Why do you collect coins?

Hey everyone,I recently came into a fair amount of coins from my father passing and have found myself,for reason unbeknownest to me,really getting into coins.

I am just wondering what made some of you guys start collecting coins at the high levels.

Was it art,money or maybe a bit of both?

I think i'm just looking for a reason my heart starts pumping when I find a copper wheat penny and check the date for 1943.

That was my first encounter with coins btw.My dad seemed to have loved the 1943 penny and has 50+ of them.They looked funny,so I decided to read up on the 43 penny and found out they were worth tons,but as I read farther,I saw the part that said "only the copper pennies".

But ever since then,my heart races when I find an old coin and really can't explain it heh.

It's been over 2 weeks since then and it's only gotten worse.

 

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Hello, well why I collect coins? hehe this thread will have a lot of pages...personally I love them!!!! and REALLY like the historic value of them...

...also regarding the 1943...some people here can give you more info...Im a LC collector but Ive never find a 1943 copper so I don't know the "tests"...the magnet...weith...and you can drop it a little to a table or floor (not from high!) and pay attention to the noise...and you'll know if is really a copper cent...or a copper plated cent (very common). Not to burst your bubble...however I can always make those tests for you

Cheers!

 

Oops! Guess that leaves me out.

But, not wanting to be left out, I got interested in coins, in the mid-sixties, when I was given a few interesting ones, by a relative.

I suppose that I like the hobby so much, because it takes me away from the dreariness of life's day-to-day problems. (work, bills, responsibilities etc.)

Good luck, to you, on your new found interest.

Just a word of warning, though. Coins can be habit forming.

 

recently started

Well, I really just very recently got into collecting coins........

I found several silver bullion bars at a flea market a few months back....which prompted me to look into investing in gold/silver markets....but it seems that I like to have tangible objects instead of paper shares......

From there I started picking up silver bullion coins.....then started looking into older coins made of gold/silver......which led to other non gold/silver coins........

and now here i am now.....putting together sets of coins, researching world money, etc........ its now becomeing a full fledge hobby

but ultimately, im in it for the money/investing aspects of the trade



-adam

 

For me the magic is in the hunt,when I find a rare coin its like i hit the jackpot ! once I compleate a set of coins I feel it was a job well done.

 

For the last five years I've been collecting in the style of Sun Tzu better known for "The Art of War." There are 4,291 books at amazon under "the Art of War" and many of them are how Sun Tzu's theories fit in other applications, especailly business. There doesn't seem to be a volume on the Art of War for coin collecting (how did Dave Bowers miss that? ) so I thought up some of my own.

Market Grading is my enemy. In Sun Tzu lingo I believe it would also be what he called "climate" or the conditions that you have little or no control over. It would also be, IMO, be what he called terrain. There's hard terrain and easy terrain. This board is terrain--easy for some harder for others. It would also be a fortification to a troll should one show up and try to flame all of us. He most likely would get slaughtered for his efforts. Or perhaps, chucked out by the moderators before things got ugly.
"The worst is to attack the enemy's cities." Sun Tzu

In many ways I find that Market Grading is a fortification, lousy terrain,
lousy climate and an enemy that is *much* stronger than me.
"Defend when you have insufficient strength to win." Sun Tzu

Now, I don't want the Sunny man riding up in a chariot in my dreams and screaming:
"YOUR METHODS ARE DUNG BEETLE!"

So, my idea of defense is finding something I like outside of mainstream. Something where the terrain and climate is too difficult for the grading companies--such as exonumia. There are hundreds of different exonumia collecting areas many of which don't really have enough collectors to be worth the grading companies effort. It's all too spread out. Take a look at how many volumes there are just for tokens in the ANA's library.

"Some field positions are too spread out.
Your force my seem equal to the enemy.
Still you will lose if you provoke a battle.
[ Especially with casino chip collectors ]
If you fight you will not have any advantage." Sun Tzu

The grading companies and market grading might make some small progress into tokens and medals and probably have but in the long run I believe it is hopeless for them. And what is hopeless for my enemy is hopeful for me.

