Coin Collecting – No Longer The Hobby Of Kings

Coin collecting is often called the hobby of kings because in the early days of coin collecting only kings were wealthy enough to be able to save coins in a collection. Most people needed to spend any coins they received for food and shelter and many people never had more than a few coins to their name at any given time.

Fortunately for us coin collecting, or numismatics, is a hobby that is available to anyone today that wants to join in the fun. You can start out as a casual collector with the spare change in your pocket and progress from there as you gain knowledge and experience.

What makes coin collecting so special to many people is the fact that there are so many areas to specialize in. Just some of the possible paths a coin collector can take include collecting foreign coins, coins of your home country, paper money, ancient coins and coins with errors.

You can even focus on certain periods in history like coins of the 1800s or coins of the Renaissance the possibilities are truly endless and it can be difficult deciding on where to begin.

Most budding coin collectors start with the coins from their own country as they are most familiar with them. I would recommend going to the library and getting a couple of books on coin collecting to give you an idea of ​​the different types of coins available and how coins are valued and graduated. This will help you to decide on any specific types of coins you want to start collecting and give you a good background on the history of the coins.

I can guarantee you will find coins that were mined in the past that you never knew exhausted. For instance, did you know the US made a two cent and twenty cent coin in long ago?

Joining a local coin club can help you on your journey and is a good way to meet like minded people in your community. They are a good source for local show information and can give advice on local coin dealers. Of course, you can also find plenty of information on the Internet.

The most important thing when first starting out collecting coins is to curb your enthusiasm. I know, easy to say but hard to do but if you can control your excitement just a little and not start buying coins without some basic knowledge you will be far better off in the long run.

Speaking from personal experience I can tell you that there are some coins I would not have purchased had I been a little more knowledgeable in coin grading standards and average coin values ​​when I was just starting out.

Luckily, coin collecting has grown to a point where coins are now graduated according to very strict standards and with the wealth of coin collecting information available it is easy to determine if a price for a specific coin is fair or not.

Unlike most hobbies that require an initial outlay of cash you can start collecting coins for very little money and as your knowledge grows you will be able to buy or trade coins more confidently. This will help you to avoid making bad decisions that could dampen your excitement for one of the most rewarding hobbies there is.