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colliewalker1

The Psychology of Coin Collecting

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What is the motivation?

Why do people collect coins I wonder and where is the most satisfaction – in collecting – or having collected ?

So far as I am concerned I like coins for their aesthetic appeal –as an example of the engraver’s/die sinker’s art or unusual features e.g the 1797 Twopence - and their link with history.

I have been concentrating on 19th century and early 20th century coins – mainly silver and large – Crowns and Half Crowns;large and heavy coins offer the greatest tactile satisfaction when handling them I believe. most recently I have been taking an interest in copper coins.

I am aiming to have examples of coins for each reign – in the case of Queen Victoria for example as her reign was so long, examples of different periods of her reign. but would not find it interesting to have, say, the same coin for each year of a monarch’s reign as they would all look alike except for the date!

So far as the satisfaction factor is concerned, I can’t see that having a huge collection ( say, 1000 to be extreme) would be particularly fulfilling – individual coins would , in my opinion, cease to be as important as in a collection of only 100: I am nowhere near to even the latter figure at present and will probably never achieve it: perhaps I don’t have what it takes to be a fully fledged coin collector – perhaps there are a variety of types of collector – from ‘small time’ to ‘big time’ – with a variety of in betweens!

I am ‘gobsmacked’ to think that collectors will be prepared to spend hundreds of pounds (or even thousands) on a coin: there are things I would much rather have – for the home – than say, a £500 coin!But obviously a lot will depend on what an individual can afford - or wish to afford - on this hobby.

I wonder if seeking out and securing a particular coin gives the greatest satisfation of all – like the ‘thrill of the chase’! :D

These are just a few thoughts which might ‘get the ball rolling’ on the subject. :rolleyes:

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There are many different types of collector, from a coins type to a coins grade. A collector can focus on an era (ie: collecting only George II types) and from that a collector can also focus on a coin type from an era (ie: Farthings from Charles II, and Half Crowns from Victoria).

The motivation to start collecting can be from anything, with me it was recieving a bag of predecimal coins from my great uncle. It can be from being left some coins all the way to seeing an advert to buy a coin that could come through allong with junk mail in the post.

I would say that more satisfaction is achieved in the collecting not the 'having collected', mostly because it is a challenge to collect. But on the whole, collections are never completed (ie: 'the other man's grass is allways greener' :) ).

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I started collecting when my uncle gave me his collection. He got it in his trips around the world, getting coins from all over the place.

I collect all types of coins and the collection will never be complete, but I will be satisfy once I have 1 coin from each country in the world. Then I would go for a coin of every kind ever made in the world. So I will never, ever finish my collection.

But I would not spend too much money in a single coin. For spending more than $10 in a coin would have to be for a very special coin and not even then. If I were millionaire, then I would not mind, but as collie says, there are more important things in live where to spend the money.

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I would say there are two types of collector - the investor and the true collector. One collects for the money they will make reselling a coin, the other for perhaps the history, or design. I'd say I'm most definitely a collector, but would like my coins to make me a profit if I sold them, fairly obviously.

I had always dabbled with collecting since a young age when my great-grandfather gave me a collection of wartime European coins, from when he was in the army. He built the "Bailey Bridges" across North Africa, Italy, and all of Europe, so there was a heckuva lot of scope. He also had banknotes which I also liked, but not half as much as the coins.

When I started buying coins, I started making random purchases of anything which caught my eye for under book price. In this phase, I bought such diverse things as a Cartwheel penny, George II shilling, Victoria Double Florin, and an early Victoria Penny. Afterwards though, I realised my collection had no direction, so I started to concentrate on farthings. Whilst plodding my way through this series, verdigris appeared on some other copper-alloyed coins, so I had no choice to sell my farthings, to Chris of all people ;) .

After that I was at a loss as to what to collect. Sylvester suggested half-sovereigns, I thought perhaps maundy money. But I had always had a penchant for George IV coinage, and so embarked somewhat ambitiously on an 1826 set. So far, I only have the shilling (!) but I am immensely proud of it. I'm reappraising maundy money and I really really really want a James II set :D Unfrotunately, the only way I can complete my George IV set is with the copper coins (and thego,d of course which is highly unlikely) so I may have to resort to buying *shock horror* slabbed coins.

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There are also investor/collectors....People that buy big money coins that they find atractive, with the hope that they will increase in value.

