Junk Silver Coins and Circulated Silver Dollars Are Worth Hoarding

In times of deep economic crisis, which brings the world into turmoil, people turn to gold, silver, platinum, diamonds or any commodity that will guarantee purchasing power. It is time to start keeping an eye on the junk silver price.

That is because paper money, bonds, deeds and whatever had paper value when the economy was vibrant loses its appeal. Paper values are in real danger of losing purchasing power and this includes money. It is the origin of the saying: "Gold loves bad news".

A good example is the Russian Revolution. When the communist regime took power, most stock holders who owned parts of Russian businesses were wiped out. The once valuable documents had no other value any more than to decorate and be sold as curiosities on Sunday markets or garage sales.

What does this have to do with coins or numismatics?

Well, if you are piling up large amounts of junk silver coin, you might be saving for a rainy day, but you might also be betting on the price of silver reaching records heights on the commodities market.

That is not contrary to logic, as in times of economic crisis, there is more demand for precious metals as refuge values, which invariably pushes the price upwards.

Is is not a bad move. Junk silver American coins minted before 1964 contain 90% silver and include dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars, as did many other coins from other countries in those days, for example, Swiss franc coins.

A bit of quick math will surely make you understand the wisdom of hanging on to junk coin bullion. If you have a kilo of old dimes, then you have the equivalent of 900 grams of silver. Check what the current price for junk silver is today, and you will be amazed at the actual dollar worth your old dimes in terms of precious metals value represent.
Source:ezinearticles.com

How To Collect Rare Coins

Rare coin collecting is one of the few hobbies that are not just a mere pastime or leisure activity.

Coin collecting can get quite fascinating and many people get quite caught up in their hobby..

Coins are often thought of as works of art because of the beauty of their designs
(Some of which are quite exquisite).

In very early days coins were utilitarian and featured just the amount the coin was worth or the Sovereigns head
to enable people who could not read not to be cheated in commerce.

Early coins were mostly made of silver or copper with a few being made of gold or electrum
(an amalgam of gold and other precious metals)

In more recent times the design of the coin has become a portion of its worth to collectors.

Coins will often portray the history of a nation by engraving and important historical event or anniversary
into the design on the coin.

Seldom do people know the secret that coin collecting can also be quite a good way to make money.

Hard to find rare coins can turn out to be valuable and when found can be a good investment.

Rare coins have risen in value by anything from 300% to over 1000%.

So Rare coins that cost $1000 each in the 1970s could now be worth over $50,000 each today on average

This amazing increase in worth outstrips most other investments. (especially stocks and shares !)

So what is the big secret behind the increase in this part of the coin market ?

It is quite simple really, rare coins have always been a good hedge against inflation and recession.

Big investors know this and many have a large piece of their investments in rare collectable coins.

In most unstable conditions (such as we have at present) rare coins maintain their worth.

When Governments seek to stabilise the economy by printing more money,
the value of printed money may lose its value- Zimbabwe is a classical example as was pre-WWII Germany.

Many experts contend that rare coins are a more stable investment evn than gold bullion

since Gold Bullion relies heavily on the daily gold price for its worth.

So What should you purchase ?

Early Coins are my personal choice - Exceptional Quality Roman Coins in Gold or Silver
(yes Roman Gold Coins Do exist !)

My second Choice in Rare Coins would have to be Medieval Gold and Silver Coins of
the period between Edward IIIrd to James Ist as these are possible to obtain and rise steadily in value.
(Gold Coins in this era often fetch astronomical prices)

In American Coins, Early Gold is definitely the area to collect as these are avidly collected and would be
easy to sell if needed. Prices are currently high but may well rise again.

If you prefer to collect Modern Coins then I would suggest sticking to PROOF Coins
As these normally come with a C.O.A (Certificate Of Authenticity). A Proof coin is one that is specially struck and has never been circulated (indeed some proof coins are struck several times to enhance the sharpness of detail on the coin).
Proof coins are normally SLABBED (encased in plastic) and may come with a valuation certificate too.

This article is not intended as investment advice and as with all investments,
coins can go down in value as well as rise.

If you are thinking of collecting rare coins either as a hobby or for other reasons, I suggest
you need reference books to advise you.

