If you do not have one already, you should get A Guide Book of United States Coins, aka the 
Posted 08/20/2010 1:08 pm
This is such a big topic, you could spend several lifetimes and still not know everything.
It seems most people just fall into this hobby & it develops over a lifetime. In my case it started when my grandma put my brother & I in front of a big jar of wheat pennies and let us have at it. It's just developed itself since then, with many unexpected detours along the way. But, were I to set out with (I'm assuming here) no real knowledge on the subject, I'd do this:
First decide why you want to know-- some common reasons seem to be because you already have coins and you want to see what they're worth, to make money, to make friends, as an investment, as an inheritance, to have an interesting hobby, to enjoy the history of it, or just for personal enjoyment. Maybe parts of all of those?
Then decide how much time and (perhaps more importantly) money you have to spend.
Then (based on the previous questions) decide which coins you are interested in-- US? World? Silver? Commemoratives? Errors? Proofs?
Once you have some idea, hang out here, ask a bunch of questions. Google things too, and visit your local coin shop. Once you have some idea of what you're looking at, maybe buy a book or two.
Like I said at first you really have to narrow it down a bit... there's literally thousands of books on the subject, but the only school I am aware of is the learn-by-doing school, and if you have somewhat of a focus it makes it a lot easier.
It seems most people just fall into this hobby & it develops over a lifetime. In my case it started when my grandma put my brother & I in front of a big jar of wheat pennies and let us have at it. It's just developed itself since then, with many unexpected detours along the way. But, were I to set out with (I'm assuming here) no real knowledge on the subject, I'd do this:
First decide why you want to know-- some common reasons seem to be because you already have coins and you want to see what they're worth, to make money, to make friends, as an investment, as an inheritance, to have an interesting hobby, to enjoy the history of it, or just for personal enjoyment. Maybe parts of all of those?
Then decide how much time and (perhaps more importantly) money you have to spend.
Then (based on the previous questions) decide which coins you are interested in-- US? World? Silver? Commemoratives? Errors? Proofs?
Once you have some idea, hang out here, ask a bunch of questions. Google things too, and visit your local coin shop. Once you have some idea of what you're looking at, maybe buy a book or two.
Like I said at first you really have to narrow it down a bit... there's literally thousands of books on the subject, but the only school I am aware of is the learn-by-doing school, and if you have somewhat of a focus it makes it a lot easier.
