Sometimes starting a new collection can be intimidating simply because of the number of different items that are available. Most collectibles can be collected by some kind of theme within the collectible space - baseball cards can be collected by team or year, rocks can be collected by color or type, toy cars can be collected by manufacturer or type of vehicle - and world coins are no exception. Because of the large variety of coins that exist, it's easy to pick one (or more) themes to collect instead of trying to collect anything and everything. A themed collection can also be more interesting to display, because the coins are connected to each other. Children especially may enjoy building a themed collection because it's easier to know what to look for.
Picture Themes
A collection based around the pictures on the coins requires no reading and allows the collector to make decisions about whether to include or exclude a certain coin. Some good picture themes are animals, plants, people, buildings, or transportation (boats, cars, airplanes, etc.). You can narrow down the theme even further (only birds, only flowers, only boats) but I think you'll find this will seriously limit the size of your collection. Still, for a child's collection, or a collection for a very specific purpose (to frame and hang in a boat, for example), a very small, very specific theme can be a great way to start.
Date Themes
For a collection with personal significance, you could collect only coins from a certain year (your birth, child's birth, wedding, etc.). The coins in a collection like this would be quite varied, and the number of coins available to collect would be larger than with a picture theme.
Coin Property Themes
Beyond collecting based what's on the coins themselves, you can form a collection based on the physical properties of the coins.
For a visually striking collection, you can collect coins that aren't round. I believe that non-round coins are less common now than they have been over the past 50 years, but you can find square coins, octagonal (and other multi-sided) coins, and scalloped coins (with a wavy edge).
Several countries over the last 50 years have produced coins with holes, including Spain and Denmark. Japan's 5-yen coin has had with a hole in the center for many years (it's the only coin I can think of that is still in circulation). Between 1900 and 1950, more countries had coins with holes (including Belgium and France).
You can also create a collection around the color of the coins. A large percentage of all coins are silver in color (though very few are made of actual silver), so it can be fun to collect only the other colors - copper or bronze (brownish) or gold-colored (you're very unlikely to find any coins made of actual gold). Older coins that look black are probably made of zinc, which looks silvery when it's fresh but can tarnish to black.
Location Themes
Because coins come from specific areas of the world, you can build a collection based on where the coins are from. They could be based on specific countries (coins from countries you've visited; coins from where your family comes from) or specific continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, South America) if you have a particular affinity for some part of the world.
For children, it can be fun to try to collect one coin from every country. You can have a map of the world that can either be colored in or marked with pins as each country is collected, which can also help get children introduced to world geography.
Beyond Themes
Even if you start with a theme, you eventually may expand your collection and start trying to collect every different world coin. The question then becomes - what constitutes a "different" coin? As a collector, you will have to make decisions about what kinds of changes you care about collecting and which you will pass up. While major changes (coin size, color, or picture) more obviously deserve to be in your collection, there are some less-obvious changes that you may or may not want to include.
Mint marks - Some countries (including the US) put a different letter or symbol on coins to indicate where they were made. Except for the mint mark, the coins are usually identical.
Language differences - Pre-Euro Belgium coins came in 2 varieties each year - one with Belgium written in Flemish (Belgie) and one with Belgium written in French (Belgique). The rest of the coins are identical.
Font changes - From one year to another, the font (letter or number style) used to write on the coin may change, even if the rest of the coin (picture, denomination, etc.) is the same. This can be hard to spot unless you compare 2 coins side-by-side, or use a reference guide that mentions these changes.
Minor design changes - Sometimes a coin's picture may undergo a slight change - made a little bigger, a little smaller, or simply re-done so that it is slightly different than it was before. These can be very hard to spot.
Alignment changes - I noticed recently that Switzerland's coin alignment (see my earlier post about terminology) changed from coin to medal in the 1980s. Except for the alignment, the coin design (pictures and etc.) look the same.
For these kinds of small changes, it is up to you to decide if it is worth having each variety in your collection or not (they very rarely affect the value of a coin).
