How to Avoid Buying a Fake Coin For Your Coin Collection
When you are just getting started with coin collecting, you will discover that one thing that you have to be wary of is the concept of the fake coin.
The truth is that fake coins are fairly rare, but they do happen, and many experienced collectors have at least one story where they bought a fake coin or where someone tried to sell them one.
If you are new to the hobby, you might find yourself wondering how to protect yourself from people trying to sell you fake coins.
It is actually fairly simple to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth for your coins, if you only remember a few things.
Always know what you are buying.
Never buy a supposedly valuable coin just because you are told that it is valuable!
Instead, make sure that you do your research.
Make sure that you know about the coin itself and about all of the little details that are going to make it unique.
Similarly, to make sure that you do not end up drastically overpaying for the coin, know what other people have bought it for.
Remember that in general, if it is too good to be true, it most often is!
Fake coins are mostly gold and silver coins.
Coins made of gold and silver tend to get a lot more attention and new coin collectors can be easily dazzled.
A quick way to make sure that you are at least getting a coin that is made out of gold and silver is to compare it to another gold or silver coin.
Compare the color of the coin with a coin that you know to be a real thing.
Often the color and the shine of the coin will tip you off; a fake gold or silver coin will often be too shiny.
Similarly, feel the weight of the coin in your hand; gold and silver are much heavier than you might think.
When in doubt at all, take the coin to a reputable dealer.
Someone that you trust can tell you a lot about the coin that you are considering purchasing.
Of course, you should also check into the reputation of the person who is selling you your coin.
They should be willing to offer you a certificate of authenticity and a guarantee that the coin is genuine.
For the most part, most con artists are not going to bother with this scam unless they can make a lot of money quickly.
So you should really only be concerned about the rare coins and not normal, easy to find coins.
How to Care For the Coins in Your Coin Collection
Taking care of your coins is very important; as coins can become worn, if they are not protected.
Reducing the risk of wear or avoiding other contaminates that could damage your coins, is important to maintain their value.
Even breathing on the coins can cause color changes and even some spotting.
You should always keep your valuable coins inside packages which are designed to protect your coins from contamination and wear.
If you ever have to take a coin out of the protective covering; there are certain ways it should be handled.
Never pick up a coin from your collection from anywhere except by its sides.
Finger prints are just as much as a contaminate as the air or breathing on the coin; as moisture comes from your mouth.
If you do so you should only wipe the coin gently with a velvet cloth, then place it on clean soft cloth to insure that it does not get damaged.
Many people do not realize that just cleaning a coin can reduce its value by as much as half the market value.
A great way to display your coins it to use a glass case covered with velvet on the inside.
Another good idea is to have two coins of the same denomination and turn one on the face side and one on its reverse side; this way no one would ever have to have a reason to take the coins out of its case.
Never use abrasive cleaners on your coins.
There are professional cleaners that will not harm your coins; and never rub your coin dry; instead just dab it and air dry it. In many cases some collectors use olive oil to remove finger prints or other foreign objects from their coins.
The coin is then either air dried or by using forced air.
If you do use forced air from an air tank be sure to hold the air nozzle approximately 12 inches away from the coin, as forced air has moisture in it and it may cause some damage to the coin itself.
If you have gold coins that need cleaning the best thing to do is to rinse them in very hot soapy water.
For bronze coins you should soak the coins in olive oil.
Sometimes if the coins are very damaged you may have to let them soak for a few weeks at a time.
For cleaning silver, copper or nickel coins a collector may want to soak them in white vinegar for approximately 5 minutes and then another 5 minutes in lemon juice.
After the coins have soaked; rinse them again under very warm running water.
These solutions will give the coin a bright finish after they are cleaned.
Another important thing to remember is never mix different types of coins together.
For instance, copper may cause other coins to have some discoloring on them and that will reduce the coins value even more, if not cause permanent damage.
There are many coin collectors which state that it is not a good idea to clean your coins at all, unless your coins are only worth the amount of the face value as well as the book value.
They state that any amount of cleaning will damage your coins up to 90% of the value of the coin itself.
They also state that if you purchased a rare coin that is already in a coin holder, and take it out of the holder to clean it, just the contact with the air alone could cause the coin to corrode and reduce it’s value significantly.
The tip is to always take great care handling your coins and if possible you should never touch them directly.
How Are Coins Graded? Why You Need to Know This
Coin grading is the process used to determine the grade or condition of a coin.
The grade of a coin is usually a key component of its value and in most cases, a higher grade often yields a higher value.
