Complete neophyte interested in Euro coins

First post, please be gentle.

I am a stamp collector, and my extent with coin collecting has been
pulling American coins out of circulation by date and mint markings.

I am absolutely fascinated by Euro coins, with different designs for
different member countries, and would be interested in beginning a
collection, but I don't really know where to start.

Is it the case, as it appears, that almost all collecting in the coin
world is done with slabbed coins? This strikes me as a slight shame
(I'm a neophyte, I know) because feeling the coin has always been part
of the pleasure when, say, collecting pennies.

If someone could even point me to a reliable guide as to how to start:
whether to buy slabbed coins, which system might be best, where best
to obtain them, how best to display them, that sort of thing, it would
be a help. If someone wanted to give more detailed advice, that would
be spectacular.

I can sometimes tire of such questions from stamp newbies, so I thank
you in advance for your patience.

Best,

Joshua McGee
http://www.mcgees.org

? "Joshua McGee" ?????? ??? ??????
...
First post, please be gentle.

I am a stamp collector, and my extent with coin collecting has been
pulling American coins out of circulation by date and mint markings.

I am absolutely fascinated by Euro coins, with different designs for
different member countries, and would be interested in beginning a
collection, but I don't really know where to start.

Start from the...beginning:-)
I'd suggest first to put together a representative euro UNC coin collection
with all euros from all euro countries.
Of course it will be difficult to find the 8 coins from the 3 "small" euro
states (Vatican, San Marino and Monaco) but hey, that's the fun of
collecting coins;-)
Leuchtturm/Lighthouse has 2 nice albums to house such a collection, have a
look he
http://www.leuchtturm.de/epages/leuc.../4004117149498

You can also start collecting KMS sets from each euro country and put
together a "type set" (one set per country regardless the year and that's
all) or collect KMS sets from each euro country *every* year.
Then you have the silver euro coins, usually 5 and 10 euros (but also 20, 25
niobium and...12 euros!) from various euro countries.
And don't forget the "starter kits".
You can also collect the "European Constitution"/"Treaty of Rome" 2 euro
coins.
The "special" 2 euro coins.
And the late "Human Rights" series.
The options are really almost endless:-)

Is it the case, as it appears, that almost all collecting in the coin
world is done with slabbed coins?

The US "coin world" you mean;-)
In Europe coins are generally not slabbed, people rely on their grading
skills to determine the grade/authenticity of a coin.
Nevertheless some valuable coins are slabbed in Europe (of course by US
slabbing companies...) but this is just to raise their value and make their
owners feel sure of their authenticity.
Me, personally I haven't seen a slabbed euro coin among my fellow
collectors.
Yet....;-)
IMHO: collect the coin, not the slab.

This strikes me as a slight shame
(I'm a neophyte, I know) because feeling the coin has always been part
of the pleasure when, say, collecting pennies.

If someone could even point me to a reliable guide as to how to start:
whether to buy slabbed coins,

Not necessarily.

which system might be best, where best
to obtain them,

Ebay; directly from European sellers through their sites; by swapping with
fellow collectors from Europe.

how best to display them,

There are several albums, cases, chests, etc.

Good luck!

On Dec 6, 10:30*am, "gogu" wrote:
? "Joshua McGee" ?????? ??? ...

First post, please be gentle.

I am a stamp collector, and my extent with coin collecting has been
pulling American coins out of circulation by date and mint markings.

I am absolutely fascinated by Euro coins, with different designs for
different member countries, and would be interested in beginning a
collection, but I don't really know where to start.

Start from the...beginning:-)
I'd suggest first to put together a representative euro UNC coin collection
with all euros from all euro countries.
Of course it will be difficult to find the 8 coins from the 3 "small" euro
states (Vatican, San Marino and Monaco) but hey, that's the fun of
collecting coins;-)
Leuchtturm/Lighthouse has 2 nice albums to house such a collection, have a
look hehttp://www.leuchtturm.de/epages/leuc...t/493a43500081...

You can also start collecting KMS sets from each euro country and put
together a "type set" (one set per country regardless the year and that's
all) or collect KMS sets from each euro country *every* year.
Then you have the silver euro coins, usually 5 and 10 euros (but also 20, 25
niobium and...12 euros!) from various euro countries.
And don't forget the "starter kits".
You can also collect the "European Constitution"/"Treaty of Rome" 2 euro
coins.
The "special" 2 euro coins.
And the late "Human Rights" series.
The options are really almost endless:-)

Is it the case, as it appears, that almost all collecting in the coin
world is done with slabbed coins?

The US "coin world" you mean;-)
In Europe coins are generally not slabbed, people rely on their grading
skills to determine the grade/authenticity of a coin.
Nevertheless some valuable coins are slabbed in Europe (of course by US
slabbing companies...) but this is just to raise their value and make their
owners feel sure of their authenticity.
Me, personally I haven't seen a slabbed euro coin among my fellow
collectors.
Yet....;-)
IMHO: collect the coin, not the slab.

