Rebooting the Collection

I collected coins when I was a kid but stopped after college. I recently got the itch, so I dug out my collection. I have a decent amount of 20th century coins, especially Lincoln cents and Jefferson nickels. I'm missing mostly key dates and a handful of older coins, as well as stuff from 1990 on. I decided to start with trying to complete the nickel collection, as that seems like a relatively easy way to dip my toes back in the water.

My plan is to use bank rolls to complete the recent issues and buy the rest. I have a few questions, though.

1. Most of my pre-1960 coins are in circulated condition. It's fairly inexpensive to buy the missing items in mint state (minus the key dates), so I'm going to do that. I'm not sure what to do about the existing items, though. Should I not worry about having some MS and some circulated coins? At least for now? Should I eventually start replacing the worn coins with MS copies?
   
   
2. I have a jar full of doubles consisting of pre-1960, circulated items, and a handful of S mint marks from the late 60s. What do people do with their doubles? Do they keep them? Do they sell them? Are they even worth more than face value?
   
   
3. What do people do with silver doubles? I have a handful of them and they are all worn, so I doubt if they are worth anything more than melt. Do people sell them? Or do they keep them?
   
   
4. Do people look for varieties in the Jefferson set (other than the D over S stuff)? Or do they mostly just fill books/albums?
   

I have similar questions for the Lincoln cents, though I'm hoping to do them after I complete the Jefferson set, as the key dates are much more expensive.

Thanks for any help!

- Kevin

 

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Hi Kevin,

You sound like me 10 years ago or so. I collected as a kid, mostly circulated 20th century coins. I stopped when I went to college, and then started picking it back up in my late 20s.

The transition to a child collector to an adult collector is an interesting one. I can't tell you what the right thing to do is: there is no right answer, and the only thing that matters is what makes you happy.

However, I can tell you what I did.

I sold my entire collection on EBay (it was only worth a few hundred dollars), and then restarted by collecting Mint State PCGS certified coins. I also narrowed my focus. Instead of collecting all the popular series, I focused on a couple of sets. It is incredibly difficult to become an expert (or have the money) to focus on 10 or more sets. After a few years, you will become comfortable with understanding how the certified coin industry works and can expand your focus, buy coins in NGC, ICG, ANACS holders to crack/cross etc.

My recommendation would be to find a series you love, and start collecting mint state examples. Focus on quality over quantity. Learn everything you can about the series, grading, eye appeal, toning, luster, strike, the grading industry, the various auction houses, etc.

Ben

 

Wow, thanks for the responses!

Ben, I'm not sure that I can wipe the slate clean. The coins have way more nostalgic value than monetary value, but I definitely understand what you mean.

Geekpryde, thanks for the warnings. I can see the temptation of "quickly bootstrapping" with a big buy, but I do believe that you get what you pay for, so you need to be careful.

It does sound like I need to focus, though. As a kid, I tried to collect everything! An uncle gave me a few Mercury dimes, so I got the book and added the rest of the set to my want list! Haha. I dug out my want list last night. It had hundreds of dates from a bunch of series that would cost tens of thousands of dollars to complete.

I do think I'm going to start with the Jeffersons. I need about 30 combinations of date and mint mark to have the full set, 1938-2019. A handful are expensive (i.e., > $10), the rest are pretty cheap (~ $1). Should be fairly straight forward.

After that, though, I have to do a little thinking. I was originally going to try to collect Lincoln cents, but I'd like to consider other sets that, to me, are far more interesting. Maybe Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents. Maybe Seated Liberty coins, which I think are amazing, even if they are a bit expensive. Or maybe just focus on Nickels. I have a few Buffalo and Barber nickels. It would be cool to work on those sets. Or maybe that's too wide a scope.

 

History
Completed collections
Type set collections
Numismatic investment
Bullion investment
Mint anomalies
From pocket/roll searches, only
Treasure hunting

There are many reasons why people collect coins. The key is to understand the hobby's attraction to you...then focus on that type of collection.

Also, never spend big bucks on anything you don't understand. Research if fundamental. There are flippers out there who make a good living reselling problem coins to the uneducated.

