I don't know how I missed this thread when originally posted a few months ago. Perhaps because I usually just skim over the "
US coins" sections of the forum...
Quote:I have seen many members who do not live in the US and was wondering if you collect
US coins or coins from your country or world coins in General?
I am a world coin collector, living in Australia. As such, my "US coin collection" is just a part of my "world coin collection". In my main coin album, American coins are filed under "U", wedged in between United Arab Emirates and Upper Canada.
America may be "just another foreign country" to me, but it's a fairly significant country. Having visited there myself when I was a child, and having relatives visit there all the time, I have a fairly extensive collection of "pulled from circulation" American coins. American coins are also usually found quite extensively in bulk world coin lots, which I have occasionally acquired in the past. Because I have so many American coins, they take up more than their fair share of space in the albums. They take up more than half of album "U", and I have an additional "North America album" for the bulk coins (date/mintmark variations), about 2/3 of which is American coins with the remainder Canadian.
Being from Australia, Australian coins of course make up the largest contingent in the collection, having a near-complete set. In terms of numbers, America comes in at number 3, after Australia and Great Britain.
I have purchased some early, valuable
US coins, with the goal of assembling at least a "type set". It's not a major goal or focus though, as the American series has two major drawbacks: it is simultaneously both rather boring and ugly, from an artistic perspective, and they are much more expensive than equally rare and desirable non-American coins. This combination means I can usually get "more bang for the buck" buying non-American rarities.
You will find me rather typical of non-American collectors. Nobody living outside the US - with the exception of American expatriates living abroad - specializes in collecting only
US coins. The only "US coin specialist" I have ever met in person was a member of my coin club who was an ex-US-Marine who retired to Australia; he only collected US half dollars. The parochialism of US coin collecting is a two-way street: most coin collectors in America do not find non-US coins interesting, and most coin collectors living outside of America do not find
US coins interesting.
Quote:
Is the concept of "finish a collection" not in your vocabulary. Just curious as to how other members approach collecting?
My collection is "extreme generalist" - I collect the entire world, by type, date, and mintmark, with no time limit - ancient, mediaeval and modern are all included. I currently have 14211 coins in the collection, and I don't have a hope of ever even coming close to "finishing" it.
I find the whole concept of specialization, of narrowing down my field of interest to a point where I might reasonably be able to "finish a collection" within my lifetime, an uncomfortable restraint.
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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Posted 12/15/2021 3:19 pm
