How to Learn About Coins & Precious Metals

Coin collecting is both a financial investment and a hobby.

Both coin collecting and precious metal collecting offers you the opportunity to sell your hobby items if you become bored with your new venture. If you want to expand your personal investment portfolio or simply want a new, financially beneficial hobby, you may enjoy studying coins and precious metals prior to investing. Whether your interest is foreign coins, gold bracelets, silver bars or simply coins from a specific year, coins and precious metals are small, portable and easy to store.

Instructions

1. Attend a coin show. Coin shows are held regularly in many large cities and are a collaboration of professional and amateur coin collectors. Collectors get together to sell and buy coins and precious metal items. Although coin shows do consist primarily of rare and old coins, many collectors have gold, silver and other precious metal items for sale as well. Walk through the booths and look at each item. Ask the merchants open ended questions about the care and keeping of precious metals, how to find the best deals on coins and how to improve your collection.

2. Read coin or precious metals publications. Read a variety of books about the history of coins and how to identify different types of coins. Also study books that specifically discuss coin collecting and how to determine whether a coin is valuable or not. If your interest is in precious metals, read a precious metals newsletter, newspaper or mining journal put out by a mining company. This will provide you with up-to-date information on the price of precious metals, as well as current news issues associated with precious metals.

3. Visit precious metal websites. Precious metal websites discuss various aspects of precious metals, such as current prices for buying and selling precious metals, as well as how to care for and store your precious metals. If your interest is not in raw precious metals but in jewelry or other handcrafted items, visit a jewelry website that discusses the type of precious metal jewelry you are interested in.

References

• Mining Journal
• Silver Miners
• "The Expert's Guide to Collecting & Investing in Rare Coins: Secrets Of Success"; Q. David Bowers; 2006.
• Diamond Ideals: Cleaning Precious Metals
• Coin Shows