Best Coins To Collect To Preserve Value Or Appreciate In Value

Yes, I believe a small percentage of total collectors can do quite well. But again making an unfair comparison, anyone can learn how to pick a stock that has possible growth potential by taking a course to gain knowledge in analyzing financial reports without investing more than the tuition fee. Step #1, gaining knowledge.

Coins, well there's no easy or quick way to learn. All the knowledge comes through hands on experience of buying, selling, trial and a lot of errors (the costly kind). Otherwise the only resource is networking with other collectors who are willing to mentor and share their lifelong knowledge, for example through coin clubs (a diminishing thing) but learning is still not going to happen overnight.

That's one aspect that I think makes new collectors somewhat reluctant - where to begin and it's easy to become discouraged. Just one example is non-standard grading by various TPG and how it impacts value when an assigned grade, another is trends pricing and what's the going percentage.

I've learned that numismatics is certainly far more complex than meets the eye and my conclusion is that the success of some is due to lack of opportunity to increase knowledge by the majority. A unique hobby, in that regard... It is what it is.