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Coin Collecting Terminology
Coin collecting has its own lexicon that you'll find it helpful to become familiar with. These words help collectors accurately discuss coins. If you spend much time around other collectors, looking at coins, reading about coins, or even shopping for coins, you've probably run into a few of these. If you haven't, then learning about them ahead of time will prepare you for when they do come up. This is just a starting list; in future posts, I'll explain more coin vocabulary.
The collecting or study of money is called numismatics (pronounced "noo-miz-ma-ticks"). Coin collecting does not have its own word, so numismatics can mean someone who studies money, someone who collects currency (paper money), someone who collects tokens, someone who collects coins, etc. The most common meaning, however, is the collecting of money or money-like items (tokens, medals). In a library catalog, searching for "numismatics" is going to take you directly to money and coin related items. It's good to be familiar with this term so that if you see things like the "American Numismatic Association" or a magazine called "Numismatic News", you'll have a better idea what they are.
Someone who collects or studies money is called a numismatist (pronounced "noo-miz-ma-tist"). If you've started your own world collection, you are now a numismatist. That sure sounds fancier than calling yourself a "coin collector".
The parts of a coin are important to know for both describing coins and understanding what other people are saying about them. A coin has 2 sides, or faces. Most people just call these "front" and "back", or "heads" and "tails", but the correct terms are obverse (front/heads) and reverse (back/tails). For most coins the obverse is the "heads" side - the side with a picture of a person, or animal, or coat-of-arms - and the reverse is the "tails" side. For coins that don't have an obvious obverse or reverse, I'm unsure how you pick which is the "front" and which is the "back". A coin also has an edge, which is the (usually) flat part that runs around the circumference of the coin. Sometimes the edge of a coin can be as distinctive as its obverse or reverse - keep an eye out for coins that have words, symbols, or a design on their edge (like the United States' Presidential $1 coins).
A coin's alignment means how the obverse and reverse are lined up with each other. Each side of a coin has its own "up" direction, where the picture or writing is right-side up. Sometimes this "up" direction is the same on both sides, and sometimes it is opposite. Hold a coin so that one side is right-side up and flip it left-to-right (horizontally) to view the back. If the back is still right-side up, then the coin has medal alignment. If the back is now upside-down, then the coin has coin alignment (if you flip the coin top-to-bottom, or vertically, then the back appears right-side-up). On modern coins, any alignment besides these 2 is usually an error. If you have trouble remembering the difference between coin and medal alignment, think about a large medal hanging from a ribbon around someone's neck. To view the back, you would turn it side-to-side - and the back would still be still right-side up so you could read it. That's medal alignment.
A coin's condition or grade is an indication of how good (or bad) it is. A coin with a high grade would be clean and shiny, with few scratches and very little wearing. A coin with a low grade might be dirty or stained, have a lot of scratches or nicks/cuts, and/or be worn down (so that the original intricate details of the coin are gone). In the United States, we usually use a grading scale that goes from Poor (P) to Brilliant Uncirculated (BU):
You may occasionally see the word cull in association with coins. A cull coin is usually a coin that is so damaged as to be non-collectible. It may have nearly all the design worn off, it may have a large cut or gash, it may be missing part of the coin, or it may have one or more holes drilled into it (such as to hang it from a necklace). If you are shopping online, you generally don't want cull coins.
A coin's composition is the metal (or metals) it is made of. Coins can be made out of many different metals - aluminum, bronze, stainless steel, zinc, copper, etc. - and are sometimes a mixture of 2 or more metals (such as United States pennies, which have a zinc core with a copper coating). Composition may be given in percentages ("92.5% silver, 7.5% copper" or ".9250 silver") or just the metal ("zinc-copper"). Sometimes the composition of a coin will change (due to changes in metal prices) from one year to the next, without the coin's design changing.
The collecting or study of money is called numismatics (pronounced "noo-miz-ma-ticks"). Coin collecting does not have its own word, so numismatics can mean someone who studies money, someone who collects currency (paper money), someone who collects tokens, someone who collects coins, etc. The most common meaning, however, is the collecting of money or money-like items (tokens, medals). In a library catalog, searching for "numismatics" is going to take you directly to money and coin related items. It's good to be familiar with this term so that if you see things like the "American Numismatic Association" or a magazine called "Numismatic News", you'll have a better idea what they are.
