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 Replies: 50 / Views: 6,372 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
814 Posts |
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Collecting by type is much more rewarding IMO. This. Where I do collect by date and MM, I do so for modern series that are easy enough to complete. Now there is something to be said, though, for holding in your hand a silver dollar that you know came from the Carson City mint. It's a piece of history that immediately and invariably brings up images of the old west. Or, similarly, a piece of antebellum gold from the Charlotte mint. Edited by hcmusicguy
02/05/2016 4:14 pm
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Pillar of the Community
1153 Posts |
As long as there are others willing to pay more for your coins in the future then there is nothing insane about it.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Specialist coin collectors have an extremely narrow focus, relative to those of the general public.
Only a tiny percentage of the general public would be prepared to spend $100 on a coin.
Then again, there are of other hobbyists of all sorts out there, who would spend lots of dollars on their own specialist hobby interests.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
The supply/demand aspect of our hobby baffles me more than anything. A few points to ponder: 1. The five 1913 V nickels are worth between hundreds of thousands and a million each. They were made deliberately by a mint employee, probably for the sake of making profit. There is one known example of a 1942-S nickel in the pre-war composition, featuring a small S reverse. This was probably made by mint employees testing their equipment while they waited for Philadelphia to send the new large S reverse dies, and released accidentally. It has never sold for even half as much as a 1913 V nickel. 2. I would be hard pressed to find a single US Large Cent that would not sell for $1-3 on ebay. The average going price of a rough, but identifiable Roman bronze is so low that most have to be sold in lots for less than $1 each. 3. Colorized coins. Why, oh why? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
Perhaps we are insane, but if so, so is nearly everyone else. A small group of people will pay millions for a sheet of canvas with some paint on it, and most of us are willing to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars so we can spend 4+ years studying our rears off, all so we can receive a piece of paper with our name on it. And then we spend $10+ every couple of months to have someone remove the hair which we could easily cut off ourselves.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
2360 Posts |
I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2824 Posts |
By definition as a variety hunter if we define "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." then me being into my 10th roll of 1981-p nickels with no known varieties still looking for that DDR or DDO is insane by definition .    |
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
10743 Posts |
T-Bop said.. "Are we insane?" Yes.. and loving every minute of it...  |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
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My thoughts exactly. This is precisely why I do not collect by date/MM and stay away from key dates. They are not much different from the coin that I can pay $0.5 for instead of $5000. Fixed a bit for my situation: I have no problem with collecting by date/MM (or other variety) - especially if the type itself is beautiful and I want an excuse to get several examples - but stay away from key dates anyway. (Also fixed the dollar amounts to be closer to what I encounter normally.) I am, however, insane, or at least very close (it's called Asperger's Syndrome). |
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Valued Member
United States
314 Posts |
Every hobby and every variety of collecting sounds crazy or at least silly if you just state it in its most fundamental terms. "Yes, I paid $1000 for this penny of which there are hundreds of millions because some unknown, unseen person at a faraway place assigned to it a number one digit higher than almost all the other virtually equivalent coins of the same date." Hmm, yeah, that just makes sense from inside the asylum. But as I generally say, if you are not taking food away from the children, it is a fairly harmless hobby.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2403 Posts |
Are we insane? I would say not. While we may pay over face value for a coin/paper currency, we are also acting as guardians of numismatic history while we own them.
At least what we collect will always have some value either face value or metal value.
I also buy Magic The Gathering packs to resell single cards to players. I have sold several of them for a few hundred for one card. There are cards they buy for thousands as well. Thousands of dollars for a piece of cardboard!! That is insane to me.
Anyways just my opinion
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
Yes, I suppose $3,000 for a piece of 2-year-old cardboard is a lot more insane than that much for a piece of 200-year-old gold or silver.
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Valued Member
United States
441 Posts |
I went down the comic and hot wheels road in the 90s. THAT was insanity  Edited by andywoj00
02/07/2016 12:40 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
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I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested. Me Too. I was involved in a high speed head on collision last year that resulted in a work Mates death and I suffered serious injuries to my arm and hand. As a result I had to be evaluated by a "Shrink" and the results were that I was totally Sane I think nothing of spending hundreds of dollars on a particular disk of metal that I want for my collections even though it is a bit of a financial Burdon at the time I still do it. That doesn't make me "Insane" it just makes me "Crazy"   |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
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Are we insane? One of my friends has defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In a way I think coin collecting comes close to this. Actually said by some guy named Einstien. When it comes to all those little bits of differences on coins, collecting them gets really nutty. A good example is if you get that book called Looking Through Lincoln Cents, you would find that almost every year of that coin there have been either Doubled or RPM/s. Collecting them all would be really excessive and nuts. Same could be true of probably every US and foreign coin. Where do you stop? Supposed to be a hobby for fun. If it becomes irritating, time to stop. |
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Replies: 50 / Views: 6,372 |
First Page
Posted 02/05/2016 4:04 pm
