What is the shape of your collection?

There many brilliant other "what kind of collector are you" threads on this forum... but I thought it would be interesting to see how varied your collections are!

CoinWeek recently posted this article on type of collectors... Comparing Coin Collecting Methods

The author focuses on a few different dichotomies in collecting: specialist vs type, condition vs absolute rarity, business vs proof, gold/silver(/copper), and 19th/20th century. These categories all have precisely the same problems, the foremost being that they are awfully US-coin-centric. One of the reasons I love this forum is that it is not all about Carson City Morgan dollars (*yawn*). By setting up his X-vs-Y comparisons, the author is excluding a large portion of the global numismatic market.

I would argue that there is AT LEAST a third major type for each of his "versus" - those who collect anything that catches their fancy at the moment.

Now, I am neither a specialist nor a type collector, but bounce around between many different fields/eras/countries/types/etc. continuously. Even if I am assembling a "type" set of post-Norman-invasion English monarchs, I will still buy an early 17th century Bavarian Thaler, followed by a Philip V 8 Reale from Mexico City, a "white Rajah" Sarawak cent, and an early 20th century quarter Anna from India. Right now (as I've mentioned here before), I am compiling a set of coins related to prominent scientists (sixpence minted under Isaac Newton, denar from the rule of Rudolph II while Johannes Kepler was at court, tallero from Tuscany under Galileo's patron Cosimo II de'Medici, etc.) This doesn't fit neatly into any category, really.

(Side note - my 5 year old son is a type collector of sorts... he collects two types: "the one with the mohawk" aka indian head cents; and "anything shiny that sticks to a magnet".)

The comparison of condition vs absolute rarity, likewise, has at least a third type - those of us who don't care too much about condition or rarity (sometimes I just want to ID it, sometimes I want a nicer specimen.) I think the author's focus is only on investment-grade coins - those for the wealthy, or for those who only buy a few high-end coins a year. I routinely buy barely-identifiable condition coins, cleaned coins, bulk lots, etc. because they interest me - mostly because there is some interesting history connected to the coin(s), but sometimes because I just find a coin to be beautiful (even if it is relatively worthless.) The author ignores the MASSIVE market in these coins entirely, which I think is unfair, given the expressed intent of the article, and the sizable volume of the market made up by collectors of this type.

Consider any coin shop you walk into - there will certainly be a few display cases with graded $10k coins, but there will also be boxes and folders full of "just plain old neat coins" in 2x2 flips which can be had for a few dollars. If I walked into that shop with $10k in my pocket, you can be sure I wouldn't be walking out with 1 or 2 nice coins - I'd be filling up my trunk with worn thalers and kreuzers, hammered denars, rolls of indian head cents (for my 5 year old), smooth colonial Spanish reales, Ottomon paras, 19th century yen, provincial Roman sestertii, etc. And while I'm at it, I'll buy up some of their "details" graded coins because you can get them for a song, even though they are just as cool (and often just as appealing to the eye) as the MS62 sitting next to them.

I'm sure I am not the only one who has a collection that looks like this. Here are some stats to put my position into perspective... feel free to reply with your own!

• I have at least 1 coin from every nation currently issuing coinage (does that make me a type collector?), plus hundreds of countries/states which no longer exist
  
• About 3/4 of my coins are base metal (although I mostly purchase silver now)
  
• 60% are contemporary, 30% late modern, and the remainder are medieval or ancient
  
• My collection covers 10 centuries, not counting my ancient (Greek/Roman/etc.) coins
  
• I have current and demonetized paper currency from dozens of countries (I don't really collect paper, but some of the post-WWI German Reichsbanknotes are interesting.)
  
• I have nearly all of the coins required to make a US type set if I ever felt like assembling it
  
• My miscellaneous box contains various exonumia and a pile of mint/proof sets
  
• My Lincoln cent and Indian Cent sets are all circulated, a few of which are even holed (*gasp*!)
  
