Im Looking For Suggestions On Older Coin Collecting

I like the large cents. Alot of the braided hair coins are not terribly expensive in vf to xf grades. 1857 being the notable exception. If you go back farther than the coronet years than they start getting a little pricey for some of the draped bust and liberty cap cents. Check out the big boy pennies as I like to call them!

I agree with FTB- you were on the right track with Morgan dollars.

There are no coins from Hawaii before the Brits. The only coins from Hawaii are the 1847 cent and the 1883 dime, quarter, half, and dollar.

OK with that price range as a maximum good choices are Braided Hair Half Cents (business strikes) and Braided Hair large cents, Two Cent Pieces, nickel Three Cent, maybe Shield nickels, Capped bust Half Dimes, and maybe the capped bust dimes. A date set of capped bust halves may be possible with the possible exception of the 1815.

The Half Cent and large cent are good choices because they are readily available and there are no real key dates. The most expensive would be the 1857's. All of the date with the possible exception of the 1857's should be available in AU for well under your lower $500 figure. You can probably get some of them in Unc for under $500. Proofs on the other hand would be out of the question on these.

Two Cent once again you can get everything in AU for well under the $500 each figure with the exception of the 64 small motto, the 1872, and the proof only 1873. Drop the grade of the 64 small motto and the 1872 some and they can be purchased for under the $500 figure. If you will settle for a lower end proof the 1873 can possibly be had for under that $1000 figure.

The nickel Three Cent, you can get AU - Unc coins from 1865 - 1876, the 1881, and maybe the 1888 and 1889 for well below the $500 each level. You may have to go a little lower in grade on the 88 and 89. The 1877 and possibly the 78 could be stoppers. You might be able to get a 78 for under $1K but I don't know about the 77. For most of the rest of the dates consider VF - Xf coins and you should be able to get them below the $500 each figure. The exception would be the 1884, 85, 86, and 87. For these consider lower end proof coins (the 86 is a proof only) they will be in you price range and will be cheaper than the business strikes.

Shield nickel, everything from 1866 to 1876, and the 1882 and 83 are all available in better grade below your cap. The 79, 80, and 81 take my advice from the Three Cent pieces and look at the proofs, cheaper than the business strike. The 77 and 78 are proof only and may be beyound your budget.

The rest of the series I mentions, forget the proofs they will be way out of your budget. But nice high end business strikes should be affordable for the capped Half Dimes, You will have to go lower in grade on the dimes and there is o stopper, the 1822, which is within your budget but at a much lower grade.

You could probably put together most of an XF date set of capped bust halves for under your $500 per coin figure but you may have to go a little lower in grade on the early ones. The 1815 on the ofther hand is well out of your range even in lower grade.

So much good information... it gives me a lot to think about while researching coins... I was looking at the large cents but the only place I know that has variety is ebay and since I've read a lot about fakes on sites recently I'm a little more skeptical about purchasing older coins that I know nothing about...

I have a affinity with all coins... if I could I would buy every coin and put it in a book to pass on... I've been considering starting with some more morgans.. what turned me off about them the most was the limited coins shops and collectors here on the island... I paid over 200 for a 1878 CC at a show here and wasn't aware of the rip until I got home and looked at my RedBook.... I think that being on a forum like this will help me with my collection without getting scarred up on prices... because ill know what to look for better...

I think I'm going to take a lil bit of everyones suggestions and use that as a strategy... start with a u.s. coin type set, (does anyone know where to get a acrylic u.s. gold type set?) and then buy books for morgans, V nickels, Mercury dimes, capped halves and Lincoln pennies... I started a dansco book before and had a beautiful set of 16 morgans with 2 CC's and some other commons with some that were toned beautifully... I traded those for 5- 10oz bars of silver... I'm not regretting the decision because I know there are other nice coins out there waiting to go in my pages...

I appreciate everyones input and cant wait to get on this endeavor... my wife works a lot (U.S. Army Soldier) and she loves to come home to see beautiful coins that shes worked hard to put in our collection.. its one of those rewards that you can see after paying for bills and other nescesitties, to be able to pick up a PCGS slab box and look at the MS/PR 69 ASE set being put together is a great thing or the Dansco album with the reg and proof ASE's ... she likes the older coins too so id like to give her more to see and with everyones advice, I now know how to do to just that...

I made a mention of it earlier but I would like to find a acrylic holder for U.S. gold type coins... I've seen them before but not sure who makes them.. I know its out of my budget but the wife has asked about getting gold coins so its something id like to do for her even if it takes a year of saving... thanks again, PEACE...

I've recently started looking for conder tokens - I know own 7 different 1/2 penny and 1 penny tokens. They were coins minted in england to supplement the lack in minor coinage of the time created by private businesses during the late 1780's into the mid 1790's. they can be purchased in the $10 - $200 range, they have huge variety of interesting designs and range from heavily circulated to uncirculated examples. Look up conder (name of the guy from the late 1790's who wrote a book describing the varieties produced at the time). This can dovetail nicely with a collection of colonial coins which can be reasonable in lower grades and then expand into 1/2 cent or large cent coins.

The varieties of Morgan and Peace dollars. Careful here, lest you be assimilated.

http://www.coincommunity.com/us_mor...is-a-vam.asp

If your big problem is that you live in Hawaii, try to find somebody stateside who can work as a proxy for you, so if you win something on ebay, you can ship it to them, then they can forward it to you after examining it for you to make sure you'll like it. Some dealers will do this, but their proxy fees are kind of steep and really only designed for upper-echelon collectors.

thanks for the info Conder101... much appreciated