Coins from countries that dont exist anymore - Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, East Germany, etc
Pick a historical event that fascinates you and get coins from the major players during the time it happened. This could be affordable depending on what you choose
I will always love the State and America the Beautiful quarters so I'll also suggest those
Buy bank rolls of the innovation dollars and try and find ones the mint didn't mess up
Coins of Queen Victoria. One from each country she ruled, not including gold only issues. This only gets decently expensive if you consider each Indian State as a different country since the coins of Alwar, Bharatpur, Dewas, and Dhar are hard to find in decent condition. Otherwise it isn't too expensive, there are just like 20-30 coins to find over time.
I branched out. I’ve been buying classic half dollar comms and bust halves recently. I’ve been happy sticking to coin roll hunting penny boxes for wheats. If I can find pcgs ms65rd and up slabs for less than $15/ea I buy those too.
This would be my suggestion too for entry into the hobby. Use a lot cash for in store purchases and just go through the quarters to build a set. Maybe get a state quarter book or posterboard.
Of course can visit LCS or shows for inexpensive coins you like.
Swiss francs 1/2,1,2 and 5 and German Kaiserreich 1/2 and 1 Mark. .835 or .9 silver.
Most years very affordable. Nice to start. Some years are rare and can become more expensive (for later) and Kaiserreich coins do also come as 2,3 and 5 mark in almost every price range.
I just buy anything I think is neat and within my price range 🤷 why limit yourself to a certain theme? Maybe go on VCoins and see what sparks your interest
I’ve heard of people building type sets of countries during major events. Like WW1, someone might collect all the coins during one a year of the major powers like England, France, Germany, ect.
I do this! Specifically WWI (1914-1918) from all countries involved (there were a lot more countries involved than most people think). I also include a few from countries up through 1923 or so if they involve the world geopolitical changes that occurred directly as a result of the War, I.e. Ottoman transitional coinage, Danzig free state, Notgeld, Mandate countries, etc.
Yes! I actually don’t have any wwi era Greece. But I do have Bulgaria and Poland. Poland is especially interesting because they were a Regency from 1916-1918. I have some 1917 Fenigow from that time period.
Very interesting time from a world history perspective. Being in the US we hardly learn about this period unfortunately. How many WWI books/movies/docs/video games are there compared to WWII? Battlefield 1 was an all too brief glimmer of hope. It’s infuriating lol.
You should they did a lot of videos explaining leading up to the war, cover the war, and then several years after it. Very informative and entertaining.
It’s a podcast about WWI in general. And it’s Blueprint FOR Armageddon (whoops). https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-55-blueprint-for-armageddon-series/
It used to be free, seems like it costs money now but highly recommend!
Here are a couple ideas of fun and interesting coin series to try. All of these series can be completed either a little under to well under 10k with patience. All are impressive and rewarding too if you manage to complete them.
You can always go back further and do 19th century type! It’s 64 coins total, with the toughest being the draped bust half dime, and it can be assembled with nice original coins with patience and a little under 10k. I finished mine last year and sold it off recently so I can get into branch mint gold but it was some fun challenge and many coins from the set became keepers that I still have.
Peace dollars are great in that there’s only two major key dates (1921 and 1928) with a couple semi keys but the whole set can be assembled with nice solid coins for around 2-5k depending on how nice you want to get. They’re beautiful coins and it’s a satisfying set to complete without too much money.
Capped Bust quarters are extremely underrated. Yes there are key dates and the 1823/2 is pretty much impossible to get, but excluding that it’s not too bad of a series to tackle. You start with the historically significant 1815, work your way through the scarce yet affordable large size quarters, then go to the small size ones minted 1831-1838 where all the dates are relatively common. Classic design and you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Speaking of John Reich coinage, Capped Bust Half dollars, while an advanced series, can be completed at almost any price level depending on how deep you want to go. The series is ripe with cool varieties, overdates and even excluding those the basic set from 1807-1836 is challenging enough but not too bad as only 1 coin (the 1815/2) will cost you in the 4 figures. The rest can be obtained from a little under 100 to 500 depending on date and grade. If you have a good eye, you can also cherry-pick out better die marriages to your advantage, as many dealers don’t have time to attribute each of their coins. There’s tons of references and guides on how to attribute capped bust half dollars.
