Facts on Coin Collecting and Collection Themes That You Can Choose

According to history, Egyptian King Farouk and Roman emperors were among the first coin collectors. They collected a large number of coins in their palaces and castles. Over the years, the concept of coin collecting has changed and common people have become coin collectors. In fact, the competition between these collectors is quite fierce and this makes the price of rare coins always increase. A single coin can hundreds of thousand and even millions of dollar, which shows that coin collectors will do anything necessary to get the coin that they want.

Coin collecting themes

Some coin collectors are generalists, which mean that they collect bits of everything, but others are very specific and this creates coin collecting themes. The country theme is one of the common ones. The purpose of this theme usually is to collect coins from as many countries as possible. Traveling has become easier nowadays and thus it is easier to collect coins from different countries. Internet and online friend network can also be used to get foreign coins.

A year theme is fairly common as well where coin collectors used the year when the coin was minted as the basis of their collection theme. A variation of this theme is to collect a coin denomination from the first to the last model. When collectors complete all models from a coin denomination, they will continue with other denominations. This theme is closely related with period theme where the basis of the collection is the period when the coin was minted. Common period collections are collecting coins from Victorian era and Greek period.

Prior to the 19th century, coins were hand minted and it was pretty common for coins to have errors. Today, these errors have become one of coin collecting themes as well. Another coin collection theme is mintmark differences between coins. Mintmarks that are rare and difficult to produce will have higher value than the common ones.

Subject, for example like a figure of animals on the coin, can become a coin collecting theme as well. Composition or the type of metals that a coin was made from is another common theme. You will find that it is common for a coin to have two or even three metals combined.

Whatever the theme is, many coin collectors like to compete between each other because they want to outdo their compatriots. They brag when they have completed a rare set of coins that is available nowhere. This situation has made coin collecting a fascinating and an expensive hobby.