Advice and tips for younger/beginner collectors ??

Thank you for the information
I have looked at colonial and flowing hair/draped bust coinage. Are they a good field for US Coins ?
I have no knowledge of US coins at all (i collect mainly medieval european coins)
they are pricy it seems but worth it.

 

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I dunno. I bought one French medieval a couple of months ago for $24 shipped and the other day I bought an unknown medieval for $2 plus shipping. I'll admit this last one is not in the best of shape, but for $2 what the heck.

 

You're quite welcome.

Honestly, any series of US coins has something cool and interesting about it, right down to modern pocket change. Colonial and flowing hair/draped bust coinage are some of our nation's first coins. Legend has it that some of the first coins at the Philadelphia mint were made by melting down Martha Washington's silver.

Unfortunately, the Draped Bust and Flowing hair series are some of the priciest coins you can find, and $200/month doesn't get you much in US coins. I'm not really sure about colonials, but I imagine they can get expensive as well. You'd have to look at some price guides to tell for sure on colonials.

 

Regardless of where your interests lead you, this is some of the best advice you'll ever get: be patient -- don't just buy a coin because you have the budget for it. Be sure you'll still love the coin in one year, five years, ten years...

 

Very true. The ancient coin market is a weird one. Its not like US coins where any coin you want effectively is for sale at any moment if you have the money. I have gone 5-8 years before I find a particular coin I wish to own for sale. I am not a patient person by nature, but ancient coin collecting has taught me the satisfaction of patience. Most coins I have bought because I was bored and wanted to buy a coin I have not appreciated over the years. It is those coins I waited for and finally able to acquire I find the greatest satisfaction in.

 

After being on this forum for a while, you will see almost every Ancient coin out there, pick what you can afford and buy everything Stevex buys, that's what i do...

 

We will all have opinions but it comes down to what fits you. I am much more pleased by good surfaces on worn coins than even slight roughness on higher grade ones. That makes me in the minority.

I see an early decision that needs to be made as what you expect for that $200. Is this the $200 you spend in a month on snacks and 'bad for you beverages' (define that as you wish but I'm not talking about nutrition here) OR the $200 you put in some form of savings/investment that you hope someday to allow you to stop working and live off the fruits of earlier wisdom. I collect with the full intention of dying with the coins in my possession. Certainly I don't mind if I see a coin worse than mine selling for ten times the price but that is not why I bought the thing and I don't get that profit unless I sell. If you are collecting to watch your net worth grow and plan to sell for a profit when the market dictates, I have a serious piece of advice for you. Do not listen to anything I say. My suggestions are aimed at furthering enjoyment and knowledge. There are plenty of investment advisers out there. Pick carefully.

I have a very general collection with quite a few coins that no one else here has any desire to own. Specialties tend to find you rather than you seeking them. After you collect generally for a while you will see trends that suggest specialties. I have several minor sub specialties that represent things I once found appealing if they are not currently active wants. I have one major specialty which rarely gets a new coin because I rarely see something I don't have (except in the collections of friends who collect the same thing and are better at it than I am). My favorite ancient history professor in college advised us to know something about everything and everything about something. That is how I advise you collect. Be the person the rest of us will want to ask a question about something and know enough about the rest that you understand what other people are saying in their posts even if you can't answer their questions. Own the coins that parallel your knowledge. Pure students will do a die study of EID MAR denarii (~$100k each) but collectors like me know more about coins we can afford.

Paul M. correctly advises that you can save up those $200 doses and buy a $400 every other month or even a $2400 coin each year. I'll point out that you can also buy 10 coins at $20 each. This is a matter of fit if you are not trying to make money. One $1000 coin is easier to sell than 100 $10 coins. I have coins I really like that cost under $10; my most expensive coin is just under $1000; most are in the middle $20-200 range. I posted a page showing my favorite coins. Some more expensive and cheaper coins appear there side by side but you should expect more of those favorites are higher priced.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/favs.html
There is no better advice than that given several times before. Buy what you like. Some of us call these coins that 'speak to you'. Do not buy one because I like it. Most of all, don't buy coins because some dealer wants to sell it to you. Enjoy.

I wrote this a couple hours ago but somehow failed to send it. I do that a lot anymore.

 

I really disagree with this one. After being in the hobby fifty years I see a coin I have never seen before almost every time a go to a show or look at a big sale. Certainly 98% of the coins you will see will be of the same few hundred types but part of the fun of it is the hope to find the new one that no one wants to buy because they had no idea it existed.

