the tough get going?

Times are tough, no doubt, and with encouraging news about the economic turnaround like "Job Loss Rate is Slower this Month"..or "Banks Report Smaller Loss than Expected", it is no small wonder that I have read many posts about fellow collectors selling their collections or leaving the hobby...

Chat boards are slower, less journals posted, fewer bids on items at the weekly auctions.....

Well you may have noticed that I have been absent (mostly) for a few months. Part of this is due to my normal summer hobbies ( fishing,vegetable gardening, sailing) taking away the time from my year-round hobby, numismatics. I have not added a new coin to the registry in a few months. This does not mean that I have been absent from the hobby though.

When the going gets tough...the smart try a different tact. As a collector I hope it never happens, however there are scenarios where I'd have to sell my collection for cash liquidity. That does not mean I'd quit being a coin collector. In the past when times were tight, I simply switched gears--into reverse-- and collected as I did when I had little money.

This week I started a fun album collection..XF/AU Peace Dollars. I should be able to collect almost all of them for $30 or less...I can take my time finding them, in fact, I'm going to try and find them all with the same color and "look". A friend of mine recently told me that this can be fun and not nearly as easy as you may think.

Try building a matching set of XF coins from a series...all with normal grayish color, uncleaned, no rim dings, gouges or big scratches, and comparable amount of wear on each coin...still think this will be easy? Plus, I happen to really like the look of a Peace dollar with just a little circulation....(I think I might build an AU set of Franklins next)

So that's what I'm going to do during these tight times...as a collector I will collect..it will just be a different type of collecting and grade of coin I'll be seeking...happy hunting

Here is a coin that I bought from the hoard..Bob let me have it for $20..the coin is a Silver Eagle that has toned incredibly. It is natural toning, the coin happened to be in this small white envelope with the purchase date still on it, however I'm sure NGC would bodybag it because it looks just too beautiful to be real...guess they would consider it "questionable toning" (I have seen a few of these in PCGS slabs at auction on Teletrade though)...pretty coin isn't it?