Today, there are thousands and thousands of people that are enjoying coin collecting and these numbers are continually growing, which is a welcome change from the situation that existed prior to 1999. In fact, ever since the mid sixties, coin collecting as an activity and hobby had been showing signs of decline because of the change in material from which US coins were being made.

Base Metals Replace Silver

When silver was replaced with base metals it became much harder to find suitable old coins and so the interest in coin collecting declined. However, the year 1999 saw the advent of the 50 State Quarters Program when the first State Quarters were issued that honored the US state of Delaware.

This 50 State Quarters Program reignited interest in coin collecting and it led to more people taking up coin collections as a serious hobby. However, the reasons why people become interested in coin collecting are as diverse and different as the coins themselves. People might want to collect coins on account of the fact that those coins were minted in the year that their children were born, or they might start collecting coins with a view to selling them off later when their value appreciates.

The best example of how coin collecting can prove to be a profitable exercise is exemplified in the case of one Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. whose collection of coins, after his death, fetched his heirs a whopping forty-four million dollars.

The best way to start the coin collecting activity is through making a beginning with date-and-mint coin collections. The Lincoln cent that is issued each year is an example of how to go about adding coins to your collection. Or, you might want to collect coins according to certain coin types and rather than collect coins from each year and according to mink-marks it might be a better idea to collect coins from a particular series as well as from a particular mint.

Mint error coins too make ideal coins that every one that is interested in coin collecting should think about including in their coin collections. To make coin collecting easier why not also make use of coin collecting software of which you will come across different types though each will help you with different aspects of coin collecting.

With a little bit of luck, you might even succeed in adding some very valuable and perhaps even rare coins to your collection and then you can reap a tidy profit by selling them off later when they are much in demand and when their value appreciates sufficiently to warrant selling them off.