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I have been concentrating on 19th century and early 20th century coins – mainly silver and large – Crowns and Half Crowns;large and heavy coins offer the greatest tactile satisfaction when handling them I believe. most recently I have been taking an interest in copper coins.

It looks as though you're a man after my own numismatic heart; I'm mostly interested in the larger silver, especially half crowns, but of late I've found myself getting distracted by Victorian farthings.

As with any hobby, what we do and how we do it can only really be answered in terms of where we're at. The future may bring changes of attitude or changes of direction. I think I've been aware of the need not to cast one's net too widely for some time now and, pace my above remarks, find that I'm narrowing my focus rather than expanding it. I've accepted, for example, that most hammered coins - and certainly pre-16th century ones - leave me completely cold. Some of you might want to wring my neck for saying this, but tough - I'm me and you're you.

I'm also coming round to the idea that there's more than enough to interest me post-1816 (again, an unfashionable statement to some) before I dabble further back.

I like to think I collect for fun, but there's a bit of the investor in me too. But then I'm that much older than some of our regulars and at their age I never thought of anything as an investment.

It's fascinating to think why we do things, but the more we try to rationalise, the harder it is to come up with any concrete answers. Vive la difference!

G

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(oh and Geoff, your Half Crown was posted yesterday. I say 'your' when I mean hopefully 'your' of course)

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What a question...

How to answer, hmm that's a good one.

For me it's history and like someone already stated i don't like all the coins looking too much alike where possible. Victoria is all good but it's too long. I like short brief and snappy reigns. 3 coins of one denomination for a full set of that monarch and you've done with them and you can brush them under the carpet. James II's reign is like a dream as is William and Mary's. I like Oli have this burning desire to collect something James II eventually.

My main attraction is gold and silver, but tin will always get my attention and how. Tin's not everyone's favourite metal but i likes it!

I'm practically the total opposite of Geoff. He like big, i like smaller/medium, he prefers the post 1816 period, i don't care for it. He feels nothing but disdain for early hammered, i thrive on the stuff. Stick me in a room full of Stephen pennies and i'm in heaven, totally.

But medieval gold is what is really driving me on at the minute... hammered gold nothing like it.

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I generally don't like spending under £20 for a coin.

I like expensive...

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I generally don't like spending under £20 for a coin.

I like expensive...

You obviously have too much money... if you have some that you do not need I send you my bank details! :D

I am interested in history as well, that is why it calls my attention any coin/note struck in Nazi Germany or in any other country involve during that period.

Another one I like is the Spanish coinage/notes from 1936-1939, while the country was devastating itself in the civil war.

The differences that the wars makes to society has to be reflected somehow in their coinage... well, at least in the past it was, now is not so much the case anymore in European countries...

There is still African and Asian nations (for example: Iraq just changed their whole set of notes and coins) but I don't have the connections to get their currency cheaply. :(

Edited by Unknown

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I generally don't like spending under £20 for a coin.

I like expensive...

I agree...

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Not a case of too much money... just that i like to own expensive things.

Not so much investing for profit but investing for my own pleasure and the coins hold their own monetary value.

Also useful if i have to sell a coin to fund something i want one that's gonna sell, so i need quality and i want something with a retail value of at least £100 so that when i sell it i can just sell one rather than 20 coins.

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If I want to get £100 of my collection, I may have to sell 200 coins!

I understand what you mean, but I will never have to found anything from my collection; if I have, it would mean I am in really dire conditions and I am force to sell the whole collection as 1 item, I would hate to separate my collection.

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If I want to get £100 of my collection, I may have to sell 200 coins!

I understand what you mean, but I will never have to found anything from my collection; if I have, it would mean I am in really dire conditions and I am force to sell the whole collection as 1 item, I would hate to separate my collection.

It would be the first time i've over budgeted on one coin and i've left myself short and thus had to sell another coin so that i can still get the train fare.

Doesn't happen often but it has happened.

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I'm practically the total opposite of Geoff. He like big, i like smaller/medium, he prefers the post 1816 period, i don't care for it. He feels nothing but disdain for early hammered, i thrive on the stuff. Stick me in a room full of Stephen pennies and i'm in heaven, totally.

I never mentioned disdain! I can have a genuine objective respect for hammered coins - for their age, their history, their rarity - but aesthetically they're not really my thing. To use the word "disdain" implies that I somehow turn my nose up at hammered coins and those who collect them, which is absolutely not true. I just don't get much of a buzz from the look or feel of them, that's all, just as some people don't get the buzz I might get from a really good George IV or William IV coin.