Someone who collects or studies money is called a numismatist (pronounced "noo-miz-ma-tist"). If you've started your own world collection, you are now a numismatist. That sure sounds fancier than calling yourself a "coin collector".
The parts of a coin are important to know for both describing coins and understanding what other people are saying about them. A coin has 2 sides, or faces. Most people just call these "front" and "back", or "heads" and "tails", but the correct terms are obverse (front/heads) and reverse (back/tails). For most coins the obverse is the "heads" side - the side with a picture of a person, or animal, or coat-of-arms - and the reverse is the "tails" side. For coins that don't have an obvious obverse or reverse, I'm unsure how you pick which is the "front" and which is the "back". A coin also has an edge, which is the (usually) flat part that runs around the circumference of the coin. Sometimes the edge of a coin can be as distinctive as its obverse or reverse - keep an eye out for coins that have words, symbols, or a design on their edge (like the United States' Presidential $1 coins).
A coin's alignment means how the obverse and reverse are lined up with each other. Each side of a coin has its own "up" direction, where the picture or writing is right-side up. Sometimes this "up" direction is the same on both sides, and sometimes it is opposite. Hold a coin so that one side is right-side up and flip it left-to-right (horizontally) to view the back. If the back is still right-side up, then the coin has medal alignment. If the back is now upside-down, then the coin has coin alignment (if you flip the coin top-to-bottom, or vertically, then the back appears right-side-up). On modern coins, any alignment besides these 2 is usually an error. If you have trouble remembering the difference between coin and medal alignment, think about a large medal hanging from a ribbon around someone's neck. To view the back, you would turn it side-to-side - and the back would still be still right-side up so you could read it. That's medal alignment.
 |
| High-grade (left) vs low-grade (right) |
- Poor (P)
- Fair (F)
- Almost Good (AG)
- Good (G)
- Very Good (VG)
- Fine (F)
- Very Fine (VF)
- Extra Fine (EF or XF)
- Almost Uncirculated (AU)
- Uncirculated (U or Unc.)
- Brilliant Uncirculated (BU)
 |
| A possible cull quality coin |
You may occasionally see the word cull in association with coins. A cull coin is usually a coin that is so damaged as to be non-collectible. It may have nearly all the design worn off, it may have a large cut or gash, it may be missing part of the coin, or it may have one or more holes drilled into it (such as to hang it from a necklace). If you are shopping online, you generally don't want cull coins.
A coin's composition is the metal (or metals) it is made of. Coins can be made out of many different metals - aluminum, bronze, stainless steel, zinc, copper, etc. - and are sometimes a mixture of 2 or more metals (such as United States pennies, which have a zinc core with a copper coating). Composition may be given in percentages ("92.5% silver, 7.5% copper" or ".9250 silver") or just the metal ("zinc-copper"). Sometimes the composition of a coin will change (due to changes in metal prices) from one year to the next, without the coin's design changing.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Starting a World Coin Collection
An important factor in the enjoyment of many activities is having the tools to do it properly, and collecting coins is no exception. The right tools allow you to get started sooner, reduce frustration, and have more success with whatever it is you're trying to do. I'm going to share what I've found to be the essential tools for a world coin collection, so that you or someone you know can start enjoying this hobby more quickly and easily.
Coin "Flips"
Flips store and protect individual coins, and allow them to be labeled. The most common size is a 2-inch by 2-inch square, made of either plastic-lined cardboard (called "cardboard flips" or "paper flips"), or clear plastic (generally called just "flips" and made of vinyl or a non-vinyl plastic). Cardboard flips have a circular window which allows the coin to be viewed from both sides while still sealing it in. Clear plastic flips are a clear pocket which holds the coin (also allowing viewing from both sides).
I prefer cardboard flips. They are less expensive, you can write directly onto the flip, and they keep the coin from sliding around in its holder. Clear plastic flips are more expensive, but they can be re-used (they do not have to be sealed with tape or staples). Instead of writing directly on the flip, you label the coin with a slip of paper that is inserted into the flip. Plastic flips can be used with any size coin (as long as it's less than 2 inches in diameter), but with cardboard flips you should try to match the window size to the coin (though I've found that 2 sizes - quarter and half-dollar - are sufficient for 90% of world coins).