• Altogether, only about 5% of my collection is made up of numismatically interesting US coins, and all of them are worth less than $1k
  
• I do have some tubes of bullion coins, but I can't, for the life of me, understand why people get boring slabs of silver graded
  
• Only about 2-3% of my collection is uncirculated coins (my collection has been there, done that)
  
• I only have about 20 graded/slabbed coins, about half of which are "Details" graded (and I still love them!)
  
• I still have all of the coins I was given by my aunt when I was 8 years old, after she took a trip to Europe (she'll never know how expensive that give was for me!)
  
• The bulk of my collection fits into about a 20 carefully sorted and cataloged 3" binders, but it is growing at about 1 new binder per year
  
• I have thousands of indian head cents, wheat cents, and nearly-wiped buffalo nickels which are sorted by year and mint, and I'm not sure why I have them, but I can't bring myself to get rid of them
  
• My oldest coin is from Sicily, circa 380-360 BC, my newest is 2019 (gotta keep that Lincoln cent album up-to-date!)
  
• My favorite coins is.... hahahah yeah right, like I could choose!
  

You sound like my kind of collector!

I also saw the Coin Week article you mentioned, skimmed over it and thought "I am none of these".

I have had many coin dealers, shop owners, and "numismatic professionals" tell me that since I don't chase after high grade key date U.S. gold and silver, I am therefore "not a serious collector". Well, they can fiddle while their Rome burns... four of the six coin stores closest to me have gone out of business in the last three years! If they were willing to cater to my interests, I would gladly spent money with them, instead of being summarily dismissed.

I have over 10,800 coins from the 1740s to present. Less than 5% are silver, and I own zero gold. My coins are all circulated, and I don't particlarly care about grades at all. I am proud that none of my coins are slabbed, and I can comfortably handle them as I please. I want my hobby to consume as little plastic as possible. I reckon my collection isn't worth much, but it has enriched my mind beyond measure.

I love bulk lots! Foreign coins in the US are treated like dead fish, so I often stumble across incredible finds skipped over by dealers who don't care to look. Proofs, singletons from Mint sets, and keys dates worth more than a silver round. Yee-haw!

I think we might be called plebeian collectors.
One of my local dealers has started to sell bulk lots of foreign coins. I have bought only one and out of 15 coins I only had 3 already in my collection albeit I have but 2300 coins in my collection. I love getting bag lots from friends whose parents have died. They always think there could be a real rarity in there that will finance their future. They are surprised when I tell them there are only a handful of valuable (dollar wise) Canadian coins in existence. There is a 1969 dime with a large date that will go for $12,000 in well worn condition.

If it hasn't gone through someone's pocket, it doesn't have much history.

I'm what you could call a history collector:

• I'm currently fascinated with Roman history, especially from the First Triumvirate until the Crisis of the Third Century, and actively look for Roman large bronze and copper coins. Sestertii are my favorite but I also collect dupondii and asses trying to collect one of each historical figure that issued them. I generally dislike the small coin that started taking over in the middle of the Third Century till the fall of the Western Empire. Silver denarii are also nice but I don't consider them as impressive as First and Second Century large bronze coins.
  

• I also look for medieval and renaissance coins that circulated in Croatia, mostly Hungarian and Venetian coins. One of my favorite coins is a Hungarian silver denar from the occupied Vienna mint. Not many people know that in the 15th century Hungary was a European super-power. In 1485 Hunyadi Mátyás occupied Vienna and started minting his own coins in the Vienna mint.
  

• I started collecting after I inherited my grandfathers coins collection. Most of the collection were Franz Josef I. era coins so every now and then I add a coin to the collection.
  

• Other than that I also add coins I like the design of but those are almost always pre-1945 circulating coins. I don't like modern coins and I especially don't like uncirculated coins minted only for collectors. They just aren't appealing to me.
  

My collection is small, less than 200 coins, and I try to keep it all in one coin album. I usually focus more on rarity than grade and the most common metal in my collection is silver.

