Does your collection have a limit?

Johndakerftw · Sep 19, 2019

My only limit is my budget.

I have a very long list of coins on my wishlist.

Erin

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Kentucky · Sep 19, 2019

My wife has a limit................but I passed that YEARS ago

Nathan P · Sep 19, 2019

Suarez said: ↑

I think maybe you guys misunderstood my feelings about the internet and so on. I'm about as hooked-in to the digital age as any millennial and see the Information Age as humanity's literally most important leap forward. My argument is simply that as opposed to the 1950's (or 1850's) collectibles as a hobby is on a steep decline precisely because there's so many other alternatives that are appealing as entertainment and without this new generation replacing the ageing, established one it's a foregone conclusion where we're headed.

When I was in grade school every other kid had a stamp or coin collection. Maybe not every other kid but certainly a significant percentage. I've spent a lot of time with my kids' friends over the years and not one single one of them, somewhere between a dozen or two, has collected anything at all that I can tell. I've shown many of them some coins and they unanimously they think it's cool and.... that's about as far as it goes. It's equivalent to me and Greek coins. I look at them and think wow, they're really cool looking. I appreciate their "oldness" and the incredible artistry and so on. But I don't feel the need to possess them. Without that spark the whole process of taking the next step never materializes. They might as well be items in a museum, to me no more worthy of lingering attention than a well-crafted vase or a medieval oil painting.

I wonder if the ACE coin cleaning program of a few years back, which supposedly reached many schools, made so much as a single kid take up the hobby. Have you ever seen a post where someone credits this having kickstarted their collection? In fact, my own company Dirty Old Coins sold thousands of coin kits between 2005-2010 and I can probably count on one hand the number of those customers who credit that as a starting point into their own ongoing interest in numismatics.

And it's, again, not just coin collecting. It's pretty much every other offline passtime. How many kids do you see nowadays raving about their ant farm, train sets or even board games like Dungeons and Dragons? If you have to think hard to come up with an isolated example you've proven my point.

Honestly, if I had had access to something like the internet and cell phones and video games as a kid back in the 70's I seriously doubt I ever would have picked up coin collecting. It's possible I would have later on in life, sure, but if you're not exposed to it in your formative years I think the appeal is much weaker. As a rhetorical exercise, in your most objective, detached assessment ask yourself if this might not be the case for you as well.

Rasiel
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I have two boys age 15 and 17. There are really into card games like Dungeons and Dragons and particularly Magic the Gathering. They have a club after school where they play these games with many other kids. My older son went to an engineering camp over the summer and now plays Dungeons and Dragons online with two kids who also went to the camp - one from North Carolina and another who lives in France.

I bring this up because my boys and their friends do collect these cards and even sell the ones they don't want over the Internet for a lot more money than you would expect.

Given that my boys are also interested in history, it's not inconceivable to me that they might develop an interest in numismatics when they're older and have the time and money to pursue the hobby.

I'd also point out that if it wasn't for the Internet, I myself would never have found this hobby or even known it was possible to acquire these beautiful pieces of history for largely affordable prices. It's also rapidly accelerated my learning curve far beyond what would have been possible in the pre-Internet days.

Multatuli · Sep 19, 2019

My limit is my life time.
And my budget, of course. I started “collecting” coins around my 5-6 years. Since then, Numismatics is so ingrained in my life that I can't imagine myself without it. I even think about how people can live without collecting coins. Maybe I an a coinholic, who knows? The collector is a happy person. I at least am. I can say that collecting coins would work in my life as an antidepressant in another's. And each new coin brings me the same thrill as 30 years ago, when the first ancient coins began to appear in my collection. Why do we have limits?

jamesicus · Sep 19, 2019

I couldn’ t live without my Roman Imperial coins (and the accompanying reference books) either. There are no limits to the extent of your collection other than the ones you choose to impose yourself.

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