Coin collection is quite a common hobby all over the world. People collect them from various places and even pay a good amount for them. Here are few things that you need to know in case coin collection is your passion.
How will you decide the price of the coin? In other words, how will you come to know that you are getting what you are actually paying for? Some antique coins can even cost you a fortune but first you need to make sure that they rightly priced. There is a coin grading system which is used to price such coins whether old or new. (www.pcgs.com)
It's easy to find out about the price of the new coins. It is the old coins that are difficult to deal with. You need to collect some information about these old coins before coming to a final conclusion. Try to find out about the condition of these coins as they are usually not available in the market. You should know the different varieties of old coins that are available in the market.
A number of books on coin collection may be available at your library and they will give you loads of information on old coins. The internet is another place where you can look out for the details of old coins.
What is the basis of pricing the old coins? You need to know this so that you don't end up paying more than what is actually required. All the coins are examined thoroughly before any price tag is put on them. Try to find out the exact method of pricing the old coins. You can refer to various books on this topic. You can also search on the internet. Price your coins accordingly once you have learned the pricing system. Old coins are prone to get damaged and hence be very careful while handling them.
The coin experts look out for various details before they actually price the old coins. Each coin has certain characteristics which determine their price. To do this examination, the coin is placed on a suitable surface. A suitable surface is one which is completely devoid substances that may degrade the quality of the coin.
There are quite a few coins that are wanted by collectors but these coins will never touch their hands. There are several reasons for this. The coin is extremely rare because of a mistake in the mint or the mintage was extremely low in number. Another reason that these coins will never touch a collector’s hand is that they were melted or have disappeared from circulation.
One such coin is the 1894 –S Barber dime because there were only 24 of these 90% Silver coins ever minted.
The strange story behind this is that this coin was minted by orders of John Daggett (The San Francisco Mint Superintendent) for seven bankers so they could have three of the dimes each and John gave the last three dimes to his daughter to put away and keep for a long time. But!! she promptly spent one of the dimes on ice cream!
There are other variations of this story but the fact remains that the remaining dimes were melted and these 24 coins survived. About nine of the coins have been accounted for but the rest will probably stay in private collections unless some of them are still out there in circulation which is highly unlikely.
It is every collectors dream of finding this 1894 –S dime at a flea market or in some obscure place but again very unlikely.
Another such coin is the 1943 Copper penny. During the war since copper was needed for armaments the copper pennies were replaced with zinc. Since there were still copper blanks (in the mold so to speak) around forty three true copper pennies were minted and were circulated. The best way to prove that you have a 1943 penny is use a magnet to test to see if it is zinc (Steel) or the real thing. Steel pennies stick to the magnet and copper does not.
Another extremely rare coin is the Canadian 1911 Silver dollar which is currently worth around a million dollars. The reason behind this is there are only two in existence which makes this the most wanted of all Canadian coins. There is some mystery of why only two coins were minted but the general story was that the Canadian government changed its mind at the last minute to mint these coins. Could there be more of these coins out there? I'll be lookin`!!!
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