Assembling a Rare Coin Collection

Are you attracted to the history, beauty, and investment characteristics of rare coins? Rare coin collectors hold history in their hands. Assembling a rare historical coin collection can be a lifelong enterprise, combining the thrill of the hunt with the generation of a tremendously valuable asset. The rare coin collector also serves to preserve these unique pieces, and eventually to pass them on to another preserver of numismatic history.

Rare Coins: A Primer

What makes a coin rare? Most folks have only a vague idea of what this term means when applied to numismatics. According to CoinWeek, there are two criteria that qualify a coin as being rare:

• They have very low mintages, and
• Only a relative few have survived to this day.

Interestingly, not all rare coins are made of gold or silver, either.

A Few Examples of Rare Coins

Let’s look at a few examples of rare coins:

• 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle. The Great Depression was raging in 1933. President Roosevelt took the country’s coinage off the gold standard and confiscated gold coins for remelting. Only about a dozen of these 1933 gold coins escaped confiscation. With a face value of $20, one of these sold at auction in 2002 for over $7 million.
• 1913 Liberty Head Nickel. The Liberty Head Nickel’s last year of its mintage was supposed to be 1912. Five pieces, however, were struck with a 1913 date. In one recent transaction, a specimen sold for over $3 million.
• 1943 Copper Lincon Cent. WW II was in full swing in 1943. Copper was in high demand for the war effort. During that year, lincoln cents were made of a brass-steel alloy instead of copper. A few “accidental” pennies were minted from copper. This is an example of a rather recent rare coin.

If you are new to rare coin collection, make sure you educate yourself well. As you assemble your collection, be sure to work with a trusted, professional numismatic firm. Keep visiting our blog for more informational articles.