Eleven-year-old Eric Li Cheung of New York City isn't your ordinary young numismatist. His tastes run more to Draped Bust quarters and Capped Bust half dollars. And while other collectors his age are content to check for mint marks on coins from pocket change, he's already researching die varieties on early American rarities.

"The modern coins offer no challenge," Eric declares. "You can find them very easily in dealers' display cases, and most of them are very inexpensive.

"The dullest part about them, though, is that there are very few varieties. The dies and planchets today are much stronger than they were 200 years ago, so the coins tend to be uniform, which I find very uninteresting. To me, it's a real challenge when you have a coin with six different varieties and you have to figure out which variety you have by looking at a certain part of the coin."

It's often said that youngsters today have less incentive to take up coin collecting than their counterparts did a generation ago because there are few scarce coins in circulation. That's of no concern to Eric Li Cheung, however -- for he's already far beyond the stage of seeking coins in pocket change.

Instead, he tracks down worthwhile coins in dealers' stock, and draws upon his fast-growing store of knowledge to pick up good buys. Last year, for example, he acquired a relatively scarce Capped Bust half dollar for the common-coin price because -- unlike the dealer who sold him the coin --he spotted it as a better variety.

"It's an 1829 half dollar," he relates, " and in checking the Breen Encyclopedia, I found that it's an Overton 112. It's not a rare variety, but it's quite a bit scarcer than the regular varieties of the 1829, and I was happy to get it for such a good price.

"I don't intend to sell it," he adds, "because it's such an enjoyable coin to hold onto. It's very fine to extremely fine, and it has a lot of really nice detail." One of Eric's most expensive purchases -- and potentially biggest bargains -- was a 1796 Draped Bust quarter, a circulated but nicely preserved specimen of this one-year type coin, which is distinguished from other Bust quarters by its small-eagle reverse.

The sharp-eyed lad paid $9,000 for this coin -- the going price for the "common" version of this anything-but- common issue -- but only after satisfying himself that it was, in fact, a scarcer die variety. Experts have told him that he could sell the coin for a healthy profit.

He keeps this special quarter, along with all the rest of his collection, in a safe-deposit box at a bank.

Eric pores over the Breen Encyclopedia -- "Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins" -- as avidly as other boys his age read comic books. And when he goes out with a book under his arm, chances are it isn't "Tom Sawyer" but "Penny Whimsy" -- the in-depth study of U.S. large cents by William H. Sheldon, Dorothy I. Pascal and Breen.

"The Breen Encyclopedia is too heavy to carry around," the slender youngster observes, "but when I go to coin shows, I often take 'Penny Whimsy' with me. I look for specific varieties, especially the ones that are Rarity 4 or higher. Those are the ones I keep; I also buy more common varieties, but only to resell, assuming I can get them for a favorable price." Eric's introduction to the wonderful world of coins came when he was only 3 years old. His maternal grandfather, James Li, gave him a Kennedy half dollar dated 1983 -- the year the youngster was born.

"It was kind of like a symbol," Eric explains. "And I didn't become a collector right away. But I guess that planted the seed."

His grandfather traveled extensively, and over the years he brought back foreign coins to pique the boy's interest in the subject. That interest took firm root when Eric was 8.

"That's when I became a more serious collector," he relates. "I went to a library book sale and picked up some coin books -- and then, for Chinese New Year, we went to the house of my other grandfather, Thomas Yiu Ting Cheung, and he gave me a Peace dollar and a Bicentennial Eisenhower dollar."

The coin books were 1988 and 1989 editions of "A Guide Book of United States Coins" (the familiar "Red Book"), which the library apparently had replaced with a newer version. Eric found them fascinating.

"Then," he recalls, "one of my friends sold me some coins and told me where I could go to buy more. So I started picking up coins that interested me the most, such as Indian Head cents and Mercury dimes." Before long, Eric was immersed in numismatics. He even organized "a little coin group" at his school, where he was then in the fourth grade, and started "giving speeches during lunch on rainy Thursdays" to the group.

As his interest grew, so did his attraction to earlier, scarcer U.S. coins.

