Any advice on how to move on when your collection has gone missing, especially when family is involved? I keep wanting to restart, but everything reminds me of the lost sentimental items from my grandmother and parents and hours of my childhood spent combing through every coin I touched. My husband gave me a new mini collection for Christmas when he saw I was upset, but it's hard to move on. Any advice?
Sorry for your loss. Allow yourself to grieve. Grief has stages; denial, bargaining, anger, depression and eventually acceptance. It takes time before you are ready to let go of those feelings. Take care of yourself.
OHH man , That stinks . I have a similar story that also involves a Purple heart . I just gave up trying to retrieve and its been hard to get over also . The only thing you can is pick up the pieces so to speak and move on . It's your only choice, no ?
be like a phoenix rise from the ashes and restart collecting if you don't you let those who stole win and you don't want them to win do you?
I had a complete Mercury Dime collection that my ex-brother-in-law stole while I was away in the military. I forgot that my father was holding the 1916D. My father passed 25 years later and I found my dime...sealed in aluminum foil. That got me started again, but I understand what you're going through. Personally, I don't show my coins to anyone. It ever ends well.
Just a thought, start with something you didn't collect before. Ancient coins can be mesmerizing, world coins are interesting for themes (coins with insects). Sorry.
Keep them in a safe and only tell your wife if you still have one . That's what I do . Also, the kind that takes a key and Combo type is great .
My ex stole my entire collection. It's taken time and I haven't and probably won't replace everything I once had. That may be for the best. Just let it go and move on. As soon as I could I started my collection again. It's now larger and better than it was before. I miss the items that were gifts and handed down to me. Some I'll never replace but things are better now.
There are coins in my collection that I have had since I started in 1948. There are some that I can remember the conditions around which I acquired them. For instance, the time I got a Twenty Cent piece from an old farmer that pushed his vegetable cart up and down the alleys in our neighborhood. My mother gave me 50 cents and expected 25 cents in return. I got cheated. She forgave me and told me to put the coin in my collection. I would hate to lose things like that.
Read, read, read about coins... books, magazines, online, and go to shows when it's safe. Soon an area of collection of which weren't previously aware will catch your fancy. You'll be wanting to collect in the new area. The old area won't be forgotten and maybe you'll come back to it. But starting in a new area won't remind you as much as of your loss, and you won't be yearning to make things like they were. Cal
If you really love the hobby, you can start again. As for family who treats you like crap, you can forget them. People say you are obligated to love your family. The Bible says should honor your father and mother. I would debate that if they abandoned you and did you wrong. When it comes to cousins, aunts an uncles, who totally disrespect you, forget them. That’s what I’ve done. Their greed and dishonesty have ruined whatever family relationship we might have had.
i've faced this issue myself... it was a few years before i could start again.. about 8yrs ago i had to sell 95% of my collection just to survive. Now I rebuild. I will always love coins and the stories behind them. Those (the stories and history) i still have and in restarting I've made a lot fewer mistakes then the 1st time through
Sorry to hear good luck restarting. If it helps take joy in the fact your grandkids "May" cherrish your coins like you cherrished your grandparants
I never have had a collection stolen but 18 years ago I had to sell off my collection due to financial problems. It took two years before I could start collecting again and now my collection is now several times it size when I sold it especially since I got more into collecting foreign coins. Sorry to hear your collection got stolen. Nothing upsets me more than someone who has no respect for your property.
Thanks for all the replies and advice! It means a lot to know that I'm not the only one who lost their coin collection, and that you can rebuild (and sometimes even better). I have thought about looking at some cheaper ancient coins so it's a new field to me. I'm also lucky to have found a local coin shop that has a box of miscellaneous coins you can dig through for really cheap. I built most of my collection by hunting and digging through change, so the hunt makes it feel like I found something special. I am also lucky to have a husband who tried to "fix it" for me by putting together a new little collection. He's happy to see me excited again. I am very lucky and it's a nice foundation to build my new collection on. I'm excited to share stories, hunting advice, and discoveries on CT! Sometimes only other coin people understand how you can LOVE looking through pennies !
So sorry to hear what happened. I still have every coin I have ever acquired and that's going back to when I was a young boy collecting Lincoln cents. That said, I don't put all my coins in one basket. Half of them are in a Bank safety deposit box and the others are hidden in several places around the house and none of them are in the usual places. I would never put them in obvious places like bedrooms or closets. I'm thinking about getting a small safe and putting junk foreign coins in there just as a decoy.
Personally I think first step is security before starting again. A secure place to store your items that someone can't just walk off with. I chose a big, very big gun safe and mounted it into the foundation slab from the inside with huge screws. Plenty of room and only I know the code to get into it or where the key might be. And it would be hell for most folks to break into easily or quietly. You can do it however you like just avoid the metal cabinet types that are thin and seem cheap. The one I have locks like a vault with pins in all directions and is rated to withstand a house fire for an hour and a half. Depends on your collection really. A couple thousand dollars to protect my firearms and smaller collectibles and jewelry ect seemed like a good deal when everything is either irreplaceable or valuable that I have in there. A lot has to do with the value of what you are trying to protect and the cost must be reasonable to that. I wouldn't let it discourage you, trust has been broken and I'm sure your thinking "why even bother". Just in my opinion do what makes you happy and if you have to write something off as "why even bother" write off the criminals that stole from you instead.
If you reread my post you'll understand this better. I never had an interest in ancient coins, now I do. Just find an area that interest you as there are many to choose from. Some things I did replace and others are new areas to me. I did it so I know you can too. Especially since your husband supports you and your interest. My wife supports me but she doesn't care about coins. Maybe you'll have better luck getting your husband involved in your collection.
