As a Beginning Collector, What Coins Do You Recommend?

I'm relatively new to collecting, so I'm still learning about cool coins all the time. I really enjoy collecting circulating world coins, but my collection is pretty modest at the moment.

Are there any absolutely exceptional coins in your collections that you think are "must-haves?"

 

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As a beginning collector, I'd focus on low-cost coins.

You'll make a lot of mistakes at first, and you'll learn a lot about how to grade coins, how to spot damaged/clean/counterfeit coins, and how to find good deals; IMO, it's best to practice all this with the low-value stuff, and take the higher-value gambles once you have some experience.

 

+1

 

Of course, you should collect what you like. Never buy a coin when it has something that you don't like. You will probably NOT like it more as time goes by.

I like the designs used on coins of Italy & Albania during the reign or Victor Emmanuel III 1900 to 1946.

 

Wow, those are pretty nice.

Yeah, I planned on sticking to things I like, but I'm also always curious to see new things that other people collect.

 

#1 buy a World Coin Krause catalog.
#2 learn about grading.
#3 buy what YOU like.
#4 make a list of coins you would really like to have in your collection.
#5 start out small. buy what you can afford for now.

when I first started out I was all over the place with collecting coins. now I am very focused on what coins I want to get. down the road you discover you want higher grades coins. or you will learn to save up for a great coin. I made payments on a coin once lol. I mostly collect world coins. topical/themed collections. my main focus is "Coins with insects", "coins with certain stars", "coins with hands", "coins with small coins as the design on the coins", toned coins, and a huge MISC section, some U.S. coins.

 

wow! sweet coins. I have the first 1. love the toning on 2nd coin. I am still drooling over the 3rd (4 lion coin) wow fantastic grade on that 1.... must be worth a small fortune ? I love it. I want to get a high grade 4th coin... always loved that type coin. the 5th coin is nice.

 

The best thing to do in my opinion is find a dealer who has a bin of foreign coins where everything is 25 cents or thereabouts and just look through it and find the things you like. That's a starting place. It's a way to see hundreds of different designs and countries in your hand so you can see what calls to you. Later on you can go the eBay or auction house route.

 

^ That sounds like a great idea. Thanks.

 

You said that you collect circulating world coins. I assume that means only collecting coins that circulate right now. If you follow this link to the "Coin of the Year Awards" you can then search for images.
This was the 2014 winner from Monnaie de Paris.

But I do not collect much of the present-day issues. Living in the USA we have a Quarter Dollar series running now, commemorating State Parks and Historical Landmarks. The quarter dollar 25-cent coins are circulating media. We also have a Dollar Series honoring the Presidents. Another dollar coin series honors Native American ("Indian") culture. Both of those are technically circulating media. We can get dollar coins from banks and other places if we ask; but they do not circulate widely.

If you care for history, I do have many coins that once circulated. Like many other collectors, I find them charming in nice circulated condition, as much as I appreciate a Mint State coin. I like Queen Elizabeth Young Heads... and just about any female young head. (See below.)

As for the "must have" that is up to you, entirely. Advice is easy to come by. I appreciate the fact that you asked for technical guidance. We are limited by our own experiences, granted. So, unless you ask around, you can miss alot. I understand that. Nonetheless, what you pursue must please your own standards.

If you want to sell your coins for a profit, then, indeed, follow the herd, do what everyone else does, stay in the mainstream, never risk your own pleasure against will of the majority.

If you want to enjoy the hobby, never ask anyone else what you "should" do.


(Canada 50 cent; 29.7 mm)

(British East India Company Rupee; 30 mm)

 

When I buy a bulk lot of foreigns, I throw Nazi and Fascist junk in the garbage. I have exactly one communist coin, the New Economic Policy Rouble, as a testimony to the total idiocy of socialism, whether the nationalist socialism of Woodrow Wilson, Benito Mussolini and Franklin D. Roosevelt, or the internationalist socialism of the USSR and its Rheinland-Scandinavian lackeys.

Those coins you admire are totally kitsch: the cheap, gaudy knick knacks of an illiterate's kitchen wall. Their poor artistry aside, they commemorate brutality, hive mind ignorance, warfare, and the destruction of human values. That woman with the four bambini, apparently she will not be going to an engineering college or law school...

All of that is just to say that I agree with you, 100%: collect what you like because you really cannot plan on pleasing anyone else...


USSR rouble 1924; 12.9 million struck. 19.996 grams 0.900 fine silver; 0.5786 oz Ag actual. Krause catalog number Y-90.)

 

A well thought out part, but then to disparage someone who actually does what you suggest seems very incongruent. If it was sarcasm, it doesn't seem well played, and politics should be left out of the equation.

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W. Mart- here are just some of my favorites:
the coin that got me started: Slovakia


here is the King of my collection and my personal favorite coin. Belgium-




and other MISC coins...

 

and a few more...

 

cue in the Indiana Jones music now...lol

 

Well, one will always come across collectors who despise certain coins because they do not meet their (ultraleftist, turbocapitalist, whatever) political views. Fine, there is no "must" when it comes to collecting coins. But when you start collecting ... stay away from collector coins with prices high above their face value. At least as long as you do not really know what you want to collect.

All those Krause Coin of the Year winners, for example, are non-circulating pieces. (The COTY award has only one category for coins which are actually used as means of payment.) Now if you later decide that modern art on coins is what you are after, get the Yves Klein piece for example. Until then ... the "junk bin" tip is a good one. Or buy a bag (lot) of coins online - the seller will have gone through the content before, so do not expect to find any precious pieces. But you may get an idea of what is out there.

The catalogs (Standard Catalog of World Coins, aka Krause) are quite expensive if you plan to buy a new one. But if you happen to get an older issue, or can borrow one at a library, have a look at the images first. Anything that you find interesting?

Christian

 

If I may make a suggestion, I would buy a nice big bag of foreign coins and just enjoy. I have done this several times over my collecting years, which began in 1969. It is just tremendous fun. You can sort them by metallic content, country, shape (not all are round) or just what interests you.

Get a nice magnifying glass to see the details. You may wish to purchase a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins, either in hardcopy or a CD-ROM. Whatever tickles your fancy, you will be bound to have a really good time!

 

I have collected coins for 60 years and ancient coins for 50. The one thing that has remained consistent is that a coin must actually be a coin that was spent somewhere by someone and not made for the sole purpose of being sold to collectors. That probably should exclude a few rare issues of Roman coins but most of this pretend coinage has been a development of the past 100 years. Easily 90% of people who collect coins seem mostly interested in things made just for them and never available at face value. I see it as two completely different hobbies. Enjoy whichever one it is that interests you.

 

Trivia: Who invented the concept of making coins for collectors? I am not really opposed to proofs that match the regular coinage or commemoratives that were spendable at face value but when did they start selling half dollars of special design for more than 50 cents, for example? Where the Columbians available for face or were they first? What other countries did this earlier?

 

this is only a very small piece of my collection (652 coins). the rest is mostly circulating coins. I agree that politics should be left out of the equation.