Returning to Coin Collecting

I have returned to coin collecting after a thirty year hiatus, and this site has been an extremely valuable resource. It's incredible how much information is so easily accessible today as compared to when I was collecting coins as a kid in the 1970's.

I started my collection only a week ago. I must say that I enjoy having the financial resources one acquires in adulthood as it allows me to build a nice collection a bit quicker than I could as a ten year old. :smile

The first thing I did was buy some albums for cents, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars. I completed the state quarter album and made good progress on the newer coins in all of the albums. As I started reading about coins, I decided to collect what is my favorite of all coins, the half dollar. I discovered APMEX and ordered uncirculated Kennedy halves from 1964 to 1985. I didn't have to pay too much, though I am sure I paid more than I should have. At any rate, I am looking forward to receiving them in the mail and looking them over. I also have the 2009 proof set on the way, as well as a roll of buffalo nickels, wheat pennies, a roll of the 1943 steel cent and two rolls of the new 2009 Lincoln penny.

My strategy at this point is to focus primarily on the half dollar, working my way back in time through the Franklin and then the Walking Liberty. I will try to pay attention more to the quality of the coins I acquire rather than the quantity and take the time to reacquaint myself with US coins over all.

Oh yeah, there is a coin show next weekend that I will attend and all next week I will be off work allowing me time to visit some coin shops.

 

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Yes I agree, I can't believe how many coins I collected in such a short time. Oh yes, welcome to the forum!!

 

"Quality" is a subjective term.
Have you pinned it down more specifically?

Basically I'm saying make sure you've specifically defined to yourself what you are after.
For instance you might say that your Franklins will be MS-63 or better.
Or you might go for a matched set (all Frankins will be MS-64).
And of course you have to consider Franklins with FBLs.
Then when you move back in time you may have to have a new definition for Walkers.

Plan all this out ahead of time.
Nothing bothers me personally more than buying a coin, then at a later date buying a better one just because I didn't think ahead.

And then there's the issue of slabbed coins.
LOTS of opinions there.
I'm personally pro-slab, but that has a lot to do with my particular interests and age.

 

Many people have a "collecting gap"; starting while young then picking back up later in life. Be careful the bug can bite hard! It's great you have a collecting strategy. Be flexible. As you gain familiarity and experience, your plans may change. As one who also had a 20+ year hiatus, I would offer one word of advice....PATIENCE. If you have even the tiniest seed of doubt regarding a particular coin, don't buy it. Speaking for myself only, collecting has now become a long, relaxed journey, rather than a short, harried vacation.

 

.......patience is a tall order for some of us 'older' collectors.

 

I agree I was away from collecting for about 25 years and when I got back I thought I had to catch up. Take your time buy what you like and try to avoid impulse buys at least in my case I often wind up with coins I didn't want but bought them because they were cheap, well guess what I still didn't want them. Have fun and believe me the people on this Site are the best they will help you and have a world of knowledge even if it is not pertaining to the coins you collect I read hundreds of post a week just to learn.
Kent

 

I'm going through a similar thing. I'm getting back into collecting after a 20+ year hiatus. It's definitely different having adult financial resources, but I'm hoping that I don't get too crazy with the spending.

Luke

 

Are you certain, if I remeber correctly I have a thousand times

Are you certain, if I remember correctly I have a thousand times more patience now than I did the summer of 69 - I wanted it all and I wanted it fast, I used it all and I used it fast. I was nothing but a little pleasure seeker set lose upon the world - how I survied I'll never know, how you'all survived me is a bigger mystery, lucky you.

 

Nice idea starting with the Kennedy. Did you get any particular grade for them? I visited the site and liked the proofs. Like you I am a novice and am not sure whether the pricing is fair.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. I will get more specific with respect to the grading of coin that I buy. I will have to give this some thought.

 

According to the site, what I ordered was all between MS60 to Ms63. What I've read so far about APMEX has given me a pretty good level of confidence and my outlay of cash really wasn't that much, about $100.

