After 17 years of collecting I only have 8 coins...

Because I kept changing my mind about what I want to collect. Ultimately within the last year or two I decided that I like Capped Bust and Seated Liberty coins the most. (Draped bust are tied, but let's be financially realistic, shall we.) My question is, how long did it take any of you to decide what you wanted to specialize in as a collector? And did you also spend a long time at first as I did (maybe not a decade and a half like myself) constantly buying and selling until you decided what your collecting niche would be? I know 15 plus years seems like a long time to make up my mind as a collector but I'm just hoping I'm not the only one who's had that kind of problem.

 

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I've been collecting for over 30 years and I don't have a special niche. I guess I just collect what I like, which varies from pre WW1 US coinage to obsolete and large sized currency to trade and hard times tokens and even some world coins and ancients. I'm all over the place and wouldn't have it any other way.
Guy

 

Eight coins? Get with it man!

Since I inherited a four generations long fairly complete US collection when I was pretty young, I gravitated towards proof coins because I liked how they looked and there were relatively few proofs in any of the sets. It didn't take me that long to learn what I liked, but it took me many years to know what I was doing.

 

Please tell me all eight coins are Gobrecht dollars

 

I've been at the periphery of numismatics all my adult life (I'm in my 70's)...and have yet to make any limiting decisions. It's not so much uncertainty about what to collect as lack of disciplined focus. I mostly like 'em all (except the Ancients, and the absolute opposite end of the age spectrum).

Coppers are particularly sweet, and the odd Silver...I'm too impoverished for Gold to be more than a dream. Right now US .900 is large with me, as I inherited a bunch of it. But I'm feeling good about almost every coin I lay my hands on; for the history represented, the art in the minting process, and the sense of connectivity with all the multitudes who've handled and spent these coins for their 'daily bread'.

If that brands me a hopeless romantic, so be it...there are worse things.

How about pics of each of the eight you have? That averages about one coin every two years...pretty concentrated acquisitions, IMO.

Thanks for the thread!

 

I started collecting in 1972 with Jefferson nickels. Over the next 13 years I slowly worked my way back to the older and older series. In 1985 I started working on early date large cents by die varieties. 28 years later I'm still working on them but they are now few and far between (I have 255 of the 295 varieties). In 1997 I started seriously working on Conder tokens as well. 16 years later I am still working on those, but they are also becoming few and far between (I have over 920 varieties).

 

Took me about a year to find my niche

Before that, I was buying a whole mess of stuff I knew little to nothing about

 

I've been collecting coins for about 13-14 years now. when I started out I was all over the place. now I am very focused. my main focus is "coins with insects" and various other themed /topical world coins collections. I think i have about 400-500 coins up to now. I wish you luck on your new hunt. you can't go wrong with seated dollars. yes they're expensive but can be money in the bank later on. posts your 8 coins I am dying to see them. must be rare or fantastic grades or both ?

 

I have 2 of them one in ms63 and one in xf45

 

I was raised in a family of coin collectors Father, and Brothers. In 1976 I got married and put coin collecting on hold for 25 years. Would put away a coin here and there, but never got the real bug until about five years ago when my wife handed me an envelope with some Morgans and Peace dollars in it that came from her father. I got the bug bad and started putting together all the sets I could. Cents, Nickels, Dimes, Quarters, Halves, and Dollar coins. Now I am working on Large cents, and Civil war coins. Next month I be working on Mercury dimes. Three months from now I might be working on Buffalo nickels. When everything seams to be locked up I work on errors. This is just too much fun. LOL
Thanks Biged

 

I like dealing with roman coins. ancient roman coins there the best coins ever

 

I'm all over the place with coins and have been collecting off and on since the early '60s.

I have two coin collections.

1. Is just fun stuff to collect, bullion, moderns, Daniel Carr etc. Stuff to sale on Ebay or trade at coin shows.

2. Coins that I plan on keeping, 43 coins currently (only 1 modern included).



I've changed my collecting choices many times. I think we all do that.

 

17 years ago I start to get involved in Numismatist after I got mt AVATAR and try to learned it. Heavily subscribed coin Magazines attend local coin show buy a computer and go on line join in error world on 1999 and disccusses about error coins but before that I already a member of Society Paper MOney Collector. I can easily say I am NOT yet Done what I like to collect most. I am still active buying coins/ paper money etc... That's all.

