Justin

I know I am a new to this but is this guy serious? WTF! Made me laugh!

Cheers for the replies guys, its been very much appreciated and a nice insight! I may let myself become varied and wide when the kids are all grown up, but as of yet my wife has not begun the nagging or the bank looking too shabby, kids and family come first etc etc! I have made a decision and decided to keep the 1953-1980 folder as is as I only need one coin to complete the set and will as time goes by upgrade the cupro-nickel coins to EF/Unc, but as the pre 1953 folders is a little slap dash apart from the pennies I will be concentrating on the pennies from 1797 onwards but concentrate on years and major varieties (Heaton/Kings Norton mint and the other few major varieties but not down to the little differences which should help the wallet a little!! I will be trying to buy better grades as I will be concentrating on one denomination which will also help in the grading of coins when looking online! That was another steep learning curve one which stills stumps me on occasion! With the pennies, Third Reich, USA and the case for the randoms with some Roman coins and other randoms I think that should keep me out of trouble and busy enough! Again thanks for the replies and the insight it has been most helpful, now I am currently on a ban for buying (OK maybe not a complete one! ) until I can sell the stuff I am not keeping and finish cataloging everything else! Something else I didnt think was important when I began collecting! ! Regards

Thanks for the reply Rob, Yeah I found out about the paper issue through the Whitman folders! I was kind of hell bent initially when I started collecting that I didn't really have a direction or patience as all I was focussed on was empty gaps! I have now developed the patience and I no longer buy a coin purely on the basis of an empty gap or its a good grade, it has to appeal visually to me and I dont mind waiting the extra time to find something that looks good and will sit with the other coins around it nicely. I will definitely been taking that tip on sticking to a particular grade if possible as it will make the collection more complete as you say and visually pleasing. I have a few BU pennies which do stick out massively beside a VF or EF! One more question though, what would a "type set" consist of? Again thanks for the reply, Regards Justin

Hi all, Well I have been reading the posts now for a few weeks and since I registered I have hit a quandary of sorts! I thought I should write my thoughts down so to speak! I initially started collecting around 9 months ago. I started by way of the good old whitman folders and had the complete set bar one. I then noticed a few coins had turned a wee bit nasty in the folders and decided the move to albums was needed, which I built myself. All coins were acetone bathed before being sealed in 2x2's. This has proved to be a much better way of storing and seeing the coins. I started collecting GB pre-decimal as per the whitman folders which was fun, but I initially did buy quite a few fair/worn coins to fill the gaps. I then moved onto third reich coins and US coins as well. With those collections I know exactly were I am going and what I am collecting. The quandary lies within my three GB folders. My initial plan was to collect year sets from 1880 to 1980 (the 100 years prior to and including my birth year. My QEII folder is full now from 1953-1980 and a lot is of EF of better, apart from the sixpences, florins and half crowns which are currently VF (although this does not bother me much). The album pages from 1880 til around 1930 are a bit lacking apart from mostly farthings (most are EF/aUnc or Unc) or the pennies which was the first folders I filled! My quandary is this, do I extend good ole Liz up until present and then concentrate on just pennies prior to 1953 as I seem to gravitate towards the big shinny bronze ones or do I stick with what I am doing? the main reason is that the price of most shillings, florins and half crowns prior to George VI are quite high and I don't think I could justify the cost! I know some pennies are not cheap but as they contain no bullion the lower end of the grades even in some of the rarer ones are a lot more acceptable to me (and the long haired colonel of course!). Also by selling what I have accumulated in farthings, half-pennys and threepences etc I could get quite a few pennies in return! I know its my choice but as a newbie I would like to hear the thoughts of the more experienced, what would you do, how many times have you changed your mind and is it likely to happen throughout my life of collecting? Regards Justin