"Large cents and Bust half dollars are much more appealing than Jefferson nickels and Roosevelt dimes," he exclaims.

Eric began attending coin shows in New York and taking part in Young Numismatists programs conducted by Lawrence Gentile Sr., a longtime supporter and mentor of junior collectors.

"Larry Gentile helped me a great deal," he remarks. "He puts in a lot of work and gives young collectors a lot of encouragement, and this was very helpful to me. I would encourage other young people to participate in his programs, as well. He tells you exactly what to do to become a better collector, and gives you everything you need to know."

His parents have been supportive of Eric's hobby from the start -- even when his taste for earlier, scarcer coins made ever-bigger dents in the family's budget. His father, Dennis Cheung, is a prominent New York lawyer and his mother, Lillian Li, is a well-known obstetrician and gynecologist.

"This is a healthy outlet for children, and in many ways it is also a good learning experience," his mother comments.

The educational value of coins was underscored in one of Eric's classes at school, when his history teacher asked whether anyone knew who Winston Churchill was.

"I had obtained a commemorative coin from the Turks and Caicos Islands with Winston Churchill's portrait on it; I got it at a Young Numismatists auction," he reports, "and I had looked it up in a coin book. So when the topic came up in school, I answered immediately that Churchill was the prime minister of Great Britain during World War II. I had never read any history books on Churchill, but I knew a lot about him because of that coin."

Eric's performance in school is exceptional -- even when he doesn't have the benefit of knowledge obtained through coins. He's an honors student at St. Ann's School in the Brooklyn Heights section of Brooklyn, where he's about to enter the seventh grade. And testing by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth shows that he ranks in the 99th percentile -- the top 1 percent -- for academic ability among young people his age. What's more, he took the test while still in the fifth grade -- a year earlier than it usually is administered.

As a result of his strong showing on the Johns Hopkins test, Eric got to attend a special summer program at the center, where he studied computers for three weeks. Computers rank along with coins as one of the great passions of his young life.

Staking a strong claim to being the modern equivalent of a Renaissance man, Eric has exhibited not only great proficiency at computer science, but also remarkable gifts as a musician. At the age of 4 1/2, he began taking lessons on both the violin and the piano -- and he has made marvelous progress with both instruments. At present, he is studying piano with Olegna Fuschi at the Juilliard School and violin with San San Kletzien at the School for Strings, having gained acceptance at two of New York's most elite musical training grounds.

If he has any weakness academically (and he hasn't shown any yet), it certainly isn't in geography. In fourth grade, he finished first nationally in a Geography Olympiad sponsored by the National Geographic Society. In fifth grade, he was second in the Geography Olympiad for that grade level.

In sixth grade, he entered the seventh-grade Mathematics Olympiad -- and despite spotting a year of formal education to most of the field, he still finished fifth in this, yet another national contest. Earlier, competing against other sixth-graders, he had tied for first.

Eric has one sibling: a 9-year-old sister, Tracy. At this point, however, he's the only confirmed Young Numismatist in the family.

It's still a little early to formulate detailed plans for his future career, but Eric makes it clear that he's already giving careful consideration to the subject. And coins play a major part in his preliminary plans.

"I plan to write some books on coins and also do some cataloging," he says. "I may become a coin dealer, too, and help people set up portfolios." His writing career -- if that's what he chooses to follow -- is off to a fast start. He has written several manuscripts on numismatic subjects, including one entitled "Secrets of a Numismatist & Investor." And recently, the prestigious Numismatic Literary Guild accepted his application for membership, making him the youngest member in the history of the 27-year-old organization, whose roster includes several hundred of the top writers, editors and other literary professionals in the field.

"I see a bright future for coin collecting," he says. "As the world's population grows, so will demand for coins. Numismatics is a hobby that grows with us."

The future of numismatics will be a whole lot brighter if Eric Li Cheung decides to stick with the hobby -- and possibly even enter the profession.

And who knows: If he follows through on his writing plans, future generations of keen-witted Young Numismatists may find themselves consulting not only the older coin reference books but the Cheung Encyclopedia, too.