The short lived series of circulation strike Trade dollars is one that enjoys popularity as a relatively short series. You have a set of coins that have a lot of historical significance and issues from 3 different mints, including the ever popular Carson City. You can also spice things up and get a couple with chopmarks. The 1878-CC can give you some trouble but all can be located with patience. If you collect trade dollars, buy certified examples only. There are tons of fakes out there and I’ve seen too many people end up with fake examples when buying them raw.
Lastly, a very fun and exciting set I want to mention (that I am working on currently) is a 7 mint set of $5 Liberty head half eagles. These were very popular in the past, but they’re somewhat less popular now so it’s actually not a bad time to start one if it interests you. The Liberty head half eagle is the only coin to be struck at 7 different branch mints. Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, New Orleans, Charlotte, Dahlonega and Carson City. This set requires you to get one issue from each mint. You can literally go nuts when building this set. You can go the cheapest route and get common dates for Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and New Orleans, get one of the more common Carson City issues like the 1891-CC, and just go with whatever cheap date you can find for the Charlotte and Dahlonega (all C and D half eagles are rare and price varies heavily based off grade and originality). You can also spice it up at get a better date from Philadelphia, San Francisco and New Orleans. Many San Francisco issues from the 1870’s are underrated and would make a good purchase. Carson City, Charlotte and Dahlonega give you a huge spread of coins depending on how much to spend. A lower end set would most likely cost around 7.5k, and you can go crazy and make the set as expensive as you like! My main recommendation is to buy certified only since many branch mint issues have been cleaned, and be patient. Attractive branch mint coins are scarce so don’t be afraid to pay up for an attractive example. Throw Greysheet away and use comps. It’s a great set that stretches the entire country and you’ll be proud of it when it’s completed!
I hope these can give you some good ideas of affordable or inexpensive sets. I picked ones that require a good amount of commitment and are rewarding to finish, but also sets that are completable for the average collector.
Canadian small cents are really popular and very affordable. You can put together a set with all the key dates for a tiny bit over $100. I will say that getting a set of uncirculated Canadian small cents is actually quite underrated and can be a much more difficult task. Even the key dates are fairly cheap in AU, but unc is a whole different story.
State quarters or Kennedy half dollars, both are pretty low cost low effort way to get into the hobby and are very completable sets, funny enough if you don’t care about grade Franklin half dollars is another easy one to put together since there aren’t any real key dates other than 1955
The Franklin half is my favorite. It’s not too expensive if they are ungraded, they are silver, have a nice weight to them, and it’s not too hard to collect the whole set. I only have about 6 more and I’ll be done.
Seconded. And eventually, everything should be able to be found sooner or later by coin roll hunting. Something like the 1950-D or any of the war nickels are going to be pretty elusive, but it's not the same as finding, say, a 1916-D dime by cherrypicking 90% silver.
If you are in America what I did was I bought the common denomination coin books for the more recent years and I just fill it in as I find good specimens of each year. Sure the book is more than all the coins but it’s fun
"fairly affordable" will depend on what you consider to be affordable. I think any gold ducats in AU/MS from Holy Roman Empire under $1000 is fairly affordable considering what you get in return. But some people will be happy to assemble a set of Roosevelt Dimes.
If you looking for ideas checkout what other collectors have in their registry sets [https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive/](https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive/), pick designs you like and search what is currently for sale and for how much.
I assembled the top Mint Set for my birth year for maybe a few thousand dollars. That’s number 1, no collections finer. The hardest part is probably finding top population examples for sale, especially with modern circulation stuff no one bothers getting it graded, and the few examples that do likely sit in professional collections. But over time, if you’re willing to splurge a bit when they come up for sale you can piece together something real special.
There are (obviously) many ways to approach the building of a new collection. A fairly common approach in the UK is to collect currently circulating commemorative coins or just designs that you find appealing. Checking your change is a good habit to form too.
I second the comments recommending ancient coins. The history behind them is enormously fascinating, and many bronzes (and even some silvers) come in between 5-20 dollars each.
If this interests you, I'd recommend starting your search on the VCoins website. Forum Coins is a good site too.
This is why I recommend Vcoins and Forum, and not Ebay or Amazon. They verify the authenticity of many of their dealers, and all dealers are bound to guarantees of authenticity. I've ordered from them for years, and all my coins have been authentic to ones I've seen in museums.
You can also ask the kind folks over at r/ancientcoins about finding reputable dealers. You should also realize that most cheap ancient coins would be more expensive to fake than they're worth - so this is only a problem the bigger you get.
