I unearthed a 1928 Canadian nickel with George Vs profile in our yard. This started my coin habit as a child. At the time I could only afford worn examples of old Canadian and US coins at dealers. After a long hiatus I want to collect again! I'm interested in undervalued coins with beautiful designs. I want to collect US, Canadian, and British coins as well as coins from other countries under the British commonwealth such as Australia. For now I'd like to stay under $75 US for each coin I purchase unless it has gold content. What coins would be good to start with? One other thing: I like shopping on eBay. I know there are some scammers out there so tips would be appreciated. I also need a good price reference and grading book.
Now that you are older and have disposable income, you can serve yourself well by resisting the temptation to buy-buy-buy. If you invest your time in reading (books, online, etc.) and shop carefully, you can acquire the higher grade items that are worth owning. We all would like to buy beautiful coins that are undervalued! You will need a large body of knowledge to find them among the areas you cited: Canada, U.S., Australia. These are well known, and widely collected. You can find bargains, but you need a large body of knowledge to do that. Start by joining the American Numismatic Association (or the Canadian Numismatic Association, depending on where you live). Go to your local libraries, also. Different libraries will have different books, of course, and university library will often have a great array, both general and detailed. As for "coins" to start with, amog my favorites are Canadian Tokens. The Bank of Upper Canada penny and half penny tokens are unsurpassed in their class as examples of fine coining. Technically, however, they are not "coins." The maritime provinces also have interesting tokens. And they tend to intersect a whole other series from Britain called "Conder Tokens" from the 1780s-1790s. Conders also display beautiful images. "Undervalued" is a very relative term. At the last convention of the ANA, I was astounded at how expensive Conders had become. The Bank of Upper Canada tokens skyrocketed years ago. Yet, relative to all other coins, they still seem "undervalued." You will find a lot of discussion here on CoinTalk.Org. I also saw some good advice on the website of the Professional Numismatists Guild at http://www.pngdealers.com/ and this same general advice is available from the ANA, PCGS, and others. References for Canadian books come from Charlton publishers. References for Britain come from Seaby publishers. For U.S. coins, most people start with "The Red Book" -- A Guide Book of United States Coins by Yeoman and Bressett.
As for right now, for U.S. coins, I have seen many type coins going for way under the value, this includes coins that grade from VF - MS-60 , from my experience on e-bay, these are the coins that I am seeing going well under the values, and are going for under 75.00, depending on the grade. Silver three cent pieces ( seldom) , Sitting liberty coins, Barber coins, and half cent pieces are still a very good buy considering how many were made, and how much you can pick one up for. 3 cent nickel pieces are going under the normal values listed for them in various books, I think in most part because of the design of them turns a lot of collectors off. I'll send you a PM , and dicuss looking around e-bay with you to see if we can't find some nice coins, some of the sellers out there can throw in one single word in their description, that is hard to pin point to a T, that can cause red flags to pop up.
Wow! Great responses. mmarotta: I've got an Upper Canada one penny bank token from 1857. It's nice to hear the value has gone up (I've had it for around 12 years). I can't grade accurately obviously but it looks to be in the high VF to lower XF area. I wish I had a digi cam... Pennycase: Thanks for the offer. I'll shoot you an eBay item I am looking at. Mmarotta is right, I need knowledge to pick out the deals but I'll be OK with a little guidance...
Here is a thread I started when finding out what buyers wanted out of an auction, you could take the advice they gave to me, and use it to better yourself while buying off of e-bay, and possibly avoid any negative transactions that might occur, one thing that I have always had the motto of when using e-bay, " When in doubt, Don't " . http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=2758
Welcome to the Forum guysmy !! I would urge to follow the advice already given - don't spend 1 dime on coins now - buy books instead. Read them, study them - get familiar with the information contained within them. Then and only then - buy coins. You'll be glad did if you do it this way. Do it the other way - you won't be glad at all.
Books are a great way to acquire knowledge and knowledge is king in collecting. (hard work and a little luck won't hurt). Don't expect to find everything you need to know in books because some things are almost impossible to learn from books and some of the finest coins don't have any books written about them. If you want to learn you'll need to get out there and get your hands dirty. Be sure to sell a few coins right from the beginning because this is when you relly learn about the market. Never forget to have fun and keep your eyes open.
