by series rather than type are usually the more common ones anyway, where even the keys are not particualarly rare or hard to find. Lincoln cents being the exception, lol... but look at the "keys" of these series: Kennedy half dollar... 1970-D, 2.5 million Jefferson nickel... 1950-D, 2.6 million Roosevelt dime... well if you don't count the 1996-W, closest thing it has to a key is the 1955... the rarest Roosevelt dime issued for general circualtion... 12 million minted! When it gets to series with rare keys I'm not likely to be trying to finish the series anyway and instead collect by type. I generally keep series collecting limited to the current issue and the series that preceded the current issue. I'd rather have say, one of every type of US dime ever minted, than a complete series of Mercury dimes. I work on series when I can't find anything else in my price range to buy.
Then we are both in the same boat!!!!! As it is with some coins---a low mintage isn't always the key date....I think for the Dimes the "key" is said to be the 1949's..... Speedy
Due to my budget I go for the common ones first. When I started collecting I got basically any filler that would work to complete the set. Unfortunately, I found myself unsatisfied with the collections and had to start upgrading right away. It ended up I was spending more then I would have by just going straight to the BU+ coins I wanted. I could always sell off the other coins but since I got them really low priced or for free alot of the time I usually did the same thing people did with me when I started and either sold them for what I paid or just gave them away to other newbies. Now when I look at my jeffersons, roosevelts or washingtons I admire them instead of thinking I need to replace some of them. BTW, anyone have some pre 1930 BU red lincolns they want to give me for free?
yes, i'll normally go for the key dates/semi-key dates in a series, that is if the dates are within my budget. i don't mind spending more for a key date, coz i know what i buy will make my collection look good - present and future... "wow, that's a key date!" ... or... "i have these too"
Yep, see that a lot, where the lowest initial mintage isn't necessarily the key for some reason, usually because an almost as rare date was largely ignored and thus harder to find in higher condition. Can see that with the Washington quarters; the 1932-S has the lowest initial mintage of the series, but the 1932-D is "key" because it was largely ignored at the time of the minting. Even more dramatic example is the CC 20 cent pieces... even though the Philadelphia ones were minted in lwoer number, almost all of the Carson City ones were melted down and only a handful survive still. The 1950-D Jefferson nickel would be worth far more if people didn't know it was going to be rare ("rare" being relative term here, lol, 2.6 million is not rare, but it is less than any other nickel in the series), but so many people knew that it would be and saved it that even in high condition it's not especially expensive (can get uncriculated for around $25 or so). Same with the 1970-D Kennedy half. Even the "key" Roosevelts are not rare by any stretch of the imagination, but tend to be a bit harder to find in high condition. I suppose you could call the 1996-W the key, though it was never intended to circualte (though neither was the 1970-D Kennedy, but something has to be key in that series, lol...). I may end up getting it just to be able to call my Roosevelt collection complete except for the proofs.
Back when I started I bought anything and everything that tickeled my fancy as long as it was inexpensive. Then I had to save up for the keys, and I never seemed to save enough for them as they were always getting more expensive. Now I buy the keys first
I'm starting a bust quarte collection right now and I started aquiring the earlier years (1805, 1806, 1807) first because I knew that they would be quite expensive in the near future. Now I'm working on the latter years and whenever I have $15,000 lying around I'll finish the set by buying the 1796 and 1804. I dont have all the money in the world, but what I do have I make the best of it.