Quote: "gextyr"Consider any coin shop you walk into - there will certainly be a few display cases with graded $10k coins, but there will also be boxes and folders full of "just plain old neat coins" in 2x2 flips which can be had for a few dollars. If I walked into that shop with $10k in my pocket, you can be sure I wouldn't be walking out with 1 or 2 nice coins - I'd be filling up my trunk with worn thalers and kreuzers, hammered denars, rolls of indian head cents (for my 5 year old), smooth colonial Spanish reales, Ottomon paras, 19th century yen, provincial Roman sestertii, etc. And while I'm at it, I'll buy up some of their "details" graded coins because you can get them for a song, even though they are just as cool (and often just as appealing to the eye) as the MS62 sitting next to them.​

​Haha yeah, I can almost imagine it, and I'd probably do something similar!
Not that I'm likely to have $10k in my pocket anytime soon, and, come to think of it, most of the coin shops I go to don't really stock $10k coins either.

As for the stats...

• I have at least one coin from several hundred countries/states, most of which no longer exist any more... still missing a few modern NCLT issuers (Senegal anyone?), but I think by now I should have a coin from every place with ongoing circulating coinage
  
• Over 90% of my coins are base metal of some kind; the rest (about 200 or so) are silver - no gold
  
• Never tried to separate my collection into modern and contemporary; I'd guess that most is 21st or 20th century, with the rest mostly 19th - but only because the older coins are often much more expensive, and/or much harder to find
  
• However, my collection covers at least 25 centuries (probably 26 - there's some uncertainty about the 13th century AD), counting my ancient coins (the century count without ancients depends on where the boundary is - could be anywhere from 12 to 16)
  
• I have current and/or demonetized paper currency from dozens of countries (much of it bought at 15 cents per bill or thereabouts)
  
• I have a Dansco 7070 US type set album, which is roughly halfway filled, but I don't expect it to fill up much more anytime soon
  
• Lincoln set? IHC set? Are you joking? I don't have anywhere near that much money! Do like the designs though
  
• Altogether, only about 10% of my collection is made up of US coins - even counting the 50 state quarters individually - and all of them are probably worth less than $1k combined
  (Surprisingly, only about 10% - maybe 15% - is made up of Russian coins as well, as long as I don't count random bags full of pocket change that I never got around to spending)
  
• I have somewhere between 1 and 3 bullion coins (honestly don't recall), and I'm not sure if I ever actually paid for one... OK, my Maria Theresa thaler might count
  
• Only about 2-3% of my collection (if that) is uncirculated coins, and even that much is almost entirely NCLT types that just never circulated in the first place
  
• I don't recall if I have 1 or 2 slabbed coins. I have never bought a slabbed coin - but I did get at least one as a gift
  
• I played with my coins a lot right up to the age of 16 or so, so relatively little survives of that stage of my collection - most coins were misplaced, and thus lost when we moved in 2006
  
• The bulk of my collection is all over the place. Mostly in ziplocs
  
• My oldest coin is from Kyzikos, in what is now Turkey, circa 5th century BC. My newest is 2018 - still don't have anything from 2019 yet
  
• My favorite... yeah, way too many candidates
  

There are probably other stats I could give; I'm just not sure what to look for.

I do kind of want a Carson City Morgan dollar though... probably couldn't afford one, however.
I almost bought one back in 2013 or so (common date, for a CC at least, in FR-2 grade), but the purchase fell through because I was unable to figure out how to send the money, and since then the rising exchange rates had mostly locked me out of any $50+ purchases.

Currently I am still in the change/fun mode. Stamps are still number one and I am super professional there throwing down racks of ca$h on it.

I have 3 sections.

A. Coins in an album - all the quality silver stuff, complete country sets, older coins of interest. Sets like the Farthings, Australian 5 cent pieces, any sterling silver.

B. Coins in Box - Year sets and Proof sets, coins in cases, like large dollars etc. Foreign coin sets

C. Metal Box with country bags, these are plastic bags full of change from one particular country, sometimes eras too.

Still in the basic accumulator stage at this time.