Like I said - vive la difference! :D

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Yes disdain was the wrong word but when i was writing it the word i really wanted "indifferent" was not forthcoming, and i think disdain is a nice word so although semantically inaccurate it just had to be used!

I like Geo. IV/Will IV coins very much.

But it's not the art that does it. Eye appeal to me is the tone or the colour of the coin (bluish slate grey), and high relief perhaps with complex designs. As long as it look regal.

As for hammered well it's history that made me into a coin collector and history remains my favourite of the two, so the idea of a coin minted around in say 1348/9 with the initial outbreak of the Black Death for instance; regardless of the appearance of the coin is what does it for me. Coins that have been there and seen it all.

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There are many types of collectors;

*Investors

*Geniune Collectors

*Grayscale collectors (they are genuine but they want a profit too)

*Dealers (some have personal collections too)

Those above are the main types, below is a list of minor type;

*Date set collectors (these people cannot focus on one denomination and usually not on one reign but they like the idea of one of each from each reign).

*Denomination collectors (these can be dull people, they get totally engrossed with one denomination, say half farthings, and to them all the others might as not exist, and they certainly know nothing about say halfcrowns).

*Monarch collectors (these guys can be duller still or maybe not as dull? They pick a monarch and they collect everything of that monarch and no one else gwets a look in, but they do get plenty of denominations in there)

*Monarch/denom collectors (these guys are really dull, or really specialist... they collect such things as William IV Half Sovereigns only).

*Monarchs collectors (These are adventurous or mad and go for one of every monarch... i'll admit to being on of these!)

*Date collectors (collect coins by date in sequence)

*Type collectors (collect only major types forget trivialities such as dates)

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, before we get to 'error' collector's, 'unusual coin' collectors and plain old hoarders that keep anything that's a metal disc, or even a non metal disc.

*Collector by metal (I've looked into this, but how about on coin of every elemental metal, platinum, palladium, silver, copper, lead, iron, tin, gold etc.)

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It looks as though you're a man after my own numismatic heart; I'm mostly interested in the larger silver, especially half crowns, but of late I've found myself getting distracted by Victorian farthings.

If you are a 'senior' member Geoff that's something else we have in common :rolleyes: I can well remember prices of goods like

19s-11 3/4d.

You are right about the temptation to be distracted from a collection plan - like Half Crowns from each reign - when 'browsing'lists of coins on offer shows something we wouldn't hav thought of - like a'Cartwheel' Twopence!

Like you, although I am interested to see photos of really ancient coins - Anglo Saxon, Roman etc. for reasons I can't explain, I don't feel any urge to collect them.

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I am interested to see photos of really ancient coins - Anglo Saxon, Roman etc. for reasons I can't explain, I don't feel any urge to collect them.

Usually that's because people know very little about them and are cautious to get involved....Like jumping out of a plane for the first time. Plus the fact that there are plenty of newer coins to collect.

I have a little collection of just over 30 identified Roman coins. I have them arranged by date. None are worth more than perhaps £25 and most are worth less than £5 but I like then. There is still a collector in me somewhere.

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Guest pierrevonmunzen

Why does everyone post so early?

Lets not get deep but collecting is a "man thing" .

Equally I find coin collectors....or the numismmmmmaaatticsacistie (terrible word to say or write) are usually quite sensible and OK type people...get my drift.

In business I also don't trust non beer drinkers or chaps who don't like football.

Coins Ummm....I just love em!

They are everything.

Investment,historical,whim,beautiful Britannia,portable,intrinsic,accessable,swopable......etc etc

I could go on but I have the need to drool over my farthings (Its OK I use Linder Trays) :D

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In business I also don't trust non beer drinkers or chaps who don't like football.

I hate football and i hate beer even more.

I more of a whisky drinker when i'm inclined towards alcohol, which is an extremely rare occurence.

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What do you mean post so early? It's not early... :D

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Lets not get deep but collecting is a "man thing"

What rubbish! Although predominantly pursued by men, if you brose other forums you will see quite a significant minority of women collectors. Oh, and I also hate football and equally beer.

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I don't like football, have better things to do. I do like a nice pint sometimes, but very infrequently. I can't remember the last.

I don't trust people that use Lindner trays, as they must have money to burn ;) My Lighthouse range is compatable, and so much cheaper!

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