Collecting coins is one of the most absorbing and fascinating hobbies ever. Well, at least for me! Although most collectors start when they’re still kids, I started collecting coins well in my twenties. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. At first, I thought they would be a nice investment and that my then newborn son could make a nice profit from them as an adult.

A couple of months later, it became a serious passion, and I don’t let my son near my coin collection! I don’t see them as and investment anymore, and I’m striving to complete my first national collection.

Coin collecting is considered, by some people, to be an expensive hobby, but in fact, you can get valuable coins at a reasonable price, depending on the type of collector you are.

If you are starting in the world of coin collecting, I’d recommend you do some research on auction sites, numismatic sites and the likes, so to have an idea of how much a certain coin may be valued. Once I found a Spanish 1867 copper in a very good condition for less than a dollar. If you are in the U.S. a good starter are Wheat Pennies. They’re easy to get, they aren’t expensive (you can get one for about 2 cents) and they have a great possibility to increase its price in the future.

Another starting point is uncirculated coins from different countries. When coins are minted their value is just the face value (one 2006 dollar coin is valued at one dollar now), but if they are kept in well, they will increase their value with time. Sometimes it may get years for them to have a market price good enough for you to sell them and make a good profit, but uncirculated coins are the most sought after in the market.

But if you are thinking of investing a larger amount of money, then you should narrow your scope, in order to maximize your investment and your fun. For instance, you can try collecting coins depending on their design, the country, the year and even the metal it’s made.

I know several collectors whose collection is on animals, regardless of the country. The good thing is, that animals is a popular motif for coins, and, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and beautiful.

In my case, I decided to focus my collection on my country’s coins and here’s why: my country is relatively young (less than 200 years), and it’s quite small, so mints are small, too (this is the number of coins that are minted, the smaller a mint, the rarer a coin is).

If a country is small, most coins are going to be easy to find and relatively cheap (most of my country’s coins are valued at less than 30 dollars). There’s a limited number of unique coins (several hundreds instead of thousands), so it won’t take me hundred of years to get them all!

 If mints are small, then they may get a higher price in the future, so they are a nice investment as well. I don’t care if the get a good price in the future, really, but I usually buy more than one from each coin, as an investment, or to trade them with other collectors. I also buy coins from other parts of the world that I may trade or sell in the future.

Where to start is up to you. Think about what you’d like to see or have. Once you get started you’ll get caught by this beautiful hobby. And remember, you don’t need too much money to get started.