Pre-midlife crisis when it comes to coins

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No, I totally realize that. That's what lead collectors to start seeking out "condition rarities" in modern circulating issues.

It doesn't need to be a rarity to be a collectible. If they would produce commemoratives with a mintage of under 25000, with a low household limit (like 1, or maybe 2), and start cracking down on people who try to circumvent those limits, then we might end up with something of collectible value in a few years. Of course, the "cracking down" business is probably too difficult, and we'd have people whining about not being able to get them, and the floodgates would open and we'd be left where we are now.

 

At 21 I had just moved to my own place and was making jack #&^% for a salary. You may be surprised how much you can get done in the next 10 to 20.

 

haha i now have hope for the future!

 

IMHO, the best way to deal with the modern day excesses of the US Mint (and other major mints for that matter) is to ignore them and not collect the trinkets they produce.

 

Well, after getting three of the reverse silver eagle proofs and having the other two on the way here, I cannot imagine how one for the 30th anniversary escaped the Mint's attention. Frankly, it baffles me.

 

Grading world coins is quite difficult for me as well. I've got tons of them to go through. It's amazing how many different varieties of EVERYTHING that exist. I'm saving those to grade for 'someday'. You can find silver in various percentages though, depending of course how much there is to go through. Nobody around me seems to be interested in 'foreign' stuff however. Go figure.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. 24, and in college. Not a lot of spare time or income. And I've had a similar feeling lately, I still am collecting stuff but not really caring too much about it. So I've decided to make a change and try to get nicer, higher grade coins that I've always wanted. I'm starting to sell off my surplus coins or ones I don't really care about and using the funds to buy coins I want. Like this one, I sold one of my quarter eagles to fund it (tough decision, but this coin is beautiful).

 

Good trick. I'm starting to realize that I don't actually need an album full of entirely vinegar-dated, identical looking Buffalo nickels... I would enjoy one or two high grade ones more than 100 crappy ones.

 

The trouble is, their mission (the goal they must strive for, or lose their jobs) is to make as much money as possible. It was fun, watching Jon Cameron and Rhett Jeppson trying to wriggle around that topic at the Mint Forum.

 

I thought Ike put a stop to it?

 

Exactly. That's what I realized as well. I still have my sets that I enjoy working on, but instead of branching everywhere. I've decided to narrow my fields down. Maybe work on building a type set. A nice AU-BU coin.

 

I just went mad when I first started to collect, taking in anything and everything I could get my hands on. I am a little more educated than I was a few years back and if I had it to do over well, hindsight is 20/20. Still, I have tons of 'lesser' stuff now to put into some kind of order for my son to inherit. Plus, I need to insure what I have so here I am. I'm learning though.

 

Tell that to the US Mint. They appear to have short memories.

 

No, you probably don't.

Yes, you probably would.

I've been collecting since I was about 10 years old, now in my 50s, and I own a grand total of just 269 coins in my collections. And frankly, I'd like to thin the herd to about half that.

 

Reminds me of my clarinet collection. At its height I had about 30 examples. It's now down to 2

 

Interests wax and wane, it's just a fact of life. I've been collecting since my grandfather got me started when I was ten. But yes, there have been two rather long periods where I fully neglected my coins in search of other interests, jobs, etc. Even when I was collecting my interests and tastes changed over the years. I now have complete, or partial sets that just don't interest me anymore. But there they sit, waiting for...I don't know, interest to rekindle?

 

Well, sometimes, and I stress SOMETIMES, dealers make it difficult to collect. I should really start a separate thread on this topic. Yesterday I had a dealer tell me, whom I know rather well, that my 1940 proof Mercury Dime I busted out of an old ANACS PF62 holder, was in reality a highly polished business strike. When I showed him the inside holder the coin was in with the label, he accused me of lying! I then told him, if what he said is true, then TPG's have been slabbing crap for a long time now. How many other misindentified coins are out there? I don't know why he would want it. It's a details coin my friend is letting me hang on to. I have not decided if I want to buy it yet. So after the CT opinions I took it to my only local guy I trust and he tells me this! Here is the coin in question. He also said "it looks rusted." "Just a highly polished regular Mercury." He said the rims were not squared, they are round. Really?

 

Tommy...you mention you must insure your coins, please tell me who do you plan to go to for the insurance to cover your coins? I looked into insurance several years ago...2005 or 2006 with Allstate via Renters Ins policy and was advised that it would cost penny for penny what I'd invested in my purchases &/or the then value if sold...in other words if I bought a coin for $75.00 which was worth $300.00 on the market it would cost me the latter for Ins on just that coin. I of course dropped that Insurance idea altogether but as I have noooo room for a quality safe and choose not to safe deposit box coins I thoroughly enjoy perusing I wonder who you go to or will go to for coverage of your little gems? Thankx for the feedback!