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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;chip, post: 1743032, member: 19122&quot;]A part of life is setting a routine, of doing things routinely and methodically. I have read that the one thing that people who live long lifes all have in common is a routine. One person may take a shower, eat a breakfast and then take on the days occupations, until a certain time, when they take a lunch, drink some wine, enjoy a cigar and then go back to their days duties, retiring at a set time and rising the next day at a set time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another persons routine may be&nbsp; very different but it seems it is not so often the specifics of the routine, but there is a regularity, a rhythm and continuity that seem to lend itself to longevity.</p><p><br /></p><p>What has these things to do with the hobby of coin collecting? Just this, just like a routine can lend itself to longevity in life, a method could lend itself to longevity in the coin collecting hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p>Maybe another way to say it, using more modern terminology is if you want to be in the hobby for a good long while, you have to make it sustainable, it has to be practiced in such a way that you can do it in that way come what may.</p><p><br /></p><p>One must remember that while having a routine is desirable, if the routine does not enhance enjoyment it has become a rut, therefore it is important that the routine does not fall into habits that make the routine become a rut, which is what happens when you are travelling in miry ground and when it dries out it becomes jarring bumps that can rattle your teeth. So a routine must be done in a light way that does not dig into the ground and make a deep track.</p><p><br /></p><p>If I were to solely rely on an uncommon rare windfall to fund the hobby it would not be sustainable, now in my case, the passing of my father gave me a large accumulation of coins, at first the charge was to know what I had, now that task is a never ending task, and time constraints dictated that I could not search everything in such a way to say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I realized the true value of the collection my father had amassed.</p><p><br /></p><p>For instance I had rolls and rolls of bicentennial half dollars, I sold most of those for a bit over face value, not to numismatists, but mostly to acquaintances at work and at the local waterring hole. One guy at work came back to me and told me that in one roll he found the roll was not all bicentennial coins but had one from 1964, and one from 1967, I told him that those coins were actually silver and if he wanted I would replace them with a couple other bicentennial halves, but after talking he&nbsp; decided to keep them also.</p><p><br /></p><p>The advice I have been given was to buy the book first, but in my case I had the collection first and had to ascertain the value, and while I am confident that I am near to the mark I am also confident that a lot of things were missed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Routine though means that I cannot base my hobby on recieving a large accumulation every year, that is not sustainable, while it helped me to get started, since I was able to claim many pieces from my fathers collection at what local dealers claimed that they would pay, I will not be able to continue that as a routine of the hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I have had to establish a routine, and that routine has been tied to a daily, weekly, biweekly, and twice yearly cycle daily I visit cointalk and some other online places, weekly I pick up some rolls to search and pick up a bullion piece or two, biweekly I visit some coin shops&nbsp; to look for some specific coins, and twice yearly I will visit the local coin show.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think that my fathers collecting was mainly from 1964 to ? and then was reignited by the state quarters, that he was able to collect from pocket change, I think he had a long hiatus from sometime in the mid seventies to when the state quarters started circulating. I think that probably when the coinage had the silver content taken out he took silver out of circulation, it was at that time he also got into lincoln cents, his large cent collection was something he&nbsp; was very proud of I hear, tho he never talked of it to me, at that time I was in the navy and starting my own family.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have not felt the need to visit on line auctions, there might be some good buys there, but I prefer the meeting of people the feeling of give and take, to the competition of bidding, my hobby routine might change over time in that regard but for now my hobby gives me more satisfaction when I talk to others asking questions and learning who is trustworthy.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have found that I seem to gravitate to dealers and other collectors who have a feel for the history of the hobby, and appreciation of the coins for their beauty and significance&nbsp; there are a lot of them out there. These people who can opine on the issues of the day as they were back in 1798, and see it from the vantage point of time.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think success in practically anything requires consistency,and time to establish a base of knowledge, and experience to learn how to apply that knowledge. I would think that success in the hobby of coin collecting would mean these three things, first finding enjoyment and satisfaction in practicing the hobby, second finding enjoyment and friendships with others who enjoy the hobby, and third maintaining and perfecting a collection that is something to be proud of.</p><p><br /></p><p>To meet those three signposts of success it seems to me to be necessary to establish a routine and a method, hence to make the hobby sustainable, if you want to be in it long term, and it seems I must in order to truly enjoy it, a sustainable routine must be established.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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