No time to waste building dream

Are you a collector like me who has too many half-finished sets? You might, as I do, have leftover sets from childhood that have little value, or you might have some coins that represent significant value but you just didn’t have the money/time/interest to finish the whole series.One-ounce gold American Eagles comes to mind.

Time for an evaluation.

Many collectors claim they do not have the money to buy all the coins they are interested in. I am one of these. My eyes are definitely bigger than my means where numismatic items are concerned.

What should we do?

Weed out your holdings and use the proceeds to work on or finish the set of your dreams. What might that be? Only you can answer this question. It might be Morgan silver dollars, Seated Liberty dimes, or Indian Head cents.

Once you have the goal in mind, ruthlessly dispose of the other coins in your possession. Sell them. Trade them. Get rid of them in any way that puts cash in your hands.
Raise the money you need and then find the time to get serious about the one set that means the most to you.

It won’t be easy.

Your old sets might spark memories. They might tie your hands with emotional bonds. You might think that one day, under the right circumstances, you could get going again.

Ain’t gonna happen unless you take charge. Go at it like any project or job that you did that meant something to you. Go at it with the enthusiasm you had when you were a beginner.

Sure, gold might go to $10,000 or silver to $100, but if the gold and silver coins that you do own don’t match what you want to have in your hobby dreams, start down a fresh path.

When I look in the mirror to shave, I see gray hairs. They are warning flags that I no longer have all the time in the world to meet my numismatic destiny.

I recently had a conversation with a collector who built an incredible set of coins. He recently sold them at an incredible price.

But he deserves this success. I cannot tell you how many years I have known him, how many conversations we have had as he systematically built his set.

But he did it.

I just listened.

What did I build in all the time that has passed?

What an embarrassing question to have to face. I have been in numismatics for nearly all of my life. It has been a wonderful experience.

But time is not infinite. If I want to have a chance to do something like the fellow who built the set, I had better get started now instead of telling myself that I will have more time to do it when such-and-such happens. Whatever such-and-such might be for you, the time to act is now.

More Collecting Resources

• More than 600 issuing locations are represented in the Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800 .

• With over 25,000 listings and 15,500 illustrations, the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues is your go-to guide for modern bank notes.