Stapler or Tape
If you are using cardboard flips, you need a stapler or clear tape to seal the flips shut. There are self-adhesive flips you can buy, but they are considerably more expensive.
Binder with Pocket Pages
Once coins are individually stored in flips, they can be stored in pocket pages inside a 3-ring binder. This type of storage allows the coins to be easily seen or displayed, but has the disadvantage of being more expensive than box-type storage (discussed below).
Any standard 3-ring binder will do (check office-supply stores or even thrift stores like Goodwill). A 3-inch binder (where the rings have a diameter of 3 inches) can hold between 15 and 20 filled pocket pages. I've found that binders with D-style rings are easier to use than standard circular rings. The D-style rings allow all the pages to lay flat when the binder is open, and it is easier to add or remove pages when the binder is nearly full. When the binder is closed, none of the pages are on the ring seams so the pages are not likely to fall out.
Pocket pages go inside the binder and hold 20 coins (in flips) per page. Be sure to look for 20-pocket pages if you are using 2-inch-square flips. Pocket pages can hold coins that aren't in flips, but the coins will fall out very easily if the binder is put on its side or turned upside down. I prefer pocket pages that have a cutout at the bottom of each pocket (sometimes called a "thumb-cut"). The cutout makes it easier to remove coins when you need to rearrange them - which, unfortunately, you have to do when you want to put a new coin in between two coins already in a page.
Boxes
Instead of using a 3-ring binder and pocket pages, you can store your coins (in flips) in special 2-inch-square coin boxes. These are long, thin boxes that can hold closed flips standing up, like files in a filing cabinet. This is a much less expensive type of storage because boxes are cheaper than binders and you don't have to buy pocket pages. Using coin boxes also makes it easier to organize your collection because you can add a coin in between any other two coins. With pocket pages, you need to take coins out and move them around in order to make room for a new coin (if you want to keep the coins organized). However, using coin boxes makes it harder to view or display your collection - it is much less impressive to flip through a box full of coin flips than to browse through pages of coins in a binder. I prefer using binders and pages for that reason - I like to look at my coins.
Magnification
Some coins are small, which makes the details on them (country name, year, etc.) hard to see. You'll frequently find yourself using a magnifying glass to examine a coin. A 4x magnifier should be sufficient for looking at coin dates or other writing. If you want to be able to look for coin errors (double-strikes, or double-date coins) or looking at mint marks, a loupe offers much greater magnification than a magnifying glass. When I need this level of magnification, I use a 30x loupe with a light.
Coin Identification
Part of the fun of collecting world coins is figuring out what country a coin is from. But this is a very frustrating process without some help. Web sites like World Coin Gallery and my own Portland Coins have information to help identify world coins using words or pictures that can be found on the coin. Books like the Standard Catalog of World Coins also have guides to help identify coins, but online resources are just as good (and they're free).
Keeping Track of Coins
Once a collection has more than 10 to 20 coins, it becomes difficult to remember what you have and what you don't have. The bigger the collection, the more important it is to keep track of what coins you have (so that you know which coins you don't need).
For a collection of 50 coins or fewer, a written list of coins can be sufficient. On a piece of paper, write down the country, year, denomination (type and amount of money, like "2 dollars", "5 francs" or "50 yen"), and the quality ("poor", "good", and "great" are enough to get started with) of each coin in your collection. If you have room, organize them by country so that you can find them more easily. Keep the paper with your collection so that you don't lose it.
Once you get more than about 50 or 60 coins in your collection, you're going to want to keep track of your coins electronically. This allows you to more easily search your collection, order them by country, and add new coins (your piece of paper will get pretty crowded if you keep adding to it). You can use a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to keep track of the same information - country, year, denomination, and quality - in different columns. (Google Docs and Open Office are free and have spreadsheet programs.) Several free Web sites (Numista, World Coin Gallery, and Colnect are a few) allow you to keep track of your collection from any computer. These sites usually let you see pictures of the coins in your collection, and can help you see which coins you don't yet have.