I collect coins mainly because of the history behind them. My main focus has been my collection of monarchs from around the world for some time now. Secondary I try to get one circulated coin from every country of the world by searching for those mostly very cheap coins on flea markets. Also I often bid on other nice historical stuff if I see the chance to get it cheap.

My Monarch collection currently is made of:
circa 300 Portrait featuring coins minted under the rule of the ruler shown of them (No later made commemorates)
200 different monarchs + sometimes their wife (The other 100 coins are portrait variants of those) from:
52 different Monarchies (Empires, Kingdoms, Duchies etc.)

My budget is relatively low, I dont have spend 10k $ on my collection at all yet. For still getting as many nice pieces of history as possible I:
1. -Dont buy any gold coins
2. -Prefer a damaged coin with nice details above a very worn example which is sometimes even more expensive .
3.- Often watch ebay for nice offers (I know some people hate ebay for whatever reasons, I never had problems there)
4. -If a monarch has minted nearly no coins or just gold coins I will try to get a medal from his time of reigning instead (again no commemoratives minted after his death)

Some more collection stats:

- 90-95% of the coins are base metal, I dont collect coins as investment (What doesnt mean that I dont like to own some silver ).
- I have some roman, one byzantine and no later medieval coin. My currently oldest non-ancient coin is from 1540.
- I currently dont collect paper, I did collect stamps in my childhood
- I normally remove the slabs if I get a slabbed coin, and dont buy them because of the slab.
- Non-Circulating types mostly dont interest me except they are the only possibility to add a new monarch (which means I currently have 1 example in my collection).
- My first coins where an Maria Theresia Thaler and an 5 Mark "Silberadler".
- I couldnt tell you my favorite but there are surely some coins I like more than others ;)

I'm kind of doing a mixture of all of those; I'm collecting by issuer/country, as well as by historical timeframe and type/denomination for some countries like France, for example.

I concur with your critique of the article, in being entirely USA-centric, and with others who were put off by the four, five and six figure prices the author seems to deem necessary for a coin to be collectible.
The author's final comment that one can be a "player" or a "nobody" put my ears back. That community of people who bid the prices up to the sky, not just of coins, but of art, old cars, real estate, etc, are people with too much money, in some cases more money than brains! They bid against each other for prestige, as much or more than for any aesthetic appreciation. Philistines! If that sounds like sour grapes i guess it is!

I make a good living, i am not living paycheck-to-paycheck, but I could never justify spending more than $1000 on a coin. I can count on one hand the number of coins I own that are worth more than $200, but I do own a lot of silver, still, I think the average is less than $20. I will never own a slabbed coin.

I like the question about - in the absence of third party grading services - who have apparently invented "grade rarity", as a way to drum up business, would certain coins still command super high prices? well worth asking. I will add in the absence of a super rich class of idlers to bid against each other, would any of this stuff be worth more than scrap value.
enough ranting.

I am definately a specialist. I fall in love with a particular subject, and get every date and variant I can afford (excluding usually, rare "key dates that have been bid out of reach by "serious collectors").

Monaco is my current obsession. Most of these are common 20th century bronze and nickel analogues of French types. most cost less than $5 each. There are some nice silver pieces in the $40-80 range. There are many gold and silver essais and pied-forts that are not on my shopping list. I did buy all the proof sets, of which there have been five.

Other projects include Meiji era Japan, pre-revolutionary Cuba, Kingdom era Egypt, Protectorate era Tunisia, etc.
I constrain myself to a relatively few issuers, currently 52. I have no interest in ancient coins, or anything 21st century.
As to the shape of my collection, recently it has become rectangular. what isnt already in Dansco albums, I have migrated most into these nice wooden cigar boxes. I have nine of them currently.