Apart from identification you need to know how many of a particular type of coin was produced in order to judge its worth.
Source: articlesbase.com

Feel the Gold Rush with Gold Coins

A lot of people find collecting gold coins as not only an incredibly interesting hobby but a fairly lucrative one as well! Over time, your collection will accure value and parts of it can be sold if you desire. This way, you will have additional income for yourself later in life in addition to a fantastic collection of valuable coins.

1. Face To Face: Coin Collectors Know Best

The internet is home to a lot of gold coin dealers wherein you can meet all sorts of people from all over the world who are into both buying and selling gold coins. Of course, it is a rather convenient venue for you to be able to do your transactions. You must be extremely conscious, however, when it comes to dealing with other gold coin collectors that you will meet through the internet. While there are some real gold coin enthusiasts in the internet, there are also those people who are posing as gold coin collectors and are just looking to rip you off.

2. Why Gold Coins?

The history of gold coins dates as far back as 2,700 years ago. The first gold coins in the world were issued in Lydia around 640 B.C. certain internet websites will provide you with a lot of information about the history of gold coins.

As money, gold coins have been a convenient way for people to do their transactions. Gold was only used for coins that were considered of a higher value. As gold is not the most common ore, it became impractical for gold to be used in the common coin systems of all major countries. This means a collection of gold coins is extremely rare due to the fact that gold coins are no longer being produced.

3. Gold Coins For Investment

- Gold is sensible investment: all major countries use reserves of gold (such as Fort Knox) to maintain their national worth - A highly convenient investment - Physical gold is extremely stable in value

4. Commemorative Coins

When it comes to the commemorative gold coins, since gold is deemed as a highly valuable kind of metal, it is an obvious choice when it comes to making or producing special commemorative coins. In the past, there are sets of gold coins that were just issued to mark coronations as well as other important state events. A lot of financial reserves that are being held by banks are in the form of gold coins. Gold coins are a desired form of a reserved asset since gold coins are not really used for circulation anymore.

5. About Collectors

There are a lot of various gold coin sellers, buyers as well as collectors who are waiting to bid on the best kind of gold coins in the market most especially in the internet. For most gold coins that can be bought as well as sold at prices that are closely related to their intrinsic gold content. The most popular bullion gold coins are the krugerrands as well as the sovereigns.

For most gold coin collectors, there are the highly coveted rare gold coins and a lot of gold coin collectors are interested in these rare gold coins that they will offer high bids just to be able to get their hands on these.

A lot of people who are looking for things to collect are in real treat if ever they try out collecting gold coins most especially because gold coins can be bought in highly excellent and may be in even mint condition for only a relatively low premium over the gold coin's gold content. Also, since the coin is made from gold, it is highly unlikely that it will tarnish or even discolor.

If you are looking into collecting gold coins, first research the various gold coins that are available in the market today. Find out how much they are really worth due to their gold content, and then factor in any additional value to the coin for being rare. Always be on the lookout for fake coins, and have coins appraised by a gold coin expert to avoid large differences in price.

Source:articlesbase.com

Challenge Coin Rules - The Complete Rules Of The Challenge

Challenge Coin collecting is climbing fast in popularity these days. The opportunity to win a free beer or cola encourages both men and women alike to take the challenge. The military has totally started a tradition that proves their soft side, which is satisfied by just having a bottle of beer. There are still a lot of people who don't know the Challenge Coin Rules very well, despite the fact that this is one easy challenge, If you're one of those folks, here's the Challenge rules in a nutshell.
The first rule in the challenge requires you to know the kind of coin used in the game.

A Challenge Coin is not just an ordinary coin that can be found in a key chain, a belt bucket, or attached to a paperweight. It is something that represents a unit organization or a group, and that the coin is safely placed in one's pocket or safe box. However, there is one exception to the Challenge Coin rules. Coins that are placed in a clasp or a holder and then worn like a necklace are an exception to the rule, since these are considered valuable coins - and considered as Challenge Coins.

The challenge begins with either a visual or verbal check.

The visual coin check is done by simply placing your Challenge Coin on a plain surface in a force-sufficient manner. This will alarm everyone that you are putting up a coin challenge. The verbal coin check is done by holding up your coin in the air and expressing your intention to challenge. You have to state it in a loud manner so that everyone in the crowd would know that you are initiating a coin challenge. This is true for the challenger.


