Where To Start Collecting?

to the CCF!

Give us some of your own thoughts rather than just reaching out blindly.

Yes - we need more of an idea of what interests you in coins before any sensible advice can be made. It seems there are several generic types of coin collectors:
> Investors - in which case focus on bullion content initially and possibly stick to graded coins. It takes a great deal of knowledge to work out which of the older and ungraded coins are a good investment. Stick to Royal Mint issues and don't get drawn into the numerous commemorative mints.
> History - in which case focus on the areas of history you find interesting and read up on the British monarch. Maybe aim for one coin from each monarch as far back as you can afford.
> Beauty - for this you really just need to explore coin listings online and identify the designs you like. One person's artistic merit may be another's wallpaper.
> Completist - the desire to have one of everything and make date runs. Start by picking particular denominations and make lists from the reference books so you know which dates you need. Farthings are the cheapest, Sovereigns and Crowns the most expensive, so a lot depends on budget.

Most collectors probably have some combination of those traits. History probably got me started, but then Completist cut in as I don't like gaps in the collection. I am a sucker for a really Beautiful coin, even if it is not British, and the whole collection has become an Investment, even though that was not the original intention.

to the Community!

Welcome.

A good start might be to get the "Coin Yearbook 2024". Amazon do it in the UK for about £10, so I assume that Amazon US will do it also.

This book will give you a good overview of British coins. It includes valuations. These can only be a rough guide but could help you fit something around your budget.

Prices for individual pieces are hugely affected by their grade and how common or scarce they are. One decision you will need to make is whether you intend to have just a few high quality items, or want a wider range of lesser quality.

What about trade tokens ( known as Conder tokens in the US)? There are some wonderful designs with very interesting histories.

Depending on how deep you want to get into this subject, it might be worth getting a few standard reference books early on. The coin yearbook is only a pocket guide. It does that job very well, but you will soon outgrow it once you start looking at things in more detail.

Thinking Olympic-related issues, Germany, Canada, and Japan have some good looking pieces. You may want to distinguish between coinage vs one-off medals, tokens, and low quality 'swag'.

It's all fun.

I agree with the connection idea. I inherited a few coins. Got some books from the library. One of the was called The Splendid Shilling. Although this was in the late 90s, I remembered spending shillings when I was a kid and decided that would be a fun theme.

Eventually I realised I didn't have enough money for a big collection, so I narrowed it down to the shillings of one king (Charles I) from one mint (the Tower of London).

When it became difficult to add nice coins in the grades I wanted I started to look at medals. We had a civil war back in the 1600s during king Charles' reign and people liked to carry small medallions with the king's image on it to show their allegiance. They are historically interesting and fit the reign the rest of my collection is focussed on. But it takes time to find a theme like that.

Maybe read some books on world coins? There are plenty about. See what appeals.

My only other comment would be the commemorative issues of medallions are rather different from coins that circulated as currency. No reason you can't collect both. Just don't confuse the former with the latter, even if they do have 'values' stamped on them .. Just remember, it's your collection. Have fun!