Leaving The Hobby Of Coins

I was in a rut like this for about a year; however I took up and interest in ancient history, and after about two years I bought my first ancient coin. That was in the early 1970's. I now have about 400 coins over 1,000 years old.

And I have never looked back.

?Perhaps that last statement is slightly wrong?

Maybe all you need is a "little" break. I took off 25 years and that seem to do the trick.

I'm sorry to hear you're getting burned out, but I suspect this is a pretty common result of focusing on coins currently being released by the Mint. Collecting older coins can certainly get expensive, but there's just something about holding a 100-year old coin with a classic design that's not made anymore that really gets my juices flowing.

It must be a hard decision to make. Hope you chane your mind.

To be honest, I only own a couple products from the mint.....and only because they are listed on ebay and have not sold yet. To me, there are a few different types of people interested in numismatics.

The first type are interested in all things numismatic, whether they be mint products exclusively made for the collector crowd, or circulation coins and notes, tokens, etc. if it has a dollar or cent amount on it, they collect it.

The next is strictly mint products for the collector market, and will not deviate from that "genre" of collecting.

Another is strictly circulation coinage and wants nothing to do with mint products. I fall in that category.....but haven't always been there. At one point I was on a mission to have one of each proof set, plus one of each specimen set, not to mention other mint products I could get my hands on. I got bored of it and just about left the hobby.

I put my coins on the back burner for a couple years and forgot about them......as much as you can lol. I didn't sell anything, and glad that I didn't. I eventually got rid of all the mint stuff, and now focus strictly on circulated coins. The break gave me a new direction in the hobby, and now I'm loving every second of it.

Looking back, I sure am glad I didn't sell it all. I probably wouldn't have gotten back into the hobby if I did, and if I did get back into it I would have been frustrated trying to get back everything I sold that I wanted back. Not to mention the fact I wouldn't have met any of the great people here :)

Bottom line is, sit on it for a while and just take a break to decide what you would like to do. You don't owe any money on your coins, they are not costing you any money on interest like a loan would. You aren't making payments, so it won't hurt if they are tucked away in the back of the closet for a while.

Trust me. I've been there, as well as most collectors. If after a while you decide you truly don't want them anymore, then sell them away (to me!)

muddler, if I had grown up in the 80`s I would have been in the same boat !


@TheForce
Whatever you decide I sure hope you at least keep an album of BU statehood & ATB Quarters in case you ever change your mind or just as a reminder of the days when you were a coin collector ....