I started as a child at about 6 years old when I spent the summer in Europe over 55 years ago. People gave me all sorts of strange coins that we didnt have in the U.S. Francs, Marks, Lira, Pence, etc, etc and I thought they were wonderful and exotic.. When I returned to the U.S. I threw them in shoe boxes and have been a bit of a hoarder since. Throwing anything different, unfamiliar, cool, pretty or old in buckets, bags and boxes for 55 years. It is only recently that I have the time to really look and appreciate what I have accumulated over the years and have decided to focus on U.S. and related coin types and sets. As expected, I have Lots of low value commons, lots of really nice coins and many high value coins. I love them all really and try my best to get children interested in coin collecting while they are young just like i was.

My collection currently consists of several sub collections:

- US coin series collected from circulation long ago -- Lincoln cents, buffalo and Jefferson nickels, Mercury and Roosevelt dimes, Standing Liberty and Washington quarters, Walking Liberty and Franklin half dollars, all up to about 1964

- US type collection -- missing most of the expensive types, but contains all the Dansco 7070 coins.

- GSA CC Morgan dollars -- obtained directly from GSA sales in the 1970s

- Gold stack and silver stack -- the core of the silver stack consists of US quarters taken from circulation in the 1960s

- OFEY (One From Each Year) -- 2019 back to 1498, with a few earlier years)

- OFEC (One From Each Country) -- this subcollection brought me to Numista and the 300 country club

- OFEC (One From each Century) -- this subcollection brought me back to the ancient era (2000s to -600s)

- OFEG (One For Each Gimmick) -- unusually large/small/old coins, plastic coins or ones made of unusual metals, coins with glued-on glass, colorized coins, coins with holograms, incuse/high relief designs, etc.

- World crowns -- not too many of these

- Unusual PCGS/NGC holders (PCGS doily, for example) -- "buy the holder, not the coin"

Just realised the question is

"What is the shape of your collection"

Well last time I looked 99% of my coins were circular

So I guess my collection is ROUND!

Quote: "phfoticus"​- OFEG (One For Each Gimmick) -- unusually large/small/old coins, plastic coins or ones made of unusual metals, coins with glued-on glass, colorized coins, coins with holograms, incuse/high relief designs, etc.

I guess I am also in the "OFE*" club. I love collecting an example of each "something". I am interested in this OFEG idea though. For instance, I love oddball denominations (recently snagged a 1/13 Shilling from Jersey... and I have a set of 5/10/15/45/90 kyat notes from Burma.) Do you have a list of "gimmicks" or do you just grab something when it seems odd enough to fit?

Quote: "Moneytane"​So I guess my collection is ROUND!

​Yeah, but some of the coolest coins aren't round. Hahah!

Quote: "gextyr"​ Do you have a list of "gimmicks" or do you just grab something when it seems odd enough to fit?

​I don't have a formal written want list, but in general I'm looking for:

- very high and low denominations, also odd multiples and fractions, obscure denomination names

- unusual shapes

- obscure German-sounding issuers

- very large and very small

- very old

- curved (US baseball and Apollo, for example)

- unusual materials -- plastic, glass, rhodium, ruthenium, rhenium, iridium, bismuth, etc.)

- mint gimmicks -- holograms, lenticular, colorized, glued-on objects, plastic inserts and rings, tri-metallic, multi-part, partial gold plating, etc. etc.

phfoticus -
Thanks! I love it!

I'm mostly interested in circulation coinage, so some of those "mint gimmicks" won't be going on my list. But all of the other oddball stuff is right up my alley.

-There are a lot of unusual materials that were circulated (plastic, coal, fiber, lead, stone, etc.) This could be its own OFE* category :) I have over 100 distinct metal compositions/alloys in my collection.
-Definitely lots of odd shapes. (When I started collecting at age 8, my favorite coins were my scalloped rupees.)
-Tons of very large and very small coins (Panama pills! Cartwheel twopence!)
-Odd denominations are among my favorites, as I mentioned before.
-I am also always trying to increase my knowledge of the etymology of denomination names and how they are related, so I love odd denomination names (just recently purchased my first few krajczárs, and I have always loved my Bulgarian stotinki.)
-I also really like obscure issuers - especially German states, Austrian states, Swiss cantons, etc.