That's what I personally started out using to grade coins, up untill I started realizing that I tend to grade a coin one point below what everyone else does, I don't blame this on the book though, I believe it to be a valuable grading guide personally for circulated coinage. I believe most collectors should stop looking towards the traditional grading guides as they progress, only early on should they use this, untill they have built up a good idea of grades etc, then later on when you have more experience, base your own judgement on the grade of coins, take for instance, The only way a barber coin to me grades F-12, regardless of details on the reverse, or other parts, is that it must have a FULL bold liberty, unless it has that, it is only a Good in my opinion. This kind of use for grades should only be used by people who are strictly collectors, not investors. If you are the type that must have it the graded by traditional manners and accepted worldwide, buy coins that are slabbed by pcgs, or ngc.
guysmy Grading books can help you to aquire an eye for a coin, but with each book or article that you read on grading,and with each graded coin that you consider, you will find ( as I have ) that opinions on the grade of any one coin will vary irregardless of any text that you may have read on the subject.This is more pronounced on the truely high grade coins than on the more circulated. The only true way to collect coins and be totally always completely satisfied,, is to shop a little smart and only buy what truely appeals to you,, If you pay a little over value for a coin that you really want, its no Loss, but if you pay over value for a coin that was a whim, and may become one of those disposable assets that is when it hurts a little. Rick
Try to locate a local coin club. Make "coin" friends. Reading books and magazines will be a great help, but you will need someone to help you understand some of the more off the wall things that pop up.
Excellent idea! Good thinking, ND! The local coin club is a tremendous resource. Local coin clubs are in decline, generally. Members are older. Travel is harder. City streets are less safe. The Internet is here. Even so, out in the far suburbs and small villages and townships, life continues as it used to be. If you are really lucky -- for instance in Metro Detroit -- you can shop among several clubs for the ones that meet your style. Towns not too far apart offer the same opportunity. Among the other kinds of clubs are the national collector specialty clubs, such as Seated Liberty, Bust Half, Errors and Tokens. Look on the ANA website at www.money.org under Clubs and you might something near to your home or near to your heart.
I recommend the ANA Grading Guide. But don't just settle for one - read and use them all. There are also many resources regarding grading available on the internet - use them too. Like these - How to Grade US Coins LINK LINK These are but a few. A quick search on Google for "coin grading" will bring up over 20,000 links - some very good sources of information, others pretty much worthless. The secret to enjoying the hobby to its fullest is knowledge
One option that I have found here in Delaware are the senior or maturity centers. The local coin club meets at the local maturity center once a month and they always welcome "new" blood. Those of us that have been involved in the hobby for any length of time love to talk coins. mmarrota is correct. The local clubs are in a steep decline. While the internet does offer many avenues which can be rewarding, it will never offer the same as those face to face encounters. If you can't find a local club listed on the internet, try looking through your local newspaper, or a local dealer. Often small local clubs do not use the tools available to let people know where they are. You may have to search them out.
It was VERY tempting to pull the trigger on some coins on eBay but I resisted. I purchased 3 books on amazon.ca to get started... 2005 North American Coins & Prices: A Guide to U.S., Canadian and Mexican Coins - Krause (They don't have the 2005 version of the Red Book on the Canadian site yet for some unknown reason. I'll get one later.) Photograde (The ANA Grading Guide is out of print!) The Coin Collector's Survival Manual by Scott Travers
Well even though I agree with the guys that you ought to be informed I also think that buying a few coins is a great learning tool. There's plenty of things I don't know and always will be but that will not stop me from buying coins. So I would vote for you to buy a few and learn from them.... It will also help you to learn to grade if you have some coins to look at. If you can find a club to join that's fine too... Hope you enjoy collecting. Speedy
when i first started collecting i was advised to buy au58-ms65 in a common (lower price) coin and you can use that to help you grade by compairing.
After I hit the books I may seek out some clubs. It depends how serious I get. I'm 25 so it would be great if I could hook up with a group where most of the members are under 50.
Actually the average age of active collectors is around 55. Mostly men of course. Why the hobby doesn't embrace the idea of getting younger people involved is beyond me. Now some will start off by stating the ANA has the YN program, and many other clubs and show organizers also have some form of youth program. All of this is true, yet the average age doesn't change. Maybe it is because the hobby doesn't accept change or even welcome it for the most part. I am considerably younger than most dealers and believe me, I have many hurdles to cross everyday. This Hobby is wonderful despite the many areas that need improvement. I have made some wonderful close friends, made a good living, have visited many great places, and even learned many things about the world through this hobby. It will give as much as you put into it.
