......., but one i traded, one i buried, and the rest i gave away.
Without seeking to pry, can I ask why one was buried? Perhaps to pay the ferryman for a loved one?
I think SULLAIMP has hit the nail on the
head ...a
collection being two or more associated items...so the sky's the limit in terms of a maximum. The biggest recent private
collection I am aware of is that of
BCD who auctioned off
his mainland ancient Greek
collection in about half a dozen
auctions commencing around 2001. Its dispersal
still continues, as evidenced in the latest
CNG catalogue. He assembled it over 40 years and just eyeballing the various catalogues of the
auctions through which it was dispersed it must have been of the order of 10,000 coins and perhaps was twice this number. This means he averaged around 250 coins collected
per year, or almost one a day, and these weren't low end, uncleaned varieties, bought in
bulk. Rather, each was an individual acquisition. That is serious collecting! Very few people would be privileged to have the time for such an undertaking, let alone the
money to assemble such a
collection. I often wonder whether
his collecting broke the bank in the end. To disperse such a massive effort of
work and research during one's lifetime would be pretty traumatic.
His wife must have been far more tolerant of
his obsession than my wife is of mine!
For my
part, it has taken me over twenty years to do what
BCD would have done in less than one year and my effort has been accompanied by the odd occasion of marital disbelief, if not discord!