Silver coins for sale
Specialist magazines and Internet sites are full of advertisements for silver coins for sale or gold coins for sale. If you are not familiar with the long history of numismatic coins, it is easy to conclude that interest in building up collections is as contemporary as all those online sites designed to attract coin collector enthusiasts. In truth, coin collecting is one of the oldest recorded hobbies. Archaeological evidence shows that ancient Romans collected coins. The interest penetrated to the highest ranks of Roman society with even the emperor Augustus taking an interest in rare currency. Although it is conceivable that ancient Romans traded numismatic coins, their collecting motivations we know about focused on the artistic appeal of the coin design and the curiosity they aroused.

In Medieval Europe, coin collecting became associated with royalty to the extent that it became known as “the hobby of the kings”. The thirteenth century Pope Boniface VIII was one of the most famous of these royal collectors. Scholars in the service of the monarchs also played a significant role in studying what later generations have described as numismatic coins. A good example of a scholarly coin collector in royal employ was the Englishman John Leland whose patron was the famous, or perhaps it should be infamous, King Henry VIII (1540s). As Leland travelled around England, he took an interest in the old Roman coins he found and used them to identify areas of ancient settlement.

Up until the nineteenth century collector coins remained the preserve of the royals, the aristocrats and the scholars they patronized. It is not difficult to understand why numismatic coins did not attract wider interest. Much of the world population lived at a subsistence level. With the daily struggle for basic sustenance occupying so much of their lives, any valuable looking coins that reached their hands would have been spent on food rather than placed in an album or kept as an investment. The only variety of coin collecting they might have known was hoarding coins in times of war, or setting coins aside to be able to pay some tax or finance a family celebration. Sometimes a particularly attractive-looking coin might have been passed down in a family. Coin collecting as we know it today was a completely foreign idea.

The emergence of the modern coin collector
The nineteenth century was a transition period during which interest in numismatic coins spread from the very wealthy to people of more modest means. This change can be attributed to a rise in living standards, as well as the spread of literacy and general education opening up new horizons. People had more time to think beyond meeting their basic needs. Learned societies were set up to study science, natural history, antiquities, and many other different matters. An interest in coin collecting developed in a similar spirit.

Change in the coin production and design also prompted an increased awareness of both the contemporary coinage of the period and the older coinage that was disappearing from circulation. For example, following the Californian Gold Rush in the 1840s, and a major redesign of American coinage in the 1850s, contributed to a significant rise in the numbers of people collecting numismatic coins. In 1858, a group of New York collectors established the American Numismatic Society to pursue the scientific study of coins and their historical significance. In the following years this Society built up a major collection of rare US coins and associated literature. Today the society’s collection of coins and medals numbers around the one million mark with about 100,000 related books in its library.

Coin news was made in 1888 when Dr. Heath of Monroe, Michigan, produced a prototype coin magazine – “THE NUMISMATIST.” Dr. Heath’s distance from the main urban and commercial centers limited his abilities to acquire new rare currency for his collection. Printing and distributing information about the rare currency he wanted to buy or swap was an innovative approach to the challenges he faced in developing his collection. His magazine caught the interest of fellow collectors and the number of subscribers increased. In 1891 he suggested setting up an American Numismatic Association (ANA) to further interest in coin collecting through national conventions as well as publications. The granting of a Federal Charter in 1912 indicated the success achieved over such a short period. Currently the ANA possesses a numismatics library of international renown, and an impressive Money Museum in Colorado with 250,000 items.

Collector Coins Online
The profusion of advertisements for coins for sale in specialist magazines and online shows how what was once an exclusive “high society” hobby has gained a wide popularity. From the humble beginnings of coin journalism in the late 1880s, a vast empire of Websites and publications has sprung up. In addition to journalistic output, the appeal of coin collecting has also been recognized by states around the world. Although gold and silver coins are no longer in regular circulation, governments of many countries now appreciate the value of minting gold bullion coins for sale to collectors and investors.

Certainly interest in error coins and other kinds of rare currency has received a major boost in the recent recession with the collapses of banks and leading businesses encouraging people to seek out stable investments. While there are many buyers who are still primarily motivated by the design and historical interest of collector coins, the many new “investor” collectors seem certain to continue to raise the profile of coin collecting even higher in the public eye.