Colonial Collectors

NJ Bob: Absolutely buy the Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins first...

After you decide what you like, start to buy the individual specialized books.

As for dealers, my opinion is to attend a coin show as there will likely be several colonial dealers there. This seems obvious, but there is always ebay.

For anyone just starting out in colonials, I would recommend buying the following for under $100 total for 3-4 coins:

-George II or III halfpenny from the 1730s to 1775. A decent example on ebay should be about $25. Do not bother to buy these slabbed. The good thing about these is that even if you accidentally buy a counterfeit, they are actually more collectible than genuine (regal) pieces and are still considered colonial coins.

-Spanish silver: Coins minted in the Spanish colonies that traded in North America. Any denomination but specifically Half, 1, or 2 Reales. Probably easiest to find Mexico City mints. You can find these on ebay for about $25. Even if they have a hole, they are still collectible and some people say that just adds to their charm and intrigue. Again, counterfeits are just as collectible as genuine pieces (if not more so)!

-Low grade state copper coinage such as NJ or CT. You should have no problem of finding a low grade example often with environmental damage and/or corrosion on ebay for under $50. These are not often counterfeited so buying a raw example that "looks old" is often good enough to ensure you are buying a good piece. Most replicas sold at Williamsburg are marked "copy".

Great responses ... I will add that after collecting for a few years I find myself selling off many of my originally collected coins to purchase from the colonials. They are a different animal - they grow on you :) Half Cents are my favorite. I hope and expect to expand.

This is a good one.
http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/

Then there is the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4)
http://www.colonialcoins.org/

If you really get really into it I have the first 142 issues of the Colonial Newsletter in PDF format. That is all but the last 11 issues.
(The index is available online at http://numismatics.org/wikiuploads/...index154.pdf )

I have been pretty eclectic in my colonial collection but right now am having a love hate relationship with Connecticuts. I love that you can cherrypick rarer varieties, and enjoy attributing them. The hate part comes in after hours of trying to attribute low grade pieces with not a lot of detail remaining. I have a couple of pieces of colonial paper and Continental Currency. I would like to get a Continental Currency note signed by Samuel Meredith, as his estate is close to me, and he is one of our local "celebrities".

Welcome! Post up some pics of those Connecticuts, and we'll see what we can do. And let's see that paper on the Paper Money forum!

Some very interesting varieties in the Connecticut Coppers.
Can't wait to see your collection!

Coins were manufactured in "America" staring 250 years before the first Connecticut copper found it way into circulation. Come over to the dark side of American Colonial Coins and see what "foreign" coins would "really" have been kicking around the various colonies back before the Declaration of Independence, when the land really was a collection of colonies. Coins minted late in the short period of time of the Articles of Confederation through the Constitutional Convention were issued from "states" not colonies. "States" coinage is interesting but short lived and more of a token coinage. Like collectors of "Civil War coins" who only buy coins minted in Philadelphia between 1861 and 1865 with emphasis on Civil War Tokens of 1863 - 1864, they would miss then vast majority of older dated coins actually used during the war, including nearly all the Confederate ones. Think of the whole field of "colonial coins" and you may find really historic examples starting under $15.00 a piece. Consider a Queen Elizabeth I six pence dating to the founding of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, or an early King James I shilling as coins that belong in the American "Colonial" Series if you want to be English about it. Spanish, French, Dutch, and other New World colonies will give you plenty of latitude to explore regional and local history through "true colonial" coins that might have been here, back when.