If you are the one being challenged, the right response according to the Challenge Coin rules is to simply produce your coin and then present it to the challenger.

Remember, the coin is not just an ordinary coin. It should be an acceptable coin. If you happen to present a coin from a different unit you will take the consequence.

If you did not respond properly to the challenge, you will have to buy the challenger a drink of his choice and all the members who participated in the challenge.

In the reverse side, if all the members responded correctly to the challenge, the challenger will be the one to buy the drinks. If you fail or refuse to buy a drink, you may be subjected to a despicable crime, and you will be required to turn over your coin to the agency where it was issued. There is no right place and right time to initiate the challenge. You can do it anytime you want, wherever you want. You can even do it right in the middle of a long walk.

Now that you know the Challenge Coin Rules, be sure to carry your coin at all times if you do not want to spend a couple of bucks to buy drinks. But, just in case you're not sure about your coin, it's also a good idea to carry some money in your pocket!

You can find great deals and selection on Quality Challenge Coins For Sale such as the Coast Guard Challenge Coin at:
http://ChallengeCoin.org
Source:articlealley.com

U.S. Imposes Restrictions on Importing Cypriot Coins

In a move that some coin collectors fear could eventually make it difficult to pursue their passion, the United States government has imposed import restrictions on ancient coins from Cyprus. It is the first time the United States has limited trade in a broad category of coins as part of an effort to guard the cultural heritage of another country.

The new rules, which were adopted last week and went into effect on Monday, would essentially bar the importation of any ancient coin from Cyprus unless authorized by the Cypriot government. The limits are part of a broader agreement between the United States and the Republic of Cyprus to extend for five years existing restrictions on the import of pre-classical, classical and Byzantine art and artifacts from the island.

The new rule is only the latest development in a debate involving archaeologists, collectors and art dealers over how best to preserve antiquities and encourage appreciation of the past.

Cyprus has said the restrictions are necessary to combat the looting of cultural and archaeological sites, particularly in the northern part of the island, which has been divided from the south since Turkey invaded in 1974.

Archaeologists frequently use coins to help them date ancient sites; they say that treasure hunters using metal detectors to look for coins often wreck potentially important archaeological discoveries.

“We are very pleased coins have been added to this,” said Cyprus’s ambassador to Washington, Andreas Kakouris. “Coins constitute an inseparable part of our own cultural heritage, and the pillage they are subjected to is the same as other archaeological material.”

Numismatic associations had argued before a State Department advisory committee that import restrictions on ancient coins could not fairly be enforced. Coins minted in Cyprus were found throughout the ancient world, the collectors asserted. They said it would be impossible for customs officials to determine whether a coin came from Cyprus or elsewhere and whether it had been legitimately excavated.

Coins do not customarily carry the kinds of provenance documents that accompany other art and antiquities.

The collectors also expressed concern that the agreement would encourage other countries, including Italy, home to troves of Roman-era coins, to ask for similar restrictions. If such limits “were applied to Italy, for example, that could be quite devastating to numismatists, particularly ancient-coin collectors,” said Jay Beeton, a spokesman for the American Numismatic Association.

The Archaeological Institute of America, which wrote to the State Department in support of Cyprus’s request for new import restrictions, disputes that there was widespread dissemination in centuries past of Cypriot currency.

“Coins minted on Cyprus were very rarely taken from the island in antiquity,” the association’s president, C. Brian Rose, wrote in a February letter to the State Department’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee. “If one examines the discoveries at officially sanctioned excavations in the countries that surround Cyprus, such as Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and even Israel, one can see how infrequently Cypriot coins figure among the finds.”

But the coin collectors said they saw little reason for the State Department, which had exempted coins from previous import bans on antiquities, to suddenly reverse course.

“This decision shows that the Department of State is putting the narrow interests of the cultural bureaucracies of foreign states and the archaeological community over those of ordinary Americans who believe that collecting increases appreciation of the past and helps preserve artifacts,” said Peter K. Tompa, a lawyer who has represented numismatic groups before the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.

A State Department spokeswoman, who under the department’s rules could not be identified by name, defended the government’s decision to include coins, saying they were a key component of the “pre-classical and classical archaeological heritage of Cyprus that is subject to pillage from context and to illicit trafficking.”
Source:nytimes.com

Gold Turkish Coins - A Neglected But Valuable Gold Coin

Why would you want to consider adding Gold Turkish coins to your investment portfolio? Many western collectors tend to neglect these gold coins when accumulating bullion because the inscriptions on most earlier coins were in Arabic style, making them hard to identify. This could be a big mistake! Why?

