Web Sites of Interest to Coin Collectors

Coin Collecting For Dummies

The more you know about coins, the more interesting and fun coin collecting is. The easiest place to look for information is on the Web. And then coin collecting is just a hop, skip, and a mouse-click from being as profitable as it is interesting. Some Web sites to start with include the following:

CoinFacts.com: CoinFacts.com is probably the best all-around factual Web site about U.S. coins. Each type and date of colonial, private gold, and federally issued coins are described and pictured.
CoinGrading.com: Need to learn how to grade a coin? Don’t we all! Expert coin grader and numismatist Jim Halperin’s site is a good place to begin your education.
CoinLink: CoinLink is a first-class site with plenty of well-written and interesting articles and stories about coins.
National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution: Go to this site, click on Collections, and click Coins, Currency, and Medals. Here you can find fabulous presentations about all manor of U.S. coins. The Smithsonian houses the largest and finest coin collection in the world.
NumismaLink: NumismaLink is an educational site that’s a good source of online information about coins, medals, tokens, and paper money of the world, including the United States. It lists other interesting sites, numismatic organizations, and various world mints, with an emphasis on bibliographic sources. This site is as good a place to start as any.
Numismatic Bibliomania Society: This online home of a nonprofit society promotes research and the collecting of rare and common numismatic literature, including auction catalogs, dealer price lists, periodicals, books, and other printed materials on the subjects of U.S., foreign, and ancient coins, tokens, and medals, as well as U.S., colonial, private, and broken banks, and foreign paper money.
University of Notre Dame Library: This site is a really interesting source of information about historical U.S. coins. If you’re looking for information, this site is well worth visiting.
U.S. Mint: The U.S. Mint has been issuing a flood of new commemorative coins consistently for 20 years. If you’re interested in recent modern issues, all you have to do to get in on the action is go to its Web site and see what’s new.

About This Article

About the book author:

Neil S. Berman is an expert numismatist and professional rare coin dealer with over 50 years’ experience. He’s been published in Barron’s, Trust and Estates, National Law Journal, The Financial Planner, Pension World, and Executive Jeweler. He has appraised coins for the United States Postal Service, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ron Guth is a jack-of-all-trades and master of one — numismatics. Ron is a certified public accountant (CPA), a licensed auctioneer, and a writer, but the bulk of his time is spent on his true love — coin collecting and dealing. Ron’s battle with coin fever began when he was 12 years old, and he’s never gotten over it. After a decade of collecting, Ron went professional in 1976, when he began working for a local coin shop in Tampa, Florida. In 1978, he partnered with David Goldsmith and purchased the Bay Area Coin Exchange in Tampa. Ron and Dave blasted through the silver boom, and then split up in 1981, when Ron moved to Evansville, Indiana (his wife’s hometown), where he set up shop on First Avenue. In 1984, Ron formed Mid-American Rare Coin Auctions with Jeff Garrett of Lexington, Kentucky. The company quickly established itself as an innovative leader in the industry and, within the first year, became the fifth largest rare coin auction company in America. In 1988, Ron sold his interest in the company, went back to school to finish his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance, and has since become a numismatic consultant and a major dealer in German coins.
In 1984, Ron won the American Numismatic Association’s Wayte and Olga Raymond and Heath Literary awards. He has written many coin-related articles and is listed as a contributor to several books, including Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States Coins, Krause Publications’s Standard Catalog of German Coins, Roger S. Cohen’s American Half Cents, Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents, and others. Ron has served as a numismatic consultant for many rare-coin companies, including major firms such as the Professional Coin Grading Services, Heritage Numismatic Auctions, and Early American History Auctions.