subject: How to Start Your Coin Collection? [print this page] Coins have been collected by everyone from Julius Caesar and Trajan (both Roman emperors) to U.S. presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Bill Clinton, to millions of "commoners" like us.
You can join those millions of famous and not-so-famous folks of the past and present and have lots of fun collecting coins, but first you need to arm yourself
with some information. Every coin collector builds his collection differently. Some people with less imagination go for the simplest and least interesting coins; others with more derring-do go for the complex and confusing. The good news: There isn't one right way to collect coins, and no matter how you go about it, you can have a good time.
Before you spend a dime on collecting coins, you need a buying strategy. You need to know how to research the coins you're interested in, and how condition, rarity, supply, and other factors influence the coins' values. Most beginning coin collectors get hung up on the coins' values. Don't get us wrong: Value is important, but it's just one of the things you may want to consider when collecting coins. Also important is discovering which coins interest you and building a collection you can enjoy.
When you've decided to give coin collecting a green light, and you've set up a plan for building your coin collection, you'll want to be sure you know how to hold a coin correctly (because if you don't hold it correctly, you could damage it) and how to store your collection (to keep it safe from all the evils that can befall a coin).
