Some people say a million dollars isn't what it used to be--and they're right.

And yet, there's something magical about those three little words: A MILLION DOLLARS.

Why else do lotteries like to use that figure as the starting point for their jackpots? And why else do TV stations call their late shows "million-dollar movies"?

It doesn't really matter that a million dollars doesn't buy what it used to, or that there are many more millionaires every year. A million dollars is still an important milestone: It's a number that, when attained, says someone can do it all.

Sure, a million dollars would have stretched a whole lot farther 50--or even 25--years ago. But who wouldn't like to have that sum of money sitting in his or her bank account.

Wouldn't you?

Almost exactly 10 years ago, in the March 1984 issue of COINage, I outlined a blueprint for making a million dollars through buying and selling rare coins. Those who followed that blueprint--and I hope that some of you did--might very well have realized truly spectacular profits ... possibly even a million ... over the years.

Obviously, those profits would have come primarily in the first half of the last decade--from 1984 to 1989--when the coin market heated up and came to a boil. Since then, much of the market has been depressed.

But my article recommended holding onto investment coins for just that length of time--five years. Anyone who bought high-quality coins in March 1984 and sold them five years later, in the spring of 1989, would have caught the market at one of its historic highs--and might have made even MORE than a million dollars.

The blueprint I provided in 1984 is equally valid today. The only thing that's really changed is the pricing structure of coins--and surprisingly, rare coins are actually lower- priced today than they were 10 years ago.

I'll update that blueprint in a two-part series of articles this month and next month in COINage. And while there are no guarantees in life, love or numismatics, I'm confident that it will be rewarding for those who follow it.

Making a million dollars requires significant starting capital. Thus, although this article is geared to the idea of MAKING a million dollars from coins, it also will explore how to SPEND a million dollars on coins--because in today's marketplace, you may need to SPEND a million in order to MAKE a million.

All of the mintage and pricing information in this article and the second installment next month will be taken from my book "The Insider's Guide to U.S. Coin Values 1994," a Dell mass-market paperback available in bookstores and from coin dealers everywhere for $4.99. This is the ultimate wish book--a book with accurate valuations for virtually every imaginable U.S. coin that a million dollars can buy you.

In my article 10 years ago, I described three key elements that are needed to make a million: time ... money ... and expertise. Those same three elements are equally vital today. For 1994 coin buyers, however, I'll add a fourth factor: economic justification--a term coined by investment adviser Maurice H. Rosen which actually goes hand in hand with time.

Compared with 1984, it probably will take a lot MORE time to make a million dollars in today's coin market. And it won't be an easy task; you won't be able to do it in three months, six months or a year.

The rare coin market really hasn't moved on a consistent upward path since 1989. As a consequence, the charts and graphs and predictable cyclical trends which used to be hallmarks of this marketplace have now gone by the boards: They just don't apply any more.

Cycles no longer take three years to run their course, as they did back in 1984. Henceforth, they may take an entire generation to occur. Coins should now be viewed as a very long-term investment--although there are some things on the horizon which could point to more rapid appreciation in value.

Coin-market movements still are viewed today in terms of a boom-and-bust cycle. Unfortunately, though, we've been in a bust cycle for several years now--an unprecedented length of time for such a funk.

During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, from 1977 to 1981, rare coins did exceptionally well. We saw price increases as high as 1,000 percent a year--a downright startling number. This was a result of ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION--which, as I say, is closely related to TIME.

Inflation was rampant during the Carter years, and millions of Americans were searching feverishly for hedges-- safe havens--for their money. Many found it in hard assets, including precious metals and rare coins.

More recently, by contrast, inflation has been almost non-existent, and as a result the man in the street has felt no strong desire or need to shelter his money. The absence of this stimulus has simply made the coin market all the more lethargic.

Now, more than ever, your ability to profit from investing in coins depends upon how much money you begin with. You CAN make a million dollars without a lot of start- up capital, but you'll probably need a lot more time. And you CAN make a profit from investing in coins with minimal starting capital--even within a short-term framework--but you'll probably make far less than a million dollars.

The ideal starting sum today to make a million in coins IS a million. With a million dollars, you can make diversified purchases of high-quality coins with considerable safety. And after five or 10 years, that million dollars might very well double in value, bringing you an additional million.

