Robert R. VanRyzin - U.S. Coins Close Up: Tips to Identifying Valuable Types and Varieties

One of the undeniable joys of collecting, whether it be antique furniture, art glass, modern art, comics, movie posters, stamps or, in this case, money, is the thrill of the hunt. It often seems more important and exhilarating than the actual possession of the item that was so fervently and diligently sought.

You can find yourself looking through catalog after catalog of auction lots, examining specimen after specimen, to find that one special item the one that in many ways completes your collection and is, in fact, that special piece few others can possess or have the wisdom to do so. This is what ties all collectors together: the common pursuit of the seemingly unobtainable that, once obtained, justifies the collectors existence, the long hours of pursuit, the looks of non-comprehension from non-collectors, including spouses, who sometimes question the outlay of funds to acquire that special collectible.

I, for example, especially enjoy the hunt. It sometimes consumes me. It sometimes makes me raise my bid higher than my preset limit to acquire an object of my desire. It makes me spend money on items that sometimes, frankly, I should have avoided. But when caught up in the hunt, theres nothing that can keep me from going after that seemingly life-affirming collectible that has presented itself to me.

If Ive learned one thing bidding in auctions and buying collectibles in general, it is that its easy to talk yourself into anything. Perhaps this little mark on a coin or medal isnt that bad. Or, worse yet, this item has to be rare since I havent seen it before, or because estimates are that this many or that many exist, or that this many or that many are the only ones graded this high. Plus, theres the inevitable: I may never get another chance to obtain this collectible. So if you are just entering the hobby, youll soon learn as I did, that you have to gain as much knowledge of what youre buying or attempting to buy as you can in order to protect yourself from making a bad decision.

For instance, just knowing how many of a given item were minted or how many were released to the public isnt always good enough. There may have been more melted or worn, hoarded or exported than another date and mint of the same denomination. Changes in a design during a given year could have led to a rare type or a scarce mintmarked issue. Also, minting processes at this or that mint might have caused an issue to be only encountered fully struck on a scarce number of pieces.

Out of necessity, you have to become an expert. In doing so, you learn there is no better teacher than study and studying the topic close up. To do so, you will need not only good sources of information, such as books and periodicals, but also an understanding of the minting process. One of the best ways to begin to do this is to grab a magnifying glass and dive right in. With a good glass, youll quickly discover the difference between lines on the surface of a coin added during the minting process and those produced after a coin left the mint, either by damage or artificial means. Youll also learn to spot wear and to distinguish it from strike weakness.

Ive always found it fun to look at coins under high magnification. I like seeing signs of metal flow from the original striking and examining details such as mintmarks and their styles close up. There are those in the hobby who say a low power magnifying glass is a collectors best friend. I like a high power, 10x minimum glass to explore a coin, medal or token. My recommendation is to try both, but I think youll find that viewing the surface through high magnification, as you will hopefully see in this book, will not only make the distinction of key varieties easier, but will also prove to be part of the fun of the hobby.