New to the hobby of kings, or should I say the “King of Hobbies”? A budding numismatist or coin collector, will naturally be interested in collecting silver coins. Not only are silver coins incredibly beautiful and valuable, they hark back to ancient Roman times and come in a great deal of designs, weights and purities. Silver coin collecting is a hobby dating back to medieval times, when kings used to enjoy hoarding these coins, respecting silver for its ties to ancient Greek and Roman civilizations.
Getting old rare silver coins, such as Greek Drachmas and Roman Denarius’s is an intimidating prospect, and is found in the collections of wealthy, influential numismatists or the World Money Museum, reputed to have the largest collection of silver coins, in the world. Other old world silver coins, such as the Indian Silver punch marked Karshapana, are among the cheapest available. If you want to start building up your silver coin collection, it would be worthwhile to buy them from someone else’s collection or from the mint, in the form of silver bullion coins.
As a coin collector, you should be aware that looking for rare coins is a difficult job, turning even more expensive when it comes to silver coins. English coins were in wide circulation at one point of time, due to British annexation, of territories in different countries.
Always keep a powerful microscope handy with you to study the mint marks and spot dates, on worn coins in your coin collection. Sometimes a coin is classified as a rare find, not because they are old, but due to a less commonly found manufacturing defect, such as a Double Die, when a silver coin is stamped with the same press twice. The duplication of the die, is sometimes clearly visible, and sometimes needs expert help. Nevertheless, these coins are extremely valuable.
Silver is a precious metal, and is considered to be a form of currency under ISO 4217. This would make your silver coin collection an ideal investment in the years to come. Investors often leap at the chance to buy a Silver Bullion, because the market rate of silver is continually increasing and a coin of silver bought now, would be worth double in 10 years. Some silver bullion of note, among collectors are:
American Silver Eagle
Mexican Silver Liberatad
Canadian Silver Maple Leaf
Chinese Silver Panda
British Silver Britannia
Australian Silver Kookaburra
If the cost of buying silver bullion, as an investment seems prohibitive, you could consider getting junk silver bags, which contains coins made of 90% silver, and thus only valued for their silver content, and not collectible value. The coins are often in a pure condition, but available for 1% under the spot price, from some dealers.
You should take good care of your silver coin collection, since silver get tarnished easily. Even the sulfur in cardboard or paper, or some plastics can react with silver and gradually lead to black spots on its surface. A common method to store silver coins is a 2”x2” white cardboard folder with Mylar/ Polyester windows. If you feel a bit too protective of your coins, you can get a air-tight container for them.
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