Coin Collecting: Is it about the Enjoyment of Collecting or about Making Money?

[WavyTwenty]

Seems like there is still demand for premium coins.

100 Million dollars worth of coins are up for sale from a single collector are out for auction over the next few years.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/27/style/buried-coin-collection-auction-scli-intl/index.html

[Basilstate]

Interesting,its amazing what's out there.

The Samasko horde was interesting,the Oz. Gold Sovereigns from the horde were graded by PCGS and found their way onto Ebay USA a few years back,i wanted at least one but no matter what i bid the same person outbid me on every one.

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2012/sep/16/gold-worth-7-million-found-house-after-nevada-man-/

[Tanecoins]

For me its both.

Most of my coins are for my enjoyment and I have thousands of common and slightly older (Back to late 1800s) world coins, mostly of muck metal, that I know will never be worth more than a few dollars. I also have some nice date runs of coins and complete sets of predecimal stuff and many of these coins go well in advance of melt value and I have paid well over melt value for them.

Yet I have a gold collection too, that gives me much joy and I can quit for some serious moolah if I ever need it. I also have about 5kg of stacking silver (Mostly Junk silver from USA, UK, Australia, Canada and NZ) which can bring some $$$$.

I know errors, mules etc are all very popular now, but I have never really got into them - just can't see what the appeal is.

But I think the choice of invest or collect, is up to each individual collector and also what amount of each if you do both. I know some people just love coins for coins and others treat it like a sharemarket exercise and making money only.

[seedyrom]

I collect coins because I'm slightly autistic I guess. Well ... that's why I originally started. I worked in retail, and enjoyed finding rare coins.

Then it became a case of "I want a full set".

Then it became "I better collect 3 of everything. One for me, and one set for each of my children".

Now with the volume of releases (I also collect US coins for added stress), I don't actually find enjoyment in it. It is a burden trying to keep up. E.g. Can you really say you have a 50c collection if you don't also have the Countdown 50c, or the Bananas in Pyjamas, or the "only released as a silver proof in a commemorative tin" etc?


The worst part is my son (20) has watched me, and he now collects Pokémon cards.
But, he is buying so much stuff and just storing it. I've tried to talk to him about saving up to buy a house. But he refers to these as "investments".
The weird part is, I can't see the logic in a piece of cardboard being an investment ... but then again, the mint uses bits of cardboard and plastic to differentiate their investment products.

So in summary, for me ... it's number 1 (but waning).
For my son, it's number 2.