Coin Collection- The Top Rules of Collecting US Coins

Posted by capstonecoins on April 21st, 2017

If you are looking to collecting US coins, you need to learn how to do it right. There are certain rules you need to know as a coin collector if you want your hobby to bear fruit.

  1. Learn
To be a successful coin collector, you need to learn as much as possible about numismatics. You not only need to learn about the coins but the market as well. Books combined with catalogs relating to your specialization will help you learn about the coins. You can also join the American Numismatic Association, subscribe to periodicals like Coin World and Numismatic News and possible join coin collector groups.

  2. Specialize and be patient
You cannot begin coin collecting if you have no goals or boundaries. You need to know exactly what coins you want to collect, specialize in those and this will give you a level ground with dealers. This way, you will able to make better deals. Even though we are living in the age of immediate gratification, in this area, you need to be patient. The opportunities to get great coins will be rare and very few so don’t go buying the wrong coins just to fill up a collection, in the end, it will cost you a lot.

  3. Connection
Most of the information about market conditions, pricings and future trends in newsletters, coin brokers or magazines is usually third hand. Most of these are written by dealers which may contain biases. If you want to get first hand information that will benefit you, you need to be connected to a reliable dealer.

  4. Learn to grade
It will not do you good if you cannot learn how to grade. To learn, the best thing you can do is to view as many coins as possible. You can do this by attending shows or auctions and studying the coins very closely. You can also take a grading class offered by the American Numismatic Association and if you specialize, then the number of coins to know how to grade will be fewer.

  5. Think long term
Coins are not a good short-term investment so you could plan on holding on to yours for up to 10 years or more.

  6. Quality over quantity
With time, high quality coins will be hard to find hence more expensive. It’s best to look for a few quality coins like the silver bullion rather than having many cheap coins that won’t be worth much in the long run.

All these things are not easy to follow because you need to be disciplined to do it. However, if you want to be a successful coin collector, you need to do the best you can so you can get the most gains from it.