Ron,
I just reread this entire
thread when your comment popped up. I have been interested in
ancient coins my entire life, or at least since I lived in
Germany and
Turkey when in my later 20s. But, I never really acted on it except in a very small way. When I retired, I got serious. I also do not collect as an investment, but I recently catalogued my small
collection that I consider
low budget and it is worth a lot more than I expected just based on what I paid for the coins. So, as time goes on, I know that my
collection will actually be worth something to my heirs and possibly myself if I need the
money one day. It isn't a retirement account, but I am pretty content that it has actual real value. And that makes me happy, even if I will never sell any but some duplicates, etc, unless I really need the
money. So, I guess that is the other
side of the nature of the coins going up in
price the past years represents. I do think ancient coin collecting is, in the long run and the current economic climate, a reasonable investment. I am trying to look at this as a plus situation rather than one where I have a hard time affording coins I want. The $100 coin today may very well be a $200 dollar coin tomorrow.
Cheers,
Virgil