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 Replies: 71 / Views: 8,916 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
856 Posts |
Interesting thread!
Now I rather consider that I don't have a large collection! After all, I only have 67 coins at present. However it has taken me 10 years to collect that many!
Along the way my budget has required me to sell on lesser examples I've upgraded. And I've been fortunate in the I've managed to pick up some real rarities, some by luck, others from other collectors.
OK, if I had more money I suspect I'd have more coins. But really, I can't see the collection ever going beyond 100 or so. Partly because some examples are so scarce that unless you want to try to get the British Museum to sell theirs there's just no way to improve on a lucky find. Partly because I'm getting pickier as regards quality and coins that previously I would have snapped up just don't appeal now.
It may not be terribly impressive as collections go. But I have few duplicates, I'm happy with the majority of coins I have and, perhaps most importantly, I still have a few gaps to fill!
Oh, I forgot to answer the question. OK, Richard Cyril Lockett's collection of coins took thirteen auctions between the years 1955-61 to sell. That's a large collection!
Edited by Tom Goodheart
12/20/2013 4:45 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
John J Ford's collection is up to 24 auctions so far.
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New Member
United States
34 Posts |
Quite simply, when the collection and its literature are taking over your home.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2703 Posts |
Then it's time to buy a bigger house.
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Valued Member
United States
291 Posts |
For me quality is much more important than quantity. I would consider my collection to be large if (1) it is sizable, and (2) page after page I am able to see coins that make me say "wow, I'm glad I have that in my collection." If the collection is just a large number of coins, but doesn't bring the wow, then it is just a hoard.
I had a relative die several years ago and I was given the sizable (100+lbs) coin collection to go through. It was a hoard. There may have been 10 coins total I had any interest in, and even those were not ones I couldn't purchase with ease online for $100 or less. I am told that the house was robbed a few years before his death, which might explain the lack of "wow" coins.
I think I have quality coins in my collection, but the overall number of coins is limited so I would not call it a large collection.
Edited by usc96
12/24/2013 11:56 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
11951 Posts |
I started to do a inventory, just a count of how many coins in my collection.
So far I am at 4634 Indian, Wheat and memorial cents.
Those are just the easy ones to count. Still got to
go through the 2X2 boxes and albums. Then I can start nickels.
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Valued Member
Canada
158 Posts |
I don't consider mine sizeable, I'm at 269 total, out of that total I have maybe 100 that I would consider extremely hard to get. I have not focused my collecting to any one part of numismatics, but more so anything professionally graded with a high grade. I guess you could consider it a bit of a savings plan/investment......one that is not taxable if I pass on and it gets handed down. I do love to pull them out of the safe and spread them out and drool over them every now and then :)
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
849 Posts |
My feeling is that if you have 200 different coins organized in an album or display, it is probably a collection. If you have 200 coins with 100 nickels of year x and 100 nickels of year y in a shoe box it is probably a hoard.
It is not the quantity that makes it one or the other but the organization and gross accumulations of duplicates that makes the difference.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1234 Posts |
Good distinction on collection and hoard, I was about to get the scale for my Lincoln copper jugs, for world coins I'm at about 3000, but if you do coin roll hunting and count it all as a collection then $100 bumps you by 10,000 in just pennies. My 3000+ is big enough, and I'm so glad I have it cataloged.
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Pillar of the Community
798 Posts |
Yes I think that both quality and quantity should be a little balanced and my collection is exactly that. Right now for encapsulated coins I'm at almost 400, then I got my various rolls and world coins and stuff like that, 11 ICCS graded coins (which are my favorite ones) and some other things. I think a large collection is what ever you want it to be and what ever size everybody's collections are, I think.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1234 Posts |
 50g of copper and 249 years old, 10,000 of those pennies would be a LARGE collection  |
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Pillar of the Community
2087 Posts |
I am probably repeating a lot of what has already been said. I recall a few years ago someone on a Yahoo based coin site bragging about a coin collection in excess of 30,000 coins. I recall at that time I was adding 10-20 coins a year( now 4-10) to my collection. That other collector was adding thousands each year. Clearly that collector was aiming at quantity and variety. If you look at actual cost I was the one spending the most. In the endwho cares! If you have a particular focus and enjoy what you are doing then that's all that is required. If on the other hand you are looking at ensuring you make some sort of financial return then quality is always going to outperform quantity. as an aside Can you imagine having to dispose of 30000 plus coins?
Edited by austrokiwi
01/08/2014 03:43 am
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9419 Posts |
I would love 30,000 coins, as long as every one was different. Steve  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
There is NO such animal as a large collection Your collection is simply your collection no matter how many coins you have in it. If you need a wherehouse to house your coins then I imagine that it would be called a hoard. A collection to me is what you acquire normally at one coin at a time because you like the coin regardless of how many you have. I personally have NO idea of how many coins I have in various collections But don't regard them as being a large collection. They are simply my collections  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
I'll suppose that I have less than 1000 coins. Most are worth less than $2. Many less than 10 cents.
And I've always been an eclectic hoarder, whether it was firearms, edged weapons, motorcycles, bottles or coins.
Then about 2 years ago I decided to put together a focused collection. I chose to study the VAMs of a specific Morgan date and mint. I have 80% of the VAMs that can be proven to exist.
About 100 coins in all, and half are duplicates that I keep because they demonstrate die wear or other variances. Conditions range from MS62 to MS66 with a few PLs and DMPLs.
Having an income that would cause a McDonald's employee to go on strike, should indicate that I had to make some financial sacrifices. However, money was not the only ingredient. It took devotion.
Money is relative. There are folks that will spend more on an evening of entertainment, than I could make in a year.
But not so many that will put in thousands of hours of research. Rough estimate is about 30 hours per coin.
The result is one of the more complete collections in that area, and one with the better conditions available.
Not expensive, nor too big to lift and store.
And I cannot remember a day in the last two years that I did not examine and learn from the collection.
I consider that a large collection.
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Posted 12/21/2013 11:32 am
