Different people have different motivations in collecting. Some people are really into the completionist aspect and really enjoy hunting very specific items on

Different people have different motivations in collecting. Some people are really into the completionist aspect and really enjoy hunting very specific items on a checklist; this type of collector might set out to assemble a date set with one Lincoln penny from each year of issue. This is a totally valid approach, but it's not my style. Personally, I'm most interested in it for the art so I gravitate toward type collecting, which is about getting one nice example of each design within some parameters that I choose (denomination, country, etc). Since I'm buying fewer coins I can afford to put more money into each one which lets me buy higher quality pieces. I also like larger coins because the art is easier to see. The size criterion is how I decided to start a half dollar type set vs some other denomination. For my inexpensive themed sets (can be anything e.g. coins with flowers, coins with animals, olympics coins, etc), I really like seeing how different people / countries / eras have explored the same subject matter in numismatic art. Individually these coins aren't that special, but seeing them together with others in the same subject matter theme emphasizes the differences and similarities. The contrasts make them all more interesting. TLDR: For me, it's an art collection that fits in a shoebox.