Neil S. Berman - Coin Collecting For Dummies

Perhaps the most important goal of this book is to get you excited — and to keep you excited — about coin collecting. Coin collecting has been an important part of our lives for many years, and we hope you’ll develop a sense of appreciation for the hobby as well.

No one needs coins, but if you decide to collect them, you certainly need this book. We wish we’d had one like it at the beginning of our collecting careers. Coin collecting can be a confusing maze of choices sprinkled with little traps along the way. Sure, you can go it alone, but why not make your journey into numismatics a lot easier by picking our brains and learning from the mistakes we’ve made over the past several decades?

Coin collecting is a huge, wide-open field. Think of this book as a road map to help you navigate. Different issues may become important to you as your collecting evolves, so keep this book handy, and refer to it often.

We don’t make many assumptions about you, but we do assume that at least one of the following statements applies to you:

You’ve never collected coins, but you’re interested in getting started, and you don’t know where to begin.

You’ve collected a few coins here and there, but you want to get serious and take your coin collecting to the next level.

You’re an advanced coin collector who loves to read every book on coin collecting, just to make sure you haven’t overlooked something critical.

Coins, schmoins — you’re a collector of For Dummies books. You own every book in the series, and you’re not about to let this one be the first gap in your collection.

Throughout this book are handy road signs, called icons, that point you toward valuable advice and away from potential hazards.

This information is the type you want at your fingertips. Consider marking these pages for quick reference.

This icon highlights deeper, more technical information that may come in handy as you pursue coin collecting. Feel free to read or skip these mini-lectures!

An old hobby that continues to evolve has developed many shortcuts to help its participants have more fun. This icon highlights some of the most important tips.

Heeding the advice next to these icons helps you spend wisely so you’ll have additional pennies for the stuff you really can use.

This book’s Cheat Sheet offers lists of useful coin dealers, auction houses, websites, and magazines for numismatists. You can get it simply by going to www.dummies.com and searching for Coin Collecting For Dummies Cheat Sheet .

This book is a reference book, which means you can dip into it when you need a piece of information; you don’t have to read it from beginning to end. (If you want to read it from beginning to end, of course, we won’t complain!)

If you’re getting started with coin collecting, Part 1is a good place to begin. If you already know the basics, and you’d like to start looking at specific coins to add to your collection, parts 2and 3are for you. If you’re ready to buy or sell, check out parts 4and 5, respectively. And if you’re short on time but still want some fun and useful information, you can’t go wrong with any of the chapters in Part 6.

We hope that your journey through the world of coin collecting is as much fun as ours has been!

Part 1

IN THIS PART …

Understand why coin collecting is such a fun and exciting hobby and why millions of people now call themselves coin collectors.

Learn why finding out as much as you can about coin collecting is so important — not just to protect yourself as a consumer, but also to give you a big advantage over other collectors

Take advantage of the wholesale pricing that’s available to the smart collector.

Explore buying strategies and how to best plan your collection so that you maximize the money you spend on, well, money! The right strategy saves you time and money and increases your enjoyment of the hobby.

Check out a number of options for storing your coins so that they remain as beautiful and as valuable as they are today.

Deal with security issues and learn how best to protect your coins from theft and harm.

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Moving from a coin admirer to a coin collector

Buying your first coins

Getting the best deal for your coins when it’s time to sell

The first actual coinage as we know it today dates back to the Lydian civilization of about 650 BC. The coins were really nothing more than crude, preweighed pieces of silver, electrum, or gold, stamped with a punch by the king who made them. Soon thereafter, dies were invented that were fancy enough to identify the king who issued the coin and the value that each coin carried in trade.

Formally called coins at this point, those that were available in quantity and found to be reliable in their weight and purity became acceptable to all who traded them. These so-called trade coins started the use of coinage in commerce as we know it today. The trading efficiencies that coins afforded over barter were so great and so obvious that all those in economic power copied the idea to benefit themselves and their own people.

Countless rulers made huge quantities of coins, after which barter became the second-favorite way to trade. Trading with coins and exchanging coins of one country for those of another became a profession. (The traders were the moneychangers and, later, the first bankers.)

Before the invention of coins, most commerce was done in trade, by bartering. Every time one man wanted to trade the extra goods he had for the goods he needed, he had to set a rate of exchange for every item he traded with every one of his trading partners every time they met. How much cauliflower for how much salt? How many sheep for a cow? What to pay to the chief in return for his protection?

This cumbersome process was probably confusing and time-consuming, and no doubt dreadfully inefficient and very stressful. It probably led to heated arguments and maybe even fights. One man wants to trade a cow for some sheep, but the guy with the sheep wants a horse. The fellow with the food already has water and three daughters, but he’s willing to trade for husbands for his daughters or for wine or axes. But the guy who makes ax heads doesn’t feel well, so there’s a shortage of his fine product. The chief wants his taxes in arrowheads, axes, and knives, probably not daughters. And so it went. Trade, although necessary, was barely productive and definitely not fun.