I've been thinking of getting back into coin collecting, almost time to retire...

[dejapooh]

I used to collect coins, and I was thinking of getting back into it. The question is, what to collect. I was thinking of type coins, but there are too many that would be difficult if not impossible to afford. I was thinking of Seated Liberty Proof half dollars, but they are generally too ugly. The seated liberty coins generally have an ugly charcoal gray tone that makes it difficult to see any detail. Finding nice ones at any grade is nearly impossible (Try to find a 1913 T1 Buffalo Nickle with great eye, and you are in for a LONG LONG hunt). I was thinking of Civil war tokens but they left me uninspired. California gold coins are generally too hard to find and too often counterfeited. I finally settled on either 1873 coins or Error coins. 1873 is interesting because you have all denominations except for the half cent and the 20 cent, and almost all of the coins are comparatively common in circulation strike and many are even affordable in moderate grade proof (Proof 61 to 64). With open 3, closed 3, arrows and no arrows, Cent, 2 cent, 3 cent silver, 3 cent nickel, nickel 5 cent, half dime, dime, quarter, half dollar, Silver dollar, Trade dollar, gold dollar, quarter eagle, half eagle, eagle, double eagle... there is a lot there to work toward. My other thought was to collect nice error coins, but specifically to get errors that show a significant part of the production process. The problem here is that there is no price guide that I've seen yet, so I would be flying by the seat of my pants. Also, hunting through the coins on ebay is a slog. Probably 50% are PMD. Another 20% are DDO (and One DDO would be good for the collection). Finally, there is so much garbage that it is difficult to find interesting coins. I really can't do both, I have to pick my poison.

Any thoughts?

 

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[unclemac]

I am pretty big into the subject myself and have a lot of different collections. I have toyed with the 1873 idea myself and just did a post on it but have not put one together. A nice type set to build is a Morgan set, I like big heavy silver and Morgans in the VF range are easy to get and I like the look of wear with black highlights that they tend to have. Of course the 1893-s is pricey but you can save that one for last. Another fun set is a French 'ecu (later 5 francs) set based on monarchs and different portraits from Louis XIV up to the second republic....again big silver. Part of your decision would be how will you display them? If using Dansco than each page can only have 12 entries. I have a nice 12 entry page of English shillings from James II on up, that was fun. Or how about recovered coins from different shipwrecks? One thing I have done (and it was a blast) was to make "type" books of the history of Mexico, Canada, Australia, USA and Japan. And by "type" I don't just mean the standard "this is what was minted"... but also "this is what was being circulated". So for instance my USA book includes coin types from Canada that we always had in our pockets as kids growing up along the border because we could spend them with no problems. Another fun set is all the 8 reales that were minted AFTER the Latin American countries became independent. I could go on and on here but I don't want to bore you. My final suggestion is to find an era or a country that you have some personal connection with and delve into the history of its coinage.

 

[Surf_Pirate]

Well I'm actually thinking of getting rid of my collection. Should we talk?

 

[metrotec]

How about a 1943 "S" ? copper? found, and as of last Saturday is being graded from a gentleman from Chicago and now the coin is been driven to Mississippi to be finalized. Get you some of this collector guys. TRUE!!! S T O R Y !

 

[dejapooh]

Well I'm actually thinking of getting rid of my collection. Should we talk?

What did you collect?

 

[ajaj]

When I started collecting many years ago, I focused on Indian Head cents. Popular coin and it’s fun. One thing to think about would be collecting odd denominations, like 3 or 20 cent pieces.

aj

 

[Surf_Pirate]

What did you collect?

hodge podge mainly but bills, silver, copper etc. various. I'll post some pics if needed

 

[Emil W]

I started coin collecting when I was about 12 years old. After a decade or so It just got boring to me so I basically forgot about my collection, which at that age was unsurprisingly not at all impressive, and put it away. Still have it somewhere...I think.

Then about 30 years ago I discovered ancient coins and began collecting them, then medieval next. It was then that I realized the reason I had originally given up on collecting when I was younger was US coins just didn't have the history to hold my attention. But we're all different and have different interests, so I say collect whatever you're passionate about. You'll know what that is when you find it.

 

[sphillips]

I am 71yrs old and started collecting coins in junior high. Mostly forgot about it thru high school and college, never saw it again or thought about it until my mother died in 2013. Now retired and metal detecting, I am back at it, including buying boxes from the bank. I like many of the 1800's coins, but I think I would like to collect the US coins minted in 1876, the centennial year.