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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ewomack, post: 3378544, member: 15588&quot;]I started collecting coins at a very young age. My parents bought me some extremely worn Liberty Nickels at a coin shop in the back of a vacuum cleaner store not too far from what was then home. I apparently took to them because I kept getting more. I don&#039;t remember why I liked them, but I remember being fascinated by their age. They were very worn and probably really cheap. I still have these worn slugs. Then I found myself collecting coins from circulation into those little plastic holders that held the cent, nickel, dime, quarter and half. I remember showing a completed year to a friend and he said &quot;good for you&quot; in a very sarcastic tone, which was my first hint that not everyone appreciated this hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then I quit for years until I had disposable income of my own. Something pent up must have burst in me, because I would literally empty my checking account at a coin shop about a 20 minute drive from my then apartment. I look back at it with some horror, I had no savings at the time, because I would literally spend every possible cent from my paychecks to purchase coins. Sadder still, I had no knowledge of cleaned or altered coins or really any knowledge of grading apart from the basic F, XF, AU. After a nasty life change, I quit collecting again and sold all of my non-gold coins for far far far less than what I paid for them, which now makes sense to me because I was probably inadvertently buying mostly problem coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then more years went by and I found myself studying English history, particularly the era of Elizabeth I. A book I was reading mentioned her coinage and I wondered if one could possibly purchase coinage from her reign. I was shocked to find that, yes, one could go on the internet and readily purchase Elizabeth I coins cheaper than I ever imagined. That initiated my recent obsessive wave which is just settling down now. My disposable income had greatly increased by this time and I found myself buying coins that my previous self would have found unimaginable. I now have a decent, but not award-winning or excessive, collection of various types of coins from many countries, some graded, some not. When I added up the amount I had spent on coins over a spread of some years I was utterly shocked and this stunned me out of whatever phase I had been in since purchasing an Elizabeth I three pence. I began to ask myself why I bought these things at great expense to myself. They were by no means bankrupting me at this point, but I didn&#039;t think twice about spending $200, more than I pay weekly for groceries, for a nice coin. I no longer think that way and I haven&#039;t purchased a coin, apart from the Apollo 11 commemorative, for months now. Right now, I&#039;m not sure if I ever will purchase another one. I will definitely purchase far fewer.</p><p><br /></p><p>I realized that coins served as a distraction and an escape for me in various points of my life. Perhaps I was reliving some early childhood fun and the act of purchasing a coin stimulated my unconscious pleasure centers? I don&#039;t know, but I realized that my coin buying was not always &quot;rational,&quot; it was closer to an addiction, though thankfully not a destructive one. I recall times when I wanted to purchase a coin with so much passion and fervency that I thought &quot;this is what alcoholics must feel like sometimes.&quot; Then I knew I had a problem and I began to address it. I realized that a chunk of my collection comprised coins that I didn&#039;t really treasure. I had bought them simply to &quot;buy something.&quot; I was rationalizing the irrational. I sold a number of these coins on Ebay recently and I plan to sell even more. Having come out of my spell, I plan on keeping maybe a handful of coins that actually mean something to me. The rest will likely go.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, what led to this? I&#039;m not sure. I do have extreme alcoholism in my family history. Both of my grandfathers basically drank themselves to death. I&#039;ve heard of some studies that suggest that descendants of alcoholics tend to become addicts or gamblers. I don&#039;t touch alcohol, so perhaps that energy had to go somewhere and it went to coins. Coins of course are a much healthier addiction than booze, but that doesn&#039;t mean that I should keep purchasing these things merely for the sake of purchasing them. I want to have only what I actually and truly want to have and no more.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think I&#039;ll get there.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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