The fascinating hobby of coin collecting dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Today, millions of people have fun collecting all kinds of interesting coins. Starting up a coin collection can be very easy because you can begin building a coin collection with the coins you have in your pocket or piggy bank.
There are many “styles” of coin collecting. While some people like to collect each date and mint-mark of a particular coin series (a coin series refers to coins of a certain design and denomination, such as Lincoln Cents, Jefferson Nickels, Statehood Quarters, or Presidential Dollars), many other people prefer to collect coins from the year they were born. Meanwhile, some people find it challenging—but exciting—to collect coins from a certain era or from a certain denomination. This is called type collecting, and can include acquiring one coin of each design minted during the twentieth century, to collecting every half-dollar design ever made in the United States of America. Furthermore, many people skip collecting coins of certain dates and denominations and instead collect coins bearing designs that appeal to their particular tastes. For example, if a person enjoys birds, he or she would seek out coins that bear designs of birds, regardless of the coins’ date, denomination, or even the country of the coin’s origin.
Whatever your collecting interests may be, there are many ways to acquire the coins for your collection. You can typically find plenty of cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters dating back to the 1960s in the coins in circulation—the coins you can get at the bank, find in your pocket change, or the coins you receive as change when you buy something. However, if you are lucky, it is possible to find in circulation some coins dating back to the 1930s and earlier, foreign coins (usually Canadian coins), or error coins. Error coins are those which, essentially, bear a “mistake,” such as a double-image of a design, coins that appear to have its metal flaking off, and even blank coins.
Another very popular means of obtaining coins is by purchasing them from a coin dealer. While it will cost you more money to buy a coin from a dealer than to find the same coin in circulation, you will be able to add many kinds of interesting, obsolete, scarce, and other hard-to-locate coins that you most likely would never be able to find in circulation. You will be able to find a coin dealer near you by looking through the “coins” or “coin dealers” listings in your yellow-paged phone book, and there are hundreds of reputable, respected coin dealers who sell their coins online or through the mail.
Once you decide what kinds of coins to collect, there are a few basic things you should know about how to safely handle, store, and protect your coins. First, be sure to buy a magnifying glass so that you can see all of the tiny details on your coins. A magnifying glass is a very important tool for coin collectors to have, and will be very helpful to you in allowing you to enjoy your hobby even more.
No matter how tempting it may be to make an old coin look shiny and new, don’t clean your coins. Cleaning a coin can lead to accidental damage of the piece. Such impairment of the coin can include washing away the coins’ natural color and toning and, frequently, the stripping away of microscopic pieces of metal. In most cases, coins which have been cleaned will reult in a loss of value, for the bulk of coin collectors prefer coins with original toning and surfaces. Therefore, it is best that you do whatever you can to safely keep your coins you get in the same condition in which you found them.
Another key to bear in mind is to avoid letting your fingers come in contact with a coin’s observe (the front, or “heads” side of the coin) or reverse (the coin’s back side, often called “tails”). If your fingers do happen to meet the coin’s surface, your fingers, which naturally contain oils, will certainly leave fingerprints on it. Over time, these oils, marks, and prints can turn into ugly smudges, which will only help in dest. The proper way to handle a coin is to hold it by its edge (the thin side of a coin), between your thumb and forefinger. Above all, never drop a coin.
It is also important to store your coins safely to help protect them. Keep your coins in a cool, dry place (a bookshelf, desk, or drawer is usually a fine place to store your coins), and don’t store your coins loosely in a box, jar, or other place where the coins will get jingled or jostled around. Instead, you will want to consider buying albums, folders, and other coin storage devices to keep your coins safe and organized. Many large bookstores sell albums and folders (many that only cost a few dollars) into which you can place your coins, and coin dealers sell several kinds of coin storage choices.
Coin collecting is a hobby that you will assuredly enjoy finding out much more about. Numismatics (this word sounds like “new-miss-mat-icks“)—the study of coins—is a fascinating realm that has millions of participants and enthralls the young and old alike. You can grow as a coin collector by reading books about the hobby, continuing to be curious about the coins you see, and enjoying the journey as you build your collection. As you will discover, coin collecting is a very fun, enjoyable, exciting hobby that you can be able to enjoy for life.
