Are You Happy With Your Collection

I was happy with it at one point, but eventually sold a huge part of it off because I just wasn't getting that "thrill" out of it. I suppose I was trying too hard to like filling albums in because that's what everyone seems to do. I'm the collector that buys something just because I like it, not because it fills a hole in an album. The only coins I really buy anymore are early LWC's that are high grade and full-band Mercury dimes. Now if this question was specific to paper money, I am ecstatic with my paper money collection and it's bigger than my coin collection ever was.

And no I didn't sell of my completed 7070 album or Mercury dime album because who doesn't get a thrill looking at those completed?!

Primarily I am very grateful and happy that I am able to afford to collect coins on a <relatively> modest scale at this late stage of my life.

I have a very simple definition of a 'keeper' : anything I do not already have. That's the great thing about this hobby-- the horizon is always farther away than one can touch. But for the most part [ *cough* China >__< ] the journey has been great fun.

I do fancy set building, whether by date/mm, type, topical or whatever. I appreciate quality but do not mind owning lower grades of things I could never afford otherwise. My ultimate coin fantasy would be to have the time and personal resources to buy out the Dansco Co., then begin producing ALBUMS FOR EVERYTHING.

Carry on.

This has been a very interesting thread. I had to think about my answer a bit.

I am happy about the direction and progress of my collection. I'm having fun and learning a lot. I enjoy my coins and there's always something new to learn.

I floundered about for over a year before deciding I wanted a complete set of circulated silver Washington quarters (1932-1964). I have at least one of each.

I have a few better coins but nothing so precious that I couldn't sell it on my own if I ever had to do that.

For me the real fun part has been searching for coins with animals on them -- my critter coin collection. I also like picking up anything that is different and new to me. These are mostly very inexpensive purchases.

I am unhappy about having fallen behind on keeping things organized. I want everything in order with some notes about each coin. But I enjoy doing that and I will catch up some day.

I would say that I am happy with my collection, but I still constantly add to it to make it the best that it can be.

I am very happy with mine. It has come a long way in 37 years. There are perhaps some things I may have done differently, but overall I have no complaints.

I'm happy, but nowhere near done. In the past 6 months, my collection grew from a hoard of US moderns from CRH, a few US classics, and a few world coins; to all of the above plus a hoard of ancients and world coins

My collection was assembled opportunistically with value being the only criteria for a purchase. As such, I have a lot of fun pieces, and plenty that I am proud of, but there is about as much focus as a bokeh. I may bring it into more focus at a later date, but for the time being I am content. Through bidding more or less blindly, I did find some unexpected areas that interested me, including:

- Japan, 1870-1945
- French Polynesia
- Canada, Victoria through KG VI
- US-administrated Philippines
- Jersey and Guernsey
- Chinese and other Asian cash
- Any ancient coin I can get cheaply, unidentified
- Unusual denominations

I don't typically set specific goals, but I do have some coins on my immediate radar:

- Japan 1945 clay sen
- Panama 1940 2 1/2 centavos
- US Philippines silver peso
- Some type coins from micronations (Specifically Molossia, and maybe Sealand and Seborga)

I'm very happy with my collection(s). I started out completely unfocused just buying anything interesting while I learned more about the hobby, which was a bit unsatisfying. Once I decided I wanted to work on a U.S. coin type album, however, I finally had a goal to work toward and I have found the experience to be very rewarding. I'll probably continue to tweak it now and then (especially since I digitized the entire album and have been expanding the parameters a bit), but I'm really satisfied with it overall.

My second main collecting goal, after "finishing" the coin type album, was to put together a similar album for U.S. currency. Since there was no official type album available, I was free to define the parameters any way I wanted and came up with something I could work with (and reasonably afford). There are still a few outstanding notes I hope to add, but overall I'm ecstatic with how it has come out.

My third, more recent, main collecting goal was to put together a type set of proof coins from the 1800s and 1900s. This one will likely take me awhile to complete (assuming I ever do), but I've managed to get some really nice proofs over the years and am very happy with the progress I have made so far. I think for 20th-century coins I'm only missing a proof Buffalo nickel, which should be doable. The 19th-century may prove to be a bit more problematic, since I need a proof 20-Cent Piece and a proof Liberty Seated dollar and both are out of my price range for the foreseeable future.