This Viral Online Thread Has 30 Coin Collectors Sharing The Gems Of All Their Collections

As early as 105,000 years ago, humans started collecting things. Back then, people in the Kalahari region of southern Africa collected crystals, which did not exist naturally near the area where they were found, making them a valuable collectible. 

Ever since, the act of collection has evolved, and nowadays people gather various things. From books and CDs to stamps, baseball cards (or other kinds of cards), and coins—people always find something worth investing their time, money, and home space in. 

Speaking about coin collection, there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to it—r/coincollecting. There, people can ask others relevant questions, like about a coin’s worth, share what coins they found, or simply admire what others were able to find. It was created back in April of 2010, and ever since, it has gathered 109K members, making the community the top 2% in size on the whole platform.

Today’s list was assembled from this exact subreddit. In it, you’ll find various coins from different times and places. It just shows how even a seemingly insignificant piece of metal can hold so much history within itself. Or be actually fake and just giving numismatists false hope. 

If you read the last sentence, you might wonder what a numismatist is. Well, knowing the topic of this article, it’s not surprising that it describes a person who is a specialist, researcher, and/or collector of coins. 

It should be noted that the term is a rather broad one, as it encompasses not only collection but researching money too. To be more specific, various means of payment were used to exchange goods and resolve debts throughout history. 

So, coin collection can be differentiated from numismatics, as usually, it focuses on solely collecting particular coins, not other forms of currency, like bills. Some research is involved in the collection, as by trying to gather beautiful, rare, and historically significant pieces, collectors have to be in the know in order to find them and/or determine their value. 

Several factors help to determine this, such as the coin’s type—whether it’s a circulating one or a commemorative design. 

The latter are designed to be collectible items, often celebrating key events and themes. Also, the commemorative designs are individually packaged and categorized into three standards: circulating, brilliant uncirculated, and proof (these ones are often struck in precious metals such as silver and gold). So, as you can see, figuring out the type can drastically increase (or decrease) a coin's worth. 

Besides that, factors like official mintage (the number of coins produced), design, condition, and source matter as well. Yet, figuring out all these things might be hard to figure out by yourself.

So, it’s normal for collectors to look for help in various places, the discussed subreddit included. And while they look for help figuring out their findings’ value, we common folks get a gallery full of fascinating coins to enjoy.