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 Replies: 42 / Views: 3,678 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
520 Posts |
I am just now starting to collect coins. I always had a big interest with them as a kid, but never knew anything important or studied into them. I would just buy the first thing I saw shiny at the flea market. Now, I am 19 years old and believe it is a cool and good investment to start this hobby. I just want know the best investment and cool thing to start collecting. I have already purchased a 1903-S Morgan Silver Dollar and a 1856 Seated Liberty Quarter. I have also purchased the book The Insider's Guide to U.s. Coin Values 2010, White cotton gloves, a 5x Magnifying glass, and 2x2 cardboard coin sleeves. I just want to know If those were all good purchases and where to truly begin my collection.
Also, I want to price check what I bought:
Paid 53.00 for the 1903-S Morgan Silver Dollar
Paid 41.00 for the 1856 Seated Liberty Quarter
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
casutherland: Welcome to the CCF!
You should just buy the coins that most interest you, endeavouring to get the best quality coin that your budget will allow. Sometimes that may mean buying a lot of coins in one go, with little individual value, or it may mean spending all of your current budget on just one coin.
Just think about your interests, and how you can build a nice collection.
Beware of fakes; get yourself educated on this Forum.
Get yourself the correct reference literature that is in line with your interests. To save money in this regard, second hand reference literature can be better value for money.
And just enjoy the camaraderie with us on the CCF!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
849 Posts |
well the 1903s is a semi key date and goes for about 160 Red Book value of 2009. Now if you wanted to sell it you would knock it down like 60-70 dollars but still that is a good steal. it is going on ebay for about 40 dollars with20 min to go http://cgi.ebay.com/1903-S-MORGAN-S...em20b60112cathis is also a fine condition coin. Well it all depends on the condition of the coin and the market its in. Now the 1856 quarter is set at 30 for a fine condition piece. http://cgi.ebay.com/1856-SEATED-LIB...em4aa759006cNow the RedBook, bluebook, and greysheet are just a reference. The actual price will shift with the silver market and the supply and demand market. The insiders and RedBook price high but the bluebook and greysheet are usually a fair price. I use RedBook as a catalog and try to get coins well below that price. I use antique red/blue books for information and various facts on coins that dont show on current books. I would personally collect the Kennedy half dollar and the Ike/SBA collection to start. It is a good idea to get a State Quarter collection started too. The half dollar set is usually easy and is alot of fun to look through rolls and sometimes you get silver in those rolls too. I would not invest in coins. Invest in silver bullion. Buy an ASE every six months just to start saving on silver. Plus they are highly collectable. But to start out get a redbook/bluebook. I would stay away from older coins until you get formiliar with the currency and the value of some. Do not go for semi/key date morgans cause they are usually very expensive. But if you got the money then go ahead. Think of this as a hobby not an investment. Also ask your parents if they collected any coins before. They may have an old set of wheat pennies or nickels. Or you may get lucky with a partial set of silver dimes or quarters. Start with modern coins and folders. Pull dates from circulation. Learn which coins are rare/key dates. Look through what you have. Ask parents and siblings. For example the Kennedy half dollar is very easy to put together without paying a dollar over face value. you should be able to get 1971 through 2000 (minus 1987)for face value from rolls. There are many 40% silver halves out there so filling the 1965-1969 should not be too hard either. The problem are the 90% halves and 1070d and the 1987 p and d. The 1970d and 1987 are not intended for circulation but it is still possible to find them. I have not spent a single penny above face value for my collection and it has every half dollar from 1965 to 2003 including the key dates. You should enjoy what you collect. But welcome to CCF. |
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Valued Member
United States
183 Posts |
Some of the key things to learn early is the importance of condition and what "key dates" mean. Basically, these factors can have HUGE impacts on value of coins. As far as denominations to collect, that type of thing is about personal preference, but I suggest doing a lot of reading/research before spending a lot of money. Learning the basics on coin grading will help.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
520 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
520 Posts |
Where can I purchase the Kennedy half dollar Rolls for face value? Can I buy them online somewhere or off of ebay? What exactly is ASE? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4846 Posts |
you can go to your bank for half dollars and ASE's are 1 oz silver rounds. ASE is short for American silver eagle Edited by Adam_E
12/27/2010 01:21 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
520 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
520 Posts |
Does anyone recommend any specific websites to purchase from?
