Once you have decided on an area of interest, don't make the common mistake of catching the "fever" and rushing out to buy expensive coins at first unless you are VERY confident of your grading abilities and market knowledge. Lots of new collectors have been burned by glitzy "commemorative" non-coins, fakes and overgraded material. It's very hard to resist the hype in print ads and Internet auctions when you are eager to start collecting. Instead, start slowly and gradually increase your purchasing level as your skills improve. Lots of attractive higher grade pre 1950 world coins are available for less than $5 each (sometimes MUCH less if found in dealer bargain bins). Within U.S. coins, $1 to $5 per coin should get you most of the following circulation strikes in nice BU condition (MS63): Lincoln cents (1936-date), Jefferson nickels (1946-date except the 1950D), Roosevelt dimes (1952-date), Washington quarters (1965-date) and Kennedy halves (1965-date except the 1970D). In some cases you can step up to nice MS65 examples for just a bit more. Many proof coins in these series are also available in this price range. Quite a few Franklin halves and pre 1965 Washington quarters can also be found EF or better in silver lots at the prevailing multiple of face value based on the current silver market.
USE COMMON SENSE WHEN BUYING CERTIFIED (SLABBED) COINS
Third party grading services have been a part of U.S. numismatics for about 20 years. Some areas of world coins (notably ancients, Canadian, scarcer crowns and world gold) are now being offered in slabs but certified coins are not yet a big part of this market. Reason? Most collectors and dealers of world coins tend to grade much more conservatively than their U.S. counterparts. You just can't survive selling world coins if you overgrade! Grading services have had an enormous impact on U.S. coins since 1986. They have been invaluable in screening out many counterfiet and altered coins from the mainstream marketplace and have restored a good deal of consistency to U.S. coin grading. Detailed coverage of the grading services and how they work can be found in Scott Travers' book "The Coin Collectors Survival Manual". However, under no circumstances should slabbed coins be relied on as a crutch to make up for a collector's lack of grading knowledge! Here are a few facts to be aware of before buying certified coins.
ALL SLABS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
The 4 major grading companies in alphabetical order are: ANACS, ICG, NGC and PCGS. All of them offer consistent grading, excellent counterfiet detection and good marketability of their certified coins. Other services, however, may or may not have an established track record in the numismatic market and their coins often trade at discount prices. CAUTION: some large volume dealers in modern U.S. coins "self-slab" their material - stay away from coins like these!
DON'T BUY UGLY COINS!
Just because a coin is slabbed & graded doesn't mean it will be easier to sell if it's not a nice example. Ignore the stated grade on the slab and judge the coin by your own standards. If it looks unattractive to you chances are other collectors or dealers will think so too so just pass regardless of the offering price. To protect your investment, confine your buying to only high end or "PQ" examples.
WHAT COINS SHOULD YOU BUY SLABBED?
If your grading skills are adequate it makes little sense to pay premiums for certified coins if you collect less expensive circulated U.S. coins, modern proofs or general foreign. However, in certain areas where coins are often faked or altered certification is a cheap insurance policy to protect your investment. Some of the coins that should always be bought certified (or contingent on certification if purchased raw) include: all earlier key date or mintmark U.S. coins and U.S. types that are frequently faked such as Draped Bust, Seated Liberty and Trade dollars, better ancient Roman & Greek coins, scarcer Chinese dollars and Japanese yen, Spanish colonial Pillar dollars and some types of world gold. In quite a few of these areas, counterfiet and altered coins on the market actually outnumber the genuine examples!
ALWAYS CHECK BARGAIN BINS AND JUNK BOXES
One of the greatest thrills in coin collecting is the treasure hunt! Who hasn't dreamed of finding a rare date or scarce type and purchasing it for a fraction of its real value? This happens every day in the world coin field. I do it on a regular basis, with my best find to date being a France 100 Francs 1958 (owl privy mark) in EF. Bought this one out of a dealer's world coin clearance bin for $1 and later sold it for $56! The best places to find coins like these is in smaller local coin shops who do almost all their business in U.S. coins. World coins are a sideline to them and are usually priced to sell quickly. Another place for you to look: most coin dealers have accumulated lots of world silver coins bought along with U.S. collections over the years. The wholesale price for miscellaneous world silver coins is about 80-90% of melt value. When visiting a shop, ask the dealer if he has any of this material and offer to pay full melt or even a premium if he will allow you to pick through the lot. Many of them will be glad to do so. CAUTION: make sure the price you pay is based on the actual silver weight (ASW) found in the Krause catalog, not gross weight of the coins!
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