If You Had It

IF I could go back and start over again, I wouldn't. After over 60 years of coin collecting, I find myself never satisfied with what I've accumulated. To me now coin collecting is a rather endless and never really satisfying hobby. I still collect but if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have started this hobby at all. I'm rather a hobby person and collect many other items too and they have no future after I'm gone. No one wants any of this stuff so what is the purpose? It was fun for a long time though but now as I get really old I mostly think about how all my stuff will probably end up being dumped somewhere for a fraction of what it could be.
So IF I had to start all over with this or other hobbies, I probably would have found some other way to spend money but not collecting anthing. Possibly purchase land, buildings, stocks, etc. Then traveled around all over the world, which due to health reasons, no longer possible.
Yet I still go to about 2 to 3 coins shows a month.

How about a collection of world's smallest coins? coins that are 15mm diameter and below, that thread I would consider as interesting

I would treasure all money a little bit more.

Me, start over? I have never thought about it.

If for some reason I was forced to begin again, I suppose I would start by building a high grade Eisenhower dollar collection. I am sure most of you could figure out why.

I would suggest collecting anything except coins dated between 1864 and 1873 with a big two on them.....

I also have been collecting "anything and everything coinwise". While I was in the Philippines, I still saved cool stuff but I didn't focus as much on my coins as I had previously. Now that I'm back, I've started to go through my stuff and I'm finding a lot of stuff that I've accumulated but really have no interest in collecting. I don't think I would ever be able to start over but I want my collecting to be more focused. I want to get rid of the stuff that doesn't interest me and perhaps use that to fund future purchases for coins/bills that I am interested in. I would LOVE to be able to say I finished an album and then happily move on to something else that I like.

Instead of going to a coin show with $100 and buying 15 coins, I would try to buy just 1. I've only been collecting for 3 years so I haven't made too much of a mistake with this, but I'm really trying to be focused and buy less coins of higher quality going forwards.

Just_carl,

I would say that given the real estate market and the stock market, if you look at coins as an investment instead of a hobby you did better than the other investment choices, especially with those 1916-D's you picked up.

It pains me every time I read your posts regarding your kids, because I too have found that coin collecting can be a lonely hobby at times and I am only 31. I told my wife the other day that it gets lonely when no one wants to see your coins. This is why I am glad I found this place and I figure this is why others join local clubs. My grandfathers name was Carl, so I have adopted you as my forum grand-dad. And I think I speak for all, when I say we appreciate your presence here and we are glad you picked up this hobby years ago, instead of doing something else.

As numismatists we spend a lot of time thinking about where our coins have been, but maybe we should try to imagine where our coins will go from here. Maybe one day, the coin we treasure most, after spending some time in a pawn shop or dropped in a junk bin or worse yet in a cash register, may end up being treasured by a new collector and we will become that coin's history.

As for my answer to Metalman's question. If I could do it over again, I would not have spent money on comic books and baseball cards when I was a kid. Out of my three childhood hobby's coins would have retained there value better .