Because people have ignored these gold coins for so long, you can buy many of them cheap. Why is this good news? For the simple fact that not many people collect them. That means there are some rare and valuable coins floating around out there that may be purchased for a song!

Coin collectors have long known that they could potentially be sitting on a gold mine, so to speak. Gold is one of the most notorious markets for holding its value, even during a declining economy. While other markets take a dive, gold is steady and many times increases in value - very good for collectors.

Gold Turkish coins come in many denominations including Serifi, Tek, Mahbub, Piastres, Sultani, Istanbul and Dort to name a few. While they may not be as valuable as some other selections, they will add value to any portfolio. Also, with these coins being less desired by other collectors, you have the potential to come across one of the rare, highly valuable coins.

No matter where they come from, collecting gold coins and bullion is a very smart move. There aren't many ways you can invest in your financial future that are as sure as gold coins. Since they practically never decrease in value and often rise in worth, years from now you could have quite a fortune on your hands!

Of course, collecting older coins is a way to build value faster because they are worth more than newer ones. Usually the older they are, the more valuable. Always take care when handling your coins, because some can show wear from simple handling, and this can lower the value of your collection.

No matter what type of collection you have or what countries your coins are from, you should always add as much variety as possible. Any gold at all only increases the value, so why not add Gold Turkish coins to your collection?
Source:ezinearticles.com

Coin Shops are the Best Way to Get Good Quality Coins

Coins are for the most part very fascinating items to collect. And for the interested coin collector, this is one of the best ways to understand the various conditions in history that resulted in the coins being minted. While there are many ways that you can buy coins for a coin collection the best way to get good quality coins in which to begin your coin collection is with coin shops.

These coin shops will have lots of different coins that can be sold, displayed for personal or business reasons, and the coin chops will have people who are knowledgeable about coins. In some cases the person who is selling and buying various coins in the coin shops will also be coin collectors themselves. This means that you will find a person who shares your interest in coins.

Sometimes when you go to coin shops you can ask these coin dealers if they will see what your coin collection is like. The coin appraisals that are carried out in coin shops are different from one coin shop to another. This situation arises because the coin grading is based on the knowledge that is known to the coin dealers. As you will find as many honest coin shops as you will dishonest coin shops, it is always best to look for a coin shop with a good reputation.

When you go to the various coin shops that are in your area you should look at what type of coins they have in stock. As you may like to add more civil war or colonial time coins to your collection you can look for coin shops that sell these coins in addition to buying them.

There will also be occasions when you will find coin shops that buy, sell and deal with coins of a certain metal. As there are some coins that are made from gold, silver and platinum you should see if these coin shops can locate dealers or con collectors who will be able to sell you these coins.

Of course you will be able to find online coin shops as well. These coin shops are supposed to make life easier for the coin collector. While they are convenient for you to choose the coins that you want for your collection from the comfort of your own home, you will have no way at looking at the coins and seeing if you will want them in your collection.

There are also times when you may fall victim to coin shops which have very little experience in selling coins. These types of coin shops are ones that you should avoid as you will be swindled out of our money.

Paying top dollar for low value coins is not the way you want to go. So, as with anything in life, you should look carefully at the reputation of the coin shops which you’re looking at to purchase coins, before making any final decision.
Source:articlesbase.com

Coins in the New Realm

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

A Treasure Travels, Inconspicuously

They didn’t exactly hire two guys with a truck to secretly move one of the world’s largest and most valuable coin collections over the weekend in Manhattan. But they did use five standard-issue moving vans.

No armored-car convoys. No helicopter gunships. No National Guard outriders flourishing automatic weapons. Just sweaty movers, in blue shirts with their names stitched at the front, schlepping 425 plastic packing crates that were filled with treasures trussed in humble bubble wrap and garden-variety vinyl packing tape.

Yes, the New York Police Department provided an escort, but during more than eight hours on Saturday, one of the great hoards of coins and currency on the planet, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, was utterly unalarmed as it was bumped through potholes, squeezed by double-parked cars and slowed by tunnel-bound traffic during the trip to its fortresslike new vault a mile to the north.

