It occurred to me that there is more than one way to look at a collection. I collect German coins and there is no way I will ever accumulate all those minted. I was imaging some German States coins today and I thought that once I have owned and imaged a coin perhaps it is worth selling and buying something different. At least I have a visual reminder of something I once had. That way I have a much greater chance of actually having and holding more coins in my lifetime. Seems like this is an interesting topic for discussion. What do you think? There are many members here who still post picture of coins they no longer own.
Definitely a neat idea, and as you said a great way to own more coins by turning them over quicker. I'm still at the point in my coin collecting career that I don't want to part with my coins just yet...but one day I'll be able to provide a solid opinion on this!
As time goes by my interest areas change. So I sell things off and use the money to get items that feed whatever my current interest. Currently most of my interest areas are US coins from the 19th century. My Lincoln set is gone and that included the keys plus a 1955-DDO (XF). My Merc dimes are gone and the 3 keys were included. My Washington quarters are gone. My WL halves are gone. My Buffalo nickels are gone including the 3-leg. EXCEPTIONS: -- My birth year set -- My UNC Jefferson nickel set (not easy to sell) -- Three sets of Roosevelt silver dimes (UNC; -66 business strikes with -67 proofs; -65 full torch) -- Two sets of Jefferson War nickels (-66 business strikes; UNC full steps) -- Peace dollars -- Individual coins for my type set
For most of my life I collected US coins. But in later years I decided to give that up and switched to collecting world coins, specializing in gold. So, I sold my entire "collection" - all the US coins. That was 1 collection. Now during all those years sure there were coins that I bought and they became part of my collection. And as time passed if I found a nicer one I might sell the old one and keep its replacement. But selling the previous example doesn't mean it was never part of my collection, it most definitely was. It just wasn't any longer because I replaced it. Now of course there were also times that I bought coins, which were particularly nice, fulling intending at the moment I bought them to sell them to someone else, because I knew I could make profit on that coin. I used to cherrypick dealers all the time. Those coins were never a part of my collection. When I stopped collecting US coins and switched to collecting world coins, as I mentioned I sold my entire US collection - every single one. And then for years I collected only world coins. And during that time I cherrypicked coins as well. Later on, I discovered that collecting the coins themselves was not what I had truly loved about the hobby. But that it was the study of the coins that I truly loved - not the collecting. So once again, I sold my entire collection of world coins. So, as I view it, during my life I had 2 collections, one of US coins and one of world coins. The defining factor for me is that any coin you buy intending the keep as a part of your collection - is a part of your collection. And the fact that you might sell it later on doesn't change anything - it still was a part of your collection. But if you sell it, it just isn't anymore. In other words intent is everything. Intend to keep it - part of the collection. Buy it knowing full well you intend to sell it - not a part of your collection. It's pretty simple.
when I started collecting gold coins I had to sell them to buy others. So I would take pictures before selling them. Then I thought .. gee .. just download pictures of them and have a "collection of pictures". Well, I actually learned that I prefer holding and looking at them in hand, rather than a picture. So now I slowly, slowly buy gold coins for my collection. Keep them, so I can appreciate looking at them at any time in the future. I don't look at my collection much which is good becz their at a SDB but I do enjoy looking at them from time to time. It all comes down to how your appreciate the coins, and whether you move on to new "collections" and how you appreciate those. Everyone is going to be different. I only collect US coins. I like old pre-Euro Italian and Spanish coins due to the designs but have no inclination to "collect them" other than through past change that I've accumulated.
This is an interesting topic and idea. For me though, there is a bit of a nuance to it. As I look through my collection (US coins and foreign) I see coins I forget I had, so I get the same fun and pleasure seeing them as I had when I first bought them. I think there is a numismatic term for this phenomenon: "Senectus."
