How to start a coin collection

Tom Babinszki
Sep 8, 2018 · 6 min read

Many people start collecting coins, but unfortunately not many stick with the hobby. If you have a plan and a system in place, there is a good chance that you will be one of those people who just started a lifelong hobby of the kings. I would like to give you a few thoughts on how to successfully start your new collection.

Decide why you want to collect coins

Most people collect either because they are interested in coins, or because they would like to start an investment portfolio. But down the road, it is more complex than that.

If you want to invest into coins but you are not interested in any other aspects, it will be a very boring pastime. However, if you are interested, one day when it is time to capitalize on your investment, you may just have a hard time giving up your collection.

It is certainly much more fun when you are collecting because you have an interest in coins, and if opportunity presents itself later, you can always make some profit on selling some of your collection.

Regardless, it does make sense to exactly know why you get into the hobby, this will help you build your strategy.

For the sake of this article, I will concentrate on collecting out of interest. As I am not a coin investor, I can give you some ideas, but definitely not financial advice.

Below, each title is a question. If you can answer each question, you are well on your way to have an organized and fun collection.

What interests you about coins?

There are many reasons to start a collection. You like the look of certain coins, you are interested in cultures, languages or history, or maybe you inherited some coins. It helps to figure out what excites you about coins, and start spending more time on it. The success will depend on how motivated you are to pursue this interest. There are many directions you can go to, and many ways to build up your collections. Most importantly, you don’t have to follow any trends, or any directions others follow. The beautiful thing about collecting coins is that you can determine your own path.

How will you educate yourself?

There is a difference between hoarding and collecting coins. There is nothing wrong with each one, but hoarding means that you grab and store anything that comes your way. Collecting, on the other hand, is following a structured path, and understanding the coins you have. It is important to learn about the coins you acquire. The possibilities are again endless. You can get a coin, and understand its background. Where it is coming from, what is the cultural and historical background, what is the importance of the coin. It is interesting to think about where and how it was used, who used it, how it got to you. You can take one coin, and spend hours on discovering information about it.

Coin collectors say that you should get the book before the coin. Instead of getting a coin, pursue your interest, think about what would be the next coin to get, read more about it. When you know a lot about a particular coin, it will be so much more fun to own it. Reading also helps you to understand the value of a coin, so you don’t buy or swap it for more than its value.

What would you like to collect?

When you think about what you will get next, the possibilities are endless. I can give you a few suggestions, but you can invent your own strategy.

You can collect coins by type. Pick a country, or any number of countries, and get one of each kind. It helps to start with a narrow set of countries and expand later. When you start getting coins from too many countries or too many years, you limit the amount of time you can spend on each one.

Some people collect by date. You can take a country, or a particular coin, and collect one from each year, or you can go even further and get one from each mint, if a country has several mints.

Some people collect by features, such as unusual shapes, coins with historical figures, coins with boats or animals.

There is also a trend that people collect one coin from each country, regardless of what it is.

You can branch into several different directions as well.

What’s your budget?

It helps if you have an amount of money in mind you want to spend on your collection. Sooner or later, you will find that there is a cost associated to your collection. Of course, there is the face value or metal value of a coin. But you can start by collecting from your pocket change, or swapping with people who travel to other countries.

However, when you start becoming serious about your collection, you will need supplies, such as magnifiers, storage, and of course, books, magazines, or club fees.

It helps if you have an amount in mind, unless money is no object for you. However, there isn’t an amount of wealth that you couldn’t spend on expensive coins.

The good news is that if you understand what you are buying or swapping, your collection will have a good value and at any given time you can sell it for at least the amount you spent on it. It is just hard to get rid of a coin that you carefully selected and pursued.

What are your goals?

When you start collecting, most likely you will have a goal in mind. For example, you will get all US state quarters, you will have a coin from each country, etc. It makes sense to investigate how realistic this goal is. There are some very low mintage coins, for example, which are expensive to buy, some can cost tens of thousands, and your goal may not be achievable. This is when goals change. You can either pick another series to collect which is achievable, or pursue it with the understanding that you may only get certain pieces.

Over the years people tend to change their collecting goals and there is nothing wrong with that. For example, when you complete a series, you may move to a different one, or you develop a new interest and you abandon the previous one. Don’t forget, the idea is to have fun, after all, those abandoned series will make some good swap coins which you can trade for something you don’t have from the new one.

How will you get your coins?

I already mentioned a few ways of adding to your collections. The most frequent ones are buying or swapping. If you travel, you can also start by adding to your collection from your leftover pocket change after a trip.

Buying is probably the easiest, there are many auction sites where you can get nice coins at a reasonable price. Unless you are looking for something rare, most coins are readily available at any given time, and the time it takes to build your collection depends on your free time or money.

However, it is worth investigating swapping with other collectors. Often you can meet other collectors with similar interests. Sometimes the people you meet are worth more than the coins you get. You can visit online groups to swap, or visit local coin clubs.

Where will you store your coins?

It may not seem as important as it sounds. After all, many coins were just fine on the attic in a box, or buried under the ground for hundreds of years. But when you get any collecting supplies, they may damage your coins faster than you think. Some plastic holders can have a chemical reaction with your coins which will make them slimy and discolored, ultimately impossible to enjoy them or swap them. The other consideration is temperature, humidity and dust. If you don’t take care of your coins, they can easily be damaged. This article is not sufficient to learn all about storage, but the most important thing is that there are many solutions you can buy, and different people believe in different methods. A few things to stay away from are plastic holders containing PVC, or exposing your collection to humidity, water or extreme temperatures. When you get coin supplies, it is indicated if they are PVC free. If it doesn’t, you probably shouldn’t buy it.

You might wonder, if it is so important, why are those holders available. When taking your coins to an exhibit or sending them over the mail, it is ok to use lower quality supplies, but you shouldn’t store your coins in them for an extended amount of time. But the best thing is just to avoid them altogether.

Conclusion

It is by no means a thorough overview, you can find books on collecting. But hopefully it gives you a few thoughts, and a few questions to think about. I definitely suggest that you read more as you are building your collection.

Tom Babinszki

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