In the end, the move did not become a caper movie.

“The idea was to make this as inconspicuous as possible,” said Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director of the American Numismatic Society. “It had to resemble a totally ordinary office move.”

The collection of 800,000 coins, bank notes, medals, commemorative badges, pins, historic advertising tokens, campaign buttons and other artifacts has been amassed during the 150-year existence of the nonprofit society.

It was transported from the society’s high-security headquarters at 96 Fulton Street, in the former Fidelity and Deposit Company building at the corner of William Street, to its future home, a secure $4 million vault and exhibition space 22 blocks away, on the 11th floor of One Hudson Square, at Varick and Canal Streets.

Even as the moving vans shuttled back and forth, the society’s 14 employees began the endlessly tedious work of unpacking the boxes. They began freeing 12,000 metal trays full of coins from their quarter-inch foam packing, then stacking them in their new locations in custom-built cabinets in a vault erected on the concrete floor of a former printing building.

The society’s holdings rival the comprehensiveness and rarity of those in the Smithsonian Institution and comprise “one of the world’s great collections, the equivalent of those in Berlin, Paris and the British Museum,” said Christopher S. Lightfoot, an associate curator in the department of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“It is a vast, encyclopedic collection of the highest quality,” he added.

Of the collection’s value, Dr. Wartenberg Kagan said, “It is priceless because it has so many unique pieces,” adding with deliberate vagueness that experts had valued it in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The collection “is incredibly valuable, so you can understand why they don’t want to publicize exactly how much,” said Rosemary Lazenby, curator of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

During the move, coded numbers on each sealed crate were checked again and again, and “nothing fell off a truck,” said Andrew R. Meadows, the society’s deputy director.

Society staff members were pledged to secrecy about the timing of the move, and “we didn’t tell our movers what the cargo was until the morning of,” said James McVeigh, operations manager of Time Moving and Storage Inc. of Manhattan, referring to the crew of 20 workers.

“How could you not think that there are crazy people out there who want to do crazy things?” he added, noting that he spent six months planning the move with his brother, Tom, another manager of Time Moving.

And so as bright orange rubber-wheeled crates concealing fabulous doubloons rumbled out onto the sidewalk, pedestrians obliviously headed into the Duane Reade two doors away at 130 William Street.

Amid much shouting and hand gesturing, the moving vans barely squeezed past a parked Duane Reade truck on the narrow street as the drivers maneuvered past water and gas main renovation work on Fulton Street.

Then, before arriving at their loading-dock destination on Watts Street, the trucks had to battle Holland Tunnel approaches clotted with weekenders on the way to the Jersey Shore.

“It’s our first coin collection,” said a New York police detective, Gregory Welch, of Emergency Service Unit Truck One, which shadowed the move with hidden heavy weapons “just in case,” along with patrol cars from the First Precinct. He said his unit was accustomed to protecting Federal Reserve gold transfers and gem shipments in the Midtown diamond district.The numismatic society, which has about 2,000 members, was founded by a group of New York collectors in 1858. Thanks to the discovery and minting of gold in California and the development of new federal coinage, interest in coin collecting — as well as the size of the society’s collection — grew quickly. By 1908, the society had its first permanent home, in a neoclassical building next to the Hispanic Society of America on Audubon Terrace at 155th Street and Broadway.

Portions of the collection — which grew through donations from the society’s members and officers — were long on view. But a decline in its finances starting in the 1970s resulted in a whittling down of the staff, and the society considered shutting its doors, Dr. Wartenberg Kagan said. However, she added, an infusion of new board members and wealthy donors has given it a current endowment of $45 million.

In 1998, the society bought the seven-story Fulton Street building for $6.5 million and reopened its doors to scholars in 2004, but the growing cost of renovations in the antiquated structure proved too great to provide an exhibition space, Dr. Wartenberg Kagan said.

So the society lent hundreds of its rarest and most valuable holdings to a museum in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as some 250 gold and silver coins to the Metropolitan.

The society sold its building this year for $23.9 million, “which was mostly for the endowment, and some for the build-out in the new space,” Dr. Wartenberg Kagan said.

The oldest item in the society’s “cabinet” (the coin-maven word for collection) is one of the first coins ever produced, made of gold-silver alloy and issued around 650 B.C. by a Lydian king who was an ancestor of Croesus.

