A Brief Introduction to the Basics of Coin Collecting
By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez
If you are in search of finding a rewarding, exciting, fun hobby that you can easily enjoy, you don’t need to look any further than the coins you have in your pocket. Millions of people engage in coin collecting, a hobby that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Starting up a coin collection can be quite easy. In fact, you can begin building a collection with the very coins that you encounter every day.
There are many coin collecting goals that collectors try to accomplish. Perhaps you might want to collect each design of the United States’ Statehood Quarters. Or, maybe you will want to seek out coins with pictures of your favorite topics, such as animals, musical instruments, food, historic events, or public figures. You could venture into collecting coins from faraway, exotic countries and lands. You might want to gather coins minted during the year of your birth. Another fun idea would be to collect one coin of every date you can find of Lincoln cents or Jefferson nickels, for example. Remember, these are just a few of the endless possibilities for deciding what kinds of coins to collect.
Whatever your collecting interests may be, there are a couple primary ways to acquire the coins you want for your collection. You can typically locate plenty of cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters dating back to the 1960s with the coins in circulation (“circulation” includes the coins you can get at the bank, find in your pocket or purse, and give or receive as change when you buy something). However, if you are lucky, it is possible to find in circulation some coins dating back more than half a century, an occasional foreign coin, or perhaps even error coins. An “error coin” is, for example, one that bears a mint-made mistake, such as a double image of a design, a coin that has only part of its design showing, or a coin that looks as though it had a big piece of its metal bitten off by one of the machines at the mint.
Though you may be able to find in circulation all the coins you need for your collection, if you are hoping to find silver, gold, or obsolete coins, or those from many different countries, you will most likely have to buy what you want from a coin dealer. You should be able to locate a coin dealer near you by looking through the “coins” or “coin dealers” listings in your yellow-paged phone book. Also, there are hundreds of reputable, respected coin dealers who advertise online or in coin-related publications and ship customers their coins through the mail.
However, before you start gathering coins for your collection, there are a few basic things you should know about how to safely handle, store, and protect your coins.
First of all, be sure to either find or purchase a magnifying glass so that you can see all of the tiny details on your coins. A magnifying glass is a very important tool for coin collectors to have, and will help you to enjoy your hobby even more.
No matter how tempting it may be to make an old coin look shiny and new, don’t clean your coins. If you clean your coins, you may accidently end up ruining them. Not only can the cleaning alter the coin’s natural color and tone, it might also put many tiny scratches on the coin. Unless a coin you find has a lot of loose debris (such as dirt, dust, or mud) on it, which you can gently rinse off with pure water and softly pat dry with a clean towel, you are usually best to leave your coins in the same condition in which you found them.
Also, don’t let your fingers come in contact with a coin’s observe (the front, or “heads” side of the coin) or reverse (the coin’s back side, often called “tails”). If your fingers, which naturally contain oils, touch the coin’s surface, they could leave fingerprints on it; over time, these fingerprints may turn into ugly-looking smudges. The proper way to handle a coin is to hold it by its edge (the thin side of a coin), between your thumb and forefinger. Above all, never drop a coin.
It is also important to store your coins safely to help protect them. Keep your coins in a cool, dry place (a bookshelf, desk, or drawer is usually a fine place to store your coins). Also, don’t store your coins loosely in a box, jar, or other place where the coins will get jingled or jostled around. Instead, you may want to consider buying albums, folders, and other storage devices designed to help keep your coins safe and organized. Many large bookstores sell coin albums and folders (many that cost only a few dollars), and coin dealers sell many kinds of coin storage options.
There are all kinds of things you can learn about numismatics (this word sounds like “new-miss-mat-icks”), which is the study of coins. You can become a more experienced coin collector by reading books about coins, talking to friends about your hobby, and continuing to be interested and curious about the coins you see. As you will discover, coin collecting is a hobby that will allow you to make exciting discoveries, let you set and accomplish all kinds of challenging goals, and give you a chance to explore countless wonders. Welcome to the sensational world of coin collecting.
*Copyright 2006 by Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez
Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez has been an ardent coin collector since 1992 and has written a number of e-magazine articles about the hobby he has loved and studied for so many years. He also writes fiction works and is the author of the 2004 children's adventure novel entitled "The Valley of Curiosity" (available for sale via http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-30938-0). Joshua resides in Florida. You can read more about Joshua and his works at his website: http://mcmorrowhernandez.mysite.com/index.html?XTIME=1161206638
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