Do you ever feel like you're addicted to coin collecting?

Hello guys!

So, this is kind of in a funny tone but I also think this might be becoming a problem. With that being said let the story begin

So, ever since I was a kid (I am 21 now) I have always saved all the money I get on Christmas and birthdays and all that from my family. Every now and again I would use some of that money to buy stuff I really wanted, but I think I have never wasted money at all.
Now, begin last year. I am not sure why but I now feel the urge to buy more coins almost compulsively. Sometimes I would go in a store to buy 5€ worth of coin holders or album pages and leave with 30€ worth of coins as well. Last week it got to a point I would never thought would come... I pulled the classic "I am just looking, I am not buying"... I wondered into a coin shop with no reason whatsoever and looked at coins for a bit... And then bought some
And what's worse is that I want to do it again!

So yeah, obviously I am not compulsively buying coins so I think it's not that huge of a problem but I find it funny how much I have come to love coins, to the point I just see a pretty one and buy it because it's weird (I came to know later that it was a medieval indian coin and thought it was sooo cool!)

Anyway, do any of you have similar experiences of starting to do something you thought you would never do just because of coins? (that being, for me, not saving all the money I got and not spending it ever)

I'm fairly sure addiction and spending more than you planned to (especially when you see something nice!) is an experience all collectors can relate to.

Especially when I go into a coin dealer's with the intent to by coin holders or banknote sleeves, and I end up spending the money on MORE coins or banknotes instead and have to beg the dealer to throw in some free holders.

Welcome to the club.... I dont feel I'm addicted. I KNOW I'm addicted. When I find a treatment center for coin addicts I will advise.....

If you want we can start a Numismatic Anonymous....

Aaron

Everytime I visit eBay, I can feel it

Yes, I feel that I am addicted to coin collecting when I keep researching and reading about coins for hours together. Once I get to know about a unique coin, I feel like reading more about it and try my best to find the same for my collection.... I suppose it happens to many collectors.

I use to wake up with a couple of coins next to me
I took the bad habit of studying coins in my bed before sleeping so it's kinda the first and the last thing I see everyday when I'm home.

Addicted? ... Just a bit.
About money, a few months after I began collecting I set myself a rule : not spending more money in coins than I'm making with coins. As a student I do not have any monthly income, and I have to save a bit of money. I saw quite fast that coins can make you spend more money than you should or would like, especially thanks to the internet.

It's quite hard sometimes because, you know, you always find coins at a "cheap price". But well, it seems to be successfull, in 2018 I was almost in a perfect balance, for the hundreds I spent in coins, I sold for an almost equal amount. The main cons is that it requires more time, more organization, and that my collection is not growing as fast as I would like.

But apart from the money, always checking coins, reading about them, browsing prestigious auctions "just for fun", comparing coins,... are signs of an addiction I guess.

I have a strict monthly limit which is painful but is an effective practice.

Quote: "druzhynets"​I have a strict monthly limit which is painful but is an effective practice.

​I've thought about doing that many times. My main spending happens at Estate auctions or other auctions that I go to with my brothers. We love auctions. I also have a friend who is in the precious metal business who always gets lots he wants to liquidate quickly and below spot. Being that these are the 2 most likely places I get my coins it is very unpredictable what the costs will be. I've gone some months spending a small fortune and some months not a cent. Either way I gotta slow down a bit as it really is getting out of hand.

Quote: "Cycnos"​I use to wake up with a couple of coins next to me
​I took the bad habit of studying coins in my bed before sleeping so it's kinda the first and the last thing I see everyday when I'm home.

​

Quote: "druzhynets"​I have a strict monthly limit which is painful but is an effective practice.

Yes, set a limit and keep track of your spending so you know how much you still have left to play with.

Yeah, I might just have to set a budget

I am not addicted until I :-
1. Talk about coins
2. Visit a coin shop (see my note at bottom of message)
3. Receive coins I have swapped
4. Receive coins as gifts. (Always from my wife. What a star she is.) No, one one else can have her.

Sometimes, I am glad I am a football referee as it give my coin brain a rest.
My only disappointment is that I have never dreamt about coins. When my coin brain rests, it's really at rest.

Totally, I have high functioning autism and as you know we develop obsessions over things, especially inanimate objects. Coins have always been an obsession of mine.

From my youngest days, I was obsessed with coins, because they were round and "shiny". When I was 3 I apparently swallowed a 2cent piece (about 20mm) and used to help my mother find coins I had hidden around the house. I was given 4c a day at the hospital when I was 4 after breaking my leg to calm me down.

I collected coins and change from childhood onwards, any of our friends knew bringing me back foreign coins would make my day. I even found a Christmas card given to my mother when I was 8 which was from me and Grandma the 85 year old penny from 1899!

I collected coins seriously from age 14½ to 24½ (Early 1991 to Early 2001), I diverted much cash into first getting a complete run of NZ Predecimal coins including a 1935 3d, then a lot of British, Australian, American and Canadian coins. In the early 90s it was base metal, but by 1995 to 1998 it was quality silver pieces. the 90s was a good time to buy as silver was cheap at $3 an ounce and I was buying AU Morgans for like $10 each.

By 2000, I had a marvellous collection that included 12 Morgan dollars, an 1830 Bust half, an 1876S seated hlaf and numerous Morgans, Barbers, Walkers and other classic American silver coins, an 1848 Large cent and numerous cents and nickels, Most of the Canadian voyageur dollars, 30 British half crowns from 1818 to 1937, a 1671 British Crown (Charles II 3rd bust), 1880 Halfcrown AU and unc 1887 Half Crown amongst many others. I also had many silver coins from South Africa and Europe including at least 10 50 schilling commems from Austria.

But what happened was in April 2001 I went to live with my folks for a while after a relationship break up and took the collection in boot to the new place. Unfortunately they lived in a ghetto part of New Zealand and I went to eat at a cafe and after half an hour, the car had been broken into and the collection was stolen. My car had been ransacked and only a Boney M CD was left!. Fortunately I had written down a ledger of every coin and what it was worth and thanks to that I got a $2500 insurance payout.

This theft shattered me and I did not collect again until 2009, in the meantime I scoured dealers and lists for any of my coins and could never find any of them. I fear they were melted down, taken overseas or thrown in some swamp somewhere.

I collected stamps seriously from 2005 onwards and still do. But starting in 2009, some people who take circuit books in my stamp club, told me they owned a chain of charity shops and got estates. They could dispose of most of peoples possessions, but coins they had problems with, could I sell them on Trade me.

By this stage I was in a stable relationship and had some money, but would suffer on and off unemployment for several years. I would buy coins off them and the lots were mostly junk and change from overseas holidays, but occasional better lots with silver coins and better pieces came through. I found I could make a profit from these and every few months they would get another pile of coins and I would go over and make an offer.

Around 2016 I started keeping some of what I bought and turning over most of the rest. Now I keep silver coins and countries that interest me, but many foreign change I make up country bags over time and then sell them on Trade Me, hence why my Numista listings change all the time.

Now I am well off I can afford to replicate what I had in my early 20s.

I am obsessed with coins as I like shiny circles and collecting date sets and types, silver coins fascinate me as they are precious metal. I am careful with coins, but I always keep a few bags of common change junk coins (NZ old big coins from 1967 - 2005) and Pennies and other junk and often "Play with them" and will often spend a night looking at my coins and coin sets whilst ads are on TV. Coins give me a lot of pleasure whereas banknotes have done little as they are less affordable.