This strikes me as a slight shame
(I'm a neophyte, I know) because feeling the coin has always been part
of the pleasure when, say, collecting pennies.

If someone could even point me to a reliable guide as to how to start:
whether to buy slabbed coins,

Not necessarily.

which system might be best, where best
to obtain them,

Ebay; directly from European sellers through their sites; by swapping with
fellow collectors from Europe.

how best to display them,

There are several albums, cases, chests, etc.

Good luck!

This a fair overview of some possibilities. You might be able to
obtain, fairly easily, uncirculated examples of any of the coins that
interest you. If there would be any possibility to profit financially
from collecting it would be the best chance. Few of the Euro coins
could be described as rare. In fact there are many Euro countries who
are exploiting collectors as vigorously as the market will bear (the
US, Canada and many other countries do as well).

My impression is that many of the Euro coins are not particularly
attractive (the ones from Belgium and the Netherlands, particularly).
They are base metal, so if you will save them and hope to sell them at
a profit, note that they are produced in vast quantity and they can
corrode. My guess is that none of the currencies (especially the
dollar and the Euro) will retain their present value. The collector,
silver coins have some intrinsic value (i.e., they are sterling
silver). In the Netherlands it was possible to purchase them at face
value. If you can do that, there is some protection from the silver
content, but not much. My guess is that from the US you will find it
hard to get these at or near face value.

In any case the same problem may present itself if you wish to arrange
to sell your Euros. In the US, it will be hard to find someone that
wants any of the more common varieties or even the less common if they
are not in mint condition. In Europe, at least you can spend them.

Joshua McGee wrote:

Is it the case, as it appears, that almost all collecting in the coin
world is done with slabbed coins? This strikes me as a slight shame
(I'm a neophyte, I know) because feeling the coin has always been part
of the pleasure when, say, collecting pennies.

What makes you think that most coin collecting is done with slabbed
coins?

In the coin shops and coin shows I visit (in the United States) there
are many more unslabbed coins than slabbed coins.

B.J.

Peter wrote:

This a fair overview of some possibilities. You might be able to
obtain, fairly easily, uncirculated examples of any of the coins that
interest you. If there would be any possibility to profit financially
from collecting it would be the best chance. Few of the Euro coins
could be described as rare. In fact there are many Euro countries who
are exploiting collectors as vigorously as the market will bear (the
US, Canada and many other countries do as well).

My impression is that many of the Euro coins are not particularly
attractive (the ones from Belgium and the Netherlands, particularly).
They are base metal, so if you will save them and hope to sell them at
a profit, note that they are produced in vast quantity and they can
corrode. My guess is that none of the currencies (especially the
dollar and the Euro) will retain their present value. The collector,
silver coins have some intrinsic value (i.e., they are sterling
silver). In the Netherlands it was possible to purchase them at face
value. If you can do that, there is some protection from the silver
content, but not much. My guess is that from the US you will find it
hard to get these at or near face value.

In any case the same problem may present itself if you wish to arrange
to sell your Euros. In the US, it will be hard to find someone that
wants any of the more common varieties or even the less common if they
are not in mint condition. In Europe, at least you can spend them.

As others have said, most Euro coins are fairly common in circulation and I
suspect that there are many out there in the Euro Zone whom actively check
their pockets or coin purses for varieties (or at least national 'type'
designs) that they don't already have. The rough equivalent in the USA would
be for all of the 'state' quarters to be made every year, but only being
released into circulation in their 'home' states and then being allowed to mix
freely in normal use.

I would think that the best and easiest way to get as many varieties as
possible is to find channels where you can trade with or buy from various
Europeans (USA state quarters are popular in Europe, for example).

Keep in mind that there will be many national designs, each with year and in
some countries, several mintmark varieties (Germany has five different
mintmarks). Not all national designs were made in all denominations every
year, too.

Circulating commemoratives are only allowed by the European Central Bank
('ECB') to be issued in the €2 denomination and many countries issue their
limit of one special design every year, in addition to their normal design €2
coin production. Germany is in the midst of a 'state' €2 coin program (with
their five mintmark varieties of each, too!). The EU Treaty commemorative €2
coins were issued a couple of years ago in addition to the various countries'
normal commemorative series.

Thus, getting a complete set of circulating Euro coin varieties is a real
challenge, even for a central European.

I agree, many Euro coin 'national' designs (especially the ones with monarchs)
are pretty dull and boring, but others, like the Greek and Italian €1 coins,
Slovenia's coin set and many of the commemorative €2 coins, are really, really
good.

Good luck and welcome to the world of coin collecting!

--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________

In article ,
Peter wrote:

They are base metal, so if you will save them and hope to sell them at
a profit, note that they are produced in vast quantity and they can
corrode.

