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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mrz1988, post: 761282, member: 21121&quot;]For loupes it really depends on what you like.&nbsp; The real high powered ones can be tough to use because they make the coin appear very dark, and you have to scan the coin a little harder to search every feature.&nbsp; The lower powered ones do little more than make the coin look bigger in my opinion, and don&#039;t help me any more than the naked eye.&nbsp; I would recommend trying out a few and see what works best for your eyes, the size coins you are searching, and your preferences.&nbsp; More expensive is not always better, a lens is more or less a lens as long as it does its job!</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as what&#039;s valuable, that depends.&nbsp; What is worth saving is usually up to your personal collecting standards, so you need to decide those.&nbsp; If you are just doing this as a hobby, I&#039;d recommend collecting every variety you can find!&nbsp; Common coins can be just as fun to collect as rare ones and can be completed in a fraction of the time.&nbsp; If you are just looking for coins that are going to be worth a lot in relation to their face value, the silver is definitely the way to go for halves.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you are starting to search a new denomination, check your red book for high-priced coins and keep them in mind while searching.&nbsp; These are the well-collected dates and errors, but there are a few oddities and errors that you will not see in the red book.&nbsp; Doubled dates and mintmarks exist for TONS of varieties, but most of them are not well known enough to accumulate a big price tag.&nbsp; Some websites catalog varieties like this, such as <a href="http://www.coppercoins.com/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coppercoins.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.coppercoins.com/</a>&nbsp; for your coppers.&nbsp; I recommend holding on to anything that catches your eye until you are sure you know what it is.&nbsp; This is how you learn what to look for and what errors are good for the keeping.&nbsp; I even pulled a nice off-center struck 1987 lincoln penny out of a roll a month or two ago, and I&#039;m not much of a roll-searcher, so you never know what odd things you may find in your change.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for storing coins, it really depends on how long you are planning on keeping them.&nbsp; I tend to like coin albums just beause of how nifty and neat they look, and if a friend or relative wants to see your Kennedy collection, you can just whip it off the book shelf and they can instantly see what you have, what you are missing, and how nice your coins look. Every coin has a special labeled and protected slot to put it in.&nbsp; This is something you can&#039;t do with just about any other storage system.&nbsp; Of course, albums are hated by a lot on this forum because of their inability to protect coins well.&nbsp; Cardboard mylar flips, as suggested, are the cheapest and most effective way around this.&nbsp; They can be displayed individually, in a box (like projector slides), or in a binder of vinyl pages.&nbsp; Of course, I think they look a bit tacky but thats just an opinion.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course there are plenty of other ways to store your coins... in paper rolls or sealed display cases and everything in between.&nbsp; I recommend deciding by looking at your budget and the value of the coins you are keeping.&nbsp; The pricier the coin, the more it should be protected.&nbsp; I keep my circulated sets in albums, and all of my extras, nice uncirculateds, proofs, and professionally graded coins in mylar flips or sealed plastic cases.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And thats my two lincolns on starting collecting[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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