Numismatists

[proof27]

Great reading people, cheers.

[Basil]

I have been doing this on and off since I was just a lad.
I have periods of intense collecting and periods of "ho hum" but I always seem to get back into it.

Exactly the same for me,ebbed & flowed since i started collecting coins from a paper run/route in the early 1960's,i still have most of those Pennies & Halves,i couldn't afford to collect Silver.
The biggest change for me was Ebay,from around 2000 on i really got back into the game and dusted off the Coins & Info. books.

[nealeffendi]

Sapyx, I agree that there is some overlap between collector and numismatist, but there are more than just collectors and numismatists. There are at least 3 levels
Coin collector: collects pretty coins, series of coins, countries etc, has little knowledge about the background to coins and at best knows the prices in the common catalogues.
Numismatist: most serious collectors are also numismatists, they read the magazines and journals (and have a decent reference collection), have an enquiring mind to find the backgrounds to coins and are semi-experts in their particular interests. Includes most dealers, coin club members and most here on this forum.
Numismatologist: those who do the original research that provides the grist for the magazines and journals. Usually have lots of obscure "heavy reading" references in their collection and filing cabinets full of notes.  Most are "amateurs" in the sense that they don't get paid (like museum curators) but do it because it is a passion.

[Sapyx]

There are levels "below" coin collector too.

You've got your Investors. Investors, like coin collectors, want to buy coins, but their prime motivation is profit. They know little and care less about the things they invest in; you could replace all their coins with Elvis teaspoons and, so long as the %ROI was the same, they wouldn't care less.

Then you've got your Hoarders. Hoarders collect coins too, but like investors they also know little about what they are hoarding. Unlike investors, however, they rarely if ever sell.

Finally you've got your Inheritors, who have inherited a "coin collection" from one of the previous categories. They, like hoarders and investors, don't usually know too much about what they've got and don't really want to know anything, apart from "how much can I get if I sell it". Unlike the former two, they aren't really interested in acquiring new coins either. They're just maintaining the collection, perhaps out of some sense of duty or obligation to the person they inherited it from, or perhaps simply to perpetuate it in their honour and memory.