Where to Get Supplies
Flips, binder pages, coin boxes, and usually even world coins can be found at a local coin shop, where you'll be supporting local businesses and your local economy. If you don't have a coin shop handy, or they don't carry the supplies that you need, then coin collecting supplies can be purchased online at dozens of different stores (always shop carefully online), or of course from us at Portland Coins.
Putting Together a Collecting Kit
To make a collecting starter kit for someone (or even for yourself), here is a summary of what I think should be included:
Coin "Flips"
Flips store and protect individual coins, and allow them to be labeled. The most common size is a 2-inch by 2-inch square, made of either plastic-lined cardboard (called "cardboard flips" or "paper flips"), or clear plastic (generally called just "flips" and made of vinyl or a non-vinyl plastic). Cardboard flips have a circular window which allows the coin to be viewed from both sides while still sealing it in. Clear plastic flips are a clear pocket which holds the coin (also allowing viewing from both sides).
I prefer cardboard flips. They are less expensive, you can write directly onto the flip, and they keep the coin from sliding around in its holder. Clear plastic flips are more expensive, but they can be re-used (they do not have to be sealed with tape or staples). Instead of writing directly on the flip, you label the coin with a slip of paper that is inserted into the flip. Plastic flips can be used with any size coin (as long as it's less than 2 inches in diameter), but with cardboard flips you should try to match the window size to the coin (though I've found that 2 sizes - quarter and half-dollar - are sufficient for 90% of world coins).
Stapler or Tape
If you are using cardboard flips, you need a stapler or clear tape to seal the flips shut. There are self-adhesive flips you can buy, but they are considerably more expensive.
Binder with Pocket Pages
Once coins are individually stored in flips, they can be stored in pocket pages inside a 3-ring binder. This type of storage allows the coins to be easily seen or displayed, but has the disadvantage of being more expensive than box-type storage (discussed below).
Any standard 3-ring binder will do (check office-supply stores or even thrift stores like Goodwill). A 3-inch binder (where the rings have a diameter of 3 inches) can hold between 15 and 20 filled pocket pages. I've found that binders with D-style rings are easier to use than standard circular rings. The D-style rings allow all the pages to lay flat when the binder is open, and it is easier to add or remove pages when the binder is nearly full. When the binder is closed, none of the pages are on the ring seams so the pages are not likely to fall out.
 |
| Pocket page with coins in paper flips |
Pocket pages go inside the binder and hold 20 coins (in flips) per page. Be sure to look for 20-pocket pages if you are using 2-inch-square flips. Pocket pages can hold coins that aren't in flips, but the coins will fall out very easily if the binder is put on its side or turned upside down. I prefer pocket pages that have a cutout at the bottom of each pocket (sometimes called a "thumb-cut"). The cutout makes it easier to remove coins when you need to rearrange them - which, unfortunately, you have to do when you want to put a new coin in between two coins already in a page.
Boxes
Instead of using a 3-ring binder and pocket pages, you can store your coins (in flips) in special 2-inch-square coin boxes. These are long, thin boxes that can hold closed flips standing up, like files in a filing cabinet. This is a much less expensive type of storage because boxes are cheaper than binders and you don't have to buy pocket pages. Using coin boxes also makes it easier to organize your collection because you can add a coin in between any other two coins. With pocket pages, you need to take coins out and move them around in order to make room for a new coin (if you want to keep the coins organized). However, using coin boxes makes it harder to view or display your collection - it is much less impressive to flip through a box full of coin flips than to browse through pages of coins in a binder. I prefer using binders and pages for that reason - I like to look at my coins.
Magnification
Some coins are small, which makes the details on them (country name, year, etc.) hard to see. You'll frequently find yourself using a magnifying glass to examine a coin. A 4x magnifier should be sufficient for looking at coin dates or other writing. If you want to be able to look for coin errors (double-strikes, or double-date coins) or looking at mint marks, a loupe offers much greater magnification than a magnifying glass. When I need this level of magnification, I use a 30x loupe with a light.
Coin Identification
Part of the fun of collecting world coins is figuring out what country a coin is from. But this is a very frustrating process without some help. Web sites like World Coin Gallery and my own Portland Coins have information to help identify world coins using words or pictures that can be found on the coin. Books like the Standard Catalog of World Coins also have guides to help identify coins, but online resources are just as good (and they're free).
