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Article #150: How The Hobby Of Collecting Coins Began

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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.






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