Coin collecting can be defined as the collecting and trading of coins or other forms of minted legal tender.
People have been collecting coins since they were first started to be minted. Archaeological and historical records indicate that coins were collected and cataloged by scholars and state treasuries in Ancient Rome and Mesopotamia.
Some coins that are of particular interest to collectors include:
- Coins with mint errors
- Coins that were on placed in circulation for a very brief period of time
Most people collect coins purely as a hobby with no real desire to turn a profit from their efforts. However other people collect coins as a form of investment, the older the coins get the more valuable they become.
Most coin collectors start their interest in collecting coins that they find by chance. These coins are usually either old coins that they have randomly found in circulation or left over change from overseas vacations. Once the collector gains greater interest in collecting they often join a coin club where coins can be traded from dealers or a mint. Due to the incredibly wide variety of coins available most collectors begin to focus their collect of coins in one particular area once they join a coin club. Coin collecting can become quiet competitive within coin clubs as collectors seek to gain bigger and better collections than other people within the club.
In coin collecting the condition in which the coin is in is the main determining factor of its value. Coins that are old but are in very good condition and have been kept and stored correctly are worth more than those which are not. There has been a universal scale developed from 1-70 to indicate the condition of a coin. One is the barely identifiable and seventy is a perfect specimen. This scale helps to standardize the value of coins.




