New to the hobby and looking for some advice.

Hi all,

My first post here. I am new to the hobby and looking for some advice to point me in the right direction. I've decided that my focus will be on world coins as I like variety in design. I guess I am not the one to limit myself to one country and then collect a series of years of one coin. 'World coins' however is a broad term so I tried to narrow it down and have some basic ideas:

* Coins by design features like a hole in the middle, birds only, plants only etc.
* European coins of the interbellum 1919-1938.
* European post-war, pre-euro coins 1946-2001
* World coins for my year of birth 1979.
* 21st century European coins but non-euro.
* eBay surprise coins. Just buy what is available and what I like.

What do you guys think of the above? And do you have better suggestions? What strategy did you start out with?

Last but not least I am 42 year old Dutch guy looking for fun. Good quality circulation coins that can be had for an honest price will do. I am not in it with an idea of reselling later to make money nor am I one that cares a whole lot about high grade stuff. If it looks pleasing to eye, that is good enough for me.

Thanks for reading!

 

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Welcome to CT.

 

Welcome to CT. If you do not have one, get a copy of the Standard Catalogue of World Coins. Great info and photos by Country. Have fun

 

Welcome to CT. There is no set way to collect, and many of us here lack focus.

 

I suggest you pick one area of collecting and work within those perimeters.
If later you want to expand to other area, you'll have had the experience of easing into the hobby and hopefully not wasting any of your coin expense account.
A Standard World Coin Catalogue can be expensive but you can get by purchasing a used back issue.
J.T.

 

You goals are very broad, but perhaps after you start to collect some of what you covered above, you will find a series or a theme that interests you.

I am a born U.S. citizen. I started collecting Lincoln cents when I was 10 years old. I didn't stay with them that long. I eventually moved to Indian Cents, and U.S. type coins, which one example of each major design that the U.S. government has issued from 1792 to date. The Indian Cents fell by the wayside after I completed the set when I was in my early 20s, but the type coin interest remained.

I am very interested in history and politics. I continued to collect that type coins until I finished the U.S. set about nine years ago. Now the U.S. Mint issues too many coins. I can't keep up with them so my type coin set is mostly frozen at circa 2012.

Along the way I started collecting roughly one coin for each British king I or queen. I am back to Alfred the Great with a few kings missing up to Queen Elizabeth II. Of late I have taken an interest in the Roman Emperors from Julius Caesar to ? The late emperors get complicated and expensive.

As you can see the hobby is endless. I was a coin dealer for a while. I collect when I enjoy and like to share my research here, at my local club (until the pandemic) and in an occasional magazine article. It keeps me occupied in my old age.

I know have I covered a lot of material, and that's not all of it, but the time span has been over 60 years.

 

Yea, Welcome to Coin talk !

 

It's too bad most collectors are not as level headed has you. I like the idea of collecting anything you like and making it fun. Get the set of World Coin Books above (1801-1900 and 1901-2000). That will cover a lifetime of inexpensive coins. Eventually, you will probably narrow down your search and specialize. Don't spend a lot of money at first. Additionally, if you add inexpensive silver coins to your collection it may turn out to be an investment.

 

You have good expectations, and your tastes will change over time.
You may want to narrow your focus starting out - maybe a country or denomination. Metals too. I am working on Latin Monetary Union silver 5 unit coins (crowns) and 20 unit gold (0.1867 Troy oz. AGW). It shows a history of bimetallism I Europe, then more of the world from 1865 to WWI. The original Euro.

 

No one else can tell you what to collect. You just have to find what appeals to you. What got you into coins? Presumably there's something you like about them. So pursue that and see where it leads you. I loved the history. There was something magical to me about seeing that old date on something. The first time I had some coins with dates that started with 18 it was amazing, and the same with 17 and 16. At first I really liked big British pennies and big old Mexican bronze coins. Eventually I started buying everything, trying to get one of everything. Then I had a realization that what I was doing didn't make sense, so I started to do more of a type collection and get one of each type of coin. It's still evolving though, and your interests likely will too. If there are any coin shops where you live that offer a "junk bin" or value bin where it's just a big mix of coins and everything costs a certain low amount, digging through those is a great place to start. Less appealing is buying lots of coins on eBay, but if that's all you can get then it's a start too.

 

Pick a theme that interests you and is within your means and go for it. How can we tell you? Do you just want ideas? Collect coins with ships or sailboats. That's as good as birds or plants. Or horses, I like horses. No cats, I'm allergic to cat dander.

 

@JFRTM, I like your broad approach to collecting world coins. On the off chance you get interested in ancient coins, here is a page on various collecting themes:

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/themes.html

Here is a page for beginners:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/

Collecting ancient coins is a great and endlessly-interesting hobby. I know, I've be loving it for 49 years.

 

Welcome!
Buy what you like.

 

Welcome. As others have stated, your interests are going to change. My youth was filled with building sets of US coins. I switched to world coins a while ago and never looked back. There are a ton of options for budget world coins.

 

Many coin dealers will sell mixed world coins by the pound.
This can be an affordable way to get started and pick out what interests you.
Most will be modern, but usually a modest fraction will be pre-WW2.
I don't know what mix coin shops in the Netherlands typically have, I think they usually focus on domestic and colonial issues (Indonesia etc.)
Happy hunting!

Typical "junk bin" world mix from the US shown below.

 

Your gonna have a blast. Set a weekly budget and go! All your ideas are perfectly fine. Enjoy the ride.

 

Welcome to CT. I don’t really collect them but a lot of members do. Have fun.

 

Welcome to CT. I think your collecting plans sound terrific.

Since you are Dutch, one of my favorite "interwar coins" are big Dutch 2.5 gulden from the 1920s-1940. My great-grandparents immigrated from Amsterdam in 1882, so Dutch coins are one of my favorites.

Here's a batch of big Dutch 2.5 guilders I got on eBay a few years ago (with one minted for Curacao). They are cheap and plentiful (though the 1940 is a bit scarce):

 

Any to not price for this coin

 

Each person has their own interests, but I tend to like coins with a bit of history.
Personally, I find modern world coins a bit boring, because they are very common.

Out of your list, the one that I find interesting is:
- European coins of the interbellum 1919-1938.

I would also suggest European coins of the late 1800s up to 1918. There are beautiful coins of that period. I'd also suggest silver coins, large or small depending on your budget.