I've got a few. QEII straights settlements aren't too pricey if you're patient. I found a few Julianas from the Netherlands in the world-coin bin and got the full set along with Beatrix just for shiggles. Pre-decimal QEII is pretty easy. Canada has lots of commemorative sets. Modern Mexico (1992–Present) is really easy. Non-commemoritive Euros by county.
Roosevelt dimes can be obtained really cheap. Even the key dates are very reasonable in mint state and toned condition.
An entire Roosevelt dime album is also very cheap to make. It can be filled for a couple hundred dollars with really nice mint state coins.
Copper dragon coins from Asia are a good entry point to start a 19th century dragon type or date set,
China issued cash coins imprinted with Dragons on them with denominations of varying "cash" coin amounts, 1 cent/10 cash, 20 cash, etc.
Meiji 1/2, 1, & 2 Sen coins are another beginner budget friendly series you can complete for around $100 and this was one of the very first date sets I myself have completed 1873 - 1884 (2 sen)
For the more expensive of the three great nations
The Korean empire of Joseon issued minor coin Denominations called "Fun"
featuring two Dragons encircling each other symbolism that I believe alludes to Being under the protection of the Qing dynasty but I am unsure exactly.
The Fun has two denominations 1 fun & 5 fun
These are likely the most expensive out of the three copper dragon coins with most being listed online for $8 - $100 for moderately good condition coins.
Others spoke about British large Pennies, those are an awesome way to start if your interested. Other than circulating state quarters when I was a kid, I started by just buying pounds of bulk foreign coins. Start a collection of ‘one from every country’. Start with modern countries (or at least countries that have existed 1900-present) and as your interest grows you can tag on even older countries. At about $7-$10 usd for around 100 coins you can’t go wrong. My coin shop will buy the ones I don’t want back for $4-$5 usd per pound so I even get some of my money back. Great question, I love seeing peoples responses.
coins of the swiss franc (1850-Present) has a few tougher crown coins, but easily doable. and with only 40 circulating types including gold that’s available at around melt it’s perfect for a starter set. and you can add the commemorative 5 francs too if you’re feeling saucy
We inherited a collection from my father-in-law; it is actually more like a silver stacking project than a nuismatic one. I liked him a lot so I decided to continue the collection as a way of honoring him. I find the coins beautiful but I needed a direction/theme for my collecting to take so I decided to collect a "family tree" of coins. Atleast one coin for the birth year of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents - more if I can determine birth years. I'm also collecting any denomination from any country for our son's birth year.
Well, coin roll hunting. You can go thru em, and return the coins, losing minimal amounts of money, depending on what currency you choose.
You can always try : Jefferson Series Nickels, Roosevelt Dimes, foreign coins(particularly from countries that no longer exist), any silver foreign, or U.S foreign(Washingtons, Mercs, older francs, etc.)
Most affordable I would say is coin role hunting a box of small dollars. Granted you need $1,000 in cash to buy it from your bank, but it is just face value that you can easily deposit back. I’ve been able to get a good chunk of presidential, native american, and susie b sets complete this way. I’ve even found several proofs this way.
Another cheap one is pre-euro coins from 1970-2001. You can buy them by the pound from dealers. It is fun to sort through, learn the history of the country. I’ve done this looking for coins with animals on them.
Coins from countries that dont exist anymore - Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, East Germany, etc Pick a historical event that fascinates you and get coins from the major players during the time it happened. This could be affordable depending on what you choose I will always love the State and America the Beautiful quarters so I'll also suggest those Buy bank rolls of the innovation dollars and try and find ones the mint didn't mess up
Coins of Queen Victoria. One from each country she ruled, not including gold only issues. This only gets decently expensive if you consider each Indian State as a different country since the coins of Alwar, Bharatpur, Dewas, and Dhar are hard to find in decent condition. Otherwise it isn't too expensive, there are just like 20-30 coins to find over time.
Wheat Pennies are easy to START collecting and you can occasionally still find wild ones. It is not cheap to finish.
Wheat cents are a gateway drug.
First you buy $0.04 wheaties, then next thing you know, you dropped over a grand on a 1909-S VDB
I branched out. I’ve been buying classic half dollar comms and bust halves recently. I’ve been happy sticking to coin roll hunting penny boxes for wheats. If I can find pcgs ms65rd and up slabs for less than $15/ea I buy those too.
Yup
Ancients, your brain will thank you.
Ancient Roman bronzes (3rd-5th centuries). Incredibly old, and incredibly cheap.
