How Do You Collect?

I was completely focused on Morgan dollars when I first started and had almost a complete date/mintmark set. Then one day I started looking at my coins closely and was introduced to the VAM world and instead of collecting all different date VAM's I narrowed my search to a specific date of VAM and studied every book I could on that particular date (so I would know it if I happened to see it somewhere). Then one day I bought a coin that was attributed as a specific kind of VAM that narrowed my search from a specific date to a specific type of VAM within that date and collected a full set of those and I strived to have the best set in the registry, well it wasn't long and I had the #1 set but I still wasn't satisfied so I kept looking for upgrades for this set and almost got burnt out on collecting all together, but then I bought me a Dansco 7070 album and thought I would just give it a try for awhile and when I started filling those holes the spark was ignited in me once again and I was determined to finish this set and be proud of it once I did (none of this settling for a coin then upgrading later stuff, I was going to buy the nicest coin available to me and keep that coin in my set forever). Little did I know that some of those AU coins that I was looking for cost as much as 4 MS-64 Morgans that I collected in the past and the funds just wasn't there for the coins I wanted for this set, but instead of settling for coins I would never be happy with I started selling off my prized collection of VAM's to fund my newly sparked interest and actually did quite well. Now I am at kind of a stand still because I had allot of family problems and it threw me into a life of depression and I couldn't focus on anything at all for awhile, but now I am starting to get my life back together and am trying to get my focus back on my coins and finally finish this type set. Every now and then I will buy some of the VAM's I specialized in to resale to fund a major purchase for my 7070 set but have found that my interest has sparked others interest in the same set of VAM's and the prices on my once cheaply obtained coins are rising in value rapidly

I collected and hoarded just about everything.
I am now focusing solely on my 2 Cent collection (Well almost) over the next few years I intend to divest myself of rest rest of my coin hoard to finance this en devour.
I still buy silver if its a good price and every now and again something will fall into the "I really have to have that" category.

Whatever I like the looks of and can afford.

Jan

I've been lurking and figured it's about time to post. I have a pretty mixed bag but I've been concentrating lately on the following:

1. Indian Head cents. I have a nearly full set but want to upgrade the quality, especially the pre-1900 coins.
2. American Silver Eagles. They made so many these may never be worth a lot (Hey, they can't go under a dollar). But, I love the coin. I keep the Silver cases but the UNC go in a book which is gradually filling.
3. Large Cents. This will go very slow but I'd like to complete it one day.
4. 7070. I have the book but haven't started filling it yet to see how close I am.

I use to collect anything that I could find. But since I purchased my Hummer H3 3 months ago I had to refocus my collecting. I don't have as much free money anymore.

So right now I am concentrating on completing the following set:
1. Kennedy half dollars (I need 19 more proofs)
2. American Silver Eagles UNC.
3. I am also putting together a set of coins from around the would. I am trying to get at least one coin from every country in the world. (This may take awhile)

my own favorite are Magicians Tokens which I have been collecting for over 35 years.... they up until a few years ago were very cheap and I find them very interesting. There is a nice web site on them from the magicians token society if you want to see some pics and get more info!

I used to be whatever I can get my hands on but now I'm focused on:

1. I've combined my genealogy research with coin collecting by working on a type set of coins based on my families lineage (hopefully one of my children will pickup where I leave off).
2. Working on some historical theme sets

I will eventually sell every coin I have that do not fit items 1 & 2 but I'm holding off in case any of my kids want to start collecting.

Lately I have been working on my Lincoln Cents (1909-2007) I have been trying to get some dates that I didn't have, and I am trying to upgrade my more recent coins (1975-2007) to GEM BU. But my dealer doesn't have any recent mint sets from the last 5 years or so.

I also found out that the eariler years of Lincoln Cents can be pretty expensive. I guess i'll just have to save up!! lol

Other than that, I've been picking up every Franklin that I can get my hands on. And I think that I'll have my Mercury dimes and Buffalo nickels finished by the end of the year (I hope.)

I just have the coin fever!!

Good luck on completing your sets everyone! Remember have fun
- Ben