 

I agree. There are always new coins to see. I doubt even David Sear has seen all ancient types. Besides, I could always threaten to post my Central Asian/Sogdian pieces and deluge the board with maybe 80 types almost no one has ever seen save maybe for Bill.

 

I totally agree with Eng => stevex6 is an amazing fella!!

 

Among the questions with no answers is just how many types of ancient coins were made but no longer exist in even one specimen and how many exist buried somewhere but have not yet been found. New finds are not so common that we could not keep up if all were recognized and reported but I can't help wondering how many pots of coins were found and locked away in the basement of some museum without anyone even looking to see if they had a Domitian II or the like. I wonder how many types that existed in 1900 were lost forever in a World War.

 

The good news, though, is every year we keep getting some freshly made new types of ancients from Bulgaria.

 

I wish you would. I would find that interesting.

 

well, have nothing to add...but i enjoyed this thread.

i think i want to build a nice survey collection of ancient and medieval coins, without focusing on anything in particular. i even collect a bit of modern world coins. if there is a specialty for me, it hasn't found me yet.

 

Yes, they have been very creative but usually copy known types at least to a degree. I suppose it is possible that there is some generally accepted group of coins that is entirely fantasies of some earlier period. There are a few conspiracy theorists that deny the gold EID MAR coins (or is it the silver, too). I'll feel really bad if I find out that all Eastern Severan denarii were made in 1400. I'm not terribly concerned.

The first thing to point out to new collectors is that they will never get a complete set of anything unless they define 'complete' very creatively. Being freed from the tyranny of the empty hole in a Whitman folder allow us to buy what we want and ignore what we don't.

 

Just the gold is doubted by some, as there was a silver Eid Mar found in situ alongside a group of 124 other denarii in Greece in the late 90s (published in "Four Hoards from the Hellenistic City at Petres").

As for worrying that many popular types are modern creations, one could go a step further and start to question existence itself (the "Last Thursday" theory), and that's a slippery slope upon which to embark

To the original poster's question, I would suggest reading as many catalogs and looking at as many coins, digitally or in person, as possible. Becoming acquainted with the distribution and variety of types is extremely valuable and will help refine your tastes and approach.

 

+1 to this.

You should take a look at the current thread about the Dan Carr Peace dollar overstrikes if you want to see a bunch of people getting their undies in a knot over what other people collect. It's amusing.

 

In a general sense, have a good reason why you collect ancients. Why? Each "collector" asks him/herself that question. As to value, I often hear in seminars that there are 3 elements which gives a coin value:
(1) mintage numbers
(2) grade
(3) supply and demand
These seminar experts are too commercially oriented, I would definitely add three more:
(4) historical value
(5) personal value (is it beautiful to you, or special?)
(6) metal value (melt down value, or precious metal value)

Even collecting ancients can involve ALL of the above elements. Most of all: enjoy, learn, share, grow. Even at 68 I feel like a kid in a candy store when it comes to coins. So much to learn.., and all of the shiney things!!
(I forgot to add -- beware of the many many counterfeits increasingly appearing, in ALL areas of the hobby). The counterfeits can be pretty good (especially if buying via an image alone), and cheap, beware, select good reputable dealers.

GSDykes

 

doug made an excellent point. Collecting of any kind has to do with value of the collection. Eventhough we aren't thinking of selling our coins, their value mattered, and one wouldn't want to spend over something's actual value just for the sake of obtaining it.

Generally, not only was a $1,000 coin easier to fetch than 10 $100 value pieces, it's often easier to get a deal on a $1,000 piece than 10 that worth $100 each, because, well, the people moving them are considering the same thing.

A dealer creates profit margin by forcing their sellers(suppliers) to take losses. Getting him to share that margin with you meant you were paying less than actual value of the item - a deal. They usually work out a percentage, so if he happens to sell the $1000 coin at listed price then he will get a lot more profit from that sales than on each of the $100 coins.

Otherwise it wouldn't be worthy to move that piece (unless they are high roller specialists) because it "tied up their money". Haven said that one $1,000 coin is easier to sell than 10 $100 ones, it can take much longer to do so than 2 or 3, or even 5 $100 pieces. Something that's not moving does not generate anything, the dealer could had spend that $1,000 on a bunch of $20 or $50s and get rid of them in half the time took a $1000 to sell - twice as much profit for him.

For these reasons, dealers are more willing to cut their profit to sell a coin with higher price.

tl:dr version: get deals on higher priced coins, don't collect junk

 

So, as you can see tobiask, there are lots of opinions which we are all entitled to, including you. Many have said it, but I will reiterate: Have fun.