New Collector Needs Direction

Oh, BTW.. Welcome to the Forums.

First of all

Please dont feel too ashamed at cleaning your coins, this has happened to most of us when we were novices.
With regards to your collection, if it was me I would hang on to the coins you have and, fill in on the ones you are missing, this can be done through auctions, mail order or later on when you have accumulated 250 posts exchange with members of this forum.
I would also obtain a good library (knowledge is power) and get a subscription to Canadian Coin News and then finaly get asking questions on this forum (dont be shy, even we had to start somewhere) most collectors on this forum are in my opinion brilliant, and have a fantastic amount of coin knowledge.
Post some pics of your coins and let us grade them for you, and for goodness sake quit cleaning your coins..

It sounds like you have a nice collection going -- and that you're organized.

My "cleaning" story: I was digging around in the garden and I found nails and broken glass and OH! a penny. It was muddy. I brought it indoors to wipe it off. I wanted to know what year it was. It was barely recognizable as a penny, being covered in mud. So I held it under running water and it literally disintegrated in my hand.

Thanks for the welcome folks,

rggoodie - are you sure your directions are right? Far be it for me, as a newcomer, to question a long time member such as yourself but I'm sure that I'm facing south and that west is to my right.....Do I need to rearrange my computer? har-de-har-har

I've asked for a free copy of Canadian Coin News in pdf and it should be in my inbox now. I'll subscribe. I went to the bookstore but they had only the 2nd volume of Charltons. I bought a copy of "Canadian Coin Digest" and am reading it now.

neweden - When you say keep them all. So even the coins I cleaned still have numistin ..nuministwic ...nimun...collector value?
I thought I had cleaned away everything other than bullion value. I don't feel quite as foolish now.

Here is the coin I find the most beautiful out of all I have. The age of it and history it has seen....I find it fascinating.

If you start collecting varieties, the 1945 Fifty Cent at the bottom is a scarcer Wide Date Blunt 5 and the one above is the more common pointed 5. The 1941-1947 have the last two date digits added to each Die which makes for many different punch spacing varieties....

If the toothbrush was very soft, there may not be too much damage.

Your 1859 cent is a Haxby catalog obverse o6 with the E9 reverse. Nice coin, with better photos the exact die state could be noted. There are something like 400+ varieties of 1859 cents.

pginrh - The coin book I bought doesn't mention anything about that coins' variations. Just number minted and pricing by grade. As I don't (yet) understand the grading process, a book that is so general as to only give minimal information doesn't help me very much. Do you have a suggestion of a book that would teach me more about halves?

nybird - As above, only # minted and pricing on my cent. Any ideas on a large cent book?

If Charltons is more of the same, a pricing guide, I don't know if that should be my next purchase.

SPP-Ottawa - As you can probably tell, halves interest me. When I look at one, I am instantly drawn back to my childhood in Winnipeg. I can smell the oak leaves in the fall and hear the sound as my friends and myself kicked our way through the piles of leaves. Tobbogganing down the hill in the park, laughing at each others' snotcicles..... good times.

I saved those halves for week after week. Stacking, counting, sorting.... I stared at that coat of arms over and over. My family moved around alot when I was a kid. The few years we spent in Winnipeg were the best of my childhood.

That's why I like fifty cent pieces. 1937 to 1967. We moved to a different country in 68.


The large cents hit me differently. I like the colour, design and the age of them.

Small cents to 1936 appeal to me also as do nickels from 20 to 36. Mostly the design of them.

I've been looking at Newfoundland coinage on the interweb and I find it very interesting.

All the other coins I have mean nothing other than monetary value. I'll sort them and learn to grade them, but I feel no attachment to them and probably won't work towards a dime, quarter or a complete nickel or penny collection.
Caribou, Beaver, Maple Leaf.....I don't get any warm and fuzzy feelings when I look at them.

Thank you for asking such an astute question. I learnt alot about myself thinking of, and writing this answer.