World of Numismatics

Let's get into the world of Numismatics today.

Do you sort out your coins by the date before and look at the different denominations? Do you wonder if they have a story to tell? Have you ever looked into your box of loose change and try finding new shiny ones? Have you looked into their design in detail and wonder what story does the print tell? If you have, you have already shown interest in coin collecting. You are on the start of your journey to the most amazing valuable hobby!

Coin collectors takes pride in owning their coins. This hobby allows you to learn organization, classification, preservation, authentication and
verification skills unconciously.

Selling Your Coins

First, you have to decide whether to sell the coins yourself or get professionals to sell them for you. If you sell them yourself, you got to prepare by grading your coins properly, price them at a fair amount, find coin dealers or auction in ebay, and record your sales.

If you want to get professionals to sell your coins, you can sell them directly to a dealer, on consignment, or at a public auction. You have find out what is the commission rate to the dealer, know how to set a price, and choose a dealer. If you decide to go for auction, you have to cleverly pick an auction house, expect the fees you should be paying and should not be paying. All these will be discussed later.

Coin selling is taxable. Selling anything in the States is taxable. You need to know how to minimize tax and don't let the IRS fine you. We will discuss that on my later blog entries.

Buying Coins

Before you buy a coin, you need to know what are the areas to be cautious. You would want to know the coin you are going to buy genuine, fake, repaired, restored, recolored, cleaned, or dipped and of what grade. You would also want to know if the seller has been scamming you by over or undergrading coins, whether the seller has any return privileges and guarantees of authenticity. All of these you will learn as you read along this blog.

I will also guide you through looking at coin price charts and how to use them.

When you have decided the coins you to buy and the price you should
expect to pay, you’ll want to find a good, reliable coin dealer. You can get a dealer locally, regionally, nationally or internationally, depending on your needs. You will learn how to choose the right dealer later in the blog.

There are a few good reasons why coins are bought and sold at public auctions. If want to buy a coin at an auction, you have to be well equipped and know how to bid.

You will also learn about the important factor to buying any coin - the condition of the coin and how it affects the value of the coin. There are terms like strike, eye appeal, luster, and wearing out condition you need to know, as well as all about grading, proofs, what are the grades for error coins and damaged coins, and what factors make up the grading standards.

Also, you will learn how to grade a coin, the correct tools needed, and how to find a professional grading service in my upcoming blog.

Choosing What Coins to Collect

Before you go to the nearest coin dealer and buy a new shiny coin, I recommend you to first look around to find out what are the coins out there. Ebay is a good place to search for coins. There are many numismatic ebay power-sellers who has ebay stores selling authentic coins. They show you the grades of the coins and explained why they are valuable. Go to a few of these sites to familiarise yourself with coins. You may want to collect Ancient Greek, Roman coins or medieval European coins. USA coins are one of the popular collection among coin collectors. You can collect coins from all over the world by country, by denomination, by topic, by date, or by size.
There are also trends in coins like in the fashion industry, the latest trend, which you should be aware of, which will be in my later blog entry.

Introducing the world of Numismatics

Numismatics - it's just a big word for the study of coins.
First coins were dated 600 B.C. They were just pieces of silver, gold and other metals stamped by the King. Thereafter, dies were invented to create designs and faces of Kings on these pieces. It was mostly the weight and nature of the material that makes the coins valuable. Soon, coins were use as a trade and official object for commerce. Designs and the faces of rulers on the coins tells a story. You can see how old these coins were by looking at them. People starts to collect coins like building a story. Coins that have milestones in them has great value. The value also depends on how many of them were made. 500 of these coins in the world fetch a higher value that 1 million of these coins.

Coins have been collected by Roman Emperors like Julius Caesar and Trajan and U.S. presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Bill Clinton. Now, millions of people are collecting coins. Why? Because they see the value of them.

Before you spend on collecting coins, you need to establish you interest area. You need to know how to research the coins you’re interested in, and how factors like condition, rarity, supply, and other aspects affect the value of the coin. Value is important, but another important factor is discovering which coins
you enjoy building.
When you’ve decided to collect coins, you’ll have to be sure how to correctly hold a coin (or you might
damage it) and how to store your collection (to keep them as mint and natural as possible).

I will mention these in my next blogs.