Neil S. Berman - Coin Collecting For Dummies

General circulation: These coins are called business strikes, and they’re intended for use in commerce. The coins you have in your pocket or coin purse and spend throughout your day fall into this category.

Proofs: These coins are made especially for collectors. Today, the quality of proof coins is substantially higher than that of coins struck for circulation.

Believe it or not, now you know as much about coins as most beginning collectors do.

Many numismatic book purveyors used to place this slogan in their advertisements: “Buy the book before the coin.” This advice became increasingly important as the prices of coins rose to dizzying heights over the years.

This advice still rings true, but the sources of information about numismatics have expanded to include the Internet.

The best way to find out about coins is to read about them (so pat yourself on the back for making the effort to educate yourself). Whether you prefer the hard copy or your hard drive, boundless amounts of information exist to help you make smart collecting decisions. Many wonderful references in a variety of forms await the coin collector, ranging from educational websites to highly specialized books dealing with die varieties, obsolete types, error coins, and much more.

For new collectors, here are a few suggested resources to explore:

American Numismatic Association ( www.money.org ): ANA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of numismatics and the hobby of coin collecting. ANA offers eLearing opportunities to broaded your knowledge as you progress a budding collector.

Newman Numismatic Portal ( nnp.wustl.edu ): NNP is a foundation supported online forum with the largest online archive of numismatic info in the world.

For the latest numismatic headlines, I recommend subscribing to one or more of the excellent weekly coin papers or monthly numismatic magazines. Trade papers offer a combination of general numismatic information for beginning collectors, in-depth articles, and price guides, not to mention access to the numerous advertisers with which you can do business. The following are the best trade papers published today:

Coin World ( www.coinworld.com )

Numismatic News ( https://www.numismaticnews.net )

Many large numismatic organizations and clubs produce their own publications; you get a subscription to the publication when you join. Favorites include The Numismatist, published by the American Numismatic Association ( www.money.org ), and FUN Topics, published by the Florida United Numismatists ( www.funtopics.com ).

How can you collect coins when you don’t even know what’s available to collect? A coffee-table coin book makes a great starting point because you can see a large variety of coins in full, dazzling color.

Eventually, you’ll want a book that lists and describes all U.S. coins by date and mint, preferably with pricing information for a variety of grades. With this information, you can decide which coins interest you, and you can set collecting goals that are achievable and within your budget. A great resource for this is A Guide Book of United States Coins (a.k.a. “The Red Book”) by R. S. Yeoman, Jeff Garrett, et al (Whitman Publishing).

Price guides contain listings of coins along with their values at different levels of condition. Different types of price guides address different areas of the market:

Wholesale price guides: These guides satisfy the needs of dealers who buy and sell from one another and know what they’re buying.

Retail price guides: These guides help dealers and collectors assign selling prices to their coins.

Certified price guides: These guides record the buy-and-sell spreads for coins that have been graded and certified by two independent grading services.

You can subscribe to numismatic price guides or often also included in trade papers such as Coin World and Numismatic News (refer to “ Trade papers” earlier in this chapter). I discuss price guides in much greater detail in Chapter 16.

Understanding how coins are graded may be the most important aspect of numismatics, so I discuss this in detail in Chapter 16and Chapter 17.

Whicheve of the recognized grading services you choose, it is important for you understand the scale and its application.

Are you obligated to tell someone when they’ve underpriced or undergraded a coin or missed a valuable variety? The answer is no — sort of. If someone presents to the public as a professional coin dealer, they’re presumed to know better and are obligated to informed the customer. If a pro offers to sell you a coin at an incorrectly low price, good for you. If some other collector or novice asks for your opinion about a variety, grade, or value, you must be honest in your response (if you choose to answer) but you can’t call yourself a pro or expert. With numismatic expertise, a pro is expected to charge a a fee or work out a fair deal to handle the sale of the coin. In any case,always tell the truth. You’ll develop a wonderful reputation as an honest numismatist, and you’ll be able to sleep soundly at night.

The best thing you can do as a beginning collector is hook up with someone who is already involved in numismatics as a dealer or collector. A good adviser can demonstrate to you the fine points of coin collecting and show you coins that you might not otherwise see. Many old-time collectors have plenty of great stories about the coins they’ve owned, the coins they regret not buying, the wonderful people they’ve met along the way, and their experiences at coin shows and in coin shops. What most old-time collectors don’t have is someone who’s willing to sit down and listen to them, so your desire to find out more may be rewarded by some eager mentoring.

Where can you meet other numismatists? Try the following:

Facebook groups: There are too many to count, so start here.

Coin clubs: Attend local coin club meetings to get together with other collectors in your area.

Coin shops: Visit all the coin dealers in your area at least once to see how they deal with you on a personal level. Stick with the ones you like.

Coin shows: Take a day off to go to local coin shows. Meet new collectors and dealers from outside your area, and choose among lots of interesting coins. Don’t forget to bring your kids.

Educational seminars: Most major coin shows host educational seminars, presented by expert numismatists, on a wide range of subjects. You can find out about pioneer gold, U.S. fiscal paper, Civil War tokens, the history of the U.S. Mint, and much more. Use the question-and-answer period to get to know the experts and to pick their brains.

The American Numismatic Association’s Summer Seminar: Attend the American Numismatic Association (ANA)’s Summer Seminar at its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Each year, ANA offers weeklong courses on a variety of useful subjects; past courses have included “Grading U.S. Coins,” “Coin Photography,” “Detection of Counterfeit and Altered U.S. Coins,” and “Rarities from Shipwrecks.” Class sizes are limited, and attendees have full access to the instructors. You can’t get any closer to the experts than this!