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Message:: [QUOTE="lordmarcovan, post: 2571234, member: 10461"] [USER=82237]@Eaglefawn[/USER], yours is exactly the kind of detailed compliment I like to receive.  It made my week.  Thank you.  <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie80" alt=":shame:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> Limiting one's self always takes discipline, doesn't it?  And yes, it gets more difficult to part with coins as the quality or history of them gets all the better or more fascinating.  But there are billions of other coins out there to be appreciated, so if I enjoy one a while, then pass it on, it helps me step a little closer towards purchasing the next one.  This also helps prevent irreparable damage to my modest paycheck, which doesn't have a whole lot of extra money for "luxuries".  (In short, it keeps me out of ladymarcovan's doghouse, if you know what I mean!) As I may have mentioned (I'm bad about repeating myself and never remember which forum I said something on), I have been forced by economic circumstances to sell off my entire collection two or three times (first in my 1994 near-bankruptcy and divorce, and again when I got laid off in the 2008 recession), so there have been big purges in the past.  But I rise again like a phoenix from the ashes, and each time I rebuild, it's a little better than before, since I still retain the lessons learned from the times before.  This has taught me a little bit of material detachment.  Which is a valuable life lesson.  It's all just stuff, after all, and we don't take it with us to Valhalla or Heaven or whatever's next.  The things we learn and the human relationships we make along the journey are what are truly valuable. Now, all that being said, I can potentially imagine a day when this collection "matures".  (Perhaps when every coin in it is worth $500+? $1K+? - who knows),  or everything has such a sentimental value that I can't bring myself to sell it. If or when that day ever arrives, I'll slide the box back into the safe deposit drawer and pick up something else.  Maybe spread out again into a wider collection, like the (raw) Roman Imperial emperor set I had to break up in the 2008 purge. And sometimes, like a boomerang or a homing pigeon, a coin I've sold comes back to me.  Occasionally by pure serendipity.  I had a case of that this month. You will see that coin when I post the next (grossly overdue) update here.  It is an off-center error on an 1820s British shilling.  I sold that coin in the 1994 purge and it went out into the wild, then I stumbled across it again online this summer.  It is now mine again, 22 years later! (And for 450% what I sold it for in '94...  tempus fugit!) Thank you all for the commentary and attention.[/QUOTE]

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