| A Brief History of Coins and Coin
| |
| | longest, often being passed down within
|
| Collecting
| |
| | families.
|
| Very few things tell more about a country
| |
| | Coin Collection in Renaissance Times
|
| in fewer words than the coins it
| |
| | Modern coin collecting, where the coins
|
| produces. Coins hold a wealth of
| |
| | are viewed as a work of art as well as a
|
| information on their small faces, from
| |
| | collection of valuable legal tender, is
|
| the year of their birth to the language
| |
| | widely thought to have begun with
|
| spoken at the time, from the metals a
| |
| | Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, who is
|
| country holds valuable to the cultural
| |
| | often called the father of the
|
| influences and historical figures that
| |
| | Renaissance. Although there is reason to
|
| its people hold valuable. Coins can also
| |
| | believe that Roman emperors and citizens
|
| be strikingly beautiful in their own
| |
| | paid prices higher than face value for
|
| right, with the top designers of a nation
| |
| | coins that were no longer in circulation,
|
| striving to have their motif chosen for
| |
| | Petrarch was known to be an avid
|
| immortality on the face of a coin. With
| |
| | collector, and often spoke of his
|
| so much information and beauty contained
| |
| | collection in his writing. During the
|
| in so small a package, it is no surprise
| |
| | Renaissance, popes and nobility began
|
| that coin collecting has been a hobby
| |
| | collecting coins for their artistic and
|
| nearly as long as the concept of coins
| |
| | historical value, and the name the hobby
|
| themselves. An understanding of the long
| |
| | of kings was born. So popular was the
|
| history of coin collecting, once known as
| |
| | pursuit and trade of ancient Greek and
|
| the hobby of kings, will make this
| |
| | Roman coins in this time period, that a
|
| pastime even more enjoyable.
| |
| | brisk business in high-quality
|
| The Origin of Coins and Coin Collecting
| |
| | counterfeits sprang into being. Today,
|
| The hobby of coin collecting began nearly
| |
| | these counterfeits even have a high
|
| as soon as the first coins were minted in
| |
| | value, due to their age, quality, and
|
| Asia Minor, around 650 B.C. Before that
| |
| | historical significance.
|
| time, gold and silver ingots were the
| |
| | Coin Collecting in Modern Times
|
| most common form of legal tender. Because
| |
| | Coin collecting has been a favorite
|
| there was no standard, however, each
| |
| | pastime of many people with a reverence
|
| trade necessitated a careful weighing and
| |
| | for history, including U.S. Presidents
|
| examination of the precious metals being
| |
| | Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The
|
| offered, and it was easy for unscrupulous
| |
| | development of two large coin
|
| merchants to pass off a lesser quality of
| |
| | organizations in the mid-to-late 1800s,
|
| gold in trade. Coins, which were printed
| |
| | the American Numismatic Society (ANS) and
|
| on standardized weights of precious
| |
| | the American Numismatic Association
|
| metals and stamped with a government
| |
| | (ANA), helped spark American interest in
|
| guarantee of value, was the answer to
| |
| | building and maintaining a coin
|
| this unwieldy, easily sabotaged trading
| |
| | collection. Today, there has been an
|
| process. Within one hundred years, the
| |
| | explosion in American interest in coin
|
| concept of coins had been adopted by all
| |
| | collecting, in large part due to the ease
|
| of the major trading cities in the
| |
| | and availability of obtaining interesting
|
| civilized world.
| |
| | coins. The U.S. Mint has successfully
|
| At the beginning, coin collecting had a
| |
| | increased interest in starting a coin
|
| very practical reason there were no
| |
| | collection through the minting of
|
| banks in which to store money. People
| |
| | specialty coins, such as the bicentennial
|
| hoarded coins as a way of safeguarding
| |
| | half dollars released in 1976 and the
|
| their wealth. Those coins that were
| |
| | current release of quarters commemorating
|
| especially beautiful were hoarded the
| |
| | each of the fifty states.
|
