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 Replies: 14 / Views: 2,599 |
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New Member
United States
9 Posts |
I just started a few weeks ago and currently I'm focusing on collection all Washington quarters from 1932-Present, as well as all Lincoln pennies from 1909-Present. This excludes all errors and proofs for now. I'm mainly focusing on just getting the Denver and Pennsylvania strikes for each date. I chose Washington quarters and Lincoln pennies simply because I've always liked the eagle design on the back of the quarter, as well as the newer series. The Lincoln pennies are just easy to obtain, I got 10 rolls for $5 the other day and got a lot of new coins for my collection. Is a lot more satisfying to have 1,000 pennies to go through as opposed to 200 quarters. All of that said, I'm interested to hear how you guys decided to collect your coins? (If there is any rhyme or reason to how you do it lol) Thanks! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
 Learn all you can about grading, mintages, prices. Here is a good but not perfect website to determine what prices coins retail at. http://www.numismedia.com/rarecoinprices/fmv.shtmland you should probably buy yourself a recent Red Book. Take a certain series or two at a time and study. Don't be in a hurry to complete anything. The journey is far more fun than the destination. If you go buying coins in the future without knowledge, your interest in this great hobby will sour. I "pick" the best I can buy at coin shows, coin shops and mostly online auctions. You can get rolls of coins from the bank and check out your change you get when you purchase your everyday things. I belong to a coin club and if I have questions or can help somebody out about specific things, I do that here on CCF. I can't stress learning first and buying second enough. Edited by TNG
05/07/2018 10:23 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
! I'll echo TNG and add that starting small is a good thing. Like you, I got my start roll hunting and stuck to that for a few years before working up to actual purchases. Pennies were quick, fun and easy - I got the full 1959-2008 circulation set in just a few boxes, and that was much more rewarding than just buying them, even though you can get the whole thing in flashy mint state for less than $20 on ebay. A word of caution from my approach - collect, don't hoard! I kept all of the best coins from each box and while I don't have a lot of face value tied up, I soon found that I had thousands of coins! I am still working though that backlog... it took years to build and will take years to trim down! I will also add that it's a good thing to periodically "stretch your legs" and get something new just to keep your interest in the hobby refreshed. When I burnt out on modern pocket change, I branched out into world coins, and then ancients - my current passion! I came to learn that US coins are quite price-inflated compared to just about everything else except Spanish "pirate money" silver colonials, English, and German coins. You will see more variety from 30 minutes cruising on ebay's World coins > Collections/Lots listings than all 226 years of US coinage has to offer! Just don't forget to research and never drop a non-trivial amount on a coin you know little to nothing about. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8715 Posts |
to the CCF! I collect mostly Classic coins and store them in albums, although I like a few modern series such as Washington quarters. If you're doing Washington quarters, I'd do the eagle reverse set: 1932 - 1998, all dates and mintmarks. You can get a Dansco or Whitman album to hold all the coins in. Only the 1932-D and 1932-S are key dates, and they don't cost much if you buy them in circulated grades. Same for the Lincoln cents. Unless you have enough cash for the 1909-S VDB, I recommend you stick with the Memorial cents (1959 and later). You could probably assemble an entire set from circulation, although it would take years. Remember - collect coins, don't just get random coins in bad condition. Try to pick the best condition for the best price. |
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Moderator
 United States
188046 Posts |
to the Community! |
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Valued Member
United States
175 Posts |
I agree with Finn235 DON"T HOARD takes too long to get a nice clean system when you have boxes of coins to go through because you didn't have time to do it right away. I would get your folders/albums ahead of time on anything you may start even if using 2x2's and putting in boxes or sheets have them ready.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
There are many methods to acquire coins. For example you could do as already starting by getting rolls of coins and going th rough them. Not sure if banks do this anymore but a long time ago I was able to buy $50 bags of pennies from banks. That took a long time to to through. But I did find many, many coins I needed for my collection. I USED to collect Washington quarters too but stopped when they started those State ones. Just never liked those. I put all my coins in albums or mostly in Albums. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2200 Posts |
I started out by collecting most of my coins from circulation. Actually, I still get most of my coins that way. A couple of years after I began, I became fascinated with type coins. Obviously, many type coins are not available in circulation so that's when I branched out to buying through ads and then eventually ebay. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Monkey: to the CCF ! You name it, I have collected coins from just about every source that you can think of. Very rarely use ebay though, I like to see a coin in hand before deciding to buy. My collecting horizons extend across the whole of numismatics, but started with Australian silver and bronze coins. You can ignore this: "How do you collect coins?" I suck 'em up with a magnet !  |
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Pillar of the Community
5464 Posts |
Starting with Washington quarters and Lincoln Cents are as good a place as any to start collection. I would be willing to bet that each or most of our individual stories are unique as to "how" we started and "what" we started/decided to collect, how we did it and what motivated us to start collecting. (Sorry, that was a long sentence!) For me it started when I was 12 or 13 with a paper route. Coming home with so much change in my pockets my pants would be falling down. I some how (don't remember) got my hands on a Whitman Lincoln Cent folder and started filling holes. |
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Pillar of the Community
5464 Posts |
Quote:I suck 'em up with a magnet ! So you have steel coins in Australia?!?!  |
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
24885 Posts |
To the Forum ... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1959 Posts |
I've been doing it so long, I buy what I don't have when I see it and can afford it. It kinda got a little boring because after a while, you see the same dates in the coin shop cases over and over. So, I now also collect a variety of world coins. If I think it is interesting and unique, I buy it. To sum it up, I collect it all. Haha!
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New Member
 United States
9 Posts |
Thanks for all the responses, it's very fascinating to hear about how different people choose to collect.
I'm about to graduate high school and for me it started from silver bars and coins. I have a small investment portfolio and I like to try my hand at a variety of different investments and at one point I bought some silver coins (they weren't the best investment after all lol).
After I steered away from that I still kept the interest in looking at different coins, but this time I treated it as a hobby and not as an investment in silver. For me I just love learning about US history and currency.
To think who might've held the coin that I now hold is pretty cool.
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Pillar of the Community
5464 Posts |
I was going to say: Unless you really really know what you're doing, I would never put the words coins and investment in the same sentence. However, since you haven't graduated HS yet and you started with silver bars and coins, you must be doing something right. I was lucky to have copper pennies in HS. Edited by USSID18
05/07/2018 11:30 pm
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Replies: 14 / Views: 2,599 |
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Posted 05/07/2018 11:25 am