Keeping Track of Coins
Once a collection has more than 10 to 20 coins, it becomes difficult to remember what you have and what you don't have. The bigger the collection, the more important it is to keep track of what coins you have (so that you know which coins you don't need).
For a collection of 50 coins or fewer, a written list of coins can be sufficient. On a piece of paper, write down the country, year, denomination (type and amount of money, like "2 dollars", "5 francs" or "50 yen"), and the quality ("poor", "good", and "great" are enough to get started with) of each coin in your collection. If you have room, organize them by country so that you can find them more easily. Keep the paper with your collection so that you don't lose it.
Once you get more than about 50 or 60 coins in your collection, you're going to want to keep track of your coins electronically. This allows you to more easily search your collection, order them by country, and add new coins (your piece of paper will get pretty crowded if you keep adding to it). You can use a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to keep track of the same information - country, year, denomination, and quality - in different columns. (Google Docs and Open Office are free and have spreadsheet programs.) Several free Web sites (Numista, World Coin Gallery, and Colnect are a few) allow you to keep track of your collection from any computer. These sites usually let you see pictures of the coins in your collection, and can help you see which coins you don't yet have.
Where to Get Supplies
Flips, binder pages, coin boxes, and usually even world coins can be found at a local coin shop, where you'll be supporting local businesses and your local economy. If you don't have a coin shop handy, or they don't carry the supplies that you need, then coin collecting supplies can be purchased online at dozens of different stores (always shop carefully online), or of course from us at Portland Coins.
Putting Together a Collecting Kit
To make a collecting starter kit for someone (or even for yourself), here is a summary of what I think should be included:
- A 3-ring binder (preferably with D-style rings)
- 3 or more 20-pocket binder pages
- 50 or more cardboard coin flips, half with a quarter-size window and the rest with a half-dollar-size window
- A magnifying glass
- A tape dispenser or small stapler (optional, since most households have one or both of these)
- Blank paper for keeping track of coins
- 10 or more world coins (all different if possible) to have something to put into the collection right away
- Coin identification Web addresses to help the new collector figure out what they have
This should be enough to get anyone started with their own world coin collection, and to have the right tools to make it a success.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Why collect world coins?
One of the most common questions I get about collecting world coins is simply "Why?". Why collect world or foreign coins? In answering this question, I'm going to discuss what I've found to be the best aspects of a world coin collection so that you can decide for yourself if it's something you might like to try.
As its foundation, a collection should interest you. If you're not interested in what you are collecting, you're not going to keep at it. At various times in my life, I've collected: rocks, stickers, baseball cards, toy cars, Star Wars figurines, Pez dispensers, stamps, shells, US coins, world coins, Smurf figurines, posters, bus schedules, comic books, and bottle caps. And those are just the ones I can remember. Each of those held my interest for long enough to start a collection, but I eventually grew bored or frustrated with most. I think that's normal. Your interests and your interest level changes over time. What you find interesting or exciting at age 10 doesn't have to be the same as when you're 15, or 20, or 40. My coins are the collection that I've come back to time and time again - they interest me, and I get excited about them, so I want to maintain my collection. My bottle caps, on the other hand, were discarded long ago.
I think that coins, and especially world coins, have many features that make them a good collectible.
Coins are small and easy to store. A simple 3-ring binder with pocket pages can hold hundreds of coins, and takes up about as much room as a Harry Potter novel. A collection of hundreds of toy cars would take up an entire toy box.
Coins are durable. They're made of metal, so they can last a long time. I'm talking hundreds or even thousands of years. Archaeologists routinely find ancient Roman, Greek, or Chinese coins that are more than 1000 years old. That means that as a collectible, you don't have to worry so much about being extremely careful. Coins can get wet. Coins can be dropped. Coins can be stacked and handled and looked at. They don't have to have sharp corners like baseball cards or forever remain in their packaging like toys. And as a collector, it isn't hard to find coins that are 25, 50, or even 100 years old. (Even though coins are durable, you should still take care of them. The fewer times they get wet, or dropped, or stacked, the better condition they will stay in. But compared to many other collectibles, coins are more resilient to wear.)
