this chapter, I show you the importance of finding out what you need to know about coins, knowing where to go for advice, and establishing long-term collecting goals.
Gaining Knowledge Before You Buy
They say that if you give a person a fish, you feed them for a day, but if you teach a person how to fish, you feed them for a lifetime. You must learn the basics of fishing (in this case, coin collecting) before you make your first cast (your first coin purchase). That way, you’ll know why you’re “fishing,” what you’re “fishing” for, and what you’re going to do after you catch your first “fish!”
Understanding the parts and purpose of a coin
Before you start collecting coins, it helps to know what a coin is.
Coins have three sides. The front of the coin is called the obverse; the back, the reverse; and the edge is … well, the edge. Modern coins are usually struck (stamped) from dies, which are pieces of metal (usually steel) with designs on them. There are three dies: the obverse die, the reverse die, and the collar die (which strikes the edge). Engravers (artists with engraving tools) create the designs on the dies. In the past, this work was done entirely by hand, but now much of this process is automated. Legends and mottoes are the words that you see on both sides of a coin. Many of the designs and wording are required by law; others are included at the discretion of the designer and the minting authority.
Coins are struck at a mint, which usually is a government-run operation. The number of coins struck is called the mintage. Coins are struck for the following uses:
General circulation: These coins are called business strikes, and they’re intended for use in commerce. The coins you have in your pocket or coin purse and spend throughout your day fall into this category.
Proofs: These coins are made especially for collectors. Today, the quality of proof coins is substantially higher than that of coins struck for circulation.
Believe it or not, now you know as much about coins as most beginning collectors do.
Putting the book before the coin
Many numismatic book purveyors used to place this slogan in their advertisements: “Buy the book before the coin.” This advice became increasingly important as the prices of coins rose to dizzying heights over the years.
This advice still rings true, but the sources of information about numismatics have expanded to include the Internet.
The best way to find out about coins is to read about them (so pat yourself on the back for making the effort to educate yourself). Whether you prefer the hard copy or your hard drive, boundless amounts of information exist to help you make smart collecting decisions. Many wonderful references in a variety of forms await the coin collector, ranging from educational websites to highly specialized books dealing with die varieties, obsolete types, error coins, and much more.
For new collectors, here are a few suggested resources to explore:
American Numismatic Association (www.money.org): ANA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of numismatics and the hobby of coin collecting. ANA offers eLearing opportunities to broaded your knowledge as you progress a budding collector.
Newman Numismatic Portal (nnp.wustl.edu): NNP is a foundation supported online forum with the largest online archive of numismatic info in the world.
Trade papers
For the latest numismatic headlines, I recommend subscribing to one or more of the excellent weekly coin papers or monthly numismatic magazines. Trade papers offer a combination of general numismatic information for beginning collectors, in-depth articles, and price guides, not to mention access to the numerous advertisers with which you can do business. The following are the best trade papers published today:
Coin World (www.coinworld.com)
Numismatic News (https://www.numismaticnews.net)
Many large numismatic organizations and clubs produce their own publications; you get a subscription to the publication when you join. Favorites include The Numismatist, published by the American Numismatic Association (www.money.org), and FUN Topics, published by the Florida United Numismatists (www.funtopics.com).
Numismatic books
How can you collect coins when you don’t even know what’s available to collect? A coffee-table coin book makes a great starting point because you can see a large variety of coins in full, dazzling color.
Eventually, you’ll want a book that lists and describes all U.S. coins by date and mint, preferably with pricing information for a variety of grades. With this information, you can decide which coins interest you, and you can set collecting goals that are achievable and within your budget. A great resource for this is A Guide Book of United States Coins (a.k.a. “The Red Book”) by R. S. Yeoman, Jeff Garrett, et al (Whitman Publishing).
Price guides
Price guides contain listings of coins along with their values at different levels of condition. Different types of price guides address different areas of the market:
Wholesale price guides: These guides satisfy the needs of dealers who buy and sell from one another and know what they’re buying.
Retail price guides: These guides help dealers and collectors assign selling prices to their coins.
Certified price guides: These guides record the buy-and-sell spreads for coins that have been graded and certified by two independent grading services.
You can subscribe to numismatic price guides or often also included in trade papers such as Coin World and Numismatic News (refer to “Trade papers” earlier in this chapter). I discuss price guides in much greater detail in Chapter 16.
Grading guides
Understanding how coins are graded may be the most important aspect of numismatics, so I discuss this in detail in Chapter 16 and Chapter 17.
Whicheve of the recognized grading services you choose, it is important for you understand the scale and its application.
Are you obligated to tell someone when they’ve underpriced or undergraded a coin or missed a valuable variety? The answer is no — sort of. If someone presents to the public as a professional coin dealer, they’re presumed to know better and are obligated to informed the customer. If a pro offers to sell you a coin at an incorrectly