I have possessed thousands of foreign coins for more than 40 years. My dad was an international banker in Los Angeles. He didn't really collect coins. He just grabed a few coins every week and tossed them into a steel box for 40 years. For a very long time, I have been trying to decide how to start a "real" coin collection. Years ago, I placed most of the coins in paper-plastic coin holders and stashed them away. Nevertheless, it's not an organized collection. There is no theme, just a lot of junk with a few dozen fairly nice old coins. I have concluded after reviewing several dozen Coin Talk threads that the way to start a "real" coin collection would be to pick a "theme", add appropriate coins to the collection, and basically sell everything else. Does this sound about right?
If it sounds right to you is all that matters But I think I'd hold off selling anything until you're sure which direction you'd like to go. Seller's remorse syndrome is all to common
You don't HAVE to have a theme. Myself, I collect everything from roughly 1800+. I would suggest sorting them alphabetically by country and then by denomination and then date. You really need a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins by Krause ((try a library) to find out what you've got and organize them better. It may also give you ideas on how to proceed on your collecting goals.
coin collection how i started was by collecting the birth years of my family in as many countries as i could and moved back through the generations .as i go back farther i feel i am see a bit of each ones world. good luck and much joy in your new collection.
Well the coins must remind you of your dad since you mentioned him within the first paragraph so with that said I would think that you should keep them all. The coins are a link between you and your dad and perhaps your kids, if applicable. As for themes, I would suggest you just organize them by country and within that theme by year. It is keeping it simple yet structured. As time goes on you might decide to pick your favorite national coinage and fill in the missing dates or more likely designs/values.
Interesting comments. Matter of fact, when I first went through the old box of coins more than 30 years ago, I found a silver Taller from the old German city-state of Luneberg. It was a coin from 1693 (as I recall). The coin prompted me to read some history books, which incidently I never had time to read in college. I read about the Thirty Years War and it spun out of control. I got hooked, and consequently have read hundreds of hard-cover history books and articles. Basically, the Luneberg coin changed my life. Life works like that. Remmeber when that U.C. Berkeley professor did that educational series on "Connections"? I have not seen that coin in 15 years. I'm now getting nervous.
ANDY makes a good point: Keep them all. With thousands to choose from why not see how many countries you can cover? Many world coin collectors work on a "One from every country" collection.
