Hi All, I have just started coin collection a month ago. My interest has been triggered when I found 2001 Don Bradman 20c in my change. I have googled and stumbled upon this site. Already red quite a few if the posts. I understand it is better to collect circulating coin in mint state than to buy the overpriced commemorative coins. I decided to start with $1 collection. I have already bought 2015 $1 RAM roll and a 2005 $1 security roll. I have budget of $50 per month. What would you suggest I should be collecting?
Keep in mind that very few numismatics appreciate in value. For example, if you bought almost any of the RAM proof sets a few decades back, you'd barely get your money back a few decades later.
Try pre-decimal Australian silver coins. Cheap but interesting. Branch out to half sovereigns when you can afford. That's how I started.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I am staying away from all the overpriced proofs and commemorative coins. Most of them languish around their retail price. @bulkcoins15 already got the 2016 $1 change over rolls. I got it for $50. Downies is selling this for $90 now.
Depends what your motivation is. If you're collecting for fun, just sorting through your change and fishing out the special releases is an easy (and cheap) way of building up a nice collection. You can find details of everything that's been issued very easily. If you're collecting for profit, maybe look at some of the 1oz silver coins, either local or foreign ones. Spot will give you a floor price so your collection will never be worth less than the value of the silver and some of the coins will probably appreciate in value beyond that. No reason you can't do a bit of both.
Welcome to the forum taw! Value is relative. In my view, there's not necessarily "best" coins to buy because there are different reasons one may be buying coins. Circulating coins won't necessarily increase in value. I have about two hundred circulating coins from the early 1900's and 1800's (mostly dimes) yet they are barely worth more than melt. Circulating coins from the 1800's and 1900's generally have to be in exceptional condition (uncirculated in the very, very least) to be worth something decent unless it's a key date coin which are generally very hard to come by. You are mistaken to believe that modern commemorative coins are necessarily overpriced.....they are not necessarily overpriced. There are people right now who are flipping certain modern commemorative coins for double and triple of what they paid. Now of course that's not to say that anyone can do this with any coin but my point is, there can be significant value with modern commemorative coins in the right hands at the right time. Many modern commems won't increase in value and some will likely lose value. But all of this depends on what price you bought it in the first place. So for example, if you purchased proof Libertads at a good price, it's likely that the value will only go up depending on the market you are selling in. In the U.S. market, Libertads are quite popular. Maybe where you are at, Kooks, Lunars, Koala's, or Pandas move well. Understanding your market may be important for you to know. The first thing that I would suggest you do is figure out what exactly is the reason you want to buy coins. There's nothing wrong with buying circulated coins but if you think that any and all of them are worth significantly more than melt, you'd be mistaken. Some may be worth decent money but most aren't because most are in relatively poor condition. Poor condition circulating coins in most cases aren't worth much more than their melt value in the book. And book value is often on the high end so if you try to sell your poor condition coin for book value, you'd probably never find a buyer. The next thing you might want to consider is joining a local coin club. Finally, you may consider going to a coin show. Just ideas for you to consider. Good luck and happy collecting. .
Most people start collecting out of interest and continue out of habit. I started putting aside interesting coins from change, then buying the ones I didn't have in my collection, then buying Mint Sets so I would get the coins in good condition. Then buying albums and pages and Cardboard holders to protect them etc. I soon found though that once I bought all the coins the fun went out of the hobby. For an experiment I went on eBay and 'bought' the entire series of mint sets with postage for around $2000 all delivered within a week. When you can do that sort of thing a lot of the fun went out of it for me. I also looked at how much money I was spending on the hobby and how much pleasure I got from it. I found out that I really like hunting down coins, but I really don't like looking at them. I just went back through an old album of coins I had collected from circulation, the coins have all become damaged from the pages (and they weren't old PVC pages, these were all brand name pages from a dealer in 2006 who knew I was a collector and the coins were going to be archived in the pages. I just took the slightly sticky coins out of the holders and spent them, didn't care. I had the fun collecting them from circulation and once I got them all the collection was no fun. Same with banknotes, great fun hunting them down but I never look at them again, I might just as well look at a picture on the screen and save my money. Of course if you are collecting to make money then it makes sense to treat it like a business.
Thanks @mmissinglink and @jislizard. I have started noodling coins and hunting for error and key dates. Got a 2010 upset 50c and 1985 50c so far. Also keeping all the 2016 and 2015 coins until the circulation figure come out. Not buying any silver or gold coins yet.
"It's not the kill but the thrill of the chay-eeya-eeyase" [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7GERh0sQzY[/youtube] .