 

I guess that I collect coins simply for the same reason the guy climbed the mountain. Because it was there! The collection that I had was started way before I ever got interested in such things, and I simply got left with the responsibility of maintaining and fulfilling the collection. Simple as that!

and besides it is FUN

 

Although i'm not a machinist, i've been a machinist. And it seems to me the diemakers at the Mint are the die maker's die makers. Unsung artists.
Looking at the details in even the smallest coinage. i just really admire that aspect.
Another facet is this grading stuff. It's almost at the opposite end of the spectrum from the art. Meaning, a given coin is what it is, and no more. But all the considerations per type is interesting. To me, grading is what you make it. i don't sell and don't plan to sell anything, so it can't hurt me. And learning about it is interesting. This community(forum) is very valuable to that end too.


Steve

 

Why do I collect coins? I'm easily distracted by shiny objects... Seriously though, I think I collect because I got it from both sides of the family. My mom's dad was a collector (well, a hoarder- you'd understand if you saw the size of the box of cents that he left for Dad and I), and my Dad's a collector too. Guess I was doomed, or genetically predisposed, or something like that. Now I can't get away from coins, I'm up to my eyeballs in them every day at work. It's not a good idea to leave cans of coins alone in the dark at night, they have a tendency to reproduce!

Rachel

 

My father got me started in the late 50's. I still have the Whitman folders with Mercury Dimes & Buffalo Nickles I found at the local bank. I remember fondly sharing an interest with my father. To me coins are not only pieces of art, the history intrigues me. Every time I see a Morgan from 1880's I wonder who might have touched it? Perhaps it sat in a poker game in Deadwood. Maybe it went through the San Fran. earthquake. I can tell you 1 thing- I'm hooked. Have FUN, Dave

 

I collect coins for many reasons but a few are.
The love for the hobby.
I loved going to the coin shop with my dad who bought coins every now and then.
And it helps me spend my money wisely...and not spend it on some of the things kids my age spend it on
Speedy

 

I collect for the love of the hobby, the art and the history. As I grew older I found the investment side of this hobby and decided saving my money through the hobby made a tremendous amount of sense as I was already in the hobby and it put me in full control of buying and selling. Basically everything I have done in the last 10 years through the banks, stocks and 401k made someone else wealthy and in the end I lost. NOT so in my silver and gold. One must learn to be patient, study the books, learn to buy smart and KNOW when to sell. It is all one big gamble, just as every day life, but in this hobby YOU are the CEO! Just yesterday I reached an agreement of a rare foreign coin (modern) for a very modest price and have been offered ten times my investment within 24 hours and I don't even have the coin in my possession yet! I could not do it without the BOOKS on world coins. Invest in the guides and catalogs if you are going to put your hard earned money in to this hobby. And, most of all, for whatever reason you collect, learn to ENJOY it for YOUR own reasons. You be the boss and collect for only yourself! It can't get any better than that!

 

I inherited a small box of world coins when i was younger and it took me 15 years to come to appreciate them. since march of 2004 I have been categorizing and adding to what my grandfather left me. I never thought small, round inanimate objects could bring me so much pleasure. but here I am, almost one year and a couple hundred coins later.

 

My trial by fire started very young ,My uncle who worked at a mercury mine and refinery gave me a mercury dime coated with mercury(so far exposure to it has only affected me mentally) but any how that started me accumulating coins, it was a little later some twenty years before I started collecting and taking an interest in the detail and significance of the design,, I found that there really is a story to each design, I have settled into a couple of favorites Lincoln cents and Mercury dimes .

Good luck on your journey ,,I for one look forward to sharing your interest thru your posts ,,

Welcome to the forum snail

 

Is this a test?? OR a trick question??

 

AN OVERVIEW OF MY ACTIVITIES IN NUMISMATICS
(C) Copyright 2000, 2005 by Michael E. Marotta

Since about 1965, when I was introduced to Ayn Rand and Objectivism, I have always been facinated by money. I was not always into numismatics. I did not collect coins as a kid. I tried stamps and found them curious but not satisfying. My hobbies were reading, looking through my microscope, and looking through my telescope. I did not come to collecting until 1992.

