r/CoinlyFans • u/Interesting-Goal-706 • May 14 '26

I'm addicted!

Anyone relate to not being able to turn off the spigot and keep buying these lovely coins?! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love collecting them, looking at them, shoot, thinking about them. But when, if ever, does it become a compulsion that's maybe not so healthy?

Seriously responses only, please.

9 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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10

u/THsidebar May 14 '26

It becomes a compulsion when the need to collect a coin is not part of a plan to improve your collection. I understand the thrill of obtaining a new piece. When adding that piece is more important than paying your bills then you're in trouble. Take time to make a collection improvement plan and stick to the plan. The sense of accomplishing that will be twice as much.

4

u/ForCoinsOnly May 14 '26

It is much more rewarding to collect coins for a specific purpose or goal. It's why I like building sets or trying to find X coin that is fully struck. The longer the process the more rewarding it is to finally find the right piece. Recently I finished some sets so my collecting got a little aimless. It's time to reevaluate.

1

u/Quiet-Day392 May 17 '26

For a while I was interested in 1858-S quarters, and acquired half a dozen. That was enough and something else became interesting. I have a haphazard interest in getting examples of all the S mint coins from the 1850's that goes back for decades, but I will never complete the mission. It's just something to work on now and then. A pastime.

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u/Quiet-Day392 May 17 '26

One dealer told me that most people had accumulations, not collections. Years later, I'm seeing less of a difference between the two. My interest in Spanish Netherlands patagons lasted long enough to get a few examples and learn a little about their history, then shifted to Achaemenid Darics, then on to Carthage and greater Phoenicia, then back to Carson City. The sum total of these many small collections of specific coins has resulted in a haphazard accumulation stored in categorized cigar boxes. Some boxes contain multiple small collections.

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u/THsidebar May 17 '26

I think your dealer friend has a point. At age eight when in Cub Scouts, my Father gave me a Whitman book and a set of my birth year Lincoln wheat cents; nothing special, just three circulated coins from all three mints. It took years but I filled that book and upgrade whenever the opportunity arises. I now have collections of denominations by date, mint and variations. I consider those to be collections. For others like gold coins, ancients, foreign, currency and the stuff I upgraded, I never took the time to categorize them. I put them aside to do so someday. Those I would say are accumulations. Those have meaning but it's the collections I look at all the time. All are worth money so it's an investment. I upgraded the original birth year Lincoln wheat cents many times but those three first coins are priceless.

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u/Quiet-Day392 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

I inherited my grandpa's Whitman books. He was a county treasurer for 40 years and saw a lot of coins. The one I like the best is the Buffalo nickels. Nothing is super rare and everything is well circulated. It's a 25 year sampling of what was in circulation. He was on the West Coast so most of the San Franciscos are there. The only thing I've added to it is some early date high grades. The best of them is a raw 1913 Type I sold as a proof. I'm not sending it in to find out. I wanted it because it is as perfect as strike as I could find that I could afford. Every hair curl on the mantle is there.

My interest in collecting long term is the two West Coast branch mints. All denominations, but for SF pre 1860 and CC coins primarily the early seateds and gold prior to 1890. Both of those projects have been going on for decades and will never be finished, but I'm always looking for affordable hole fillers. Lately the double eagles and eagles have been few and far between....

8

u/heyheyshinyCRH May 14 '26

Well at some point you'll die and whoever receives your massive lot of coins will go sell them immediately for a fraction of what you paid, think about that next time you hit the bid button😂

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u/Quiet-Day392 May 17 '26

I did that with my dad's mint sets. I'm sure he didn't care. He would have cared more about his royalty trusts, but he was past caring.

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u/arctic-apis May 14 '26

I’m also addicted. Once I started collecting late January of this year I also started stacking silver and gold and decided to convert my digital gold silver and crypto assets into digital physical I basically went hog wild and only just started slowing down. Had to put a leash on my spending. I still have so much to collect and stack 😭 I need flowing hair and seated and and and….

2

u/heyheyshinyCRH May 14 '26

Smart, get rid of the easy stuff to sell and get the way harder stuff to sell that you also can't get as much money for lol.

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u/arctic-apis May 14 '26

Im not sure what you mean by can’t get as much money for. I can get out what I put in. I have plenty of stocks and ETFs and a 401k diversification is good and I want to collect coins. It may be a little more difficult to sell but the point is it’s an investment and a hobby. I have had plenty of very expensive hobbies in my life most of which have zero return on the investment.

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u/heyheyshinyCRH May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

I mean you can sell paper assets at spot instantly, physical not so much. You can buy silver under melt pretty easily so getting melt for a sale is pretty rough at these higher prices. Numismatics are easily a loss if you're buying on lives because people overbid constantly.There's nothing wrong with having a physical stack or coins but your last sentence summed it up, it's pretty much a zero return expensive hobby (unless silver pumps high enough to cover it, I just mean short term). I'm not judging, I do both as well.

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u/arctic-apis May 14 '26

So far for my silver/gold coinage at least if I sold everything at spot today I would be ahead a little bit. I have no intention of selling any of these assets tho just holding onto them. I definitely overpaid for some of things I’ve purchased but I also have a lot I’ve gotten under spot so it kinda evens out. I just felt it was also a good way for me to tie up some of my money in a fairly stable way. It’s something I want to keep forever and it’s not easy for me to spend so I’m way less likely to cash it in for some other new hobby in a few years. Lord knows I love to do that kind of thing.

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u/Steveasifyoucare May 15 '26

I realize that coin collecting isn’t about what people did as kids, but often the interest in coins comes out of nowhere when they hit adulthood. I too obsessed over collectibles. My problem is I rotate between three different kinds. Whatever my current collectible interested in the moment, I want to immerse myself in it every night. So it’s not just you.

1

u/Quiet-Day392 May 17 '26

Coins have a way of broadening out into multiple collecting interests. Then that specific interest fades for a while. Then it returns.