As a general rule, the higher the price of a coin or coins you are considering and the more money you have to spend, the lower the percentage of the profit margin a dealer will charge to sell you that material.

I would suggest that anyone who has a large sum of money to spend on coins should negotiate with the dealer and get him to disclose what he paid for the coins. My own firm, Scott Travers Rare Coin Galleries of New York City, regularly deals with investors and collectors who do indeed spend a million dollars. And in all such cases, my firm discloses what we paid for the coins--and we state in writing how much commission we are making.

In some cases, I'll charge an hourly fee. Instead of charging 15 percent of a million dollars, the hourly fees might come out to a total of $20,000, which would represent a minimal cost to such a client.

If you are, in fact, spending a million dollars on coins, I would recommend that you not spend more than 20 percent on commissions to the dealer. My firm charges less than that, but there are a number of dealers out there-- reputable dealers--who do ask for higher sums. Fees are negotiable, and you should try to keep them to a minimum.

There are many excellent buys in the current coin market; a great many coins are selling for small fractions of the prices they would have brought just a few short years ago. Yet, while affordability is high, price resistance also is great. Indeed, price-resistance levels are tighter than they've ever been before.

A number of rare coins available today for low six- figure prices--in the $100,000-to-$150,000 price range--could very well soar in value to a million dollars apiece. These could come to be viewed as the Rembrandts of our field, in a sense.

My advice, however, would not be to put together a portfolio of 10 coins valued at $100,000 each, and thereby spend your million dollars on just a small portfolio--but rather, to buy a lot of different coins valued at $500 each or $1,000 each.

It's a lot easier for a coin that's valued at $500 to increase to $5,000--a tenfold jump--than it would be for a coin valued at $5,000 to increase to $50,000. Price resistance is greater when the actual sum of money involved is so high.

A recent advertisement by Panterra Numismatics of Dallas dramatized this point. The ad displayed two coins: an 1838 half dime, no drapery, certified by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America as Mint State-67, and a 1936-S Lincoln cent, certified by NGC as Mint State-67 Red.

Underneath the half dime was a series of captions: "This MS-67 NGC-graded coin is priced at $10,000 ... If this coin were to rise in value 1,000 percent, it would have to increase to six figures ... If this coin lost 20 percent of its value, it would lose $2,000 ... A full set of this coin graded MS-67 by NGC would cost you approximately a million dollars."

Underneath the Lincoln cent was a parallel series of captions: "This MS-67 NGC-graded coin is priced at $75 ... If this coin were to rise in value 1,000 percent, it would be worth well under $1,000 ... If this coin lost 20 percent of its value, you would lose $15 ... A full set of this coin in MS-67 would cost you substantially less than $5,000."

The point is, many coins which are valued today at $500 have a lot greater upside potential--percentagewise--than coins now selling for half a million dollars.

In assembling your portfolio, it's important to diversify--not only in terms of the KINDS of coins you acquire, but also in terms of the PRICES that you pay.

If you buy a coin for $20,000 and hold it for 10 years, and during that time the coin market rises, you might well expect to receive a big return on your investment. Instead, you might discover that you've actually suffered a loss.

There could be a number of reasons for this--most, if not all, of them coming down to your lack of expertise.

Most importantly, the coin may have been overgraded when you bought it. To avoid such a problem, you need to limit your purchases to coins that have been independently certified by NGC, the Professional Coin Grading Service or ANACS.

More than anything else, more than even money, the primary determinant of making a million dollars from coins is expertise. You have to know the type of coins to buy and the quality of the coins to buy--and you have to know when to buy them and when to sell them.

Before you prepare any analysis of the market's movements, and before you calculate when to make your purchases and what they should consist of, it's absolutely vital to develop an in-depth knowledge of coins in order to maximize your chances of getting good value.

Much has been written on how to negotiate when buying or selling coins. There is no substitute for knowing just how much a coin is worth.

I recently read an elaborate explanation of negotiating strategy. The author said to make sure you get the other person to reveal his or her ultimate number first, then offer a little bit less than that ... or perhaps it was a little bit more.

Nonsense! If you absolutely know that something is worth $8,000, it doesn't matter whether it's offered to you for $18,000 or $80,000: If you know it's worth $8,000 and you pay $6,000, you've made a profit. The chances are, if you know it's worth $8,000, you'll want to offer a little more to allow the seller a bit of a profit, but not a whole lot more.