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I need help

I need advice on what some good starter coins would be for a beginner in collectingimage

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  • rlawsharlawsha Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭
    Start picking statehood quarters out of pocket change. See how many different ones you can get. albums that hold these coins are inexpensive. From there you can move on to either older quarters or branch out to dimes or nickels.
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭
    Anything but early date Kennedy Halves. They suck.

    Russ, NCNE
  • relayerrelayer Posts: 10,570

    What kind of coins do you like?

    That would be the best place to start. In the old days alot of collectors started with Lincoln cents because there were still wheat cents in circulation that you could find.

    The statehood quarters is a good suggestion, because you can get an album and find most in circulation - and they are all different.

    If you want to build a Type Collection (one example of each type of coin minted) you can start with modern coins and work backwards.

    There are numerous ways to enjoy this hobby - just search out and pick what interests you.
    image
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  • tjkilliantjkillian Posts: 5,578 ✭✭✭
    I would go for proof Bust dollars by die state. Then you can see how the dies wore as the struck them and compare and contrast various issues. Most folks love bust dollars so all of your collecting friends will be envious of you.

    Tom
    Tom

  • pharmerpharmer Posts: 8,355
    Don't know your age, but if you are young, you may not be able to afford some of the suggestions. Some rolls of uncirculated coins, like wheat pennies and Jefferson nickels, are still fairly inexpensive, and looking through them will provide a rapid learning curve on aspects like luster, strength of strike, mint errors, value, and so on.image
    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."

    image


  • << <i>Anything but early date Kennedy Halves. They suck.

    Russ, NCNE >>



    Sooooooo you can get'em all.....image
  • mhammermanmhammerman Posts: 3,769 ✭✭✭
    Anything but dont buy ANY $5 Indians in low MS. They suck even more than half dollars.

    Kidding aside, the Jefferson nickles are an interesting series, particularly the war issues and all of them are very affordable even in mid to high mint state. It is a long series and many of them are still in circulation so it would not be too difficult to get a pretty good collection going just by checking your pocket change. Good advice is to start with a series in circulation and see what you can collect. Learn to go to the banks with a $20 bill buy some rolls of what ever you want to collect and get plenty of fun and most of your money back too. Also, collect a couple of books to go with your coins, like a Red Book and maybe something like Coin Collecting for Dummies (don't laugh, it is very well done) so you can tell what you have. Both of these books will cost you less than $20 so for two $20 bills you can have a pretty good time with a very interesting and historic hobby and occupy a fair amount of your leisure time. And...welcome to the hobby.

    Mike
  • image

    The jefferson nickels are a good starter coin. You can get most of them out of pocket change. Also go to the bank and get several rolls at a time and go through them. Get the redbook to use for grading and mintage figures. However, the prices in the redbook are high. You will need to get a coin world magazine and eventually the greysheet to help with pricing. NEVER clean a coin. And don't start buying until you know as much as possible by doing research. The library has alot of coin books for this. Some you can check out, others you must read there.

    Have a Great Day!
    Louis
  • pharmerpharmer Posts: 8,355
    And as mentioned in the last two posts, rolls bought at banks are still worth at least what you paid when you are done going through them, and cheap rolls bought are market prices from dealers will likely only go up in value the longer you hold them. Not a bad deal.
    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."

    image
  • image
    Alex in Alaska
    Collecting Morgans in Any Grade
  • DorkGirlDorkGirl Posts: 9,994 ✭✭✭
    image You have to collect what you like, not what anyone else likes. Start by buying books, not coins, or you will make a bunch of costly mistakes. Do your homework first, then buy some coins. Maybe start with something beautiful and cheap like American silver Eagles. Go to your local coinstore and just look. There might be something there that will just keep whispering "take me home"....that's what you want to collect. You have to find whatever it is that trips your trigger, and that can be a wonderful journeyimage
    Becky

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