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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,300 |
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New Member
Australia
10 Posts |
Hi there, total newbie here.
Attended the ANDA fair last week (Sydney) and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Listened to Andrew Crellin's seminar and he mentioned some aspects to coin collecting which strongly appeal to me.
I am keen to hear your advice/comments on a few things:
a) I'd rather build a collection which I can be proud of and which is also of value - rather than purely focused on trading (at this point in time, I can't imagine selling the collection). I'm 40-odd, work full-time and don't have the benefit of years and years collecting to date (or contributing older relatives) - so any advice on this would be muchly appreciated;
b) I'm keen to hear what those of you from Australia here feel is satisfying and worthwhile collecting and why;
c) I'm interested to hear what you might have done differently given the benefit of hindsight.
Thanking you for any advice/suggestions/comments.
George
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1295 Posts |
Howdy, welcome to CCF. I was at the ANDA show in Sydney too, but I was manning (peopling?) one of the stands.
1) First thing to do is look at lots and lots of coins. And learn to grade yourself. Second thing to do is to look at lots and lots more coins and keep learning to grade. Buy the Macdonalds coin catalogue and get an idea of the mintages of different types of coins and the price jumps between grades. Download the ANDA grading guide and read that too. Learning to grade is probably the single most important skill you will ever acquire as a coin collector. Once you can grade and learn to spot problem coins (that is cleaned, damaged, forged or several other things) you're well on the way to be able to put together a nice collection. It will also save you tonnes of money in the long term by preventing you from buying bad coins. If you're not sure about your grading skills and want to get into some coins quickly try buying some inexpensive PCGS graded Australian coins, I believe these have a lot less downside to them compared with buying a raw coin that you later find out is overgraded or cleaned. PCGS MS64-65 pre decimal silver and copper coins from 1950 to 1964 can be had for not much money these days.
2) Personally I collect high grade Aussie pre-decimal coins, they are scarce and getting scarcer every year as dealers clean coins and poorly educated collectors ruin them through cleaning or improper storage. I also dabble in world coins but I'm still a rank beginner in that area.
3) See step 1! If I had my time again I would have spent a year comparing dealer grades with the ANDA grading guide and learning to spot cleaned coins. I also would have gotten more interested in PCGS and NGC graded Australian coins a lot earlier. I feel that PCGS and NGC graded coins offer a much better way for the beginner to understand grading than what a lot of 'reputable' ANDA dealers do.
A final note, don't expect to make money trading coins as a beginner, you'll just do your dough and get frustrated. Collect for the fun of it, if you're really lucky you'll make some money out of it down the track sometime.
Hope that helps a little.
Edited by markn
08/17/2010 8:57 pm
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Moderator
 Australia
16809 Posts |
Hello hermitlion, and welcome to the forum  From your statement "I can't imagine selling the collection", it sounds like you have a true-blue collector mentality. An investor (or speculator) can't imagine not selling the collection when the time is right. On that basis, I would recommend that you collect what you like, and not worry much at all about how valuable the coins become or might become in the future - the most important thing is to have fun with your hobby. Keeping track of how valuable (or worthless) my collection was becoming always seemed too much like "work" to me. Quote:
I'm keen to hear what those of you from Australia here feel is satisfying and worthwhile collecting and why; Personally, I collect world and ancient coins. Others collect predecimals, still others collect decimals. If you're a "goal-oriented" person, then completing a date set of a certain denomination can be challenging and rewarding. Variety hunting in both series is seeing a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Banknote collecting is still seeing crazy prices, which is probably driving new collectors away from that aspect of the hobby. Many of the folks in the two coin clubs I attend have moved on from "mainstream" coins and now focus on tokens, medals and similar "fringe" numismatic items, where rare items can still be easily found at bargain prices and new discoveries can be made. Quote:
I'm interested to hear what you might have done differently given the benefit of hindsight. I'd have joined a coin club earlier. You learn a lot at club meetings, and talking with other collectors can be a great encouragement - especially if your friends and family just don't get it. You realize that you're not alone in your curious attraction to old bits of metal. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
515 Posts |
If I had my time again I would have wished to have the knowledge I do now about safe storage of my collection. I spent a lot of money and trialled many different storage methods before coming to my own conclusions based on facts. For starters I simply stored my coins using the accessories readily available from coin dealers. The trouble is many accessories available aimed at collectors are not suitable for long term storage of coins. They are available because they sell well for profit and they are cheap and because the dealers sell them collectors think they must be safe without really knowing or questioning them or the materials they are made of.
I've found also that over the years my own ideas on collecting and what I collect has changed. Call this evolution. It's only through time, knowledge, patience and skills that I've become a more powerful collector and I'm proud of the collection I have today.
Expect to make mistakes and just hope that they don't cost you dearly. Everyone makes mistakes but the key is to learn from these.
Lastly collect what makes you happy and the best thing about collecting coins is that if you collect wisely you can only improve on their value.
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New Member
 Australia
10 Posts |
> They are available because they sell well for profit and they are cheap and because the dealers sell them collectors think they must be safe without really knowing or questioning them or the materials they are made of. --- So with the benefit of hindsight, what kind of storage would you aim for if you were starting out now? Are the plastic page pocket books safe for coins or do they cause damage? --- Scratch that! I went to your profile and clicked on your homepage. Looks like my answers are there. George Edited by hermitlion
08/20/2010 07:14 am
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New Member
Australia
10 Posts |
Just found out about the SCDAA Stamp & Coin Superfair (NSW) at Petersham Town Hall Sunday week - 29 Aug. Link was from Aust Post website.
Anyone from this forum going?
Hope it's ok to make this post.
George
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
515 Posts |
I haven't been to a Petersham Fair but attended the ANDA Sydney show last weekend. That would be a great place to start and have a chat to people and get some ideas of where you want your collecting themes to go.
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Valued Member
Australia
153 Posts |
Rennicks usually attend Petersham Fair
Have a look at their great storage items and Ian or Alan will show you their excellent range of affordable Lighthouse german archieve quality pages and albums for notes,coins and stamps
I use these exclusively with no problems
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Valued Member
Cyprus
349 Posts |
I think the purple poster is right on the button. What is stated there is a good lesson to learn. His blog...also a good read....
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1040 Posts |
Yes, her blog is a great read. And she is spot on about storage, stay well away from anything with PVC, unless you want slimy green coins.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1295 Posts |
Quote:
Rennicks usually attend Petersham Fair
Have a look at their great storage items and Ian or Alan will show you their excellent range of affordable Lighthouse german archieve quality pages and albums for notes,coins and stamps
I use these exclusively with no problems Hello Johnsopet, hope you are well. With regards to the OP, Ian Pitt and Renniks didn't attend the recent ANDA fair in Sydney as I believe Ian is quite ill, hopefully he'd make it along to the Petersham fair though. If he/they are not there then they've got a website and quite a few dealers do stock their stuff so I am sure you'll see some of their products at the show. Do beware though, as some of their products are PVC and some of them are not. Best to give their pages the "sniff" test before purchasing if you want to avoid PVC. |
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Posted 08/17/2010 9:05 pm
