So you think you want to start collecting but know nothing or how to start.

Well this is what I tell most people when they ask me hoe to get started.
1) get the book " A Guide Book of United States Coins" (this book has a good basic discription of greading all coins that have been minted in the United States, it also has values (it isnt for the values but will show you what coins are worth something. the values are a year old when it is first printed.))
2) get a good magnifer
3) go to your bank and get a bag of pennies ( a bag is $50.00 and has 5000 pieces)

Take your bag of pennies and take them to a place with alot of room and you can be comfortable (this isn't going to be a fast thing) perferably a table. Now open your bag and grab a hand full of these little beauties and put them on the table in front of you. go through all these pennies and put them in a row putting all the 1960's in a row 70's in a row etc. do this by date start with the lowest year of the series and working your way up. you dont need to worry about the mint marks yet ( mint marks are the P, D and S under the date (obverse) for wheat cents and on the (reverse) bottom in the middle between the ribbon and the rim on indian cents if your lucky enough to find some of these ) do this with all of the pennies in the bag.

Now that you have all these pennies in little piles by years, Take out your book and open it to the page that starts with pennies ( wheat cents start on pg. 117 in the 2015 Red Book). look over the pages of these pennies just to get a fill as to what you are looking at, but don't get to excited because you will see this book many times before you are done. go to the first pile and get your magnifer and seperate these by mint mark. get you book and read al of the grading discriptions so you can start looking for the best coin with that mint mark. When you get them all seperated by mint mark look at your book again and see if these pennies are worth something (I suggest at least $.50 to $.75 so you don't keep everything). You may want to keep the best of these to start a penny collection. If they aren't worth much throw them back into the bag.
Do this with all the piles until there all back in the bag (except the ones you want to keep). when you are done you will have a very good start on a penny collection. I find that when I get a bag of pennies i generally only find 10 or 12 keepers so when I take the bag back to the bank you can add back what ever you have kept and either get your $50.00 back or get another and start all over. I have been lucky enough to find some very nice pennies in these bags. You probably will never find a 1909 SVDB or a 1955 double die obverse but im sure if you finish the bag you will know what a very nice penny looks like and what a good penny looks like.

If you have children this serves as a great way to get them away from their games and maybe even the TV. You never know what you might find in these bags.

Happy hunting and Good Luck.

by David Hughes

 

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I would agree, except that my recommendation for a beginner would be Jefferson Nickels. Still a pretty long run, the keys aren't terribly expensive (if you can't find them at the bank for face value), you've got a few silver coins in there to find, and I feel you would be WAY more likely to complete a set through CRH than with Lincoln Cents. The initial monetary investment is still pretty low as well.

Plus, at the other end, when more experience is gained and coins are upgraded, I feel like I'd rather have a registry-quality set of Jeffs than Lincolns...would be more of an accomplishment.