> just piling on ugly radioactive waste in your bedroom

This is an egregious mischaracterization which detracts from your otherwise excellent comment. Lidden was working on collecting the periodic table in decorative display cases.[1] I don’t get the point of coin collections either, but that doesn’t mean I would describe one as a “grubby heap of heavy metals.”

[1] https://www.luciteria.com/element-cubes/plutonium-for-sale