What gets you interested in a certain area of collecting?

I'm not sure if I am really asking the question the right way, but I guess I mean what interests you about specific things you collect?

I collect wheat cents because that's what got me started, and darn it, I will finish that set someday if it kills me.

I really can't say for sure what got me into Mercury dimes. I like the design, and it is an obsolete coin, but most dates are quite affordable. Affordable is a big issue with me.

I started a type set because I have such a hard time making a decision about what to focus on, so this was a way not to have to decide...I can collect one of everything!

My world coin collection is much the same...I try to get as many different kinds of coins as I can. I like the idea of having stuff from all over the world. Usually one to a country, although if I read about a certain area of the world or a historical period, I want something associated with it....which brings me to things I don't collect but would like to:

I would like to collect Roman Republic coinage, because I've done some reading about the later part of the Republic, and it would be so cool to have stuff that circulated during that era.

Another area that interests is politcal tokens such as Hard Times and Political CWTs...I would want to do a lot more reading about the stories behind the tokens, and particularly the origins of the slogans on them.

Classic commmems interest me, but are mostly too expensive for me. I don't like all of them though, which might make it a little easier...I wouldn't feel the need to complete a set.

There's more, but I think I've gone on long enough...I just was interested in what gets a person into, say, Franklins, or Bust coinage, or whatever.

 

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Chrysta: The four things I am collecting now are 18th cent tokens from Mass. Silver state quarters graded at least pr68, A 20th cent type set at least ms65 and any coin book I can find (Just picked up Breens encylopidia and leve it !). The reason for collecting each thing is very diffrent. The tokens are because I love hunting around places searching for infomaion about the tokens I get and seeeing that I am from Mass it is easyer to consentrate on that state. The type set is so when I am asked a question about a certin coin I can have a good example on hand. The state quarters I am doing because everyone else is doing it. And last but not least the coin books is because You can never know to much!!! CHRIS

 

When I first started, I collected anything I could put in a whitman folder, no matter the grade or condition. Then it finally dawned on me that there is such a thing as spending good money on bad coins. I have settled into collecting high grade coins that appeal to me. Right now that is Eisenhower Dollar s with all the varieties, even though the series isn't very old I am finding this an extremely difficult task, as, much dealers do not know what a crater within a crater Ike should look like. I purchase a lot of mint and proof sets to find the coins I need then sell the extras and start the cycle all over again. Currently I am 2 coins short of a complete BU and Proof Ike Set minus 2 Coins and 3 Varieties. :idea: Anyone have a triple crater in the main crater 72 D Ike. I would love to trade or buy it.

 

Well, my Grandfather intorduced me to coins and that is really how I decided on my main collection of 1900-present US coins. He was born in 1900.

The coins in that range also are within my budget (for the most part) and includes the Golden Age of US Coin Design...namely Walkers, Buffalos, Mercurys, and SLQ's (and I would even put the Lincoln Wheat Cent in there) which are some of my favorite designs.

Most of my other reeal collections (Birth Year Stuff, German 10 Pfennigs, etc) also have a personal angle to them.

I find, though, that I buy a lot of 'other' stuff that doesn't fit in any collection based on its hitorical interest or because it is different which explains things like CWT and HTT and my US type set.

 

A Storehouse for Intelligence

I covered this in the other topic broadly, but let me focus a bit on the specifics, since you asked it that way...

Bronowski called it "the ascent of man." There is no single time or place that is _THE_ essential thread of human history. Yet, to me, narrowly, the best of who and what we are as a civilization today (art, science, democracy) comes from ancient Greece. More than simply wondering about atoms and stars and our place in the world, the Greeks established the METHODS for thinking about these questions. So, to me, to look at a coin from Abdera or Miletos or Akragas is to see into the spirit of the times that planted the seeds of the fruits we enjoy.

When I assembled all but one of the Mercury Dimes, my satisfaction came from looking at the coins and selecting the best of them by their grade. The 1916-D is a no-brainer. All you need is money. If you have $300 you buy a Good. If you have more, you buy better. You get it slabbed PCGS and the problem is solved. There is no challenge to that. For me, learning to see the fine details is what made collecting Mercs interesting.

I still keep an eye out for phone cards. With the world going cellular, these are becoming less and less common. I buy the ones that celebrate fiber optics. Others are interesting (musicians, etc.) and I buy them now and then to put on my desk or whaterver, but for the Permanent Collection, it is the phone cards that commemorate Fiber Optics that interest me most. I have a few and I pick up the ones I see as I find them. The thing about phone cards is that they monetize a SERVICE. Also, that service is itself a technology. Phone cards are how phone companies borrow money from the public and pay it back with phone calls. It is a change in economics as basic as the shift from cows to gold or from ingots to coins and coins to paper. The notion of what defines "wealth" becomes increasingly abstract.

Of the coins -- and other forms -- I have kept, the idea is indeed to have "one of everything." Broad categories: a copper coin, a Roman coin, a Greek coin, a phone card, a token, a scrip, and so on. The goal is to be able to display the broadest set with the fewest examples.

 

Marotta, it was actually your response in the other thread that prompted me to ask the question!

 

I must say that the design of the coin is what draws me most to the particular series. However, I love the design of the flowing hair coins but don't yet own one. Therefore cost is a close second factor.

I also have a lot of the eagle bullion coins and have been collecting them because they are readily available in top grades for very reasonable prices. I am particularly drawn to the platinum eagles because their mintages are very low and they have a unique design. This series has not been out very long (97) and rumor has it this year is the last due to difficulty in obtaining platinum. I like the combination of those factors.

I just received my first walker today and I am very excited. It is spectacular - a blast white PCGS ms66 purchased from ebay. I have always admired the design on this coin and have now taken my first step down a long and expensive road.

