While a new poster here, I have been collecting since about 5 years of age, and I wanted to share some advice that has served me well over the years--some of which is advice not often posted here as far as this lurker has been able to tell. 1. Once you know a series to collect, build a reference set to carry with you to shows. For example I always take to a show a set of taped flips of five Jeffersons ranging from worn circulation to a gorgeous 40's MS66 6FS. This lets me compare coins under unfamiliar lighting conditions to known references. 2. Get some cleaners and a camera. Clean some coins, and take lots of before-and-after pictures. Study how tricks of lighting can hide flaws or accentuate cameo or luster. Study what cleaning does to coins: the good, bad and ugly alike. Learn for yourself what kind of cleaning you like (if any), what you don't like, and how to spot all of it. 3. Put mintages in perspective. Imagine a cent you always wanted. Now imagine a 50-roll of them and soak that image in for a while. Now imagine a bank box of them--buy and mess with one if you need to, to see how insignificant one coin is when in a pile of 2,500. Now imagine a thousand or ten thousand of those piles. That's the mintage of that "key" date. When you are on the cusp of knowingly over-paying for something "key" for fear of it going away, do a gut check of imagining a few million of those coins, and make sure you still want that coin. (If you do... Buy!) 4. Learn the first wear points of all coins you can. Even if you don't collect them, try to learn anyway. Always find one point that guarantees to reveal wear, and one detail that guarantees a certain level of sharp strike. Make this an inspection criteria on any BU coin. 5. Buy some cheap proof sets to break open and Work on coin handling techniques. Minimize dust in air, wear gloves, minimize breathing and move those coins around for practice. At higher grades, handling techniques become very important. 6. If you are beginning but have some means, resist the temptation and start with low grade coins. As is often the case in life, it is harder to appreciate nice things without a point of reference. Really get to know those VG8 barber halves before jumping for one with the CAC sticker. 7. At the beginning, invest in volume so that you have more exposure to more coins. Lots, rolls, cheapies. As you improve your comfort level assessing coins, trade quantity for quality. 8. Everyone should try a type set! I hope these are useful to someone!
Great tips and great 3rd post on the forums I definitely like #2 - I think it would be a good idea for all coin collectors to clean some cheapo coins to get a better idea of what cleaned coins look like.
my favorite is number 3. :biggrin: Ya caught me! Only 491,594 to go! :too-funny: :i-wave-hi: Welcome to the forum!
I like the first part of number 7. In fact, I've been doing the first part of number seven for well over fifty years. Never have gotten to the second part yet.
Good points, but my "denseness" has me a bit confused with #6. You say to avoid buying lower grades, but you should familiarize yourself with the lower grades before buying the higher grades. Would you clarify this, please? Chris
Hi everyone - thank you for the comments. It's somewhat strange interacting with people about a lifelong hobby that I've kept mostly to myself, but I have a lot to learn and hopefully a little to share. Chris: it's my writing that is dense. I don't believe that collectors intrinsically should pursue higher grade coins. That is up to the collector and his/her budget and personal preferences. That said, some collectors choose to pursue a high grade collection right out of the gate, and if they heretofore had little experience with lower grade coins then they may face two obstacles: (a) higher risk of being swindled due to lack of perspective and (b) diminished appreciation for how good that high grade coin is, having never seen a lower grade example. For example, I feel I can appreciate a MS-66 or MS-67 wheat much better after staring at MS-60 examples in a loupe for years. If all I ever saw were slabbed MS-67s, I probably would not know to really tell the difference. I realize that this is something of a philosophical point--can you really appreciate pleasure if never having suffered pain--but I believe that one can hedge bets by getting as familiar as possible with the widest possible range of grades for a particular series, even if one has the means to focus exclusively on high grade examples. In this hobby perspective always helps, never hurts.
I did reread it.....several times......and that's why I asked for a clarification to make sure I was on the same page as the OP. Chris
I understand your point, now, and I should add that we have a constant issue with newcomers to the hobby, knowing nothing about grading, but thinking they should buy the 70's (moderns) when they can't even tell the difference between it and a 69. This, to me, is a waste of money that they will likely never recover. From past experience, most veterans realize that the modern 70's usually peak in value about the time they are released because the Registry owners are chasing them. Once that feeding frenzy has subsided, the values for the 70's tend to drop and never go back to the former peak values. It's one thing to buy the new releases from the Mint and submit them for grading because you CAN tell the difference between the 69 and 70, but to buy them from a third party, to me, is money not well spent. Chris
Welcome to cointalk! I really liked all of the points especially 2, 6, and 8. Different people believe different things. When I first started collecting a very well respected member warned against number 6 but to this day I am happy I picked up a number of lower grade coins. I really learned quite a bit by examining these coins without worrying about the harm I might do. Since then I have become much more skilled at understanding the difference in grade. I also have had the opportunity to go to a couple major shows where you can find high end coins at most dealers tables. When you look at 20 ms65 coins of the same date and type you realize one how common these can be and also how different one can look from another. Again, its one of those moments that makes you reexamine how bad I want the coin at the price offered. Is the coin really acceptable for the actual condition and price compared to the many other examples available? So I like the advice of easing yourself into the hobby and handling as many coins as you can before starting on high value collections.
