Silver Coin Collecting – Hobby of Kings

It is in human beings nature to accumulate things but only collectors make it their avocation. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

Coin collection is a serious hobby for many people worldwide. Silver coin collectors can start in childhood but only in ripe old age they comprehend how profitably they invested their money. There are different reasons for people to start their collections and we call them differently: hoarders, who gather whatever silver coins they can get hold of, investors, whose common reason for coins purchase is an investment; and inheritors, who acquire or inherit coins from another person.

Modern silver coin collecting is generally believed to have begun in the fourteenth century in Italy (known as the “Hobby of Kings”). European princes, kings and nobility used to collect ancient silver coins. They were attracted by the mystery and history of ancient Greece and Rome. The 1st denarius of Ancient Rome was made of silver. Why silver? Throughout the history, silver bullion has served as a primary monetary metal, because it is divisible, durable, convenient, has utility value.

In Russia the collecting of coins began in Peter the Great’s reign. Silver money in Old Russia was coined in four counties: Moscow, Tver, Novgorod and Pskov. Nowadays of all this money only 340 Old Russian silver coins are known to collectors.

Coin collectors begin by saving coins they receive in circulation but find interesting. Over time their interest may increase; started as a hobby, their coins can turn out to be an astounding collection.