Coin Vs. Stamp

I have a 35 year old stamp collection
I once tried to sell it at face value and they laughed
Well it will get a lot of work to sell at a minor discount to what I paid 35 years ago for it

As others have mentioned, a stamp loses its" face value" once it has been "used". A coin does not ...

Here in Europe, quite a few government numismatic offices are also philatelic offices - that is, they sell both coins and stamps. That is particularly true for small countries/areas such as San Marino, Vatican, Åland. But in Germany for example the largest postal service recently won the government contract regarding the distribution of collector coins. And every occasion that a silver piece commemorates is also honored by a stamp.

Fortunately that does not work the other way round. And that (the number of issues per year) is another reason why I am not really interested in stamps. Sure, many are very nice to look at, but from my POV that is about it.

Christian

Why does it have to be one or the other? both hobbies have a lot to offer!

The cost of either hobby is completely scalable. You can loads of fun spending almost nothing, or you can bid for the rare items in the most high end auctions. Most of us fall somewhere in between.

Nearly all my stamps are used revenue stamps from the US Civil War period. Many are on receipts, documents, stock certificates, photographs, even some on old medicine bottles. I have a number of handstamp cancels from various firms in business at the time. The usage is what makes them interesting and valuable to me! Yes they are just paper, but so are all historical documents.

The key is to have fun whatever you decide to collect, and branch out into a new area from time to time.

Or you were a FBI agent, who had a candle light misprinted on a $1 dollar stamp.