Collecting Coins – Decisions Decisions

What to collect and keep is entirely up to you and should be within your budget and interest. The point of this article is to offer some coin collecting suggestions to help you along.

Collecting all the coins of an entire minted series is one suggestion. Your goal here will be to acquire one of each date and mintmark made which usually includes major design differences.

Type set coin collections seek to have one of each series and major design variation within each series. Examples would be 20th century Canadian coinage or U.S. gold coins.

You may choose to focus on collecting ancient coins. That is coins that were minted prior to 500 A.D. Many of these are in a theme and that is one way to focus your collecting of these coins. Experts say that the gold, bronze, and silver coins of the ancient world are actually quite readily available today and some can be collected with just a small investment.

Tokens are also popular with coin collectors. When some world governments ignored the needs of the people and refused to issue sufficient low value coins, traders took matters into their own hands and issued tokens. In Great Britain for example, this took place in the mid 1600's, the 1790's and the 1810's. Tokens formed a local currency which took several acts of Parliament when the government tried to ban them. The bans by the way were never completely successful and 'advertising tickets', as the tokens became known, continued to be issued through the mid 1800's. Although less valuable than coins, tokens are nevertheless much more interesting if you are interested in local history and would like to do research.

If you are interested in collecting coins with premium value then it is suggested that you look into collecting proof sets. Proof coins are specially manufactured for sale at a premium to collectors and sometimes for exhibition or for presentation as a gift or award. Proofs are generally distinguishable from ordinary coins by their mirror-like fields, frosty devices (especially in recent years) and extra sharp details.

For collecting coins of even higher premium value collect slabs. A certified coin, or slab, is a coin that has been authenticated, graded and encased in a sonically sealed, hard plastic holder by a professional certification service. The encased holder affords protection from subsequent wear or damage but it is not airtight therefore it will not prevent toning. Counterfeit and altered coins slabbed by major certification services are have occurred but are uncommon. The authenticity of a coin may be guaranteed by the company that slabbed it. Therefore, a coin slabbed by a major certification service offers some protection, especially when fakes are known to exist and the prospective buyer is not able to reliably determine its authenticity.

Here are some other suggestions for collecting coins and how to categorize your coin collection.

• Collect coins of a specific country or group of countries.

• You may wish to concentrate on coins made of a particular metal such as gold or silver coins.

• Consider collecting coins with a particular theme such as coins with animal designs, boat designs or various commemorative coins such as Olympic coins.

• Consider collecting coins issued with some error in the coin's design, composition, date or inscription.

• Another specialty is the collection of non-monetary "coins" such as war medals and commemorative tokens.

• Save a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter from the year you were born. Try to find one from each mint. Coins from the Denver Mint in Colorado and the Philadelphia Mint in Pennsylvania are different.

• Create a coin set from every year since you were born. Try to find them from both mints.

Collecting coins is really all up to you on what and how you collect your coins. Our suggestion is to don’t start by collecting coins in too many styles – it could be overwhelming. Start small with one kind of collection and expand as you become more proficient at collecting coins.

The book “A Beginners Guide To Collecting Coins” explores the phenomenon of coin collecting, suggests ways to get started on your own collection, explains how to grade coins and determine their approximate worth along much much more coin collecting information. It is the perfect resource for someone interested in collecting coins as a hobby or profession.