What To Collect Next?

I still have 8 Franklins to find. 1957 in either ms65 or ms65fbl seems the most elusive.

Thanks, GrapeCollects!

For the classics, you're pretty much confined to common dates if you're going for high grades.

The cc half eagles would be a challenge.

Get one to start. You'll find that you want another. And another.

For MS-65 and better try Jefferson nickels 38-date . For mid to high grade circ . try Mercury dimes .

A box of 20 is a great idea, especially for someone who has already completed a number of sets. It would always stay fresh if you were flexible about what you want in your set.

http://goccf.com/t/341272#2920667
"In all metals"?

Well from a purist standpoint I don't know if the Ancients ever minted Gadolinium coins. This is the 4th room temperature ferromagnetic element. Well almost room temperature. Also Osmium coins -- never made. Osmium is the denest naturally occuring element: a fraction denser than iridium and much denser than Pt or Gold. I do have a gadolinium coin but only an Osmium ingot as the metal's too brittle for easy coin making.

Now you can make a Uranium coin, but it'd have to be U238. Each US citizen is permitted to own up to 1,500 grams of U238 for some strange reason. Surprisingly it's not too expensive: we use it to make armour piercing anti-tank shells due to the density (Gold & Ir are too expensive). I plan to get an ingot of it in case we ever get into a war with some tank-owning country.

You can actually get a lot of usual metals made into coins from a company called metallium. In any event they're also useful for instructing kids about elements and the periodic table. Some need to be sealed under Argon in glass vials due to their reactivity so I think the Ancients would've minted none of those.

Here's a pix of my son lecturing on unusual element coins & the periodic table to his 3rd grade science class.

A type set is always a worthy goal (and a lot of fun, too). Once I "finished" my type set (It will never truly be finished because I keep upgrading it) I decided to first try putting together a "proof" type set and then focus on getting key dates for specific coins rather than collecting entire sets. So far I have a 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent, a 1916-D Winged Liberty ("Mercury") Dime, a 1921 Peace dollar, a 1932-D Washington quarter and a 1972 Eisenhower dollar (Type 2 Reverse).

Both of these collections are expensive to acquire and take a lot of care balancing cost and eye appeal, and as a result I now only buy 1 or 2 special coins each year. But is has been very rewarding for me.