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What makes a "great coin series to collect".

Putting aside financial considerations for a moment, let's step back a moment and ask, what is about any coin that makes it desirable to own and collect?

Among the elementary attributes of collectable coin that make it desirable to own are:

Top 4 Elements that drive coin collectability

Design - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and its said there is no accounting for taste. Nevertheless its true that a majority of us favor certain qualities over other less favored, and there is a fairly broad agreement among humans as to what constitutes a beautiful object, whether it be another human, a sunset, a flower, or a coin.

Does anybody dare not admire the soaring aesthetic design of James Earl Fraser's Heroic-Iconic Buffalo Nickel ? What a coin, surely history will rival this among the great works of numismatic art, equal in splendor to the finest pieces of the Golden Age of Greece.

At its root, a coin begins as an incuse sculpture carved into a metal base (coinage die). Coinage blanks are placed between two such coinage dies and they are stamped together under extreme pressure. The resulting "coins" are produced with an excuse image of the dies.

Historic Value - Carson City coins enable the collector to own a genuine piece of the old west, and often contain silver from the Comstock Load! There are many coins and coin series that attain the aura of historic importance, due to their time and place of manufacture, and many can be purchased for as little as $1.00!

Beauty - who wouldn't love a gem 1955 Washington quarter with blazing lustre and a rainbow of rim tones? Although design is a factor in the beauty of a coin, also important elements in judging the coins overall beauty are the quality of the metal, lustre, strike, toning, and condition.

Condition. let's face it, it's hard for an AG coin to be beautiful, but it can be done. One of my favorite coins is a well worn AG 2 Sols copper of 1889 France with a cracked flan and  featuring the portrait of the doomed king Louis XIII on the obverse. The coin has acquired a hardened glossy patina in shades of mahogany Brown, as an old large copper will sometimes will do if we a very lucky. The book value of this coin is probably $1.00, but I value that little jewel far above that small sum.

Great Coins don't have to be expensive.

There are many superbly designed coin series as well as historically valued series that can be collected today for as little as $1.00 a coin.

The truth is many dealers don't bother with these coins because it is too time consuming to catalogue and grade low priced coins, too expensive to advertise low priced coins, etc., etc.

A couple of my favorite are the Italy 20 c 1908 - 1935 (km44). This is a great classical Italian design that harkens back to the great designs of the Greek city states in Italy during the classical Greek Era. For some reason this coin has always reminded me of the Nomos of Tarentum (taras) depicting the boy riding a dolphin obv. and nude rider on horse on the rev. .I can also get a taste of the Italian Renaissance design and the Sistine Chapel from this coin. What an amazing History Italy has had!

Mexico has some great homage's to its Aztec roots on some of its coins, one of my favorites that is also good for beginners is the Mexico 50 cent. of 1955-1983 which offer 3 different coin types featuring the stunning design of an Aztec Chief.

Argentina's 10 km 16and 20 km 175, 10, and 20 Cts 1942-1950 are another set that is very pretty and yet still inexpensive in ch au or better.

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