Therefore, it is really a weighted combination of several factors that draws me to a particular series.

 

I've always been fascinated by circulating coins and the stories they could tell. Especially those stories about statistics, metallurgy and commerce. I was heart broken when the silver was displaced in 1965. Not only did I lose the silver, but more importantly all those little history and math lessons. It became apparent after very few years that the fed wasn't rotating the stocks of coins in storage. It was not unusual to find brand new five or six year old clads in circulation because of this. There was no reason to start a collection of clads if as soon as you identified the good dates the mint was going to release a few million more of them. Then in 1972 there was an article in the Chicago Tribune that said the mint and fed were adopting FIFO accounting and would begin rotating out the coins that had been in storage the longest. It's been a blast ever since. Ironically, the best part of it is that the coins weren't being messed with by collectors because they were clad, so these were a blank slate.

I collect many other things too, like telephone tokens. There are many reasons for all these collections but largely I just want to see what's out there, and no one can tell me.

 

I collected when I was a child. I found coins from circulation to put in Whitman folders. I also received a gift or two. Then the hobby got left behind sometime early in high school...

Several years back I wandered into a coin shop. Many of the high quality older coins looked cool to me and I started buying and learning.

I wanted a date/MM set of Mercury dimes. I wanted a date/MM set of Buffalo nickels. I wanted a set of DMPL Morgans. I wanted gold.

After buying a bunch of coins I realized I couldn't finish all those things. I also became more and more attracted to the cameo look of the Morgans. I wanted to build a finest set of something and learned about the Registry set program. I decided Cameo Proof Jefferson nickels was the way to go. They are attractive to me and seemed unpopular.

Proof Jefferson nickels was my first set I ever actually completed. Now I am working on a type set. I get to learn about each type of coin. As I still love cameo proof coins my set goes slowly. I have sold off the Mercurys, Morgans and other things so I can afford to focus on my type set.

 

I Like To Hold History In My Hands

I was turned on to coin collecting, by my grandfather, who owned a coin shop here in town. Now that I am older, I find myself turning to the classics (i.e., Seated Liberty Series, Barber Coinage), same as everyone else today, I am on a budget, but I have found that I actually enjoy my purchases all the more, when I strive to save money for them. I had been saving up for a nice high-grade modern commemorative coin, and when I felt that I was able to, I made a purchase of a PCGS MS-69 West Point Commemorative on eBay last week. I just received the coin today, and it is a stunning beauty, both in design and condition. And it's true, I really believe it means more to me, because I had to save for it. As far as the classics go that I mentioned, I try to stick in the VF to XF grade, and just holding them, makes me wonder who might have used them in everyday commerce. Would it have been Mr. Lincoln, General Grant or even Robert E. Lee? I'm sure that I will never know that for a fact, but just holding a piece of our nation's history in my hands, gives me a great sense of this history, and my pride in being an American.

Best To All Of You!

Barry.

 

I think that my next project will be a series I chose because it's short and easy to afford. If I had unlimited funds I could make a better choice of what to collect.

 

I like to collect whatever interests me, but have noticed that higher quality coins stick out to me and are appreciated more over time so I am going with high grades these days.

 

Ive collected/hoarded all my change all my life. My grandfather saved his pennies during the war years. my father was left his fathers' hoard in seventies which subsequently make it to my basement/attic/garage/mini-storage around '92. About 3 or is it 4 years ago, I found my self with time and wants to down size.

I get to the coins and start researching value, organizing for appraisal. Complete missing sets.. I quickly realized that the 30 years of collecting coins taught me nothing compared to what I have learned in the last 3 years of serious minusmatics....hehe

When I started I quickly found within the establishment a certain peculiar yet stereotypical behavior. that doesn't sit well with my personality.. I ended up
scratching my head in confusion, (when considering my other activities and involved interests) on ... ah ftig that....m anyways..and for the last 2 years have actively only studied one coin with the thinking that I could apply things learned to other denominations. I needed to regroup. SO i started creating a grading set. right away. with in a couple months I change my thinking to a Study Set.

I chose the 1909 VDB Lincoln Cent 2 years ago and I think I am finally very close to being complete. Some tangents like early middle and late stage or trying to prove that the MPL dies were indeed used for Business strikes is where I've stopped . Its been interesting, the weather is cooling the outside -projects nearly complete. I ve got new imaging gear, I am getting back on the boards that i haven't been banned from... figuring this winter I'll be updating these sets.. along with actively selling a large portion since it appears my kids 21 & 19 now only want to know what the coins can be sold for. Ha..! the buck... ok ok the cents stop here!

 

I'm pretty sure I collect Lincoln BIEs
because of the irony. They are die breaks
between the letters in LIBERTY usually
between the B & E. When you look at it,
you see a disruption in the word LIBERTY.

The irony in this is Lincoln. Both he and
Davis were accused of being dictatorial
during the Civil War. Georgia even threatened
secession from the seccession.

And probably 80-90% of BIE errors are from
1950-1958-the era of Joe McCarthy and Roy
Cohn. And McCarthy punched out in 1957,
the year that appears to have produced the
most BIEs.

 

So we could be talking to one of Peter's
make believe friends who no longer exists
on CT?

 

cool fun fact long

 

"For me, learning to see the fine details is what made collecting Mercs interesting."

YUP! I'm just today learning about Franklin FBL, and asking about the same sort of of nuanced criteria in other denominations. Where, oh WHERE, does this end?

Carl, in #9 above, speaks of "DMPL Morgans"...and I'm off on another search for meaning! I only recently learned about (as in that they exist, not that I know anything real about 'em yet) VAM Morgan dollars.

So many coins; so little time...

 

I noticed that too when the thread was first reopened Doug. It's kind of neat to read these old threads. You learn things from some people who may not have participated in years. A blast from the past.

Bruce