My Friend's LMC Hoard To Be Searched.

This is where I feel that we descend into the No True Scotsman fallacy. Becoming a highly educated, discerning numismatist who spends serious money on a hobby cannot be the cut line for who can enjoy the hobby. I also don't think that assembling a cabinet of treasures or a prominent specialized collection can really be the goal of all coin collecting enthusiasts.

I know a lot of people who enjoy fishing, go several times a year, and spend at least $100 per year on the fishing license, supplies, gas for travel. By and large, they don't eat what they catch. It's just for fun. That's what I would call a hobby. I know a few obsessive fishermen (and fisherwomen) who organize trips, own boats and racks of rods, cabinets of lures, and spend $1000+ every year. They catch huge stripers, steelhead, trout, bass, and other desirable sport fish, and their freezers are full of great filets. But I only know one professional charter captain, and another guy who has a Cabelas sponsorship, travels the country to competitively fish, and makes serious money at tournaments.

So which of those groups is "serious" enough to enjoy fishing?

It's up to the individual, how they go about their numismatic journey.

If you enjoy getting high grade moderns, that's great. But I have no interest in modern coins. The cents after 1982 are barely coins. The errors/varieties seldom have almost no value so getting a case of them and leaving for your heirs means most will end up in a coin star.

In the end we all collect what we like but looking through hoards for high grade coins and varieties does not sound like fun.

Like the fisherman post above a lot of us have different interest in the hobby.

Good questions.

Touché.

Collecting silver puts you into the 10% bracket of coin collecting, and possibly into the 1%. Collecting gold has to be 0.1% or less of coin collectors.

Buying certified vintage gold coins for $50 over spot tells me that the value is 97% bullion, 3% certification, 0% numismatic. Any increase or decrease in that coin's value will be purely from changes in precious metal prices.

To me, coin roll hunting and variety hunting are forms of esoteric treasure hunting. Using knowledge and skill, you are looking for something of high value amid low value items. Comparing it to purchasing coins is apples-to-oranges. Purchasing coins is part investing, part collecting. The more the bullion or intrinsic value climbs, the more it resembles investing over collecting (unless you are wealthy, but even then, it's investing where you have the luxury of not caring about the return).

Having looked over this thread again, I think there is a disconnect in thinking between the treasure hunters and the buyers (for both investing and enjoyment). Particularly, I think there is the thought on behalf of the buyers that if the other folks just get enough knowledge, they will become "serious"—and let's be honest, that is a polite way of saying "spend serious amounts of money"—and morph into buyers. I don't think the hunters are the caterpillar form of buyers. It's a different track to enjoying the hobby. In many respects, it's the difference between enjoying coin collecting as a hobby, and enjoying it as a hybrid of collecting and investing.

A couple of points I would like to clarify.




Common date vintage gold is very sensitive to the underlying price of the gold. As gold price goes up the premium goes down. Right now, a coin shop is buying gold at below spot. This makes the certification almost worthless unless the coin is high grade (MS64+). Generally AU50 to MS62 will have very little premium. If you are a gold buyer, your best bet is to buy when the price and premium are good. Too low of a price and the premium is high, too high of a price and you can way over pay. The certification was a bonus, I paid the same whether it was raw or certified. So the price is 97% Value and Price Premium (profit to shop).




This reminds me of the fisherman post and another post on an a camera/photography website.

If your part of the fishing hobby is to catch Marlin or Tuna, well you aren't going to do it with a $100 rod and reel. The boat/rod/reel/bait/gas/insurance are all part of the package. You need much more skill set to grab that large fish. You have to know how to reel it in, what line wait to use. Its more a science.

Its the same with photography. The vast amount of pictures on here and on 90% of all web sites are crap. They are terrible pictures. Almost all taken with a phone. Is the phone a bad camera? Its not great. But it works, but it has limitations (small pixels, no raw capability, etc). Most people are perfectly fine with a phone camera, but I rarely if ever take any phone pictures. I use a full frame DSLR with L (Canon) lens. Its suit me well as I can use the functionality and the quality of the camera. So am I a better photographer than the person with the phone camera. In 99% of the cases yes, I am.

This hobby has many aspects, yes you can roll hunt, you can purchase coins. For some of us, looking for modern coinage is a waste of time. Let it be. You can criticize the way we collect, the same way we feel that roll hunting has no interest.
When it comes to collecting, I collect because of the history and the value. Modern coinage has no history and very little value. I also don't chase condition rarities. So its not for me.

BTW: I hope no one is taking offense, it's a very interesting topic and its great to read the various opinions, whether we agree or don't.

I haven't looked through this entire thread so apologies if already posted, but here are some sites you can look at for varieties:

https://www.ngccoin.com/variety-plu...ited-states/

https://www.lincolncentresource.com/index.html

And for more extensive:

https://doubleddie.com/1801.html