The United States Mint has produced a wide variety of coins and many of these would make good coins to collect for a beginner. Coin collecting has been a hobby for thousands of years and continues to attract new participants each year. If you thing that coin collecting may be for you, here is a look at some coins that a beginner may want to collect. However, the most important thing for a collector when choosing what to collect is to choose coins that interest him or her.
Birth Year Set
The standard coin set for a beginner could be a birth year set. This coin set would be ideal for the younger collector while still being fun at any age. A birth year set can be collected from pocket change without much difficulty, except for the half dollar which does not frequently circulate. However, banks generally have half dollars and most tellers would be willing to take a quick look in their drawers for the right year as long as there isn’t a line. The half could also be purchased from eBay or a coin shop. If the birth year being collected included a circulating dollar coin, the dollar coin could be collected as well.
State Quarters
The state quarter set has created a lot of interest in coin collecting. This set includes a quarter for each state. Putting together a state coin collection is inexpensive (these coins circulate widely and can be collected from pocket change) and can be educational (as children can learn about each state). To speed the collection of a set, a collector can buy rolls of quarters from a bank to sort through in order to find all of the quarters needed for a set.
Pennies
Pennies are another interested subject for coin collectors. A penny collection is probably best for a teen or beginning adult collector as there are so many to collect. The Unites States has been minting pennies since 1793, with the Lincoln penny we know today started production in 1909. In all, including various mint marks, there would be hundreds of coins in a complete penny collection. Even a collection of just Lincoln pennies would take some time to complete. However, as most pennies are of a modest value, they still make good beginner coins for collecting.
Out of Circulation
For an adult of an older teen, an interesting first collection could be to collect one example of all of the coins that are no longer in circulation. For example, the first penny is known as a “large cent” as it was bigger than a modern quarter. Few people, other than coin collectors, are even familiar with this coin. Other obsolete coins include the half cent, two cent, three cent and twenty cent coin. Obviously, these coins cannot be found in change as they no longer circulate. However, lower grade examples of these coins are not too expensive, so putting together a set to display would not cost a lot of money.
