I'm a huge history nerd and am interested in changing directions of my collection to have more pre-1933 coins (I'd love to focus on the 19th century). I see there's a lot on the standard stores. Is that the best place to get them?
ETA: While I am definitely open to all times, I mostly focus on American history and am leaning towards that. I do need to pick up some ancients, though.
Posted Nov 29, 2017, 7:40 PM UTC · edited
If you like history you would love ancients, nothing like holding a 2k+ year, coin in your hand.
I have most of the Red Books at this point and they have been helpful. Coinweek, both the site and their YouTube channel, have been great.
A while ago I decided to stop buying semi-numismatic silver and my love of history lead me to classic US silver commemoratives. They haven't performed as well as other coins as far as going up in value over time, but they feature a lot of figures from history that will probably never be on US coinage again.
Now I'm pretty much obsessed with classic US coinage to the point that I am not even sure what series to focus on.
Research as much as possible before you start buying and always buy the best coin you can afford.
That's good advice.
I'm not really buying coins for an investment. I mean, I hope they go up drastically, but as long as it covers the premium if I have to sell then I'm a happy camper. The main purpose is I like buying cool things but at least this way I'm not wasting money.
Just discovered the Coinweek podcast a month ago, listened to a ton of backlogged episodes, and have learned a lot. Really interesting show!
I dont buy many coins online, only times i do is over on r/pmsforsale from a few of the users who regularly list up foreign silver. I get a majority of my odd ball/ old coins from flea markets and whenever I need to figure out what country it's from I check Numista.com to get more detailed information than a quick google search typically reveals
Find yourself a good LCS. That's where the best deals are found.
I own a few ancients, and I have to admit that they are my favorites!
I want to see raw numismatic coins in-hand -- at coin shops, coin Shows, pawn shops, estate sales, craigslist.
Slabbed & graded numis I mostly buy online -- but the photos must be decent (and a return policy helps). Of course there's ebay. And for higher-end numis, I've bought a few from auction houses like Heritage, Great Collections -- but the fees are steep and sometimes bid-idiots pay stupid money... don't they know I wanted that coin? :)
Thanks for all the answers. It seems like I need to find an LCS to look around with. I also have the Red Book so I need to review that quite a bit.
Internet and I got a couple of excellent coin books. Really do your research on the books. Some are very general and are outdated within a month of publishing others give decent estimates on prices and give you things to look for.
I really like Monaco. (https://www.monacorarecoins.com/).
I've been a customer for years.
They're not just resellers, they have teams actively hunting for them in ruins/shipwrecks, and their founder is an avid book writer (they'll just give you many of their books for free if you ask nice).
You can always work with the same seller and they'll judiciously build a profile for you of exactly what you want and call you when something fits the bill. Or you can just buy from their site.
I can't vouch for their prices as you're buying numismatics, mot bullion. So the idea of "spot price" different really apply.
I don't down much buying outside them so I don't have a good feel if they're grossly overpriced or fair. But the service is fast as he'll and the pieces are gorgeous.
I personally collect antiquity coins (my oldest is 2300 years old). And it's in stunning quality. But they do everything from the very ancient to civil war, revolution, WWI, etc.
I'll have to take a look at them. Thank you for the recommendation.
Thanks for that link. I am interested as well. Any idea how their prices compare to Apmex or the other mainstream online stores?
In really don't. I buy from APMEX too (and Provident Mint) but I buy such different things from each one.
APMEX and Provident Mint I get 1oz rounds/bars. I pick up specialty cast pieces like the Four Horsemen series, etc.
Monex (Monaco's sister company) I buy my 100oz bars. And then from Monaco it's all shipwreck and ancient coins.
So I really have never price compared like for like between the various companies.