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Replies: 48 / Views: 7,983 |
Pillar of the Community
United States
2808 Posts |
I would like to gauge everyone's opinion as to the minimum number of coins it takes to be considered a hoard. Is it at least 1,000? Less? I know that for gold coins the number is probably a few hundred just due to the fact that they are gold. We all know about Morgan and Peace dollar hoards in the thousands and up to several hundred thousand (Redfield) and even over a million (Continental Illinois Bank). I have 200 Eisenhower dollars right now, and I'm wondering how many more I would need to have a hoard. Just curious.
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Valued Member
United States
397 Posts |
I would consider 200 a hoard. =p
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Valued Member
United States
270 Posts |
Good Question! where do you draw the line between a collection and a hoard? I would say a hoard would be several coins from the same year and mint mark. Lets look at the wheat set...There are 141 holes to fill in a dansco book..If there all filled then it is a collection, but if you had 141, 1909 s vdb's that would be a hoard!(good one at that)...Now if you had 141 1958 wheat cents it would not even be looked at! So that is how I look at it...A lot based on value..I dont even look at my collection as a hoard and I have close to 5000 coins. all different. dollars, half dollars, quarters, dimes ect. But I look at it as a high valued collection!
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Moderator

United States
14463 Posts |
In my rolled/bulk coins, I have 2800 zincolns. All total (bulk + collection), I probably have about 7000 coins.
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Valued Member
United States
309 Posts |
Subjective.
But my 2 pennies: I would say it has to do with how they are stored. A collection is cataloged and packaged with care in terms of storage. A hoard is kept in a cigar box, bank bag, ziploc, bunch of paper rolls, etc. Irrelevant as to how many actual coins there are.
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Moderator

United States
95801 Posts |
Quote: I would say it has to do with how they are stored. I agree. I will add that how you intend to store them is just as important as how you currently have them stored; because you might be a little behind on organizing your collection. That is, do not let your laziness allow your collection to be called a hoard.  Or actually, let it, if that will motivate you to get working on it. 
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
I dont think I would ever call any "collection" a hoard. If you had a bunch of different sets going you could end up with 100s of coins. But to me no number of sets would equal a hoard.
I would call a hoard more something like just having a ton a copper pennies around or just having a ton of coins laying around that dont have any particular value.
I would also agree with the above comments about how its stored.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
4411 Posts |
 with hermanwilliams and jbuck
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Valued Member
United States
192 Posts |
got cut off somehow...thousands of silver dollars, more half dollars, and at LEAST 10 40QUART tubs of loose copper pennies, Pallets of boxes containing US Mint, proofs, commemoritives, and whatever else was in their catalogue since 1953. THATS A HOARD.... Now until I learn everything about all of this, I have to keep paying storage fees.... I just hope I can figure something out before I go....I WOULDN"T want to leave something like this to my kids...
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Valued Member
United States
192 Posts |
Lost the first part of my reply...in a nutshell, I inherited a silver mine
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Moderator

Australia
13544 Posts |
Been there. Discussed that.  To sum up my opinion: whether to call it a "hoard" or "collection" entirely depends on the person doing the hoarding/collecting, rather than the number of objects; a hoard is chaotic, a collection is ordered. You can have a "hoard" of twenty coins, or a "collection" of 20,000 - or vice-versa.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Moderator

United States
14454 Posts |
I considered my Grandfathers collection of coins to be a hoard simply because it had no focus, it was just a collection to amass all he could. If that is the goal I would say it was a hoard even if it were 5 or 10 coins (even though that would be a mini hoard), if you have 10,000 coins and they have focus I still would not really consider that a hoard because you collected them for a purpose and that purpose wasn't just to see how much you could have at the end
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17222 Posts |
It also depends on the coin. If you have a 1000 of some Lincoln cent that had a mintage of several billions you might call that a hoard, but a very small one. There is a Conder token from Warwickshire D&H 86bis, there are about a half dozen pieces known. I own two of them My two coins is a hoard because it is a significant percentage of the entire known supply. I have three 1803 S-262 large cents. That is almost 3% of the entire supply. I know one collector who has 68 of them. 68 coins isn't a lot of coins, but it is over half of all the S-262's there are. My variety set of 1796 cents represent close to .5% of all of the 1796 large cents. It's a collection, but could it also be considered a hoard? (To put it into perspective the Redfield hoard was .16% of all the Morgan dollars.
Gary Schmidt
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1812 Posts |
A hoard = the size of which is greater than the container used (cigar box, 40-quart tub, a house, etc.) and generally limited to one or two specific denominations and usually undiffrientiated as to condition/mint mark/dates, etc. It's the possession of simply for the sake of owning/accumulating, not the enjoyment associated with the pleasures of collecting.
Condor, I think you have misapplied the term to your rare Condor tokens. Even though you own 1/3rd of all the identified specimens in your example, the fact that they are identified and catalogued gives them a pedigree as opposed to a hoard. The term that is more useful is "connoisseurship" than hoarder.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17222 Posts |
But if I buy one because I want it for my collection that is collecting. If I buy a second one I don't need simply because it is available is that hoarding? What about Hampshire 89? It is a common token but I seem to have an affinity for it and so far I've bought over a half a dozen of them from VF through Proof. And whenever I see another one I'm tempted to buy it. That's hoarding behavior.
Gary Schmidt
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1554 Posts |
 I think a coin collectors acquisitions can be considered a "hoard" when he/she no longer knows what they have accumulated! (and that's scary, there are even reality TV shows about people that hoard stuff) Glenn 
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Replies: 48 / Views: 7,983 |
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