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Message:: [QUOTE="Beefer518, post: 4653057, member: 87737"]Buy this book: "The Encyclopedia of United States Silver & Gold Commemorative Coins 1892 to 1954" by Swiatek & Breen It is the bible of early commems, and loaded with information. Decide if you're going for the full 144 set, or if the 50 set will satisfy. I'm 3 shy of the 50 set, but I'm continually looking for upgrades to what I have, and I'm sure I will slowly get the 144 set. If you're an MS64 kinda guy, that's cool, but before you buy a 64 of something, check prices on the 65's & 66's of that coin. Many commems have a $5 difference in grades, and going up a notch or two won't break the bank. The Cleveland, Long Island, and even most of the BTW's & W/C's fall into this category (among others). Also decide what you want the complete set to look like. I started with a blast white Illinois (aka Lincoln). Then I realized I liked them with some toning, so I started buying toned coins. Now I have a mix of blast whites and toned, and I wish I never bought the whites. There is an NGC registry that the owner very diligently put together essentially a color-matched 50 set. It's stunning IMO. I was (am) too impatient to wait for the exactly right coin to come along, and I also will but a coin if the price is a steal (or close). There are a ton of different directions you can go with a commem collection, and I'd advise trying to plan ahead with what you want out of your collection. As you get into it, you'll find that as these coins commemorated a specific event or person, there is a lot of exonumia [sic]related to each coin (ribbons, pamphlets, medals, original packaging, tickets to events, etc.). You can go nuts with some of them! Most importantly, have fun with it![/QUOTE]

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