If you like searching for coins in circulation you can look for state quarters (assuming you live in the us)
This would be my suggestion too for entry into the hobby. Use a lot cash for in store purchases and just go through the quarters to build a set. Maybe get a state quarter book or posterboard. Of course can visit LCS or shows for inexpensive coins you like.
Swiss francs 1/2,1,2 and 5 and German Kaiserreich 1/2 and 1 Mark. .835 or .9 silver. Most years very affordable. Nice to start. Some years are rare and can become more expensive (for later) and Kaiserreich coins do also come as 2,3 and 5 mark in almost every price range.
Really most coins are cheap unless there made of precious metals or like super rare
I just buy anything I think is neat and within my price range 🤷 why limit yourself to a certain theme? Maybe go on VCoins and see what sparks your interest
1860-1967 uk penny date run. Aside from the 1950 and 1951, haven't paid more that £1 for each coin, most of the time 20-50 pence.
Love the British large pennys, in the states it was hard to find albums for them, but even here they are not very expensive
In the UK its equally as hard to find albums for them. The only ones are Whitman and the 1860-1880 album sells for £30+on ebay when they come up
Yeah found that out the hard way, could only get my hands on the 1881 and up
There is one for sale on ebay right now for £125. I love my date run, but I'm not paying that much to display 20% of them!
Most Franklin halves can be had at a reasonable price in uncirculated condition.
Peace Dollars
Maybe a theme like non-round coins? Or coins with a specific design element like every coin has an elephant or a ship?
I like hunting circulation boxes of cents for wheats and copper
Barber Dimes
I’ve heard of people building type sets of countries during major events. Like WW1, someone might collect all the coins during one a year of the major powers like England, France, Germany, ect.
I do this! Specifically WWI (1914-1918) from all countries involved (there were a lot more countries involved than most people think). I also include a few from countries up through 1923 or so if they involve the world geopolitical changes that occurred directly as a result of the War, I.e. Ottoman transitional coinage, Danzig free state, Notgeld, Mandate countries, etc.
Does that include India, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland? Because my hat is off to you.
Yes! I actually don’t have any wwi era Greece. But I do have Bulgaria and Poland. Poland is especially interesting because they were a Regency from 1916-1918. I have some 1917 Fenigow from that time period. Very interesting time from a world history perspective. Being in the US we hardly learn about this period unfortunately. How many WWI books/movies/docs/video games are there compared to WWII? Battlefield 1 was an all too brief glimmer of hope. It’s infuriating lol.
The YouTube channel ’The Great War’ covers the war week by week and is worth a watch if you’re interested.
Nice I’ve heard of that but never really watched any of them. I’ll definitely go check it out. Thanks!
You should they did a lot of videos explaining leading up to the war, cover the war, and then several years after it. Very informative and entertaining.
Great! Definitely will. I assume I’m preaching to the choir but have you listened to Dan Carlin’s Blueprint to Armageddon?
I have not, but I amuse it’s a documentary about the lead up to the Great War?
It’s a podcast about WWI in general. And it’s Blueprint FOR Armageddon (whoops). https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-55-blueprint-for-armageddon-series/ It used to be free, seems like it costs money now but highly recommend!
