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Reasons you collect coins


syzygy

Of these, which is your top reason to buy or collect coins?  

66 members have voted

  1. 1. Of these, which is your top reason to buy or collect coins?

    • Beauty of coin designs.
      12
    • Historical aspects.
      31
    • Thrill of completing a set.
      6
    • Pride of ownership.
      14
    • Profit.
      3


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Many factors come into play, and I settled on PROFIT as being the essential one for me. Numismatics is the study of MONEY. Money represents the rise of civilization.

""So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Aconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?" (from http://jim.com/money.htm)

 

If it were just the history, I would collect something else. I do collect other historical artifacts, but they are not numismatic objects: first edition science fiction, sliderules, pens, postcards, stamps, coffee cups.

 

However, "profit" for me does not mean increasing my own cash holdings by buying and selling objects. For me, the "profit" derives from two motivations.

 

1. Securing savings, different from cash savings and other investments. In other words, of all the things I own -- tons of books, some nominally rare; a 1990 Camry; etc. -- the numismatic items are the most liquid. A balanced portfolio includes things like this and for other people that might mean fine art, or antiques, or jewelry. I know people who have extra airplanes. It just depends on where your interests are.

 

2. I tend to buy items that I write about. The profit comes from the income generated by the work I do in the hobby.

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I'd have to agree with you Michael. I hate it when people say 'money is the root of all evil', firstly 'evil' is a word that is much over used. Money is not the problem, human beings are the problem and not because humans are evil either, humans are generally greedy, greed is not evil though.

 

Primarily i collect coins because i like history and old things, this explains why coins aren't the be and end all for me. I take time away from them to concentrate on my other hobbies and interests, which generally involves old things.

 

I tend to use coins though less for profit and more for a means of escapism, that's why i buy coins for fun and my own amusement with little care about how much it's going to retail at in the future.

 

I can't say i do this with my other collections though, my model railway collection is more of an 'investment' these days than something i do for fun. I recently acquired one model with an issue of 300, cost me a fortune but they are highly sought after. So with that collection it's pride of ownership and investment rather than for merely history of fun.

 

I do all the things in the initial poll but i only do certain ones with certain collections!

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If it were just the history, I would collect something else.  I do collect other historical artifacts, but they are not numismatic objects: first edition science fiction, sliderules, pens, postcards, stamps, coffee cups.

 

 

I cannot think of anything that represents history better than a well circulated coin. They interact with time and distance and affect people in a way that few things do.

 

For example, from your listing, the only thing that comes close is stamps...and they only go from point A to point B once and are typically only ever affect 2 people...the sender and the receiver.

 

Maybe collecting passenger airplanes might surpass coins for time, distance, and people but they take up a bit more storage room. :ninja:

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  I cannot think of anything that represents history better than a well circulated coin. ... For example, from your listing, the only thing that comes close is stamps...

 

I see your point. Numismatic items ("coins") are very public and social artifacts. The others are personal tools. As you say, even stamps connect only two people and are used only once, whereas coins pass from hand to hand, time and time again. Money objects must speak a common language -- often via symbols, rather than words -- in a way that few other artifacts must.

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I see your point.  Numismatic items ("coins") are very public and social artifacts.  The others are personal tools.  As you say, even stamps connect only two people and are used only once, whereas coins pass from hand to hand, time and time again.  Money objects must speak a common language -- often via symbols, rather than words -- in a way that few other artifacts must.

 

 

Sure wish I could use Urimm and Thurimm and get my coins to talk to me about where they have been, the time that Archimedes pondered why they hadn't lopped off the casting spur on this:

 

sirakusa2.jpg

 

I just know that Archimedes had this coin briefly and thought about it. Just wish the coin would tell me so. :ninja:

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...  i'd say letters/diaries/journals were the ultimate form of collecting history.

 

"Ultimate" is such a strong word. History is the record that people leave behind -- otherwise it is "natural history." People are individuals. So, yes, diaries, letters, etc., reveal history at the atomic level. For me, that is part of the attraction in checks and drafts. Each one is a specific transaction, a record of a time and place.

 

In my aviation collectibles, I have postcards. At first, my interest was only in the picture of the aircraft -- Eastern Airlines Lockheed Constellation. In numismatics, we go for "uncirculated" so my first attraction was for unused postcards. Then, I ran into reproductions. In the absence of a copyright or other telltale, a genuine postcard is one that is written on, addressed, stamped, and cancelled. Actually reading the postcards, opens up little windows on the lives of the people who sent or received them.

 

Stock certificates are also one-time transactions that record a time, a place, and two (or a few) people. I find the endorsements as interesting as the vignettes. Different American states have different laws about the property of married people and sometimes those limitations are stamped on the paper. You see a stack of these things in the name of the same couple across a range of historic blue chips and you have to wonder what life was like for Mr. and Mrs.

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I just know that Archimedes had this coin briefly and thought about it.  Just wish the coin would tell me so. :ninja:

 

That is another good thing about coins, imagination can play a part in your collectng. ;) Who used it? What does it say about the people who issued it? Where and when did it get used and by who? Etc.

 

Also, gaining new knowledge, etc, of course. Collecting coins touches on a lot of subjects...history, geography, politics, science, sociology, economics and on and on. Think of some of the articles you have read relating to coins and people can approach it from many, many angles.

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I dunno i'd say letters/diaries/journals were the ultimate form of collecting history. Personal and express feelings and opinions.

 

Not quite the path I was exploring as I was going for the object itself experiencing history. Collecting history books would probably fit well in the type of thing you are talking about. :ninja:

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Ah history books i have alot of... some quite old.

 

I have been researching the "wildcat" era of American banking. It is interesting to read a book published in the late 19th century about banking and not find any reference to a Panic that everyone now agrees on.

 

We fail to appreciate the fact that to someone who lived through Black Friday, any claim of a previous Panic is accepted as fact. Consequently, that assertion gets written as fact and is quoted and cited ... yet no one actually goes back to check if there was, indeed, a Panic anywhere but on column 5 of the bottom half of page 1 of a now-defunct New York newspaper.

 

Sometimes, I feel like Winston Smith.

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Ah history books i have alot of... some quite old.

 

I have been researching the "wildcat" era of American banking. It is interesting to read a book published in the late 19th century about banking and not find any reference to a Panic that everyone now agrees on.

 

We fail to appreciate the fact that to someone who lived through Black Friday, any claim of a previous Panic is accepted as fact. Consequently, that assertion gets written as fact and is quoted and cited ... yet no one actually goes back to check if there was, indeed, a Panic anywhere but on column 5 of the bottom half of page 1 of a now-defunct New York newspaper.

 

Sometimes, I feel like Winston Smith.

What you write is too true. On occasion, rare occasion, I follow the footnotes of a text back to sources cited. I am almost always astonished at how differently I interpret the primary source contrasted to the author's interpretation.

 

Reading contemporaneous accounts is the best way to get information when they are available. No book will give one the flavor of the United States relationship with Native Americans the way a small stack of Midwestern newspapers from 1860's can.

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  • 1 year later...

Oh I enjoy it :ninja: I understand though the poll was asking WHY do I enjoy it...and the reasons are many...in the end though...like my wife says..I probably enjoy it because there is something wrong with my brain that drives me to spend money on money ;)

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Why I enjoy it? All of the above + some of the reasons listed. Plus keeps my hands and mind busy. Met some new friends. I enjoy the research involved, The idea of who they were held by, etc. The list goes on.

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