World coins are diverse. They come in many different colors, some with 2 colors on the same coin. There are round coins, square coins, multi-sided coins, scalloped coins, and coins with holes in them. They have pictures of animals, plants, people, buildings, kings, queens, presidents, and more. There are so many different kinds that you can focus on a specific type of coin, such as coins with animals or coins from South America. (I collect everything, but my favorites are 2-color coins and square coins. I haven't found a 2-color square coin yet.) Check out Portland Coins' coin identification picture gallery to get an idea of the variety that world coins have.
Coins are inexpensive. Coins and coin-collecting supplies don't cost a lot, so it is easy to start and maintain a collection without spending much money. As you become a more advanced collector, you may want to splurge on more expensive rare or valuable coins, but you don't have to in order to enjoy collecting.
Coins are everywhere. There are more than 190 different countries in the world today, most with their own coinage and many years of previous coin styles that can be collected. That means you'll never run out of coins to put in your collection.
These are the main reasons that I enjoy collecting world coins. If this sounds interesting, think about starting your own collection, or getting someone else (a child or friend) started. In my next post, I'll discuss the tools and supplies you'd need to start a world coin collection.
As its foundation, a collection should interest you. If you're not interested in what you are collecting, you're not going to keep at it. At various times in my life, I've collected: rocks, stickers, baseball cards, toy cars, Star Wars figurines, Pez dispensers, stamps, shells, US coins, world coins, Smurf figurines, posters, bus schedules, comic books, and bottle caps. And those are just the ones I can remember. Each of those held my interest for long enough to start a collection, but I eventually grew bored or frustrated with most. I think that's normal. Your interests and your interest level changes over time. What you find interesting or exciting at age 10 doesn't have to be the same as when you're 15, or 20, or 40. My coins are the collection that I've come back to time and time again - they interest me, and I get excited about them, so I want to maintain my collection. My bottle caps, on the other hand, were discarded long ago.
I think that coins, and especially world coins, have many features that make them a good collectible.
Coins are small and easy to store. A simple 3-ring binder with pocket pages can hold hundreds of coins, and takes up about as much room as a Harry Potter novel. A collection of hundreds of toy cars would take up an entire toy box.
Coins are durable. They're made of metal, so they can last a long time. I'm talking hundreds or even thousands of years. Archaeologists routinely find ancient Roman, Greek, or Chinese coins that are more than 1000 years old. That means that as a collectible, you don't have to worry so much about being extremely careful. Coins can get wet. Coins can be dropped. Coins can be stacked and handled and looked at. They don't have to have sharp corners like baseball cards or forever remain in their packaging like toys. And as a collector, it isn't hard to find coins that are 25, 50, or even 100 years old. (Even though coins are durable, you should still take care of them. The fewer times they get wet, or dropped, or stacked, the better condition they will stay in. But compared to many other collectibles, coins are more resilient to wear.)
World coins are diverse. They come in many different colors, some with 2 colors on the same coin. There are round coins, square coins, multi-sided coins, scalloped coins, and coins with holes in them. They have pictures of animals, plants, people, buildings, kings, queens, presidents, and more. There are so many different kinds that you can focus on a specific type of coin, such as coins with animals or coins from South America. (I collect everything, but my favorites are 2-color coins and square coins. I haven't found a 2-color square coin yet.) Check out Portland Coins' coin identification picture gallery to get an idea of the variety that world coins have.
Coins are inexpensive. Coins and coin-collecting supplies don't cost a lot, so it is easy to start and maintain a collection without spending much money. As you become a more advanced collector, you may want to splurge on more expensive rare or valuable coins, but you don't have to in order to enjoy collecting.
Coins are everywhere. There are more than 190 different countries in the world today, most with their own coinage and many years of previous coin styles that can be collected. That means you'll never run out of coins to put in your collection.
These are the main reasons that I enjoy collecting world coins. If this sounds interesting, think about starting your own collection, or getting someone else (a child or friend) started. In my next post, I'll discuss the tools and supplies you'd need to start a world coin collection.
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