Of the many ways to go about collecting coins, there are advantages to a "Box of Twenty." One of the greatest innovations in the history of the hobby was the introduction of coin boards in the 1930s. Coin collecting was a fad during the Great Depression for those seeking a distraction from the world’s maladies. The process of filling holes in a coin board was addictive, and still is. Coin boards eventually became coin albums, and millions of collectors were introduced to the hobby this way,...

Even if there's no current pricing information in your favorite price guides, there are other resources you can use to accurately price your coins. Establishing the value of a rare coin is one of the basic requirements for being a professional coin dealer. Most use the usual price guides such as the Greysheet or Red Book, auction records, the NGC Price Guide, population reports and many other pricing tools. In most cases, one or a combination of these tools provides enough...

While prices of gold and silver have cooled, the collectible coin market is still on a hot streak. This afternoon, I saw another slip in the prices for gold and silver. The spot price of gold now stands at $1,710, and the price of silver just slipped below $18 for the first time in three years or more. These downward moves are remarkable in light of the current inflation rates reported by the US government. After years of very modest inflation, the reported rate is now around 8.5%. For anyone...