Beginning Of An Adventure!

Cheers TheDepreso, I guess with anything it just takes research and alot of experience, which comes in time. For a starter like myself, the subject is much bigger than I could of imagined, its quite overwhelming! Would you say the Indian Head cent I have is an okay example? As with everyone, I would like the best examples of each coin I can get my hand on, but I'm abit too fresh to start spending real sums on a coin

You have to start somewhere, and almost everyone starts out with baby steps. For 99p, quite a sweet deal on an awesome coin, can't beat the feeling of having a piece of history in your hand. Love the fact that you're willing to collect 'foreign' coins!

Welcome to the forum, by the way, lots of friendly, knowledgable people here very willing to share and promote the hobby especially to new numismatists so feel free to ask away!

You always remember your first! Congratulations!

That's really cool! Welcome to the community! =)

What do you plan to collect? What are you interested in? American coins or coins of all kinds, from everywhere? Interesting that you would start with an IHC - there have been some BEAUTIFUL coins from Britain. =)

You will always remember your first. :)

Well JR, if grading scares you, you should probably spend some time trying to get the hang of it before you spend too much money!

If somehow you've missed the link, check out http://www.pcgs.com/photograde

Compare your IHC - and get a loupe or a strong, lit magnifier if you can - and see if you can figure out which grade is which.

For your IHC, since it's your first, put it in the nice holder. I highly recommend getting a LOT of whatever kind of holder you want to use since you like to have things in order.

So that's cool - your drawn to coins for aesthetics and history versus real collector value. Well, I highly recommend then a '38 or '39 Walking Liberty half dollar in a higher grade. You might want to get one that has been graded by PCGS. You might also get one or two of a lower grade so you can carry it around in your pocket and admire it, and play with it. The higher grade for the aesthetics, the lower grade for the history.

You'll find that it is simply a stunningly gorgeous coin. On top of that, Britain and eventually the United States collaborated on some pretty interesting, scary, and important history when the WLH's run came to an end in the mid-'40's. =)

Also, you *may* enjoy some commemorative coins from the Marshall Islands. I don't know if modern coins are your thing or not, but they're kinda fun, and you can find them inexpensively on ebay, and the grades are always pretty reasonable (in other words, not something you really need to worry about!) because they're made just for collectors rather than circulation. I picked up a set of four still in cellophane for like... $10 or something!

If you like the IHC, there's a chance you'll really like Buffalo or Indian Nickels, also. I never thought much of Buffalos until I looked at a higher grade one with my magnifier. STUNNING. Really, a beautiful coin - and as they're relatively common, even in higher grades they're not super expensive.

The last American coin I'll suggest is the 1857-1858 Flying Eagle cent. A cool guy here who calls himself Vermontensium (after a beautiful Revolutionary War Era coin) usually has a couple on his site... Do a search on his name and you'll see the address in his signature. He's a really great guy to deal with. The Flying Eagle cent gets really expensive in higher grades, but it's still pretty easy to appreciate in lower grades, and it lived through a VERY tumultuous period in American History, our Civil War. It was front and center for all that went along with that period in our history.

As for British coins, I'm really into American Revolutionary War coins, and those got me to find one - The Earl Howe Glorious First of June halfpenny of 1794. There are a LOT of beautiful halfpennies and tokens from Britain at that time, for different parts of the country. Definitely have a look as some of them are incredible for their time. They display amazing technological and artistic mastery, and they're not heavily collected in lower grades.

Well, I'll keep my thinking cap on for ya, but hopefully that gives you a couple of ideas? Anyway, best of luck!! =)

FWIW, for someone first getting into American coins, the Indian Head is a great place to start. Not just an iconic coin, but a piece of "Americana" as well, emphasizing our Indian (Native American, for those who prefer that term) history. The Buffalo nickel would be another recommendation, with Indian/buffalo design (seconding delaner's suggestion).

To your previous point of "I would like the best examples of each coin I can get my hand on" - you'll find you can get your hands on immaculate mint-state examples if you try. The question is, should you? At some grade level, the price starts going up exponentially. My advice is to find the grade level that you consider attractive, but not outrageously priced, and set that as your target. As an example, the 1857 Half Cent in XF (an attractive grade) goes for $144 per numismedia. MS60 would go for 300. By MS65, however, it's $1840, over 10x the XF cost. Unless you're loaded, buying that coin in MS65 will mean having to pass up a dozen other similarly-priced coins.