 

My wife is also hoping that I don't go too crazy with the spending. I'm sure that I will go a little crazy for a bit, but soon enough I will settle into a more prudent approach.

 

Welcome to CoinTalk. You'll learn a lot here.

Some will suggest that you buy the KEY and Semi-KEY coins now before they go up in price. You can always pick up the more common dates anytime you want. Always try to get the best coin you can afford, especially with Key coins. I wish I had heeded this advice when I first got back into coin collecting. There are just too many great coins to own! Good luck and be sure to keep us up to date on your acquisitions.

Bruce

 

JDS, welcome to the forum! While you're buying these JFKs, do yourself and your wife a favor, tell your bank to order you a box of halves (they're $500; 50 $10 rolls). Then, go over here, see how it's done, and see what you've been missing all those years: http://www.cointalk.com/t10176-202/#post685001.

 

Lots of good advice offered. My personal opinion is that with moderns your learning experiences might be cheaper. I do agree(to a point) with Kanga on matched sets - just look at his posts for his type sets. BUT if you work your way backwards you might not be able to afford(or the wife won't let you spend the money) for high grade key dates. In my personal opinion the set does not need to match(exactly) the grade you want. My IHC collection is mixed with the semi-key and key dates in the VF range and pretty much everything else MS.

Now my personal opinion on APMEX is that if you can not see the coins you are purchasing then you might have an issue. I once bought 3 ag large cents from them because if all three were like the one pictured they would be decent additions to my set - well 2 of the 3 were ag and the third one was just garbage. I will now no longer buy from them, unless I see the exact coin I want.

PS - until you get really good at grading with pictures I would stay away from EBAY. There are several dealers that many of us can recommend - depending on what you collect.

 

I decided to to put together a Kennedy set only using the 1964 to 1970 and getting every coin that fit that set in gem BU and proofs the only one I need is the 1964 heavily accented hair and I haven't found one raw yet. I started doing this because I noticed the price of these was very cheap and believe it or not I have about 25 pieces because of upgrading and the only one that even cost over $10 bucks was the 1970D. I was able to get most of them for less than melt when I bout them and I even have some 70S proofs that I payed less than current melt for when I bought them a few months ago. I am sure gla dto see others get on this site that are starting over now I don't have to ask all the questions LOL. Good luck on your kennedy set and listen to these guys they are sharp. I would also say take Fast Eddies advise about searching rolls from the banks it is fun and cheap. I describe it as playing the lottery without ever losing.
Good Luck Kent

 

That sounds like a nice collection. I will probably need to upgrade some of my purchases as well. I think I got a pretty good buy on ebay last night for a 1970 D in uncirculated condition. I paid $10.61, but with shipping it's more like $13.

Anyway, it's been fun. I'm going to small coin show this morning and there's a bigger show coming up next week that I'm looking forward to.

 

Generally you'll want to avoid buying the already assembled sets of moderns. It's not quite as bad with half dollars but usually by the time you get done upgrading these sets until they're all nice attractive coins they've all been upgraded. Every date can be found nice and attractive pretty cheap but don't expect every date to come as a gem cheap since some dates are scarce.

As you're collecting try to familiarize yourself with the typical quality for each date. This requires some work with the older coins but is a little easier with moderns since you're more than half done after looking at a few mint sets.

 

1st Welcome

to cointalk
I hope you post some of the coins you had in the 70's

 

Unfortunately, my collection from childhood was stolen many years ago when I was away at college. This has bugged me for decades, so it's kind of nice to be building it back again.

I find it interesting now to think of what is considered an old coin to find in pocket change today as compared to when I was a kid. It was pretty common to fine wheat cents in every day change when I was first collecting. Coins from the 50's and even the 40's would turn up routinely.

Now if I find a coin from the 60's in change, it's pretty amazing. I also think that people don't use change as much as they used to. I know I don't. With the advent of debit cards, I hardly ever use cash and I think a lot of people are that way.