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Valuable Tips On How To Collect Coins

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C
OLLECT
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HOW TO
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Find the answers to thetop 8 questions about coins!
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 Are there any U.S. coin types you’ve never heard of?
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Learn about grading coins!
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Expand your coin collecting knowledge!
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Keep your coins in the best condition!
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Learn all about the different U.S. Mints and mint marks!
HOW TO
LITTLETON’S
$2.95
 V a  l u a  b le  T i p s
&  I n fo r ma  t io n !

 
Dear Collector,Coins reflect the culture and the timesin which they were produced, and U.S.coins tell the story of America in a waythat no other artifact can. Why? Becausethey have been used since the nation’s beginnings. Pathfinders and trendsetters – Benjamin Franklin, Robert E. Lee, TeddyRoosevelt, Marilyn Monroe – you, yourparents and grandparents have all used coins. When you hold one in your hand, you’re holding a tangible link to the past. You can travel back to colonial Americawith a large cent, the Civil War with a two-centpiece, or to the beginning of America’s involvement in WWI with a Mercury dime. Every U.S. coin is an enduring legacy from ournation’s past!
Have a plan for your collection
 When many collectors begin, they may want to collect everything, because all different coin types fascinate them. But, after gaining more knowledge and experience, they usually find that it’s good tohave a plan and a focus for what they want to collect. Althoughthere are various ways (pages 8 & 9 list a few), building acomplete date and mint mark collection (such as Lincoln cents) isconsidered by many to be the ultimate achievement. After theanticipation of waiting to fill the next space in your album, you’llexperience proud satisfaction when you locate that coin.Of course, one of the greatest thrills of collecting is hunting forelusive coins that make your collection stand out. Some collectorsdream of owning a scarce coin like the 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent.Others search patiently for prominent rarities from the annals of numismatic lore. Coins like the 1804 Draped Bust silver dollarwith only eight known examples, and which sold for $4.14 million in 1999; or the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, with only five known specimens, one of which sold for $5 million in April 2007; or theKing Farouk 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 gold piece, which sold for$7.59 million in July of 2002. Rarities like these are not themajority, and most collectors are drawn to the hobby because itoffers history, art, challenge of completion, and fellowship. Whatever your interest or experience, I hope you’ll find
How to Collect Coins 
a fun, useful, and educational guide to the hobby.Sincerely,David M. Sundman, President
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ELCOMEELCOME
……
David M. Sundman,LCC President

 
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NTRODUCTIONNTRODUCTION TOTO
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 ABLE OF
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Introduction to Coin Collecting ..................................................................3Top 8 Questions About Coins......................................................................4 America’s Favorite Way to Collect Coins....................................................8Guide to United States Coinage................................................................10U.S. Hoards..................................................................................................18 Well-Known Collectors..............................................................................19 All About U.S. Mints and Mint Marks......................................................22Guide to World Coinage............................................................................24 Your Guide to U.S. Coin Grading ..............................................................26Littleton’s Standards....................................................................................28Caring For Your Coins................................................................................29 Albums........................................................................................................30 About Littleton Coin Company ................................................................31Littleton’s Handy Coin Collecting Glossary ..............................................32 What Can Littleton Do For Me?................................................................34For thousands of years, mankind has been attracted to collecting. Whether it is rocks, shells, books, tools or coins, collecting awakenscuriosity and interest in all of us. Collecting makes time stand still, andbrings the past along with us. If nothing were saved, we would have noknowledge of the past – except for what we read or are told. And bygonedays would slip into obscurity.
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 With collectibles, the past comes to life. It is remembered through objectsthat people who lived before us actually used. And this is especially trueof coins, for they were (and are) the means of daily commerce. When youhold a 50, 200 or 2,000-year-old coin in your hand, you can’t help butimagine where it might have been in its lifetime!Coins are historical reminders. Whether old coins, or more recentcommemorating important people or events, you are holding animportant piece of history right in your hand!This booklet will give you valuable information every collector shouldknow. But beyond a few basics, coin collecting is almost limitless in itsvariety. As your knowledge increases, you’ll find your own favorite coinsand ways to collect. Once you kindle your interest in coins, you’ll haveadopted a hobby that will give you a lifetime of enjoyment!

