Well, I want to collect U.S. coins. I currently have a 1921 Morgan, a 1890 Morgan, a walking liberty quarter (I think that's what it's called? either that or standing liberty), 2 silver certificates 1 dollar bills. What kinda stuff should I purchase? Like basic stuff like nickels, pennies, kinda cheap stuff to start out.
The best advice for beginners is, buy the book before the coin. A few good ones are A Guide Book of United States Coins, and The Experts Guide to Collecting and Investing in Rare Coins. You can also learn a lot from reading the forums and asking questions. Charlie
Can't say enough about what Charlie said-you can never have too much knowledge on coins, and you can take it wherever you go, and I don't think anyone here, even the most knowledgable collector, would disagree. When looking at coins to start your collection with; go into your coin store and just look around at all the coins. Find a coin that catches your eye and looks awesome, and just buy it. Try and keep it around $15 the first few times, to get rid of any BIG mistakes. Have fun and enjoy the hobby- Bill
Bookmark Coin Talk and go through ALL of the coin forums...especially the first couple of threads under New Users such as "What is it worth?"
If you are trying to collect an entire set of any one type of coin, get the most expensive (rarest) one first if at all possible. I know it is tempting to go buy a whole bunch of coins, so you can sit back an say "wow, look at all of these", but try not to. The rarest ones go up in price the fastest, so while you are buying all of those cheaper coins, the rare ones or getting further and further out of reach.
Prince, In your position, I wouldn't BUY any coins. Get some Whitman coin folders at Borders or whereever they carry them around you. Start collecting what you find in pocket change. When you get doubles of a date and mintmark, try to determine which is in better condition and try to grade it according to what you find in something like the Redbook. This is a basically cost free way to spend a couple of months to find out what type of coin you like. If you like cents, then look back in time at the indian head. If you like quarters, check out something like Barbers. If you just run around spending $10-$20 here and there on whatever looks good at the time, your going to find yourself down a couple of hundred dollars with a box of unrelated coins instead of a collection. I know it's tough to go slow at first, but it's the right way to do it.