 

Kevin, this is my two cents worth. I'd scan for varieties, put aside any exceptional looking ones and flip them and put them away and forget about them. I tend to keep everything as it marks time and I've gotten so much now that holding it versus releasing anything back without my up close review just scares me. Hence, I have tons of wheats, junk silver and the like. I guess I am hoping a 16d mercury or two suddenly appears, or the 55ddo or whatever appears that I missed. Basically I'm a coin hoarder.

 

I really appreciate all of the advice. I guess I haven't really thought more about what I want to do other than "fill the coin folders that I have". That's partly why I got out of it; I was overwhelmed with all of the "holes" in the folders.

I'm going to do a bit more research and consider what I really want to do. If the goal isn't just to fill the books I have, that makes things much more interesting, TBH. (Sorry to just think out loud...)

 

Pretty much the same here. When I came back to my coins in my mid-20s, I realized I no longer had any interest in date & mint mark sets, so I got rid of a stack of Whitman folders -- mostly cents, nickels and dimes. All I kept from my childhood collection were two Morgans and a Peace that were gifts from an uncle, a set of P and D clad bicentennials extracted from mint sets, and a handful of world coins and banknotes brought back from WW2 by family members. Aside from those, I started over from scratch. Never regretted for a second dumping those Whitman collections.

 

Coin folders can lead people -- especially kids -- to believe filling holes is what coin collecting is all about. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. I eventually realized that filling holes wasn't for me. It may not be for you, either.

Much MUCH more interesting. Saying no to the holes can set you free!

 

When I was in high school, in the 1960s, I got into type coins, but Indian Cents were my first love. I completed that set, but got bored with it in the early 1970s, sold it and lost a lot of money. It was a combination of a falling market and money spent on common dates that now seem to be out of fashion. My gold type set way more than made up for what I lost on the Indian Cent collection.

I agree with the others that sets can get boring because it is the same thing over and over. That’s why I became a type collector. Every coin is different. I have collected a few sets, like the Classic Head $2.50 and $5 gold pieces, but those sets are short, 19 coins total, and it’s a time in history that I enjoy.

The point is collect what you like. Don’t feel compelled to conform to someone else’s opinions.

 

I'll be honest, this thread went in a direction that I wasn't expecting. And that's a good thing.

I always assumed that type sets were something you did with doubles. They seemed too "simple" to me as a kid. You get a Barber nickel, a Buffalo, and a Jefferson, and you're done with 20th century nickels. Etc. Thinking about it now, that is completely wrong. For example, there are at least five different Jefferson types (original, wartime, 2004, 2005, 2006+), and maybe others that I'm missing. I'm rambling a bit, but that's because I'm having a lot of interesting thoughts.

Do folks recommend the Whitman Guide Books on specific series? It looks like a new version of the book on type sets is coming out in a few weeks. Perhaps that's a fortunate coincidence! Haha.

 

The Whitman "Red Book" series is excellent. I would recommend these books for any topic that interests you.

I have the book on type coins by David Bowers, and despite that fact that I have been a type collector for 50 years, there are things in there that were new to me. If you get into type collecting, I would highly recommend it.

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

I think the right thing to do is to spend some time and money on educating myself. The coins will still be there, and I'll have a much clearer picture of what I want to do.

Thanks again for all of the help. It's been truly eye-opening.

 

Here is a link to my non gold type set, which covers the coins from the half cent to the silver and base metal dollars. You might find it interesting.

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=3081&Ranking=all

 

I agree totally with GDJMSP! I too wandered into the world coin universe, and the history and possibilities seem endless. I first thought of collecting one coin from each country, but soon realized that that was too easy! I now collect by country, by ruler within the country (if they made their own coins), and by coinage type (hammered, cast, milled, decimal, etc.). I currently have at least one example of 3,178 different countries/rulers, but have over 15,000 actual world coins. Of course, this doesn't even count my US coin collection. I collect not for investment, but for the sheer joy it brings me. Learning a LOT of the history of the world through its coinage is a side benefit.