A shame that, given the chance to design the entire set of coins from
scratch, they couldn't pick corrosion-resistant alloys. The original
excuse for the Sacajawea tarnishing so badly was that it had to match
the electromagnetic properties of the SBA, and therefore there wasn't
much choice of alloy. The Euro coins didn't have to match any pre-
existing currency.

Wiki-ing, I see that the coins are made of copper coated steel,
"Nordic gold", cupronickel, and "nickel brass". Nordic gold has
been used for coins before--is it prone to corrosion? According
to Wiki it is a varient of aluminum bronze, which is valued for
its corrosion resistance. Cupronickel is quite stable--they make
marine hardware out of it. How bad is nickel brass?

I agree that copper-plated steel sounds like bad news.

--
Please reply to: | "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is
pciszek at panix dot com | indistinguishable from malice."
Autoreply is disabled |

Paul Ciszek wrote:
In article ,
Peter wrote:
They are base metal, so if you will save them and hope to sell them at
a profit, note that they are produced in vast quantity and they can
corrode.

A shame that, given the chance to design the entire set of coins from
scratch, they couldn't pick corrosion-resistant alloys. The original
excuse for the Sacajawea tarnishing so badly was that it had to match
the electromagnetic properties of the SBA, and therefore there wasn't
much choice of alloy. The Euro coins didn't have to match any pre-
existing currency.

Wiki-ing, I see that the coins are made of copper coated steel,
"Nordic gold", cupronickel, and "nickel brass". Nordic gold has
been used for coins before--is it prone to corrosion? According
to Wiki it is a varient of aluminum bronze, which is valued for
its corrosion resistance. Cupronickel is quite stable--they make
marine hardware out of it. How bad is nickel brass?

I agree that copper-plated steel sounds like bad news.

Some European countries have 'nanny state' policies against using nickel in
their coins and thus the USA's standard cupro-nickel coin alloy is illegal for
that purpose in them (it has something to do with their leadership being
worried about allergic reactions to nickel in some people). HOWEVER, the
outer ring on the €2 and the outer layers of the center of the €1 are that
25Ni/75Cu cupro-nickel alloy and it did raise a minor controversy when it was
announced in the late 1990s.

--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________

I am a stamp collector, and my extent with coin collecting has been
pulling American coins out of circulation by date and mint markings.

I am absolutely fascinated by Euro coins, with different designs for
different member countries, and would be interested in beginning a
collection, but I don't really know where to start.

Start from the...beginning:-)

Thank you, and thank you all for great responses. I will investigate
the Lighthouse albums and some others, although my expectation is that
they only have spaces for the major varieties.

Trading is a good idea, and Delcampe might be another possibility.

Thanks again,

Joshua McGee

"Paul Ciszek" wrote in message
...

In article
,
Peter wrote:

They are base metal, so if you will save them and hope to sell them at
a profit, note that they are produced in vast quantity and they can
corrode.

A shame that, given the chance to design the entire set of coins from
scratch, they couldn't pick corrosion-resistant alloys. The original
excuse for the Sacajawea tarnishing so badly was that it had to match
the electromagnetic properties of the SBA, and therefore there wasn't
much choice of alloy. The Euro coins didn't have to match any pre-
existing currency.

Wiki-ing, I see that the coins are made of copper coated steel,
"Nordic gold", cupronickel, and "nickel brass". Nordic gold has
been used for coins before--is it prone to corrosion? According
to Wiki it is a varient of aluminum bronze, which is valued for
its corrosion resistance. Cupronickel is quite stable--they make
marine hardware out of it. How bad is nickel brass?

I agree that copper-plated steel sounds like bad news.

--
Please reply to: | "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is
pciszek at panix dot com | indistinguishable from malice."
Autoreply is disabled |


From 1992 the 1p and 2p coins in the UK have been made of copper plated
steel, the only problem is gives is that if one is put in a "wishing well"
type charity collector they rust quite quickly whereas the bronze versions
don't.

I doubt if anyone who is not a coin collector knows that they are copper
plated steel and not bronze. Billy

I am absolutely fascinated by Euro coins, with different designs for
different member countries, and would be interested in beginning a
collection, but I don't really know where to start.

Start from the...beginning:-)
I'd suggest first to put together a representative euro UNC coin collection
with all euros from all euro countries.
Of course it will be difficult to find the 8 coins from the 3 "small" euro
states (Vatican, San Marino and Monaco) but hey, that's the fun of
collecting coins;-)
Leuchtturm/Lighthouse has 2 nice albums to house such a collection, have a
look hehttp://www.leuchtturm.de/epages/leuc...t/493a43500081...

Thank you, I have looked at the Lighthouse offerings. I cannot really
tell from the photos what the coin "sheets" consist of in the
different versions. Are they acetate pockets? PVC? Mylar? Thick
paperboard with recesses? Could someone give me a little more info,
and maybe some suggestions. I think I'd like to start with the
representative collection, as you stated.

Joshua McGee