Coin collectors often seek higher value coins to satisfy their whims.
It is therefore very necessary for anyone collecting coins to have a reasonable knowledge on how coin grading is actually done.
In the early days of coin collecting, way before the emergence of an international market, coins were described only as good, fine or not circulated.
However, this mode of grading changed drastically by mid twentieth century.
This period saw the introduction of the Sheldon System as a method of grading and was first adopted by the American Numismatic Association in cohorts with other North American Professionals.
The Sheldon system of grading uses the 1 to 70 numbering scale where 70 represents a perfect specimen of a coin and 1 represents a coin that can hardly be identified because of very poor quality.
This system is similar to the Point Numeric System since they both assign numbers to the coins once graded.
The only difference is that the Sheldon System is not just numerical but also descriptive in its approach to assigning grades to coins.
Though universally acknowledged, numerically based systems such as the Sheldon System are shunned by coin experts in other parts of the World and more specifically Europe.
Here, the experts prefer to grade coins using purely descriptive or adjectival terms.
However, it should come as a relief to learn that these two approaches actually use the same terminology and are therefore not very different.
The mint state is the highest grade according to the Sheldon System ranging from 60 to 70.
The coins in this grade are not likely to have traces of wear and always seem to have very few contact marks with other coins or even scratches.
The non-circulated grade ranging from 50 to 58 follows next and retains most of its eye appeal but with less traceable wear on its design.
Next follows the extremely fine grade ranging from 40 to 45 and is characterized with noticeable wear but usually appears to have retained its distinctive features.
‘About good’ is considered the lowest grade in this system.
It is not always easy to distinguish the difference in grades and a level of expertise is usually required for grading.
Even experts do not usually assign the same grade to the same coin.
In certain instances, collectors succumb to the temptation of polishing their coin to pass them off as having higher grade.
The unfortunate result of this is that the coins are damaged in the process and end up with a split grade.
In such cases, the two sides of the coin are perceived to posses different grades, which must be appropriately allocated to them hence the split grading.
7 Steps to Start Coin Collecting
Coin collecting is the gathering or trading of coins or other forms of minted legal tender.
As a hobby, coin collecting began way back in the 14th century when it used to be the indulgence of Kings hence its branding as the ‘Hobby of Kings.’
The Renaissance period saw the reemergence of this hobby amongst the nobility and the super rich.
Collectors are especially keen to gather coins that are rare to get which they treasure and assign a significantly higher value.
There are certain themes or goals that collectors often seek to satisfy when they set out to satiate their indulgence.
Country collectors normally set out to collect coins from one country, usually their own.
Variety collectors set out to collect coins, which vary from the rest by virtue of differences in dies while type collectors gather coins on the basis design variance.
Year collectors seek coins minted in a specific year and yet there are still others who collect on the basis of the metallic composition amongst other criteria.
Anyone wishing to join the ranks of Russel Rulau, who has been collecting coins for ages, must bear in mind the seven steps required to start coin collecting.
The first step of note for a novice coin collector would be to decide which coins you want to collect.
That may impose upon you the need you want to identify with.
However, it is usually safer to start collecting the common types, which are readily available if you are to stay on course to satisfying your thirst.
Secondly, you should invest in a coin-collecting book such as the Whitman Coin Books, which are relatively cheap and satisfies the recommended standard for coin books.
This should be followed by an even more critical step of sorting through your change to find out which coins you already have and would wish to keep.
Such a habit should make it easy for you to retain desirable coins without going through the hustle and bustle of looking for them.
Another important step would be for the collector to head to the bank and trade in cash for rolls of coins.
Such rolls would provide a wide pool from which to select the desired coins with which to fill your album.
It is true you might end up with mostly later date coins but Lady Luck might smile on you and you land on the rare, older coins as well.
The coins you are not interested in can then be returned to the bank in exchange for a new set of coins or for notes.
This way, the pain of collecting the conventional way can be avoided.
Important, too, is for the collector to grow his or her collection with time.
This would certainly necessitate the need to buy additional books or coin storage tubes to safely keep your exotic collection of coins.
The sixth step is for the collector to get a ‘blue book’, which will educate the collector about the various grades.
The last but not least step is for the collector to keep the wares in a safe place.
You may never know when their value would appreciate.
In conclusion, coin collectors are advised to be persistent in their search for rare coins and should not give up easily.
In fact, they should enjoy looking for coins.
They should resist the temptation to buying rare coins but should go out and find them. More on that later.