 
1. W 
HAT
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 AKES A 
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 ALUABLE
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 A coin is not necessarily valuable merely because of age. For example, some Romancoins more than 1,600 years old can still bepurchased today for $20 or even less! Thevalue of a coin, like most items, is determinedby supply and demand.Demand is obviously a major factor. Somecoin types, such as Buffalo nickels orMercury dimes, are more popular thanothers of the same denomination. Thus, morecollectors are seeking the same coins, so theirprices will be affected. A coin’s value is determined by the interrelated factors of scarcity, condition and demand.Perhaps more coins of an earlier date may have been produced thanthose of a later date, so coins that are far older may still be available. Thisis supply. Of course, it all depends on how many of each has been saved,and in what condition. A coin’s condition (the state it has been preservedin) is an extremely important factor in its value. An Uncirculated piecemay be worth ten times or thousands of times as much as an averagecirculated coin of the same date. An explanation and grading guide is onpages 26 & 27.
2. I
S THE
M
ETAL IN THE
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OINS
 V 
 ALUABLE
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Gold and silver coins have a dual value – theirnumismatic or collector value, and their intrinsicor precious metal value. Coins of higher grades will have a greater premium over their metalvalue than coins of lesser grade or condition.Some quantities of 90% gold U.S. coins (lastminted for circulation in 1933), and 90%silver U.S. coins (last minted forcirculation in 1964), are still availableto collectors today. A $20 gold piece,or double eagle, weighs nearly onefull ounce. A Morgan silver dollarcontains over
3
 ⁄ 
4
ounce of pure silver.However, the numismatic worth of U.S.coins usually outweighs any bullion value.
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Buffalo Nickel,Flying Eagle Centand Mercury Dime America’s mostpopular silverand gold coins,the MorganSilver Dollar of 1878-1921 andthe Saint-Gaudens $20 Gold DoubleEagle of 1907-1933

 
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3. W 
HEN
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ERE
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OINS
F
IRST
U
SED
?
Though the first coins are actually attributed to Lydia in Asia Minor around600-700 B.C., it is now believed that bronzecoins were used in China several hundred years earlier.However, the Lydians were probably not aware of China’s existence, so theircoins – called “Staters” (a unit of weight)– were invented separately. These firstStaters were made of electrum, a naturalalloy of gold and silver.
4. W 
HEN
 W 
ERE THE
F
IRST
U.S. C
OINS
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SED
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Early American “money” consisted primarily of wampum,beaver skins, and tobacco, items used by Native Americansand early settlers. The colonists had no use for coinageuntil foreign traders arrived and demandedpayment for goods. Most “hardcurrency” tended to flow back acrossthe Atlantic, so Massachusetts Bay Colony took matters into their ownhands and struck some of our earliest silver coins in 1652: the NE (New England) silver Threepence,Sixpence and Shilling, followed by the Willow Tree and Pine Tree coinage. Otherforeign coins like Spanish silver Pieces of Eight (8 Reales) also circulated. After America won independence and the first U.S. Mint opened in 1793, we began to strike our own national coinage.
5. H
OW 
M
 ANY 
D
IFFERENT
D
ENOMINATIONS
H
 AVE
T
HERE
B
EEN
?
Today, the U.S. Mint produces coins forcirculation in these denominations: cent,nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar.Plus, commemoratives in both gold and silver are issued in variousdenominations. In the past, the mintshave produced many different typesof coins, such as half cents, 2¢ pieces,3¢ pieces, half dimes, and 20¢ pieces.
Electrum
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 ⁄ 
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Staterfrom Phokaia480-400
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.
C
.Pine TreeSilverShilling of 1652
(22-31 mm) 
Spanish Silver8 Reales
Coins enlarged to show detail 
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From top right: theU.S. Half Cent, Two-Cent Piece,Silver Three-CentPiece and Half DimeLydia SilverDrachm 480-460
B
.
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.

 
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Gold coins have been produced for circulation in these denominations:$1, $2.50, $3, $5, $10 and $20 pieces, as well as a few hundred patterns fora $4 gold piece that was never mass-produced.
6. H
OW 
O
LDIS
C
OIN
C
OLLECTING
?
The earliest known coin collector was theRoman emperor Augustus. Coin collecting became even more popular during theMiddle Ages, when wealthy persons androyalty assembled magnificent collections.The hobby was confined mostly to the rich,since the general population needed every coin to pay for food, clothing and shelter.In the U.S., collecting also began withthe wealthy, but by 1858, there were enoughactive collectors to form the AmericanNumismatic Association. Since the