Starting Up

I myself started on JFK half dollars. Many banks will have some for you to buy, and you should be able to find just about all of them from there. All my set is made from coins I found at the bank, and all I need to finish is the 1970D which is a $10 or $20 coin.

How much should I expect to spend on a collection?

Theo22,

The last line of my post above was meant to answer that question. You need to get a guide like the RedBook. It has every type and date of US coin listed in there and gives prices for those coins in most every condition from fairly bad condition to so nice it looks like it just came out of the mint. You need to look through that book, find a type of coin that you like, then look at the values listed for every date and mint mark for the series. Add those numbers up and it will tell you roughly what you might expect to pay to complete your collection. Obviously the better condition you want the coins in the more it will cost you.

So the answer to your question is that it will cost you somewhere between a couple hundred dollars (things like Jefferson nickles if you don't get mint error coins) to millions of dollars if you want something like a complete collection of St. Gaudens Double Eagles!

Since it sounds like you are quite possibly a complete novice to coin collecting (no disrespect here, we were all novices once!) I would strongly encourage you to start with more modern coins (those that use basically the same design as what you see in your pocket). Lincoln pennies are one that will keep you busy for a long time, but don't buy the expensive ones (like the 1909 S VDB) until you feel fairly knowledgeable about what you are doing.

Coin shops are always a good place, and many people use ebay to buy their coins, although you'll have to be careful there. When you reach 50 posts, the BST is a great place to buy.

You have been given some good advice here Theo ...... but I feel the need to add one additional thought to the combined wisdom of the CCF experts .....

DO NOT go to E-Bay and start purchasing coins at this point in your evolution of knowledge.

As stated above ..... knowledge is key ...... and without some level of understanding of value versus cost you will alas make some very ill-advised purchases. DAMHIKT

The kind folks here at CCF will answer any reasonable question you pose ..... use them as you need .... but knowledge must be self-driven and self-acquired.

Bottom line .... this place is a great resource .... but it's up to you to make proper use of it.

To your original question ..... IMHO .... you should start collecting with the coins you can buy at your bank at face value.

This will allow you to learn about grade, rarity, strike, etc ..... all at the face value of whatever you choose to keep.

I am a nickel roll searcher .... my initial collecting goal is to find all the circulation strike Jefferson nickels minted ......

Every coin I've added to my collection has cost 5 cents ..... but the sharing and knowledge I've gained here has been priceless.

Hope this contribution helps

David

The more education you get, the cheaper and cheaper your coin collection will be! Knowledge is the key here, try not to jump into something with a load of cash, only later realizing you wasted the cash.