a collection must have a limit?

I collect world coins by type and mintmark. My friend told me I'm not collecting because a collection must have a limit, an end and mine haven't. He say I'm just accumulating.

Many times I tough on putting more restrictions to my collection but to be sincere, I can say "no" to a coin when I see it!

Do you think I should put a limit to my collection?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Many of us must be accumulators then. Many of us will have been collectors our whole lives with no hope of completing some of our favorite series of coins or currency. Should we "complete" a series, we will always look for better examples
to upgrade. I say there is no end, no limit. I believe we collectors have an extra accumulator gene anyway!

 

Okay, maybe I'm just odd, but I turn to a specific book every time one of these kinds of questions approaches me....

FROM WEBSTER'S NEW COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY:
collection: (n) 1. the act or process of collecting 2. something collected ESP. AN ACCUMULATION OF OBJECTS GATHERED FOR STUDY, COMPARISON, OR EXHIBITION.

Therefore, I would have to say that by definition, any collection is just a mass accumulation of objects. No limit has to be placed on it, unless you want it to. Heck, every time I come across a non-USA coin, I first look up its potential value, and if it's common, I throw it into a big bucket. I actually need to get a new bucket because I filled the first one up.

Some people specifically collect one type of coin (Morgan Dollars, or Jefferson Nickels), some collect by years (mine is 1900-2000, all denominations), and some collect by mintmark or by other characteristics, like all holed coins or all toned coins. All of these are self-imposed limitations on one's collection.

If you want to just collect all the interesting coins you can find, go for it! I think all collectors do, and then they just sell or give away the ones they don't need for their collections! Just keep doing what you're doing, and later on, you'll have a GREAT collection for others to see!

~AJ

 

I have an end: when I get them all - I'm done.


I have a long way to go.

 

I'll never quit collecting...I guess my end would be when I had every coin there was to buy.
Mr. Bass had almost every gold coin and he didn't quit!!

Speedy

 

I think every collection has to have a beginning.

 

It looks like my collection will keep me busy for a looooong time then!

 

I think it was a recent book - 'coin collecting for dummies' that made this sort of distinction between collectors and accumulators...

something about a collection has a method, and so forth.

There were a lot of things in that book that didn't sit right with me.

 

I think my collection will have an end...the end will come either the day before or the day I die.

 

No end to my collection in sight! I am coin poor and proud of it! And, as I always tell my family, friends and co-workers who just don't understand, "I know where my money went, do you know where yours went? Mine is NOT gone its just lying quietly, tucked away in another form and can be easily converted back to the original form if needed!" I may have spent my cash but it is STILL with me and I can't think of any other hobby where spending is really SAVING?

 

Antiques?

As for collecting/accumulating well i can't comment off the top of my head on that one. I need to think.

 

I look at it this way, and feel that most of you do the same if you only will admit it to yourselfs. I have always placed "limits" on my collections or parts there of. By this I mean, as to quality, they all had to look alike so far as condition and appearance. So I guess I would say you got to have "limits".

Then again and I speak of this as one who is undergoing such a move, the minute you place " limits" on you collection as to....only so far and no further.....You are preparing to get out of the business of coin collecting. Maybe this is why I don't get worked up about what the next cent will have on it, or that they will be minting dollars with presidents etc.. I't not what I'll be doing, so good luck to the ones who will still be collecting.

 

Not the term I would use, but your heart is in the right place Doug.

 

I read one time, I forget where, that if you have more than 20 coins in your collection, you probably have mishandled the collection because you would have done better to buy higher grade coins in a more limited number. I think the number 20 was arbitrarily chosen to make the point that collections should be limited. That said, I am an accumulator by that definition, not a collector. Both approaches are equally valid, and not everyone has the same objective.

 

Limit

I found out that I have a limit, The last time I went to add some more coins to my lockbox at the bank, I could'nt fit any more in there. I had to stand on the lid of the box to get it closed and it's so heavy it's a struggle to get it to the viewing room. Thats when I decided that's it, I'm not getting a bigger box,I can hardly lift this one. I'm not giving up collecting just selling numbers of coins to to buy a very few older ones.

 

I wouldn't be reading that type of book if I were you...no one can tell you how to collect or if you didn't buy the right things...
And I'd also say that if you should only have 20 coins then many of the great collectors such as Bass and others on this forum such as GDJMSP (even if its world gold its neat!) also are not collectors...they must hoard...hog wash!

Speedy

 

I am a coin accumulator, but every time I begin a new collection within my accumulation then I set parameters on what exactly that part of my collection will entail. For example, when I began my Walking Liberty Halves I made a descision that I wanted all date and MM combos including the obverse and reverse varieties, but that I wouldn't collect the errors (46DDR, mainly). I also decided that I wanted to collect the coins in the VF-XF range with the keys in VG and the semi-keys in F. I set some rules based on my financial situation and my strong affinity for completed sets. Another example is when I decided to start a "holey" Dansco 7070 type set. I decided that it had to have some rules. Since I wanted all the coins to be holed, then I decided that the dates had to be readable and the hole couldn't be through the date. Also, the coins could only have 1 hole and no love tokens would be acceptable. Finally I decided that there was no way that I would be able to find all of the required coins, (mostly the most modern, like the staehood quarter and the Sac) so I would allow myself to drill holes in coins ONLY if I obtained them for face value or less.

Basically, I look at my finances and then look at the coins in any potential collection that I might try to assemble and then I set the rules to make the chase possible, but also rewarding for how challenging it will be. This way I can continue to accumulate in a semi-structured manner

 

20 coin limit is fine... I totally agree.

by that logic - I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 65 coin collections!

 

20 coins? ah well in that case i'm not as far off as i thought.

I have exactly 20 coins in my 'good' coin collection. That's the one that counts.

I have more coins that don't really count in this good set and that i'm not that bothered about them.