Is it wrong to just collect coins I think are cool without any sort of "collection" intended?

What others think of what I collect is not one of those things I worry about.
We all enjoy different stuff.

 

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https://www.jmbullion.com/8-coin-collecting-mistakes/

 

I read a Scott Travers book a while back where he suggests focusing on the highest quality Key Date coins you can afford...if your goal is to make money buying and selling coins. They appreciate the best and are most easily sold.

 

https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/archaeological-looting/

They also, argue that adopting the UNESCO Convention into law could affect the millions of coin and stamp collectors in this country. More persuasive is their contention that it would set a dangerous precedent. If such law were enacted, what is to prevent any country hostile to the United States from declaring the collections of its citizens residing in this country illegal? Such considerations weigh heavily on the shoulders of a legislative body inevitably concerned about how its constituency regards its actions.

 

I was reading the 1931 reprint of Gasoline Alley, called "Walt and Skeezix" and through out the whole year of 1931 the strip had the young male protagonist, Skeexiz, and his club of young men from the neighborhood called "The Rangers", collecting, of all things, Postage Marks from letters. They covered geography from all across the US and the world, as an on going story for months. People from all over the US would send "Skeezix" postage marks (to the artist Frank King) and he would update every small town post office. https://drawnandquarterly.com/author/frank-king. IN the 1932 year they followed George Washington's life up and down the Eastern Sea Board, and the entire Revolutionary War. This histoorically lines up with the introduction of the 1932 Washington Quarter.

 

Absolutely not (before I read the entire thread...)

 

Look into doing a 7070 type album!

 

Nope. Collect what you like. The object is to get personal enjoyment from the hobby, let someone else compete for the "best" or most complete registry set.

 

Collect what you like because you are thee one getting the most enjoyment out of them. When I first started collecting coins about 21 years ago I was all over the place with no focus at all. Then as I went to more and more coin shows are started seeing coins I really wanted. I also bought many Krause world coin catalogs to look at coins that interested me. I started out in world coins because of the vast variety of coins to choose from. Then later I wanted to start collecting by themes... "Coins with insects", "Coins with certain stars", "Coins with hands", "Coins with small coins as the design itself", Error coins, varied coin sides from 3-sided -12 sided coins, Misc. world coins collection, Pop out coins, Toned coins, my toned Canadian 25 cents and 50 cents collections. I do have some U.S. Dansco albums for statehood quarters, ATB quarters, Mercury dimes, Sac dollars. After 10 years of collecting I became much more focused on which coins to put on my want list. That's the beauty of coin collecting...collect how you want to. The most important thing is having fun doing it.

 

I started out narrowly focused on U.S. coins, then I saw one of Lord Marcovan's "Eclectic Box" posts. Now I collect world and ancient coins in addition to U.S. and I enjoy it even more.

 

If you like them....then why not ?

That's what I do, BTW.

 

a what?

 

When someone else starts paying for the coins in my collection that's when I'll listen to their opinion of what to collect. If I want to spend 250% of what the FMV is for any given coin, that's my prerogative.

My money, my collection, my choices.

 

Easy peasy, just do a Google search for Dansco 7070

 

a U.S. type set.

 

I think I will eventually do my own "Eclectic Box of 100" as Lord Marcovan's is doing.

 

The main focus in my collection has been Mint Errors. I have Hundreds of Slabbed examples and a few hundred raw examples. But I do dabble in foreign, ancient and US and foreign precious metals. Nothing wrong in collecting any kind of little round metallic objects that were struck with many tons of pressure

I just stay away from any CAC sticker slabs. Too expensive and really uneccessary... Just joking

 

I’ll be honest. As a relatively new collector with not much experience I have noticed that 98% of the times I see a CAC sticker the coin with the sticker does look better than equally graded coins without it.

I think they do a good job in selecting the best submitted examples for the grade.

But on that note I don’t think it is necessary for the cheaper stuff.

Like a $30 coin with a CAC is silly.

But when they are like $1,000+ I think CAC make sense so better coins get higher premiums.

 

Ah ok I wasn’t sure if maybe there was a wrong way and a right way.

Basically I just pick whatever coin I see that I feel really drawn to. Like when I picked up my last coin (1799 Draped Bust Dollar) I wasn’t even looking for a DBD.

I was actually going in to the shop planning on buying a St. Gaudens Double Eagle. Because I don’t have one and the Reverse on the St. Gaudens is my favorite design of all time.

But the DBD really drew my eye and I just couldn’t bear the thought of not getting it when I had the chance and knowing I can buy a St Gaudens almost anywhere I just went with the DBD.

Idk it’s hard to explain but I think it’s the history I care about the most.

 

And he's right -- but if that's your goal, it seems like you're more interested in a business, not a hobby. Or maybe it's better to say your hobby is profit, not coins.

It's actually a bit of a sore topic for me, because as a kid, a lot of what I heard about coins was "you can get this nickel in change for five cents, but it's worth a dollar!" That's still an uncomfortably large part of my mindset as I'm dealing with coins.

But my two main rebuttals to Travers' statement would be:

1) High-quality key dates may appreciate more and be easier to sell, but buying and selling coins is still a high-overhead process. The dealers or auctioneers have to get their cut.

2) Until you've handled lots of examples from a series, you can't tell which ones are the highest quality. If you start out buying the keys, you're likely to unwittingly end up with substandard or even problem examples.