Am I The Only One Who Collects Any Coin For The Sake Of The

Canadiansailor, don't listen to the dream stealers. You collect whatever makes you happy, that's what is all about.
Like you, I collect whatever I can get my hands on. I'm not in it for profit though. I guess if you are in it for profit, that might be a different story.

Steve

I have a shotgun style of collecting. I buy whatever I'm interested in at the time. I do the type thing because I really like the specific coin. Of course I haven't finished any type set yet, I'm not too worried about it. Do what's the most fun!

Yes. My local dealer told me to collect one thing, but there is nothing I dont collect.

I'm like Jays-Dad; I'll take anything, and if I like a particular coin, I will try to put together an assortment of different dates available. The drawback to this is that more times than not, it calls for research as to whether a particular coin was made every year, what mintmarks were available each year, etc.

For example, I have a selection of West German 10-pfennig coins, issued between 1949 and the takeover of the Euro. Now, I don't know if these were issued every year; apparently, there were a bunch of years that were missed, and it is possible that some mints didn't make any while others had a huge mintage, so which ones are scarcer? This is the kind of problem one runs into after accumulating them over a certain period of time, and leads to things such as making lists of ones a collector has so he can keep a lookout for ones they don't have, so as to cut down on buying duplicates. In a lot of cases, definitive answers are hard to find and have to be pieced together from evidence. Luckily, research is much easier in the internet age, and while Krause's catalogue is helpful, it is by no means complete or even an unquestionable authority.

The general tennor of comments expresses my own belief that coin collecting is for fun. I collect a bit of everything, but early on I chose to focus primarily on one thing to become an expert at something.

I always wanted to be an expert at something and now after 50 years of collecting counterfeit 8R coins I think I have almost achieved my goal. But I am still learning - so I guess have fun while learning something is my approach.

I think too many people get into coins today to make a killing. The profit motive was not as strong in the 1950s and 1960s when I started but it has changed a lot. Just the number of forgeries proves that point. The advent of the Sheldon 70 point scale has also lead to simply awful prices for "rare" grades. To me grades are really bogus, but that is my own view and very unrealistic in today's market.

So I guess my advice is to ignore the experts and guys like me and collect what you like for whatever reason you want.

Collect what makes you happy. After all, it is your time and money you are spending, so you should do what you want with it!!

At first, I'd collect a little of everything. Eventually I found myself focusing down on a few countries to collect--mostly things that were overlooked by dealers, such as overdates.