The shape of my collection...

I read the coin weekly article and put myself into specialist. Before I go into intro, I live by these set of rules given my pockets are not deep.

1. There is no perfect collection. I define perfect collection by owning all the coins everything. Means in the end only you own the coin in the world. Because you brought everything.

2. Collect what you like. I generally only collect the following coins.
Singapore as the place I lived in.
Malaysia as I sometimes visit it.
Japan due to the history. I collect meiji era onwards as the meiji dragon are very nice to keep.
Brunei as the currency is 1 is to 1 as Singapore.

3. Buy the coin, not the slab. If you find a coin that is not nice in a slab it says ms67 and its a proof frosted, and check on the coins is 9 years old, would you pay for the slab premium or the condition of the coin? Well I guess is the condition of the coin. Buying for that premium is crazy.

4. Do not compete with others. You will regret in the later end. Instead be kind and share the knowledge with others. People who likes to compete I will totally avoid them. Because if I opened my mouth base on experience, nothing good comes out of it.

5. Commorative coins are always too expensive as I find. So I only collect what I like to collect. Same as proof coins. In Singapore these coins are way over priced that most of the time I skipped it.

6. Random coins. These coins sometimes I buy from friends as his grandfather passed on and I do not cheat them. I brought some straits settlement dollar coin from him by explaining market price and what price I buying for collection. And I do not buy them on the spot giving a little time and see how he want to deal with it. After all might have some sentiment value for him. Some friends who travel around the world also gave me some. So I would put them in flips.

7. About the metals, I keep all types of only pure gold coin as of now. Maybe I will buy a 1 gram gold panda bullion in future. Ha ha ha.. I have a few silver pandas only about 3 of them.

The oldest coin I have is from Japan a 100 tempo Mon. Some people like to called it as blossom seed money.

The latest coin I have is Singapore circulation coin 2018.

The most expensive coin to date I own is a meiji dragon coin with silver counter stamp on the left as these are very hard to find and come by. They were intended for Taiwan use.

Most Japanese coins are placed in a capsule quadrum as they are over 100 years old.



I would label them and will put them into the album in the later part as I am still trying to understand how to group them according to types and nicely according to era. All the others will be in 2x2 paper flips and into the pocket sleeves.

Thank you for taking time to read. Happy collecting.

      These kinds of discussions are what you normally don't get from regular collectors, but the ones i like the most!

I started collecting 1 year ago, with coins and so far I have acquired 74 coins, mostly foreign as i enjoy to have at least a coin from every country i can find in local shops. Most of my collection are coins from the 20s-90s era (South American coins are underrated). Now I'm mostly into banknotes and honestly I have kept the same ‘’strategy'' if want to call it that,  and I'm not planning to change it anytime soon.

I'm still trying to get more on my profile and in general as I'm new to this website. 

       As for how i store my collection, it's in albums and i tried to sort them by continents  and starting from west to east (even from Europe, Middle East to Africa eventually Oceania when i get banknotes from there and the Americas).

I just collect, what I don't have yet!

Sjoelund

I just collect, what I don't have yet!

Same, but probably on a more strict budget. 😄

My collection is UK post decimal circulating, with coins drawn from circulation - usually directly drawn by myself.

 

I have a few annual proof sets here & there, and a modest run of Silver Britannia bullion (but none of the BU/proof; don't want them either). Got a nice mix of British Overseas Territories & The Crown Dependencies along the way too.

 

The plan is to get one of every unique circulating coin from 1968 to present. I know decimalisation didn't occur until 1971 but the 5/10p coins had a head start.

Doing really well with that, except for the alphabet 10p. Only got about 7. 🙄

 

Pre-decimal I've got a surprisingly good mix of (at least, the non-precious metals, though many silver too). Might see what I can do with those.