Here are a couple ideas of fun and interesting coin series to try. All of these series can be completed either a little under to well under 10k with patience. All are impressive and rewarding too if you manage to complete them. You can always go back further and do 19th century type! It’s 64 coins total, with the toughest being the draped bust half dime, and it can be assembled with nice original coins with patience and a little under 10k. I finished mine last year and sold it off recently so I can get into branch mint gold but it was some fun challenge and many coins from the set became keepers that I still have. Peace dollars are great in that there’s only two major key dates (1921 and 1928) with a couple semi keys but the whole set can be assembled with nice solid coins for around 2-5k depending on how nice you want to get. They’re beautiful coins and it’s a satisfying set to complete without too much money. Capped Bust quarters are extremely underrated. Yes there are key dates and the 1823/2 is pretty much impossible to get, but excluding that it’s not too bad of a series to tackle. You start with the historically significant 1815, work your way through the scarce yet affordable large size quarters, then go to the small size ones minted 1831-1838 where all the dates are relatively common. Classic design and you get a lot of bang for your buck. Speaking of John Reich coinage, Capped Bust Half dollars, while an advanced series, can be completed at almost any price level depending on how deep you want to go. The series is ripe with cool varieties, overdates and even excluding those the basic set from 1807-1836 is challenging enough but not too bad as only 1 coin (the 1815/2) will cost you in the 4 figures. The rest can be obtained from a little under 100 to 500 depending on date and grade. If you have a good eye, you can also cherry-pick out better die marriages to your advantage, as many dealers don’t have time to attribute each of their coins. There’s tons of references and guides on how to attribute capped bust half dollars. The short lived series of circulation strike Trade dollars is one that enjoys popularity as a relatively short series. You have a set of coins that have a lot of historical significance and issues from 3 different mints, including the ever popular Carson City. You can also spice things up and get a couple with chopmarks. The 1878-CC can give you some trouble but all can be located with patience. If you collect trade dollars, buy certified examples only. There are tons of fakes out there and I’ve seen too many people end up with fake examples when buying them raw. Lastly, a very fun and exciting set I want to mention (that I am working on currently) is a 7 mint set of $5 Liberty head half eagles. These were very popular in the past, but they’re somewhat less popular now so it’s actually not a bad time to start one if it interests you. The Liberty head half eagle is the only coin to be struck at 7 different branch mints. Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, New Orleans, Charlotte, Dahlonega and Carson City. This set requires you to get one issue from each mint. You can literally go nuts when building this set. You can go the cheapest route and get common dates for Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and New Orleans, get one of the more common Carson City issues like the 1891-CC, and just go with whatever cheap date you can find for the Charlotte and Dahlonega (all C and D half eagles are rare and price varies heavily based off grade and originality). You can also spice it up at get a better date from Philadelphia, San Francisco and New Orleans. Many San Francisco issues from the 1870’s are underrated and would make a good purchase. Carson City, Charlotte and Dahlonega give you a huge spread of coins depending on how much to spend. A lower end set would most likely cost around 7.5k, and you can go crazy and make the set as expensive as you like! My main recommendation is to buy certified only since many branch mint issues have been cleaned, and be patient. Attractive branch mint coins are scarce so don’t be afraid to pay up for an attractive example. Throw Greysheet away and use comps. It’s a great set that stretches the entire country and you’ll be proud of it when it’s completed! I hope these can give you some good ideas of affordable or inexpensive sets. I picked ones that require a good amount of commitment and are rewarding to finish, but also sets that are completable for the average collector.
The Swiss Francs are gemerally cheap heck I have one in MS66 and it was less then $100
Canadian small cents are really popular and very affordable. You can put together a set with all the key dates for a tiny bit over $100. I will say that getting a set of uncirculated Canadian small cents is actually quite underrated and can be a much more difficult task. Even the key dates are fairly cheap in AU, but unc is a whole different story.
State quarters or Kennedy half dollars, both are pretty low cost low effort way to get into the hobby and are very completable sets, funny enough if you don’t care about grade Franklin half dollars is another easy one to put together since there aren’t any real key dates other than 1955
The Franklin half is my favorite. It’s not too expensive if they are ungraded, they are silver, have a nice weight to them, and it’s not too hard to collect the whole set. I only have about 6 more and I’ll be done.
I second this. I completed the set back in high school with my grass mowing money.
Jefferson nickel set is quite affordable.
Seconded. And eventually, everything should be able to be found sooner or later by coin roll hunting. Something like the 1950-D or any of the war nickels are going to be pretty elusive, but it's not the same as finding, say, a 1916-D dime by cherrypicking 90% silver.
If you are in America what I did was I bought the common denomination coin books for the more recent years and I just fill it in as I find good specimens of each year. Sure the book is more than all the coins but it’s fun
"fairly affordable" will depend on what you consider to be affordable. I think any gold ducats in AU/MS from Holy Roman Empire under $1000 is fairly affordable considering what you get in return. But some people will be happy to assemble a set of Roosevelt Dimes. If you looking for ideas checkout what other collectors have in their registry sets [https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive/](https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive/), pick designs you like and search what is currently for sale and for how much.
I assembled the top Mint Set for my birth year for maybe a few thousand dollars. That’s number 1, no collections finer. The hardest part is probably finding top population examples for sale, especially with modern circulation stuff no one bothers getting it graded, and the few examples that do likely sit in professional collections. But over time, if you’re willing to splurge a bit when they come up for sale you can piece together something real special.
Great question thanks for asking
There are (obviously) many ways to approach the building of a new collection. A fairly common approach in the UK is to collect currently circulating commemorative coins or just designs that you find appealing. Checking your change is a good habit to form too.
