David Bowers digs into the past in this enlightening article recently written for Coin Update.   I am sure you will find a common thread when he says “I enjoy coins, tokens, medals, and paper money in actuality — buying, selling, studying. Equally, if not more so, I enjoy coin people, events, and the community of numismatics.”

He points to a quote from Authur Coover in 1908  – To the man who spends a stated number of hours each day in the pursuit of his profession or trade, a few minutes, or hours, spent in a different line of thought, will rest, as nothing else will, the various nerve centers which are soon run down by long continued use.

He follows with a passage from Ebenezer L. Mason, Jr. in 1867 – He is a sportsman, a gamester, an artist, a detective, a critic, an expert. He follows the scent of a rare coin as a hound does that of a rabbit, and Is never satisfied till he has traced it to its burrow. The passions excited are ambition, hope, desire and envy, but never to any extent to be injurious.

You can follow his entire short article  where he discusses these passages by the two enlightening  persons of Numismatics.