Coin Collecting and Trading San Francisco CA

Coin collecting is the trading or collecting of coins or other minted forms of legal tender. This usually involves coins that circulated in the public domain for only a short time, coins with errors made during minting and mostly aesthetic or historically significant pieces. Coin collecting is closely related to numismatics, but different in that the former is leisurely while the latter is scholarly in nature. Numismatics is the study of currency.

Hoarding or storing of money has its roots from the beginning of the making of coins. The artistic aspect of it began much later and it was christened as the ‘Hobby of Kings’. Today’s form of coin collecting is believed to have been started in the 14th century by Petrarch, an Italian poet and scholar. Numismatics rose to its top in the late middle ages and early Renaissance because of great demand. During this period, many noble men the likes of European Princes and Kings collected ancient coins. Among the most notable collectors were Ferdinand I, France’s Louis XIV, Pope Boniface VIII, Holy Roman’s Emperor Maximilian, France’s Henry IV and Brandenburg’s Elector Joachim II, who started Berlin’s coin cabinet.

Coin collection values are largely determined by condition of the coin. A high-quality coin is often worth several times over a low-quality coin in any coin auction. This is often the case in many variable types of collectibles the likes of stamps and trading cards. This generalization however has some exceptions. Coin collectors have come up with several systems for describing a coin’s overall condition. Older systems described coins within the ranges of ‘poor’ and ‘uncirculated’.

The American Numismatic Association adopted that system. They still use it even today. The system uses a one to seventy numbering scale, with 70 representing the perfect coin specimen and 1 representing a barely recognizable coin. 60 to 70 is a coin in mint state (MS). 58, 55, 53 and 50 is about or almost uncirculated (AU). 45 and 40 is extremely fine (EF or XF), 35, 30, 25 and 20 is Fine (F). 8 and 10 is Very Good (VG). 4 and 6 is Good (G). 3 is About Good (AG). 2 is Fair (FR, FA) and 1 is Poor (PO, PR). These guide the coin price guide.

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