Hey my name is derek and im new to the coin world started out like some looking at my grandpas coins and just started a new job at a coin shop. I have an excellent teacher that I work with but could always use more help. Would like to know key dates for coins like peace dollars morgans large cents and others just so I can learn a little quicker. Any input would be great and thankyou. Dbcoinman
Welcome to the neighborhood, Derek! The best thing you can do is to get a copy of the Red Book of United States Coins published by Whitman Books. Your boss probably has a copy in the store. You might also want to get two other of the "Red Book" series, one on Morgan Dollars by Q. David Bowers and one on Peace Dollars by Roger W. Burdette. Knowledge is power! Chris
Thanks gugs I have the blue book and there is a lot of other books I need boss man has showed me and we do have the red books here as well
Aloha, Derek! Welcome to the forum. I would start with the Red Book on U.S Coins to get started. There's plenty of key dates out there for all series, some very expensive and rare. I would also brush up on the information you can find here, I know I have learned a lot.
Personally, I would just read an hour or so a day on CoinTalk & as many articles on CoinWeek as you can dig through, and save your money vs buying the Red Book. Hang around here 6 months, you'll learn a lot for free. You could also try your local library for the [pick random color] book. Every time I pick up the RedBook at a book store, I am really not that impressed, there are lot of other coin books I would buy before that one. But that's just me. http://www.coinweek.com/
Great advice. Read any and all coin books you can get your hands on. I know you may want to buy some coins and this can be ok as long as you purchase coins that are inexpensive (dont spend more than $10 on a coin at this point, that money would be better spent on numismatic literature). As the saying goes Buy the Book, Before you Buy the Coin. I spent half a year just reading books before I made my first substantial coin purchase. Also, generally speaking, it is better to own one $500 coin than 10 $50 coins, but to each his own. You will better understand what coin types interest you and what direction you want to go in with your collecting. Working at a coin shop is one heck of a bonus too, so all in all I think things will work out great for you. There are far to many people (some are CoinTalk members) who jump into the deep end, spending big money on bad coins. Dont be one them. Knowledge is the key and thankfully it is fairly inexpensive. Welcome and dont hesitate to PM if you have any additional queries. -Mike
