New coin collectors need fun ways to kick-start their entry into the hobby.
With so many things to purchase for a new collector, it can be a little daunting to know just what to get for the special coin collector in your life.
Following are gift ideas that just about any budding coin collector would enjoy. Best of all, you don’t even need to leave your home to buy them! Online shopping sites like Amazon should have most of these.
If you’re thinking of buying actual coins, good news: many coin dealers sell coins and coin supplies on the Internet!
#1 – A Coin Reference Guide
The first thing my parents bought for me when I started collecting coins was the 1992 Edmund’s coin price guide.
While I don’t believe you or anybody else would now have much use for a coin-value guide that is verging on 2 decades old, I can tell you that a good, current coin value reference and price guide is something any new collector would find helpful and informational.
Coin value guides usually come with handsome, high-quality photos of many different types of coins, information about mintages, usually some grading advice, and other types of helpful information.
I have come to love A Guide Book of United States Coins, by R.S. Yeoman and Kenneth Bressett. This guide is widely referred to as “The Red Book” and has been an annually updated, collector’s trusted guide for over 60 years. You can find the current edition on Amazon.com.
#2 – Coin Folders
Coin collectors need a safe place to store their coins. Consider getting the new coin collector a coin folder or two.
Coin folders are usually comprised of cardboard panels with round holes designed to contain coins.
These folders are usually organized by type of coin and are ideal for coin collections being built from circulation finds.
Whitman, Harris, and Littleton are all leading names in the coin folder arena. Coin folders can be found on Amazon.
#3 – Coin Albums
If you want to buy a coin storage device for a coin collector who desires something with more protection and better aesthetics than coin folders do, consider buying them a coin album.
Usually costing between 5 and 7 times more than the typical coin folder, a good coin album is well worth the extra cost because:
- You gain 2-sided viewing of the coins (folders allow for only one side of a coin to be viewed).
- Coin albums provide extra security (clear slides placed over the coin provide superior protection to coin folders, which leave coins exposed to open air — and hands).
- The quality and appearance of some coin albums are truly beautiful, with many albums boasting faux leather covers and thick, durable pages.
Show the collector you care about how much they value their new collection by providing them with a coin album that will last for decades.
Some coin albums can be found on Amazon, but many others are available from coin dealers.
#4 – Basic Coin Supplies
No coin collector can go long in this hobby without some basic supplies.
Consider buying the new coin collector the following items:
- A pair of unbleached cotton gloves for safely handling coins (without smudging them)
- A magnifying glass for viewing the fine details on coins
- A coin scale for weighing coins.
- Coin tubes (rigid, plastic versions of the coin wrappers you get from your bank)
- Vinyl flips or cardboard coin holders (popularly referred to as “2 by 2’s”)
- A small, lockable metal storage box where they can keep their coins safe and sound
Amazon sells most of these items. They can be located on many coin dealers’ websites as well.
#5 – Proof Sets
What coin collector would not like a gift of coins?
See if you can get an idea as to what types of coins the new collector is going after, but if you don’t know what they like, then surprise the budding numismatist with a proof set of coins from the year they were born.
This will be held and cherished as a special gift to remember, as I still do mine that my family bought for me as a birthday gift many years ago.
Some proof sets can be bought on Amazon, but shop around before you buy. I have come across a few overpriced proofs sets there that can be purchased for much less money from a typical, online coin dealer.
