Serial Collecting as Leisure, and Coin Collecting in Particular

The collecting of things for pleasure is an almost universal human experience. Psychological studies tell us that it is deeply connected to the development of the self and of relations with the world and other people. This article explores collecting as serious leisure, reviews explanations of collecting behavior, and focuses on coin collectors as one example. The types and organization of numismatic literature are explored. A participant observation study of coin collectors in both face-to-face and electronic meeting places finds that they are motivated by the potential for self-development, social interactions with other collectors, and financial gains, and at times by compulsive collecting. Collecting as Serious Leisure In the 1994 novel, Hunters and Gatherers, author Geoff Nicholson’s protagonist is struggling to write a book about “collectors.” However his character’s progress is mired in existential questions about the nature of collecting itself (pp. 16–17): I was genuinely baffled about why people had the urge to collect things. . . . What was collecting, anyway? You took one thing and you took another thing, and you put them next to each other and somehow their proximity was supposed to create a meaning. You put certain artifacts together, drew an artificial boundary around them, and there you were with a collection. So what? “Why people collect things” is indeed a curious issue, and as such has drawn the attention of psychologists and historians for centuries. Yet, despite its mysteries, it remains one of the most popular ways in which ordinary people spend their leisure time. Serial Collecting as Leisure, and Coin Collecting in Particular