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Valued Member
United States
268 Posts |
What everybody said in there posts are very good. A good place to get second hand books is Amazon.com. Also there are so many ways to collect, it is different for each person where the interests are. I think one of the 2 sets that most people start on are either the Lincoln Cent or the Jefferson nickel. You can get most of the coins for both sets roll searching bank rolls at face value. The more you research and learn the more your interests may change. I started my self with the Lincoln set 2 years ago and my interests have varied quite a bit since then. I would get a Red Book for information on US coins and also get a Krause catalog of coins from 1900 to 2000 I believe for all coins. That will give you a good starting point to look at and see what interests you. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
520 Posts |
The Krause catalog is for world coins? I am more US specific
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Valued Member
United States
171 Posts |
Dang! I wanted to get to tell somebody what ASE stood for but somebody beat me too it! Casurthland, I asked the same thing on here a few weeks back and , like you, got many responses. It was actually quite a bit of information to try and digest. I suggest (like one did to me) that you find a dealer that you can TRUST and start building a relationship with him/her. Somebody who doesn't mind answering alot of questions and sells at a fair price. I think I have accomplshed this and along with this forum and reading everything I can get my hands on. I actually sat down and wrote down several possibilities of a collection strategy and I think I've narrowed my focus so I get the most bang for my buck while building my collection. For me, my main focus is going to be O mint Morgans because I like silver dollars and the city of New Orleans. I would also like to build a State Quarter silver set and collect commemoratives with events/people of significance in American history i.e. Lincoln, Civil War, Lafayette. Edited by bluemule31
12/27/2010 02:28 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1510 Posts |
pennies---- alot around and cheap to get some--thats where I started
Retired USAF 1983-2003
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Pillar of the Community
United States
849 Posts |
Casurthland, you can get half dollars for face value at local banks. When you go through coins from banks searching for dates, keys, semi-keys, and silver, that is called roll searching. Basically start you collection by roll searching pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars coins. when you have searched for a long time you should have close to 70% of most folders done. Then you can go to get some of the key/rare dates on ebay or a a coin dealer. Always pull silver and proofs when you roll search. I roll search half dollars, I am also 19, and I have found close to about 80 silver half dollars. Try to check at local banks near malls or highways. They usually produce a good batch of half dollars. Start with something in your budget. It seems you have a good budget for a 19 year old. I would buy a Kennedy half set (two folders 1964-1985, and 1986-2003.) Or you can buy a starter set from ebay. But I would stay away from ebay till you have learned the basics and started a few sets. As of now I have about 10 sets completed all from circulation and all for face (except the key dates). Start asking banks for Large Eisenhower dollar coins. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
 Quote:
Does anyone recommend any specific websites to purchase from?
NO. Not until you get to know coins much, much better. Keep away from places like ebay or any other coin web sites until you know prices, minatages, availability, etc. Look up coin shows in your area. There are several listings for those if you try Google and type in coin shows and your state. If you live near other states, try those also. Nothing is better than a coin show for values and information. Purchase books like the Red Book by Whitman Publishing for general information on coins. Once you have that book, look through it for what you really may be interested in and not just purchase coins at random. Usually try to collect one type for now. You can always spread out later with other types. Remember this is supposed to be a hobby. If you go nutty buying almost anything for now you may well get irritated and drop all this. It is all suppoosed to be fun so just collect what you like regardless of anything else. In the future then you would have no one to blame for mistakes except your self. Contrary to that too is all the great coins you end up with, you can say I did it all myself. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
849 Posts |
when I started my dad gave me his partial set of lincoln wheat pennies and a partial set of Jefferson nickels. I have expanded to halves, quarters, dimes, and dollar coins, For the dimes I found about 50% of the Mercury dimes on craigslist for melt value (back when silver was $18/oz) I found an old collection of Liberty nickels and now have an almost complete set of those too. |
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Replies: 42 / Views: 3,678 |
Posted 12/27/2010 12:30 am
