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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;benhur767, post: 3032320, member: 36818&quot;]It does seem to me that all collecting is more or less a process of &quot;hole filling.&quot; If not a literal hole, as in a coin album, than an emotional or intellectual hole. Those who say that they don&#039;t fill holes, they buy what speaks to them or something of the sort... well, this is also true for me to a great extent. But this is really another way of saying that there <i>is</i> a hole that needs to be filled — a figurative hole, which is the urge to possess that particular coin. Otherwise we would be satisfied to not own it. We would just look at it and say, &quot;wonderful coin!&quot; and that would be the end of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>If we buy what speaks to us long enough and accumulate enough, I think most of us start to identify patterns to our preferences, and it&#039;s natural to want to think about developing these patterns into literal sets. When arrived at in this way, &quot;hole filling&quot; is less rote exercise and more of an exploratory and educational process. We learn something from each new coin that we acquire, and each coin placed within the context of other coins brings progress to the story that we are telling through our material, or the story that the material is telling to us.</p><p><br /></p><p>One thing I really like about collecting ancient coins versus collecting modern coins is that it is easier to define for ourselves the particular set of holes. This is my perception at least. For example, with US coins, there are well-defined standard &quot;sets&quot; that most collectors stick with. Every CC Morgan dollar, or a complete set of proof Ikes. There is a need for completion that is part of human nature, and there&#039;s nothing wrong with this. A complete set of anything is very satisfying! If my interest lies with Ike dollars and I&#039;ve nearly completed a set of them, why should I be content to never fill that last hole? &quot;A Complete Set of Ike Dollars,&quot; or &quot;A Complete Set of Ike Dollars Except for One&quot;?</p><p><br /></p><p>Ancient coins offer such incredible scope for creativity, flexibility, and quirk. Certainly there are standard &quot;sets&quot; with ancients as well, such as the Twelve Caesars or Gallienus&#039;s Zoo. Who would be truly satisfied to own eleven Caesars but never pursue the twelfth? That person would be quite exceptional, like a Buddhist monk or something.</p><p><br /></p><p>But with ancients there are so many emperors, mints, types, and so many minor varieties being discovered every day, so many unknowns and extreme rarities, many of which are quite obtainable because there is little demand for obscure stuff. Every ancient coin is unique, even if struck from the same dies. How can completion be defined for us externally then? I honestly don&#039;t think it can, and this offers a great sense of freedom. Ancient coins are an ideal collecting area for which buying what speaks us and filling literal holes can converge in a very satisfactory way.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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