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 Replies: 23 / Views: 2,350 |
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Valued Member
United States
420 Posts |
Hello, I wanted to ask about enjoying your collection. I recently read something by Q. David Bowers about people "enjoying their coin collections." I don't remember if it was in one of his columns in Coin World or in one of his books. Anyway he stated something to the effect of pulling out your coins every so often and using a 10x loupe to just look at them and then also look at them with the naked eye, taking the necessary precautions when doing so of course. My question to you is do you do this and if so how often? I realize not everyone has a fairly small collection like I have but even if you do this with certain parts of your collection. I realized that I just buy a coin, put it in my inventory, place the scanned picture on my website, and put the coin in my coin cabinet and usually never take it out again. One of my goals as a coin collector for 2011 is to pull out my collection and enjoy it more. Rich Rich M. - Collector since 2008
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19935 Posts |
YES! At least 2-3 times a year I go to my bank box and pull out all of my Wheats (complete collection), bring them home and look through all of them. Someday I want to take pictures of every single coin. I have a lot of them photographed, but not nearly enough. I sometimes browse the pictures of what I have too....it's a reasonable substitute for holding them. LOL
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Pillar of the Community
United States
759 Posts |
I work from home many days and I rotate my favorites out of safekeeping and have them on my desk. I probably pick something up to admire 1-2 times a day, especially when natural sunlight is streaming in. This is a key aspect of my enjoyment. If 100% were locked away all the time and digital, it wouldn't be the same for me.
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Moderator
 United States
187862 Posts |
I get mine out and go through it a few times a year, usually over a weekend that I know I have to myself. The frequency decreased when I got married and even more when my son was born.
My recent "visits" have been more quality than quantity. I really enjoy the sentimental aspect of it. My collection has been growing over thirty years now.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3592 Posts |
One thing that has motivated me is learning about errors and varieties. Every time I read about a new variety or error, I just have to get those coins out and check.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
797 Posts |
I enjoy going through my albums and boxes and looking back over my coins every few months or so. Personally, to have everything locked up or tucked away somewhere and never seen would be terrible. I understand if you have very expensive coins to get them safely tucked away, but to not be able to physcically look at and enjoy my collection would defeat the entire reason for collecting for me.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3278 Posts |
I like to pull albums and look through them, usually to imagine what the holes would look like with coins in them  Also I like to check what might need to be upgraded, which is a lot, so yes I look at my coins fairly frequently. Lastly, It drives my wife nuts so I look through them for comic relief  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
539 Posts |
my collection is not that large, nor significantly valuable but I collected as a kid and recently picked it back up. So I look at my collection fairly often. I do the whole 10x magnifier thing as my wife laughs at me...I've gotten used to it. Actually she is a good sport about it. And it beats the heck out of watching reruns on TV.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4085 Posts |
I probably look at my two primary albums I have focused on recently (7070 Type and 7100 Lincoln Cent) at least once a month. Other coins less often - maybe every 4-6 months. I do exactly what is suggested - look at them through a loupe as well as with the naked eye (with my reading glasses of course - otherwise, everything is G-4!). I also like to look at them under different lighting conditions. Can make a huge difference as well. Ken |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1256 Posts |
Well it's been work work work trying to get my old family collection together, properly stored and catalogued that I really haven't had time to "enjoy" it at least not in the same context. I do enjoy it but it will be more enjoyable when I can sit back, pick a part of it and really look at it close, do some grading, take some pictures and take some notes.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2661 Posts |
Oh yes! For the low end stuff here at home 2 or 3 times a month at least, and any time I get wind of any new discovery. The good stuff comes home from the safe deposit box several times a year also. I mean, what is the point of collecting them if you do not look at them and appreciate them for what they are from time to time?
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Moderator
Australia
16810 Posts |
I'm a member of two coin clubs, and both clubs have a "theme" or "topic" at their monthly meetings, like "Transportation" or "Medical" or "Africa" or whatever, which members then try to support (if they wish). So twice a month, I go through my collection looking for coins I could bring along to support the topic. How much "enjoyment" I get out of doing this depends on how rushed I am. Less regularly, if I'm not doing anything and have run out of books to read, I'll sit down and go through a couple of coin albums. I don't own a loupe.  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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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Way to many coins to even consider looking at all of them ever again in my life time. I'm getting way up there in age and even if I started now looking at each coin in my collection, I'd be somewhere about ten thousand years old when done. And maybe not even then since I still add coins to the mess. After well over 60 years of collecting coins and many other items, no longer sure I really get any big thrill with any of them. Some of my collections are really getting to be a pain. For example if I should purchase a fantastic Mercury dime that could go into set #!, I have to move the one there into set #2, then from #2 to #3, etc. With 12 Albums of Mercury dimes it really get irritating, not fun doing this. To even start looking at each coin in way over 100 Albums alone would really take some time. Many thousands of coins in rolls, 2x2's and even jars waiting to be looked at. I know way back when I started all this I really got excited each time I aquired a new coin, gun, car, etc. but as with many things, age really changes a lot of ideas. Old cars too used to really be fun but the older they are the more things go wrong, parts harder to find and old age makes changing those parts a real pain. At least with coins I don't worry about stress taking a coin out of an Album. |
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Valued Member
United States
163 Posts |
I don't really have a valuable collection  (the most valuable item at the moment is a coin worth $12), so I regularly look at my collection. |
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Valued Member
South Africa
169 Posts |
My collection is 2 fold, the Bullion proof Gold coins, all encased and boring to look at, then the ZAR 189x's to 1900 collection all circulated, I pull them regularly and admire them. Spend time with my son on his "world" collection which is a couple of thousand coins that still needs to be cataloged, yeah guess who is doing that. Get to spend some Father Son time doing that . |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
844 Posts |
I love the world coins. To me they're so interesting. I have the U.S. coins too. I enjoy looking at them as often as I can! I started collecting because I loved seeing how unique each one is. That hasn't changed and hope it never does!
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Replies: 23 / Views: 2,350 |
Posted 12/08/2010 1:36 pm
