What's your motive?

[thecentcollector]

I just started this thread out of pure boredom, and lack of finds in my bricks tonight, so forgive me, lol.

I just want to ask everyone, what's your motive and purpose for collecting? What is it that you look for in particular?

I myself search for the more mundane DD's and errors. I'd much rather prefer finding an 83 Die #2 to a Die #1. Why? Thrill of the hunt. Example: I traded *all* of my 95 DDO's away for other coins, simply because in a moments notice, and I want a high-grade example, I can find one rather cheap and easy. I'm not saying that if I ever came across an AU 1955 DDO for $300 that I wouldn't consider it, but I'd much rather collect the ones that elude us. RPM's and such are an appetizer, unless I'm cherrypicking and looking for something special on my wantlist.

Anyhow, just my two cents... it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts

[JeanK]

No motive. For me, it is plain old curiosity and having fun.
Jean

[koinmon]

NOT REALLY SURE OF A MOTIVE, SOMETHING I REALLY ENJOY.
Geoerge

[jpl6332]

I like to think of each individual coin in my collection as a piece of art and a slice of history. I study coins and read everything I can on the subject. I have over 15 books alone just on the Lincoln Cent and there are more out there. Some books are hard to find because they are out of print and those are collectors items in and of themselves. But the real excitement comes when I find a really beautiful coin, one with a sharp strike, and a luster that just pops out at you and says buy me.

[hasfam]

Interesting topic. Motivations change depending on circumstances. Mostly because I've been doing this forever. It's what I do, a little or a lot, but have always had a hand in it. The thrill of the hunt, friendship, knowledge, completion, discovery, stats, history all motivate me in their own way and time.

Rock

[RWBILLER]

hi:
Our motive is simply the fun of the search
roger

[lineop3]

I agree with EVERYONE here. It's interesting and fun, and AMEN to what Jeffery L. said!
I'm still learning all phases of the mint process and how errors are made. The best part for me is finding genuine errors out of pocket change, or bricks, or rolls, gifts... LOL!

[corroded]

Propelled onward by the rush I receive each and every time I find a NEW find,
one not discovered yet especially. The Elusive Doubled Die is my favorite. I feel like they are historical finds for our hobby, I send them to Wexler and Piazza and they put
them on record for variety collectors to see so they can find them as well.

Bill

[DWK]

When I was a kid, I collected lots of stuff: Baseball cards, rocks, bottles, marbles and lots of other things as well as coins. "Trading cards" were a craze in the early 50s. They were like playing cards with out spots. You could buy a whole pack all different for 10 cents, birds, dogs and what I called "bathing beauties" were my favorites. The kids would specialize in collecting one or more categories and trade. It was fun.

I got my first Redbook and whitman folder in 1953. I still have the RedBook. If anyone is curious about a particular coin, I'll be glad to look it up for you.

My main thing has always been to get a complete set of Lincolns from circulation, or by trading what I find for what I need. Only a few errors are in the Redbook and have holes in the albums.

I naturally save errors, but mostly for trading. After all these years, I still haven't found the major keys and probably won't ever. But every DDO or DDR I find is available for trade. And I'd rather trade than sell, whenever possible.

For example, I have a 1971P 1DO-001, a 1988 RDV6 and a 1994 Rotated die I'll trade for a decent 1914D. Three cents for one... What a deal. Anyone interested?, PM me.

Meanwhile, its like a treasure hunt. I'll be a little kid again if I ever find a 1914D.

By the way, Nice thread.
Dave Kearns

[THE PENNY MAN]

Andrew i collect for the fun, and the thrill of the hunt. You never know what is going to come your way after you go to the bank and get that brick of pennies. I tell you this sometimes my heart will start to race when you are looking at them and when you finally find a great coin it makes you feel good inside. This hobby is for me relaxing and rewarding at the same time and i will keep doing it it until i cannot know more.

Patrick

[coppercoins]

My serious spell in coins started in 1984 with a copy of "The Lincoln Cent Doubled Die" - I started looking closely at cents, trying to pick out coins that matched the photos in the book.

At some point later I realized that not all the different possible die numbers were represented in the book, so I became inquisitive as to why a hypothetical die #23 was listed, but there was no mention of dies #1 through #22. When I found out that these did indeed exist somewhere, I wanted more information.

I got a computer in 1996 and quickly found out that there was no information on these other dies online, so I started gathering information to publish it myself. Coppercoins.com was borne of that need to have the information published somewhere, and has grown from that simple realization - nobody else had ever done it.

So my goal is to complete coppercoins.com to some extent beyond that which anyone else has - or really could - do. I think it's there, but much more needs to be done with time and effort. The coins I keep are a simple matter of having examples on-hand to compare to others...a research project of sorts. I don't really consider myself a collector - I'm more of a researcher with a master set to use in my study. That master set grows, the site grows, I'm happy.

[thecentcollector]

BTW Chris, If you ever need help with the backend of Coppercoins, let me know. I've been a PHP programmer since the 3.0 beta days (give or take 13 years or so). I never found my niche programming for a living, so i kept it as a "professional" hobby, lol.