Muna wa Wanjiru asked:


Whether you started your coin collecting efforts at the wee age of three, or whether you progressed to it more gradually and came to this point at the ripe old age of thirty-five, you can’t escape the fact that somehow or other you’ve become interested in coin collecting.

And if you’re not interested at all, then I can only assume that you’ve picked up this article for a friend and are even now reading it to while away the time while you should ideally be doing something else.

If that’s the case there’s a good chance that by the end of this article you’ll be firmly hooked and looking at any and all the coins you can get your hands on.

You might not persevere at it and you might not even go beyond the initial stage of looking through the loose change that’s fallen down the back of your couch. But you will get around to it eventually, if only to satisfy the first burning flame of curiosity that coin collecting brings.

And although you might not realize it, that’s how many people start take their first step in the direction of coin collecting. Before you start hunting in earnest between the cushions of your couch though, you might first of all want to get at least part way through this article.

It’s by no means on par with any of the articles written by experts, but I did my best to gather together all the interesting information and data that I could find and put it all down in one place so that it’s easier for you in the long term.

Originally this was done solely for my own benefit. I had, through the ages collected all the articles that I could get my hands on, and went through my coin collecting life at a breeze.

What brought me to this point though, of seriously putting everything together in a concise manner, was when Joe, a good friend was also caught by the coin collecting bug.

His greatest complaint through the whole time, was that there was such little that could be of help to the beginning of coin collecting.

Sure there were books galore on coin collecting, and my own little library attested to that, but it was still very difficult for the beginner to get a good grasp on what was needed without trawling through a half dozen of them.

Being the good friend that I am, I naturally enough passed on all my notes to Joe, hoping that these, along with any assistance I could give, would be of help in demystifying some of the more confusing aspects of coin collecting.

So that’s how I started on this article, and this is where we ended up right now. With you reading this article, which you got for your friend if you remember. And with your hand in the pile of coins you emptied from the loose change cookie jar having finally given up on the couch; and me with the satisfaction of knowing that I lured yet another unsuspecting soul to the side of coin collecting, even if it might only be for a brief period of time.

Anyway, whether it was by accident or by design, you are now on the path of coin collecting, and hopefully this article will help you in your future efforts.



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Muna wa Wanjiru asked:


Along with collecting coins, if you’re really serious and interested in coin collecting, then one of the first things you’ll want to do even before going on a buying spree is to buy yourself reference aids on coin collecting.

I know, I know. You want to collect coins, not spend your time reading reference aids on coin collecting. But it really can help you in the long run and besides knowledge is never wasted, is it?

What you read today about a coin might come in good stead and help you out somewhere down the line a few months or even years from now.

If you’re not the reading type you don’t need to go out and get half a dozen heavy reference aids on coin collecting just to round-out your non-existent library. Chances are high that you’ll just leave them to gather dust on the floor – or like I once did for a particularly useless book, use it as a coaster on my overly cluttered table!

In general I like reference aids on coin collecting and will read as much as I can to get the knowledge that’s contained within their pages, but I have to say that it really was a useless reference aids on coin collecting and weighed a ton to boot, so I made the best of a bad situation.

Now, I won’t give you the name of that “bad” reference aids on coin collecting, simply for the fact that what I consider bad and good might not be the same for you as it is for me. And that’s why I haven’t given you any names or titles for any good reference aids on coin collecting either.

There are enough people in the world who will love to give you a long list of what they consider are the best reference aids on coin collecting to read so I won’t join that queue.

You might feel that’s unfair of me, but the best thing for you to do is to get down to the bookshop and check out for yourself what reference aids on coin collecting there are.

You’ll never know unless you get out there and look, and taking someone else’s word that a reference aid on coin collecting is good might not work. Unless of course you’re reading these reference aids on coin collecting because someone recommended it to you, in which case, I’m all for recommendations!

You can use what they recommend as a reference aids on coin collecting or a starting point if you really feel lost, but generally you’ll find that once you’re in the store, standing in front of reference aids on coin collecting, you’ll be able to make the decision for yourself.

The reason to get yourself a good reference aids on coin collecting still stands though. If you want to get anywhere at all in your coin collecting pursuits then you’ll need to know what sort of coins are out there, which ones are collectible, which ones are considered rare, and what type of errors you can find.

And if you can take your reference aids on coin collecting along with you when you’re going coin hunting then it’s all the more better. You won’t have to remember every single variation on a theme, or every single coin that’s collectible.

You also won’t have to rely solely on the say-so of the dealer or collector that the coin is what they say it is. This will help you out tremendously in the beginning. Don’t be afraid to whip out your reference aids on coin collecting whenever you need to.

It might earmark you as a complete novice but that won’t be the sole reason, as you will also see several experienced coin collectors whipping out their own reference aids on coin collecting. I still have my first reference aids on coin collecting, bought soon after my dad gave me my first coin collecting book, and I still use it on occasion.

Mostly though I stick with a well thumbed copy of a reference aid on coin collecting I chanced upon when I was in my Investor mode. And I still take it out when the occasion calls for it.

So don’t be hesitant to use it for what it was meant for in the first place, as a reference to aid you. Dealers and other collectors won’t mind when you do this. In fact they will understand completely what you’re doing.

The thing that will single you out as a novice isn’t the reference aids on coin collecting, but your experience or lack of it, which will shine through very clearly in the beginning as you fumble through some of the more simple aspects of coin collecting.

That’s the beauty of experience though, you learn as you go along and start to make the right choices based upon your own experience. And this is the point at which you’ll start to look a lot less like an amateur and more like a serious coin collector.

But, that all takes time however, so don’t expect miracles. For now just content yourself with finding yourself a good reference aids on coin collecting, and a few readable coin collecting books and add to your knowledge. You can add to your experience as time goes by.



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