From 1965 to 1992, my only view to coins was in objective values for savings: US silver and common foreign gold. To me, two kinds of Engelhard bar were a type set. In 1992, I wanted to suggest to my employer that Good-For tokens would be an excellent advertising campaign. So, I joined Mich-TAMS and bought a bunch of industrial tokens and medals.

I then pursued Mercury Dimes and other "classic" U.S. type, but it was not satisfying. It was not until I realized that ancient Greek coins are available and affordable that my appetite for collecting was whetted. I selected them by the cities of philosophers. I looked for a day's wages for the time and place, generally an obol, or sometimes a drachmon. In essence, my interest was ignited by Carl Sagan's lecture, "Backbone of the Night" from Cosmos. My passions are science, philosophy, and history. My other hobbies include foreign languages and art. The ancient Greek coins touch all those buttons.

Eventually, I came to practice numismatics not by collecting but by writing on a wide range of topics. I worked my way up from the letters pages of Numismatic News and Coin World, to a Heath Award for Best Article in Numismatist (On the Origins of Coinage). In 1999 and 2000, I was employed by Coin World as their International Editor. Since then, I was awarded another Heath prize (Sir Isaac Newton: Warden and Master of the Mint) and I now write the "Internet Connections" column for Numismatist magazine.

Also, along the way, I quit collecting actively and sold off all of my holdings except for one small box of about 25 items. In that are coins that I consider representative of the forms and uses of money, from an archaic electrum sixth stater to a plastic token good for a beer at Scuff's Saloon in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. My collection still includes trade beads, stock certificates, and bank drafts. (I have another interest in aviation and as a consequence, I have coins and banknotes with aviation themes, but these are in my Aviation materials, not with the "coins.")

As an objectivist, I always had a suspicion of paper money. More recently, I came to understand that paper promises are more important to capitalism than gold coins were. We talk about collecting "coins" and give a nod to other forms of money. Do you have an electricity bill in your collection?

I refer to THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando Desoto (Perseus Books, 2000). In most of the world, most of the people steal the electricity they need, because their residences have no legal standing. One consequence of this is that electric companies can never plan adequately and --- more deeply, they can never CAPITALIZE the demand for electricity: they cannot borrow money against their future expectation of income. They have no way to measure demand and no way to collect for delivery. Capitalism recognizes that your address -- whether you own your home or rent a space for your trailer -- has legal status that allows you and the entities with which you contract to capitalize on the relationships about your address. Your electricity bill represents a subtle and powerful form of money.

"Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort." -- Ayn Rand.

 

When i was a child my uncle had painting made with coins, i mean coins in a frame forming a spiral. Sorry i don't know how to explain, my english isn't very good.

Well, i liked it a lot and ask him how he made it. He told me he saved some coins from each country he visited and asked his friends to save coins from their travels.
And he told me to save coins and when i have enough he will make one for me.

That's how i started to save foreign coins, asking my friends, relatives, etc.

Finally got enough coins to make various of that decorative objects; during that time i noticed some interesting things, for example the letters on the US and Germany coins, later i learned that they were mintmarks.
I had coins from Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Egypt, Uruguay, etc. And started to think about the story of each coin, where it was before, how it came to me, what things were payed with it, how many people use it, a lot of things.

I had my so wanted "painting" made with coins and had a nice lot to start my collection.

Now i really enjoy this hobby, learned A LOT of history, geography, culture.

I can't be more thankful to my uncle who introduced me to this worderful world!

I believe each coin has a story, now i have 1.502 (and counting) stories to hear.

Hope you will understand my narrative, as i mentioned before, my english isn't very good.

 

goossen...your English was fine. I would really love to see a picture of your uncle's coin artwork. Can you post one? It sounds very cool.

 

Goossen,
I sure would like to see a photo of those coin "paintings".