 

Funny, I hear that most people start collecting Lincoln cents and move on from there. For me, I saw them as a beginner type coin and did not consider them a serious endeavor. I was all over almost every other metal and denom before the tiny little "medal" charmed and took me over and I bailed on most of my previous collection to persue a MS early date set which is now where my primary collection consists of.

 

From the pics I've seen, you've done very well...:thumb:

 

My Dad bought mint sets every year and gave them to us as Christmas presents. I continued to add to them on my own when I became an adult. But that was out of habit not desire. I thought if I were investing in them, I would do better in classic coinage. Since then I have pretty much stopped buying anything modern. I also became interested in paper currency, but like my coin collection, it's all U.S. and both are concentrated on early mint and BEP issues. Eye appeal is my number one priority. Once in a while I'll buy a non-U.S. piece because I like the balance and design of it or something unusual I read about it. I'm trying to slowly sell off my newer mint collection and use the money towards the classics. Except for a few type pieces, pennies and nickels are very low on my priority and want lists. It's taken 50 years, since I became an adult, to achieve this direction to collecting. Change happens all the time.

 

OP, i understand having a new specialty after 15 years. I change specialties fairly often. I don't have eight coins, though, since i keep my old collections. Matter of fact, i used to collect sl and bust halves and bust half dimes. Its kind of fun to pull them out occasionally and just look at them again.

 

Focus? what is focus?
Started at age 12 filling up my Cents folder. Complete except 1909s VDB and 1955 DDO.
Went on to filling Nickels, Roosevelt Dimes, and Washington Quarters. 90% complete.
Generic World coins. 146 countries and about 1100 different coins.
World Silver Crowns. Will never stop and will never complete
Euro Uncirculated type sets. Complete except Monaco
U.S 20th century Type set. Complete except Gold.
Various US Mint, Proof sets and modern commemoratives that catch my eye.

Current project is US of Mexico Type set. 60% complete.

I have published (personal collection and for family) 2 books on World Silver and 1 on my US type set. When the Mexico collection is far enough along, I'll complete that book.

I guess I belong to the " if I like it, I buy it" club.

 

First, I don't collect coins...but I sure do "accumulate" ones from the times in history that interest me the most.

Except for some bullion, I don't have any American coins.

Without some discipline, one can quickly gather quite an unwieldy mishmash of coinage. One doesn't want to star in an episode of "Hoarders."

My areas of interest and study are limited:

Pre-unification Italy (Il risorgimento 1796-1871):



The Glorious Revolution and Hanoverian England / Great Britain (1688-1837):



The Third Century Crisis of Ancient Rome (AD 235-284):




One can be either a compulsive hoarder or a numismatist. Only the latter requires specialization. The former may require an intervention or therapy.


guy

 

I have lots of coins...... but most of them are modern US coins from circulation. I have liked CRH so much. Unfortunately, most of these will remain only as "face-value" types for years and years to come. So it is only for my enjoyment that I have them. But, I collect from circulation the ones that are the highest grades I can find. I want to have up to 5 of each one that is Mint State, preferably a MS 65 or above if it was graded by a top TPG. All others are considered "spendable" by me.

I do have some other collections, but only one is "complete". The complete one is the Canadian Wildlife Series, which I have two of for each issue, so I have 12 coins total in that. The only reason it is complete is I decided when I bought the wolf that since it was a short series that I would complete it.

My other "collections" get added to when I have the opportunity and desire, or on happenstance. My Icelandic Kingdom coin collection is no where near completed. My Franklin Half collection still has many spots to fill.

And I have a couple other collections, one of which I recently tried to add to, but was denied by a sniper on eBay. That was pretty nice looking bronze medal honoring the building of the Kiel Canal in Germany. But my highest bid I put in (honestly, for what I was seeing with the condition of the medal) was 73.00. And that was even more than I initially thought I would bid. My initial bid was like 51.00; but I thought if I missed it at that I might be regretting it. So I bid the highest I could possibly say I would pay for it. And at the last minute someone came in and put in the higher bid. Oh well. It would have been nice, and fit in with my collection of items from and about the Kiel Canal, it was lost to someone who wanted to pay more. Sometimes, because of price asked for an item, I simply savor it in my mind rather than add it to my collection. Others I will bid for, but if it goes higher, then I have to savor that in my mind, too.

I also have a collection of minor items regarding Hamburg, Germany as well.