Would coin collecting be fun?

If you had enough money to buy what you wanted, and what you wanted was readily available for you to purchase, would coin collecting be fun? Or does the challenge of looking for it make it fun?

 

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I think collecting when you're limited to how much you have to spend is so much more appealing. I think the thrill of the chase/hunt while knowing you only have $127 to work with is quite a breathtaking challenge.

 

It's a good question. Let's say I win the Powerball tonight and have $327 million to spend (that's the cash payout). I'd probably go nuts buying coins and pretty soon I'd have everything I wanted, and then what? I'd have a massive collection that would need a room of its own to store, and I'd probably lose interest because there'd be nothing new to buy.

 

I think that is when you specialize in the truly rare pieces. This is where the rich are today. They do not collect wheat cents usually since you can go to any show and buy the entire series easily. However, there are tons of areas in numismatics where the thrill is still there, simply because most of the coins are not for sale at any price.

 

If I had a billion dollars to spend, I'd have just as much fun as I do today.

Finding unique and interesting pieces that give your personal collection a purpose is here the fun is.

 

Great question! If I had a half-billion, I think I'd enjoy opening my own mint... and have a truly 1-of-a-kind collection in short order!
-L

 

I don't think one needs to have unlimited funds to compile a wonderful coin collection. There is a lot to be said about people who are finding gems in circulation. If you enjoy the time spent doing the coin hunting who is to say it's not time well spent. Same goes for people that pay top dollar for graded pieces.

Coin collecting can be anything from just a very inexpensive hobby to a serious financial investment.

Would coin collecting be fun? I'm sorry but I think coin collecting is fun on all levels. Life's too short to spend it doing something you don't enjoy.

~CWS

 

I'm getting into coins for the history more than anything. The old coins give a link back to a different time. That's relevant no matter how much the coin costs, even if the coins were free or I had a billion in the bank.

That being said, finding a great deal on a $30 coin wouldn't be as special if I had that billion. I'd probably switch to collecting old boats or cars.

 

Any 'past-time' should be "fun" (enjoyable) rather than a time-killer or a stressful burden. Look at 'the rich' who are never happy, in fact, more neurotic than 'the poor'. Shop, shop, shop! Feel bad about it, add chemical addiction, then rehab, etc. What's redeeming, without any critical self-examination?

Hoarding (collecting) can easily express or turn into neurosis - it's a particularly tragic form of materialism. (I think of a really sad photo posted here on CT: a trailer-park denizen loading up his crappy old car with hundreds of coin rolls from several banks, burning hydrocarbons at $3.50/ga, desperately seeking that millionth silver dime ... all for his retirement fund???)

What the OP alludes - IMO - to is a legitimate fear of gluttony, the inability to self-restrain, obsession. Or otherwise: a fear-of-absurdity, existentialism? That's when the delusion is revealed and one realizes the moral bankruptcy of frantically gathering 'stuff' ... and with that: seeing for the first time the poverty of one's neglected moral state and a wasted life-time? That's the extreme - and it's here in spades.

From a materialist and practical perspective, the journey should be everything... because we don't actually know what/where the destination is.
And I believe sharing (or endowment) can be the only redemption, if any is possible, for the moderate hording impulse.

(My own interest/obsession is DATA, so I'm happy say not a hoarder of stuff - a small and inactive collection of Silver coins notwithstanding. For this hobby I'm on the outside, looking in.)

 

Personally I have a strong desire to finish things, but once I finish them I move on. Like for a few years I was really into genealogy, but once I had reached all the dead ends and written my book, I put it down and rarely look at it now. I think I'd be the same with coins. Once I got to a point where I felt like there was nothing else I really wanted, I'd stop. As I often hear the sellers on American Pickers say, it's more about the thrill of the chase than just having the item. If having it is too easy, it loses its luster.

 

I hear you. My advice for this hobby is to constantly be open to other areas. I was bored with US coins and stopped buying for a couple of years. Then I found out I could buy ancients. Then after a while this opened me up to the idea of collecting foreign, (ancients only younger ). I know you collect foreign, but be open and I bet you can keep interested in this hobby for a lifetime at least.

 

I don't think it would be personally. I collect silver coins and if I had millions of dollars to buy all the coins I wanted then I don't see it being fun. One of the aspects that make it exciting for me is when I get a great deal for coins of find them roll searching. Without those two perks amongst others, I think it would lose its flair.

 

If I had plenty of money I'd still have fun collecting. Even with limited funds, it's still fun.

 

I'd have more fun. I'd travel to all the big shows and auctions and put together one heck of a collection.

I'd dang sure have every U.S coin minted from 1793-1799 in strong grades, I'd be in heaven.

 

I can think of a LOT of coins you couldn't have, or would have to wait for quite a while to be able to get. That would be your thrill, if you wanted EVERY ONE, the hunt for those not possible to buy at any price today.

Want the 70s half dime? Better have a way of sweet talking out of the only owner of one in the world, same with lots of other pieces.

Is there a 1913 LHN still in private hands today? I know most are museum pieces.

 

I do think a big part of it is finding the right coin at the right price. If I were to hit powerball tonight it will ruin alot of my collecting for the simple fact I could just buy it period. The fun is in the hunt, why the heck else would some of us nuts sort through 5 gallons of change at any chance Of course medoraman has a point there will always be items that no amount of cash can obtain so I suppose some of the challenge of coins would remain.

 

If I had a half a billion dollars to spend, my coin collection would rival this gun collection:



...and I'd have a similiar gun collection too.

 

You're right, the thrill is the hunt, and I would get the coins I stated above in a few years.
Don't want the 1870 or the 1913, just very nice circulated coins from 1793-1799.

 

I read once when EBay first started, a lunchbox collector looking for that elusive lunchbox looked there and saw dozens of them. He stopped collecting lunchboxes. The thrill of the hunt was gone.

 

Winning the Powerball wouldn't change me at all. It would only change where I live.........

Chris