How do i start my own coin collection?

Question

What are some basic things i need to know?Whats the best and cheapest way to store them?What coins are good to collect for a begginner ?

Answer 1

First buy a book about coin prices, Red book is buyer prices and Blue book is dealer prices. Then look through it and figure out which coins are in your price range.

My favorites that aren't very expensive are Benjamin Half dollars and Mercury Dimes, Most of them in very fine to extremely fine grades are under ten dollars.

My personal favorites are Roman coins and widows mites. They are 1800 - 2000 years old and you can get them for around ten dollars.
It's interesting to hold a coin in your hand that someone like Jesus could have possibly held.

Find a local coin dealer or dealers they are very nice and helpful about questions you could have. Most of them are into metals like gold and silver you might take that up as a hobby also.

Answer 2

I would recommend you get a Red Book a guide to U.S. coins. Forget the prices they are out of date before the book is printed. It comes out once a year and you don't need one every year. Price spiral bound $14.95. It has a wealth of information. Basic grading guides for each coin type,mintage figures and where the mint marks are on the different types of coins. You can get a monthly price guide such as Coin Words coin values or coinage magazine. Most coin dealer have folders where you push the coins in. An album is more expensive but has sliding plastic sleeves that give more protection. Cents are really out of the question unless you want to start with the Lincoln memorial 1959 and up. Early cents are getting expensive. One set that you can almost put together is Jeffereson nickels from 1938 to present. I have found 1938 and 1939 nickels in change as late as last month. The hard one is the 1950-D, but you can buy one of then for under $15.00. A fun thing is collecting World coins. You can pick a country or area, or one from all the countries. There is even a one of every country on line club. World coins can be bought by the pound or you can find some real bargans in dealers so called junk boxes. Few U.S. coin dealers know much about world coins. There are world coins book out there so expensive and some not so bad. For world coins you need inexpensive 2X2 cardboard holders or you can use what is called a flip. Then you need a plastic pages that hold 20 holders and any old 3 ring binder. Well there are some ideas. Email me if you wish to know more. I will then give you my home Email address and it will be easy to write things out and I can send scans if needed.

Answer 3

it depends on what you're into. a good start would be to work in customer service where you deal with coins all day. you'd be surprized what types of money people us. for instance, they may pay in foreign money (usually change) or they could be desperate and spend that mega old 2 dollar bill they've saved for a million years. also sometimes the shopping channel has coin sets that you can buy. they already come in their own cases.

Answer 4

browse through a coin shop and ask questions, do your research find out what it is that you want to get out of a collection. start out slow and educate yourself.