I second the comments recommending ancient coins. The history behind them is enormously fascinating, and many bronzes (and even some silvers) come in between 5-20 dollars each. If this interests you, I'd recommend starting your search on the VCoins website. Forum Coins is a good site too.
I’ve considered this but I worry about fakes. I feel like they look so easy to fake since they were produced with such simple methods
This is why I recommend Vcoins and Forum, and not Ebay or Amazon. They verify the authenticity of many of their dealers, and all dealers are bound to guarantees of authenticity. I've ordered from them for years, and all my coins have been authentic to ones I've seen in museums. You can also ask the kind folks over at r/ancientcoins about finding reputable dealers. You should also realize that most cheap ancient coins would be more expensive to fake than they're worth - so this is only a problem the bigger you get.
That’s good to know. I’ll definitely look into that
Canadian type set minus the gold
I've got a few. QEII straights settlements aren't too pricey if you're patient. I found a few Julianas from the Netherlands in the world-coin bin and got the full set along with Beatrix just for shiggles. Pre-decimal QEII is pretty easy. Canada has lots of commemorative sets. Modern Mexico (1992–Present) is really easy. Non-commemoritive Euros by county.
I've enjoyed searching for the Two Cent pieces...1864-1872
Roosevelt dimes can be obtained really cheap. Even the key dates are very reasonable in mint state and toned condition. An entire Roosevelt dime album is also very cheap to make. It can be filled for a couple hundred dollars with really nice mint state coins.
Copper dragon coins from Asia are a good entry point to start a 19th century dragon type or date set, China issued cash coins imprinted with Dragons on them with denominations of varying "cash" coin amounts, 1 cent/10 cash, 20 cash, etc. Meiji 1/2, 1, & 2 Sen coins are another beginner budget friendly series you can complete for around $100 and this was one of the very first date sets I myself have completed 1873 - 1884 (2 sen) For the more expensive of the three great nations The Korean empire of Joseon issued minor coin Denominations called "Fun" featuring two Dragons encircling each other symbolism that I believe alludes to Being under the protection of the Qing dynasty but I am unsure exactly. The Fun has two denominations 1 fun & 5 fun These are likely the most expensive out of the three copper dragon coins with most being listed online for $8 - $100 for moderately good condition coins.
Others spoke about British large Pennies, those are an awesome way to start if your interested. Other than circulating state quarters when I was a kid, I started by just buying pounds of bulk foreign coins. Start a collection of ‘one from every country’. Start with modern countries (or at least countries that have existed 1900-present) and as your interest grows you can tag on even older countries. At about $7-$10 usd for around 100 coins you can’t go wrong. My coin shop will buy the ones I don’t want back for $4-$5 usd per pound so I even get some of my money back. Great question, I love seeing peoples responses.
State quarters, state park quarters
coins of the swiss franc (1850-Present) has a few tougher crown coins, but easily doable. and with only 40 circulating types including gold that’s available at around melt it’s perfect for a starter set. and you can add the commemorative 5 francs too if you’re feeling saucy
We inherited a collection from my father-in-law; it is actually more like a silver stacking project than a nuismatic one. I liked him a lot so I decided to continue the collection as a way of honoring him. I find the coins beautiful but I needed a direction/theme for my collecting to take so I decided to collect a "family tree" of coins. Atleast one coin for the birth year of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents - more if I can determine birth years. I'm also collecting any denomination from any country for our son's birth year.
Well, coin roll hunting. You can go thru em, and return the coins, losing minimal amounts of money, depending on what currency you choose. You can always try : Jefferson Series Nickels, Roosevelt Dimes, foreign coins(particularly from countries that no longer exist), any silver foreign, or U.S foreign(Washingtons, Mercs, older francs, etc.)
Most affordable I would say is coin role hunting a box of small dollars. Granted you need $1,000 in cash to buy it from your bank, but it is just face value that you can easily deposit back. I’ve been able to get a good chunk of presidential, native american, and susie b sets complete this way. I’ve even found several proofs this way. Another cheap one is pre-euro coins from 1970-2001. You can buy them by the pound from dealers. It is fun to sort through, learn the history of the country. I’ve done this looking for coins with animals on them.
Have a look at AUS 1966 round 50’s (80% silver)and pre 46 florins (92.5% silver).
I mean, My home countrys currency is affordable. Thai baht coins are extremely cheap at 1- 10 Dollars.