There is also a 2,000-year-old gold aureus coin of the Roman Emperor Augustus; a gold stater of Alexander the Great, dating to about 330 B.C. (minted in Babylon from Persian loot); and one of the rarest examples of Confederate States currency, a $1,000 note printed in Alabama in 1861. Fewer than 700 were printed.

The society also has a library of 100,000 books, pamphlets, manuscripts, catalogs and other items, which will open to the public in September.

The new, 20,000-foot space, with its 14-foot ceilings, has panoramic views north to the Chrysler Building and west to the Hudson River and will have a climate-controlled rare-book room, conference and lecture spaces, administrative offices and an exhibition hall.

“Our collection is amazing, and much of it has not been on view,” Dr. Wartenberg Kagan said. The first exhibition, celebrating the society’s 150th anniversary, is to open in October.

The society “deserves a new home, where its holdings can be displayed to the public,” said Ms. Lazenby of the Federal Reserve, which has exhibited parts of the society’s collection in recent years in the bank’s admission-free coin museum, in its massive iron-barred neo-Florentine building at 33 Liberty Street.

All day Saturday, after the movers put the crates in place, workers quietly and steadily unpacked the coins, some golden and gleaming, others dulled by the centuries. For long stretches, the only sounds were the popping of tape and bubble wrap, the squawk of trays sliding into cabinets and the very occasional ring of a coin bouncing on the concrete floor, accidentally tipped from its tray. Instantly work would cease as the errant coin was hunted down and restored to its niche, undamaged.

Finally, after the massive doors and gates of the vault slammed shut, Dr. Wartenberg Kagan expressed gratitude to the police and the heroic efforts of her staff, and gave the order for the alarm to be armed. “To say I’m relieved,” she said after the lockdown, “is putting it mildly.”
Source:nytimes.com

What Traits and Marks Determine Coin Values

Coins are for the most part collected by various individuals because they look good. There are other coin collectors who collect these coins because there is some value that they can get from the coins. There are certain coin values that are placed on the coins before these coins can be bought or sold by coin collectors and coin dealers. The coin values are based for the most part on the various coin grading systems that are currently used.

These coin values must be looked at carefully before any price is fixed for the coins. The best way to ensure that you are getting a good deal is to therefore have enough information about coins and coin collecting known. In addition if you can read books that deal with coin grading and coin values you will have a pretty good idea of what traits and marks are looked at by coin dealers before they buy any coins from you.

Once you have understood the various information that you have found you should take your coin collection to a coin shop and ask for a coin appraisal. These coin appraisals are an extremely good way of finding the coin values for the various coins in your coin collection. Since coin appraisals are based on the knowledge that is known by the valuer you will need to have several coin appraisals carried out.

Of course you should understand that the coin values are based on the physical condition of the coins. For this reason if you get any coins that seem to be dirty or in poor condition then you should not attempt to clean them. This is because the cleaning process can cause damage to the coins. Instead you will need to take them in their as-is state and let the professional numismatist see what the coin values are like.

Since the coin market is always changing you should leave your coin collection’s selling prices intact until you are satisfied that you have found the best possible coin values for your current coin collection. Knowing the coin values will help you to decide if you are going to buy some more coins for your collection. The various coin values that you will see are indications if the coins are going to be able to be sold as you want.

Therefore the next time that you feel that you want to see what the full value of your coin collection is like you should have a coin appraisal done for your entire collection. From these coin appraisals you can then find out what the various different coin values are for your coins. If you send your coins in for appraisal or grading, you will also find that besides the different coin values your coins will also come back slabbed, or sealed in its own little case for better protection.
Source:articlesbase.com

Numismatic and Coin Collecting Resources on the Internet

Collecting coins is known as the hobby of kings, but anyone can get started as a casual collector. A natural place to begin is the United States Mint website, www.usmint.gov. This website includes a consumer awareness page that will be helpful to the beginner, with lots of information on US Mint programs, tips for evaluating coins, FAQs on coin collecting, and other great information for any collector.

This site also includes a section on the history of US coins and the United States Mint, which has been in operation since 1792. The site also offers news about coins as well as offering coins for sale directly from the mint.

