Neil S. Berman - Coin Collecting For Dummies

Chapter 14brings you odd and unusual coins, including patterns (coin designs that never made it into production); private pioneer gold, including Quintuple Eagles, or slugs for short ($50); coins of the 1830s through the Civil War; Confederate coins; Hawaiian coins; coins made as proofs; and coins made with errors (yep, people collect them too!).

Coin collecting isn’t without its pitfalls. If you want your coin collecting to be more fun than not, you need to know what the pitfalls are and how to avoid them. I fill you in on grading and fakes, as well as coins that have been repaired, restored, recolored, cleaned, or dipped — and what those terms mean. I also discuss scams, misrepresentations, overgraded coins, and undergraded coins, as well as return privileges and guarantees of authenticity and grade.

Part of buying coins is finding coin price guides and knowing how to use them. If you’ve ever looked up a stock price in the newspaper, using coin price guides will be a lot more comprehensible (and if you haven’t, don’t worry; I’ll walk you through it).

When you know which coins you want to buy and how much you should expect to pay, you’ll want to find a good, reliable coin dealer. There areYou have plenty of dealers to choose among locally, regionally, and nationally, depending on your needs. Chapter 15shows you how to select a dealer with confidence.

Many coins are bought and sold at public auction — and for more than a few good reasons. If you’re going to buy a coin at an auctionthough, you need to be prepared and know how to bid. In Chapter 20, I cover this topic, including the rules you need to be aware of.

An important aspect of buying any coin is the coin’s condition and how it affects coin value. You need to know about strike, eye appeal, luster, and condition (wear), as well as who grades coins and how coins are graded, how grade affects the coin’s price, and what constitutes modern grading standards. Turn to Chapter 19.

Finally, when it comes to buying coins, it helps to know how coins are graded, what the tools required are to do the job correctly, and how to find a professional grading service. Chapter 18is where I fill you in.

There’s an art to selling anything, and coins are no exception. You need to know what to expect when you sell your coins. ,Decide whether to sell your coins yourself, and prepare to make the sale. You will need to get your coins properly graded and fairly priced, find coin dealers to sell to, and keep records of your sales. Turn to Chapter 19for the lowdown.

If you decide to have a professional sell your coins, your choices are to sell directly to a dealer, on consignment, or at a public auction. You have to make sure that you’re paying a fair commission, know how to set a price, and choose a dealer. If you decide to go the auction route, you need to know how to pick an auction house, the fees you should expect to pay, and the fees you should not pay. Chapter 21fills you in. I also tell you what you’ll find in an auction contract and provide a handy list and up-to-date description of all the current leading coin auctioneers in the United States.

Coin selling involves certain legal and tax responsibilities. In the United States, selling just about anything for a profit is taxable and sadly, coins are no exception. You need to understand your tax obligations and the ways to minimize them, as well as the like-kind exchange rule in taxes. I cover this topic in Chapter 22and also briefly touch on coins as investments. Coin collecting is lots of fun, but it’s less fun if the Internal Revenue Service comes pounding on your door. Don’t let fear of legal or tax issues deter you: In this last chapter before the Part of Tens, I give you the information you need so that you can focus on the fun of buying and selling coins, not on the legalities.

We’re talking about big money when we do a count down of the top ten most valuable U.S. coins in The Part of Tens as well as a look at ten favorite designs. In this section, I give you ten tips to get the kids involved and share the love so that the next generation can develop an appreciation for the history and get excited about the hunt when coin collecting.

Lastly, I provide a glossary of terms and basic jargon to help because Numismatics is a specialized language on its own, as you can tell from what we call ourselves!

Chapter 2

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the satisfaction and enjoyment that the word numismatics instills

Collecting coins from silver dollars to 50 State Quarters

I bet you have a jar at home into which you throw your loose change at the end of each day. At some point, the jar gets so full that you have to empty it, roll up the coins, take them to the bank, or dump them into the automatic coin counter bank and exchange them for paper money. As you separate the coins, are you ever distracted for a short moment by the coins themselves? Do you see details that you previously didn’t notice — cents with wheat backs, different types of nickels, and so on? Are you suddenly intrigued by the very fact that these small pieces of metal represent value, history, and hard labor? Have you ever had the desire to sort the coins by the types and dates, trying to see how many different ones you can find? Have you ever picked through the coins, trying to find the best-looking one?

If you have, you’ve experienced a delicious taste of what it is to be a coin collector. Coin collecting refines a person’s natural desire to accumulate things. Coin collecting teaches about organization, classification, preservation, authentication, verification, and pride in ownership. Coins humble collectors with their ancient stories. The coin you hold in your hand may have witnessed the fall of Rome, been carried by a king, endured the Black Plague, been carried by a GI on D-Day, or may simply be a brand-new coin about to begin its own journey.

The fact that you’re reading this book is a good sign that you’ve already been bitten by the collecting bug. Coin collecting is a passion whose fuel is to find out as much as you can about the hobby and treat yourself with an occasional addition to your growing collection. This chapter helps you get started.

Numismatics (new-miz- mat -ics) is the systematic study of coins, medals, tokens, currency, and the like. Therefore, a numismatist (new- miz -ma-tist) is someone who studies coins seriously.

No, you don't have to know how to pronounce or spell these words to be a coin collector, but sooner or later, you’ll be wearing them like badges of honor. After all, you’ll be joining a rich company of kings, queens, presidents, industrialists, robber barons, brewers, and tens of millions of other folks who have been proud to be known as coin collectors — and a few who actually became numismatists.

People love money. People love other people who have money. Coin collectors collect money. Therefore, people love coin collectors.

Don’t believe me? Try this test: Go down to your local coin store, and buy a common Morgan or Peace silver dollar dated anywhere from 1878 to 1935. Pick out a nice one, but don’t pay more than $40 for it. Put it in your pocket the next time you go to a party. At the party, casually pull the coin out of your pocket and show it to your friends. You’ll probably get comments like these: