Hello! New Coin Collector

Hello coin collectors!

I've decided recently that I would like to collect coins. Honestly, I have minor to no knowledge about this subject which makes it so much more intruiging to me. Any advice for a new aspiring collector? Such as great sites to visits, where to find good deals and finds, and perhaps the most and least valuable of coins?

Thanks for your time, I really do hope I can get this new hobby started!:hail:

 

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"Coin Collecting For Dummies".

I too am new at the hobby, having inherited my pop's collection. A few here reccomended this book and I am about through it. Pretty informative for the newbie, it has explained a lot for me.

 

Welcome to CoinTalk and coin collecting.
I belive they have some links at the top
of the Home page. If you want to get a lot of
info in one book, try The Expert's Guide
to Collecting & Investing in Rare Coins:
Secrets of Sucess by Q. David Bowers.
He pretty much covers everything. More
as an overview but enough to give a new
collector ideas as to what and how they may
want to collect coins. It's a good book and
Bowers is pretty much the Top Gun in coin
collecting.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0794821782/ref=mp_s_a_2?qid=1335258811&sr=8-2

 

:welcome:

 

Tell us what got you interested. Everybody has a story.

My question would be, what, more specifically, are you looking to do? Are you looking at US coins, or other world coins? Are you looking to compile sets, or buy with the intention of selling for profit short or long term (investing)?

As a collector, I would highly recommend the Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins) which can be purchased at most bookstores and many on-line venues. Stay away from the prices listed in the book, but read the other information as it is an invaluable but inexpensive tool for collecting US coins.

http://whitman.com/Inventory/Detail/2013-Red-Book-U-S--Coins-Spiral+0794836771

For pricing http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/fmv.shtml will give you a general idea on what you can expect to pay for the coins you're interested in. Not the be-all, end-all price guide, but a good start.

From there, the sky's the limit. There are specialty books written about all of the more popular series to collect. There is a wealth of information both in print and on-line to assist you, including web forums such as this one.

For foreign coins I would recommend the Standard Catalog of World Coins from Krause Publications. These are divided by century, and can be expensive new, but older editions can be had pretty cheap.

http://www.krausebooks.com/coins-papermoney?cat=2493

Again, these are simply entry-level recommendations. I'm sure others can provide additional resources.

 

I'm a new collector as well. I can vouch for the red book its awesome for someone starting out. I spent a lot of time google'n also

 

Welcome to CoinTalk! This is a great forum to learn about coins, coin collecting and the hobby in general. You'll meet some very knowledgeable collectors here.

What kind of coins do you want to collect? Good luck with whatever you decide, this is a fantastic hobby, because you never really stop learning.

 

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Chris

 

I would start with this:


Great info on coins, but price guide is not accurate as it's outdated from the time the prices were added to the guide and the time the book was released.

This is another good book:



And this one:



This one is must have for new collectors, IMO:

 

Go to a local coin shop, take a look through the inventory, and see if there is a type of coin that is particularly appealing to you. My only real advice would be to start with fairly inexpensive coins, as there is a learning curve involved and a lot of people out there that are more than willing to rip you off.

 

Which is why the best place to start for a new collector is buying the book(and read it) before buying the coin.

 

Welcome to CT

Welcome to the CoinTalk forum.

It would be nice to learn more about the coins that interest you. I personally started collecting US type coins and began filling Whitman folders and Dansco albums. For this endeavor I initially got myself a red-book (Guide to US coins by Yeoman).

Attending a coin show is a good way to meet others in the hobby and learn about collecting. One area on which you might want to focus is coin grading & the detection of problem coins & fake coins.

#1
Have fun.

#2
Don't buy a coin that you don't like because it is never going to get better & will probably always bug you.

#3
Refer to rule #1.

 

I'd buy a few Whitman folders and start putting sets together out of your pocket change! I think it really helped (and still does) me to understand the coins themselves, dates, mintmarks, etc. It got me into the habit of looking at my change.... and I've found some COOL coins over the last few years!

 

:welcome:

Take a look at the many threads here and learn before you leap. Decide which coins you like best and want to collect. I would suggest you to go to a coin shop to look, but don't buy anything on your first visit. Just look around and get the feel of coins and the dealer. And before you get into the series you want to collect, get the book on that series first. Hope you stick around and show us some good buys.

 

Welcome! and its great to see that you want to research before you collect, the books here are all great and will get you some knowledge in no time!

 

Thank you all for the feedback! It probably is a good idea to go small first, so I bought a few books and i'll start by collecting dimes/pennies that I can find from my pockets haha. I found a 1969-s penny which got me excited but didn't see any double striking on it. It's a start! Thanks for the welcomes, i'm hoping to read/see some good deal stories

 

Its been mentioned a couple times already, but starting by going through pocket change, or coin rolls (that you can get from the bank at face value) is a good way to start, because at least you know nobody is ripping you off.

Also, if you get into silver coins, it's hard to go wrong buying them at melt value. Sure, the price of silver could go down, but it could also go up... Just make sure you know the difference between 40% silver coins and 90% silver coins, and coins that have no silver in them at all. (Wikipedia has a very simple page that spells out the silver content in most of the popular US coins, just search for "Junk Silver".)

Last, never pay more than a coin is worth TO YOU. It doesn't matter if a book says it's worth "$200" if you don't see it...

 

Hi AnnaPie! Welcome to CoinTalk Everyone is giving you very good advice. I haven't seen this one yet..."Don't clean your coins!", so there you have it!

Have fun Anna,

Lucy

 

Ooh! that's interesting advice! Cleaning the coin makes it lose value?
I had no idea!

 

Anna, I highly recommend taking your time to look through lots of the threads here; read a bit of this and a bit of that.. take a peek into each of the forums. It may seem overwhelming, but really, you will learn a great deal just by looking through the threads. You may find an interest in some particular aspect that as yet you may not know exists! That has been true for me. General Discussion is kind of neat too, and you must 'opt in' to that, in order to take part.

See you 'round!

Lucy