The History of Coin Collecting
by D. L. Crane

There is a ton of information on the little faces of coins. Coins tell an amazing story about a country in a very small space. You will learn the year they were coined and the language at the time. Coins can also be remarkably gorgeous. Old and new coins have a special desirability for lots of people, hobbyists and professional collectors. So it is not surprising that coin collecting has been a hobby for almost as long as the idea of coins. Coin collecting was once known as “the hobby of kings.”

To learn about the history of coin is educational and informative fun. You learn the coin’s history and interesting facts about history in general. There have been coin collectors pretty much from the time the very first coin was made. Each age of coins characterizes a treasure of knowledge. These coins also acknowledge what a country believes the values of metals were at the time. Some think that holding coins is like holding pieces of both history and art.
Originally the most common form of legal tender was gold and silver ingots or cakes of various forms marked with inscriptions of the name of the business and the denomination and purity of the piece of metal. Since there was no standard, each time a trade was made a careful exam and weighing of the prized metals was necessary. The answer was – coins. They were printed on standardized weights of prized metals and stamped with a guarantee of value from the government. This provided a solution to sabotage of the trading process. The civilized World implemented the idea of coins in all of the major trading cities within 100 years. The first coins were minted in Asia Minor, around 650 B.C. and coin collecting began. Standard Western type machine-made round coins appeared in 1870 in Japan and 1889 in China.

Most of the coins throughout the world, except for the orient, were handstruck until about 1500. The mills for punching out consistently even round, blank metal disks, or planchets, and screw presses for impressing depictions onto them originated in Italy. When the Americas were discovered their wealth of precious metals led to significantly increased coin production, including big Silver pieces. Just about every kingdom, principality, and free city in the Western world during this time period, issued its own coins.

The very useful reason originally for collecting coins was because there were no banks, so people saved their coins. Coins were saved and passed down to generations to come. Many coins were considered works of art in addition being valuable collectibles.

The United States established an official mint in 1792, and currency began in 1793. Besides the denominations still in use today, over the years the mint also produced ½-cent, 2-cent, 3-cent, and 20-cent pieces as well as the Gold coins that range from $2.50 to $20. The initial 5-cent pieces were half-dimes that were made of Silver. Most U.S. coins carry a year date and a mint mark showing where they were produced, except for a few coins. In 1933 the last regular issue gold coins were struck, and the last fine silver coins dated were in 1964. However since 1982, the United States has issued Silver and Gold Commemorative coins that mark certain memorable events like the 23rd Olympic games in Los Angeles (1984), the centennial of the Statue of Liberty (1986), and the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution (1987). Since 1986 the U.S. Mint has issued Gold and Silver Bullion coins, primarily for precious metal investors.

All of the early U.S. Coins had a representation of liberty on the obverse. An image of a Native American in a feathered headdress was shown on the 1859 cent this figure. A Native American representation came into use on the 1908 $2.50 and $5 Gold pieces and on the 1913 5-cent pieces that were made of copper and nickel. The centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth in 1909 is when the practice of picturing deceased presidents on U.S. coins dates began. Between 1892 and 1954 a series of 50 types of special commemorative Silver coins was issued. There were likenesses of historical figures besides the U.S. presidents, among those are the explorer Daniel Boone and the showman P. T. Barnum. The Benjamin Franklin Half-Dollar that honors the American Statesman was issued from 1948 to 1963 as the first regular-issue coin with this kind of a design.

In modern coin collecting the idea that the coins are a collection of expensive legal tender and are also thought of as a work of art, is widely thought to have begun with Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, who is often called the father of the Renaissance.

For U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams coin collecting was a favorite pastime and of many people with a reverence for history. Two large coin organizations were developed in the mid-to-late 1800s, the American Numismatic Society (ANS) and the American Numismatic Association (ANA). These organizations helped ignite Americans interest in shopping for and maintaining a coin collection. American interest in coin collecting has exploded today due to the availability and ease of finding interesting coins. The U.S. Mint has effectively augmented interest in starting a coin collection through the minting of specialty coins, like as the bicentennial half dollars released in 1976 and the current release of quarters commemorating each of the fifty states.

The number of active collectors all over the world is estimated to range into the millions. Coins are regarded by scholars as reflections of history.

 Numismatists get pleasure from coins for their rarity, the tales about them and their beauty. To the coin collector the adventure of searching for and finding specific coins, or the challenge of identifying an unfamiliar item is a thrill untold. Numismatists also enjoy organizing and displaying a collection. The possibility of finding rare coins for a bargain price and the hope that the coins in the collection will in time increase in worth is very exciting, challenging and intoxicating.