There's a special comfort in collecting, in surrounding yourself with familiar objects and building a store of assets. The allure of money is especially strong. Coins represent real value. The warmth of silver and the weight of gold are irresistible to some. Coins travel throughout the world and through time itself, representing and absorbing history as they pass from one person to the next. Oh the stories coins could tell if they only had voices. Coin-collecting is a relaxing and inexpensive (although it can be very expensive!) hobby. If you buy properly, coins can be an excellent place to park your money for a rainy day, and if you buy the right coins and the market improves, you may even be able to make a profit on your collection. In fact, numismatics (the fancy term for coin collecting) offers more riches than you may realize. This rewarding hobby also opens the door to some serious life skills, such as * History * Geography * Observational skills * Organizational skills * Analytical tools. This book is designed to appeal to collectors at every level, from beginner to advanced. This is not a hardcore coin book; rather, Coin Collecting For Dummies is a great general reference that points you in different directions for further investigation. Perhaps the most important goal of this book is to get you excited - and to keep you excited - about coin collecting. Coin Collecting For Dummies covers all these topics and more: * Deciding what to collect * Storing your collection correctly * Finding out about repaired, restored, and recolored coins * Pricing world coins * Finding a good coin dealer * Buying at auction * Understanding that condition equals value * Exploring the wild side with rare, expensive, and esoteric coins * Selling your coins No one needs coins, but if you decide to collect them, you certainly need this book. Coin collecting can sometimes be a confusing maze of choices sprinkled with little traps along the way. Sure, you can go it alone, but why not make your journey into numismatics a lot easier by picking the brain of an expert collector and learning from the mistakes of others.