Purging my collection

Like I said, there's a difference between reducing your collection and getting rid of it. My wife certainly wouldn't say I've gotten rid of anything. The only way to tell is if you knew how many I had before. I still have thousands of coins and I'm not likely to get rid of many more in the future. Most likely just cut down on a few sets I haven't felt like breaking up yet. But I'd rather spend my money on something more unusual that I didn't have then just dropping $50 on an otherwise pedestrian coin because it's a key date. Key dates kind of ruin the fun for me, unless it's that I found one in a junk bin.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

This is a timely post for me. I recently decided to sell off all my duplicate coins and use the proceeds to fill in the blanks in my Morgans, and invest in High Grade coins that SHOULD hold their value.
Start on the Peace $ next month (crap that's tomorrow) oh well, going to stick to my plan.
Semper Fi
Stay Safe

 

I agree about "keys". It ruined US collecting for me, being told what I had to have in my set then running up the price of them to astronomical levels. Near the end I was collecting more type than anything, just picking up pretty AU 19th century issues.

Same with ancients. I simply sidestep coins if I feel it though. Since we cannot collect them all, we have much less pressure to HAVE to have a certain coin. The only pricey, rare coins I own is because I wanted them, not because it was "key".

 

Here are some of the rarer items. I had at one time 12K specimens/ all set/ labelled in museum drawers.

 

Does anyone notice a pattern here among coin collectors?

 

When I worked in several local coin shops I offered this advice to some who were trying to finish their Lincoln collection but ran into a brick wall as they couldn't afford the key dates. This is a hurdle for many.

I offered this as a solution. Just put together the best condition Lincoln type set based on the changes in design and purpose over the years.

Unc. Lincolns? Of course. 1909 issues aren't that spendy if you stick to Philly issues, S mints? of course, how about a 54 or 55, or even a 31 if that works for you. Many of these are available at very low prices.

D mints? Sure, common for sure and very affordable in Unc grades. A 43 in unc covers the mint as well as a metal variety.

P's, of course pick a year any year. Lincoln Memorials, how about 59, first year.

I think you begin to get the idea. Adding coins based on medal content, design changes can add to the juiciness of the set.

Damn, I'm almost thinking of doing one myself. Bear in mind I stopped collecting US coinage in around 1995 or so after finishing a US type set (no gold) when I was introduced to ancients.

Another collection I value the most is my collection of friends in the hobby. They are priceless. This is my hobby, I do it for FUN.

Cheers to all, and stay safe.

 

I went through a hoarder phase and quickly grew tired of it. To me, it felt like collecting for the sake of collecting and buying for the sake of buying. When I more than once bought a coin that I already had in my collection I knew it had gone too far. I did sell off some items, but I more so became extremely picky about what I brought in. Now I buy less than 10 coins a year, if that, and they all went through a a vetting process. I ask "do I really want this?" or "will I still want this in 10 years?" Almost always the answer is "no" or I find enough reasons not to buy something that it holds me back. I find that I now buy more expensive high quality coins than many lower quality "junk" or easily obtained coins. Overall, I'm more satisfied.

Now I remain focused mostly on Japanese coins (I'll also keep my ancients and hammereds, but I don't have that many). As such, I could not resist this gorgeous Japanese 50 Sen when I came across it online. In my 10 years of searching, I've never seen one this nice for the price. Sometimes all one has to do is wait.

 

I bet I have more to purge than you do. Just too lazy to do it.

 

Any of them high grade (66 or better)?

 

There's a museum in Colorado Springs with about 1,000,000 insects in their collection. Worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

 

I never purge, I disgorge....,,..LoL

It's actually easier than I originally expected. Selling anything carries with it the tendency to view the coins being sold-off as a mistake to have been purchased in the first place. Can't look at it that way, much better to view it as refocusing the collection on a more selective basis. Or at least that's how I approached it.

With that in mind, I first sold-off all the raw coins in the collection. There were large accumulations (75 coins) for both Italy and Russia that were sold-off as group lots by Stack's Bowers Galleries. As group lots they were worth enough to qualify for the live auction (this was about 8 years ago) instead of being buried in the online-only auction. Just UNBELIEVABLE how much I got for them, --way more than expected.

Waited a few years, then did it again. This time I narrowed down all the slabbed coins by dumping anything that wasn't made of silver or gold. All the copper, all the bronze, all the copper-nickel and nickel coins,...,, Dumped them all, again via Stack's Bowers. Included a nice run of high grade Albanian minors that eventually ended-up on eBay and have since languished there.

Next, dumped all of the silver post-1861 Italy subsidiary coinage. That was a little tougher to do since many of the coins were gorgeous high grade examples, but for the most part only worth $125 each on average. They were taking up too much room in the safe deposit box for what they were worth. Again, via group lot at Stack's Bowers.

Finally, I sold-off all of the Egyptian silver in the collection including several extremely desirable crown size pieces, some originally from the Pittman collection. This was less of a cull-the-hoard decision than a "lock-in-some-gains" decision. Many of the coins, especially the Farouk coins in silver, had appreciated beyond what I thought they were worth. Made out really well on those too.

The best part of the exercise is spending the proceeds on a coin or two that more closely reflects current collecting interests, but which would have been prohibitively expensive without the extra funds from selling some of the other less valuable coins off.

 

No, I'm not that kind of collector.

 

We all do that kinda. I like 72 cents