subject: Is Coin Collecting Profitable? [print this page] Is Coin Collecting Profitable? Is Coin Collecting Profitable?
Not everyone collects coins for the same reason. There are two primary goals in mind for those who purchase coins. For the person who loves collecting and purchases based on the coins themselves, it is a hobby. Some coins may be bought that have little value above what is stamped on the coin, and it is highly improbable that these will be worth more than a little above the price that was paid for them.
The second reason for collecting is to invest money into something that will remain valuable and bring a return. There is no particular love for the currency, only a desire to make money. Typically, coins are bought with the intent to sell them at some future date.
There's nothing wrong with either of these reasons for collecting coins, and they both can have a profitable outcome for someone. A recent story concerns a collector who had kept his coins in a bank vault where they remained at the time of his death. No one in his family had any interest in coin collecting, so he never confided to them about his collection.
It turned out to be a very valuable coin collection that brought a great return for the family at an auction, even though the collector was not in need of money and just collected because he loved old coins.
If you look closely at the history of coins in the last 25 years, you will see that coin collecting does not normally return high dividends as you would expect from other investments. However, coins do continue to increase in value, making any legitimate purchase almost assured to be worth more in the future.
Only the rarest coins that are sure to bring a premium price when sold should be held for a long period. Lesser currency might be traded more frequently to keep a collection new and interesting for the person who collects as a hobby. A stagnant collection that has nothing new added will not gain in value if the original coins were not very rare.
The educated coin trader can find some valuable coins at estate sales and other places where the seller might have little knowledge of what old coins are worth. Many families have had patriarchs who put coins aside as family collectibles and passed them on to succeeding generations. Knowing the ones that can bring a return can greatly increase the value of a coin collection.
There have been those who weren't even coin collectors who had the blind luck to find a coin or coins that were valuable. This is why it is good to study coins you get in change when you make a purchase.
To answer the question, will collecting coins ever payoff, yes, in some instances. It might not payoff for the person who begins the collection, and it might not happen in one generation, but coin collecting can return a profit as has been indicated by collections of the past. For anyone who loves searching for and procuring old coins, the hobby can be fun and give some amount of return, too.
