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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kevin Mader, post: 4408135, member: 106826&quot;]I was engaged in a thread a few years back where a number of coin enthusiasts debated &quot;what is a collection&quot; and &quot;what are collectors&quot;.&nbsp; Essentially, the discussion was about coin collecting vs. coin hoarding and the murky line between.&nbsp; Everyone is going to have to make that determination for themselves, but this was my journey:</p><p><br /></p><p>As a youth, I was a collector and a hoarder.&nbsp; I built albums/folders and stuck coins in flips but I also had containers of this-and-that with all of the extras.&nbsp; Anything old in my mind was &#039;collectable&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p>I took a significant break from serious collecting for years (school, work, family...the usual suspects I suppose) but I continued to hoard anything old and toss all loose change into a large container (water jugs) to review at another time.&nbsp; Eventually I got back into collecting and was glad I did both (I picked up variety hunting).</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve picked through the hoard and loose change and decided to release what was left.&nbsp; Rolled up everything and went to the bank.&nbsp; Shortly after, I learned about this-and-that variety, but my stash was gone.&nbsp; So I picked up CRH and went back at it.&nbsp; The trouble though was that my jugs of loose change had several high grade coins that were in suspended state since they entered the jugs at yearly intervals.&nbsp; I am sure I returned some high grade varieties; but you can&#039;t keep everything.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said, I decided to build roll sets by year/mm for Lincoln and Jefferson.&nbsp; I keep the very best and toss the rest into buckets (nickels anyway).&nbsp; When I come across youngsters who are interested in collecting, I will give them a bucket to search through...find their very best specimens by year/date.&nbsp; This gets them going.&nbsp; These are circulated specimens so the hope is that they will take it from there, upgrade and improve their collection.&nbsp; By whatever means.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, there is a benefit to hoarding if you plan to revisit it to find collectable items.&nbsp; Otherwise, if you don&#039;t have youngsters in mind, the rest should go back into circulation.&nbsp; I keep my roll set for trading with other collectors, so I try to keep VF coins or better in those rolls...but there are lesser grades especially for the semikey/key date coins.&nbsp; Otherwise, the collection will be thousands of dollars face value if you intend to keep everything.</p><p><br /></p><p>On a similar thought, some folks are hoarding &#039;copper&#039; cents.&nbsp; I don&#039;t see an advantage in that as precious metals increase value more rapidly.&nbsp; A $100 in gold or silver is a better bet than hoping $100 in copper will ever match the return.&nbsp; But to each their own.</p><p><br /></p><p>I like to think that I&#039;m a collector with soft side for hoarding some coinage temporarily to engage a new collectors into the hobby.&nbsp; My wife may have a different opinion on that though.&nbsp; Good luck!![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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