Coin Collecting: Hobby Or Investment

Definitely both but whatever I make I'm always reinvesting in coins.Latest purchase(hobby purposes strictly)scarce 50 pfennig 1877H UNC.

The Hobby for me is more of an 80/20 venture. 80%=Hobby and 20%=Investment. I love the thrill of the hunt and bidding in live auctions.
Personally I try to keep all of my coins within the Top 20 "finest" known. (all 6 Canadian decimal business strikes between 1858-1967) This way when I'm in my late 60's/early 70's > God willing, I will liquidate my Collection, treat my family to a vacation in Europe, buy a Corvette Z06, and a bottle of the finest dry red wine around!

Glenn

I am not in the least surprised that older CCF'ers view their coin interests as a hobby only. Same with me.

Problem.
A collection can build to have very significant value.

This happened to me before I married. So I sold my (then) collection, which became 1/2 of the down payment of our first house. The collection represented about 15% of the value of the house. Our house was paid off 20 years ago.

So I built another collection. This one started from when we were married.

Problem.
(a nice one). The collection has become valuable. And all I wanted was a hobby!
When I kick the bucket, it will have to be sold, my kids will need the money, just like I did.

I use the hobby as both. I like to buy low, sell items out, take a profit, reinvest and keep the rarer coins for myself.
If I can flip silver and make some money I do it. If I find a key date in a hoard of silver I buy, I keep that and sell the
rest. But I would have to say I am most passionate about the hunt. I like to find things. Roll hunting nickels and getting a "V"
or a buffallo is more important to me than whichever year they may be, it's the find. Finding a 1909 vdb in a jar of Wheats is the kind of thing I like. I guess I am a treasure hunter at heart.