CoinCollector.org
Another comprehensive website is coincollector.org. This is a fairly comprehensive coin collecting site. In addition to the informative FAQs section, they offer an online coin gallery of unusual coins for sale, including:
half-cent coins
two-cent coins
twenty-cent coins
three dollar gold coins

This site will help collectors understand how to evaluate a coin, and offers some insight on so-called “error” coins. There are also good links on finding local coin dealers, and other coin collecting information. The site even includes instructions for achieving a merit badge in numismatics.


NumismaticNews.net
Numismatic News is a weekly magazine that also offers a free eNewsletter available at numismaticnews.net . The eNewsletter contains articles about newly available coins; error coins and has a classified section. The site offers lots of information on numismatic shows throughout the United States, including the popular Chicago International Coin Show and the MidAmerica Coin Expo.

The news section of this site is geared towards the more advanced coin collector and investor, but the information would be of interest to anyone with an eye toward collecting, or towards learning more about the collection they have. Readers can subscribe to the weekly magazine for special online rates.

There are a number of other sites devoted to this fascinating hobby. You can find sites dedicated to ancient coins, foreign coins, the history of coin collecting, contemporary coins, proof sets, mint set, collecting gold coins, and investment coins. In fact the amount of sites dedicated to the hobby is almost overwhelming.

Many sites have links that provide numismatic resources for grading coins, supplies for coin storage and coin labeling, and for valuing collectible coins. Books for sale, reference libraries and software for sale are resources on many coin-collecting websites.
The Internet is also a good place to get information about seminars and coin conventions.

In addition to these informational sites, there are a number of retail sites offering coins for sale. Some of these feature new mint and proof sets and contemporary collections; others specialize in historic and ancient coins; and still others offer a variety of coins from small, personal collections and unusual pieces.

The Internet provides collectors with options of buying and selling coins, via online auctions or retail shops. You can locate a dealer and verify his reputation, buy and sell coins on-line through stores or through auctions. The Internet is often more reliable than mail order buying because the coin can be scanned into the Internet and the picture is clearer.

To connect with other collectors throughout the world, the Internet is a great resource. The chat rooms and bulletin boards focusing on coin collecting afford the collector unlimited opportunities to pose questions and receive advice, make comparisons and learn how to upgrade your collection.

If you are a beginner coin collector, or have been doing this for years, you are sure to find a number of sites online that offer solid information.

Do you already have a coin collection or you are looking to increase the value of your collection, as I have, by 20% in two months, http://topcoincollectingtips.com/coin-history is the best place to find coin collecting tips, tricks and secrets.
The free reports on the website and ebook, are worth looking into.

Source:articlealley.com

Ten Dollar Gold Eagle Coin - Diversify With The Gold Eagle

Is the Ten Dollar Gold Eagle Coin part of your gold portfolio? With the current decline in stocks, bonds, and other investments, now is a great time to consider investing in this magnificient piece. While the dollar has lost value in recent years, gold has increased in price and value. This is just one very important reason why you should think about making this gold coin a part of your bullion portfolio. Adding gold and silver coins to your collection is a safe-haven investment. Gold doesn't corrode, rust, tarnish or dull with age. In fact, it is one purchase you can make that is certain to make you more financially secure in the future. Recently, there has been an unprecedented demand for gold and silver in the United States. There are few investments these days that are virtually risk free, but collecting gold coins is an exception. Putting together a coin portfolio is one of the safest and most risk free ways you can invest your savings. Of course, the value of your gold coins depend on the uniqueness and rarity of your pieces. If you are a collector you probably know that in 1933 gold coins ceased to be minted as an attempt to improve the economy during the depression. Most coins were melted, which is the reason for the scarcity and rarity of some of these coins. Why should you include the ten dollar gold eagle coin? It has maintained its worth over a long period of time, and will continue to appreciate in value. Over time, you will accrue a very valuable portfolio by adding unique and rare coins to your collection. You can actually secure your future by having a good collection of gold and silver coins. Usually, the value will only increase, and your portfolio can be sold at a huge profit. This is the perfect way to insure that you will have a happy, financially stress-free retirement. Gold is extremely stable in value, and since gold coins are no longer produced it makes sense to secure your pieces as soon as possible. This lets you avoid either paying too high of a price later on, or not being able to get your hands on one at all. No portfolio is truly complete without the ten dollar gold eagle coin - add this must have to your collection!

Source: articlealley.com