Building a meaningful collection of coins or of any other collectible takes planning and hard work, not to mention some good luck, knowledge and money.

You'd be surprised how many people bring coins to a coin dealer and are shocked when the dealer offers them what they view to be rock-bottom prices for what they have. These people may either be the collector or the heir of the collector, but regardless, they have high expectations and can't understand why the gold coins they have, the old-date coins they have or the obsolete-design coins they have just aren't any great shakes.

Some of them, of course, will accuse the dealer of being a crook and walk away. After they've visited several dealers or perhaps collectors and get the same basic answer, perhaps they finally get the message. In some cases, they just figure everybody in coin collecting must be a crook and throw the coins back in the drawer.

Many amateur collectors find out the hard way that building a meaningful coin collection with real and appreciating value is truly a challenge. If it was easy every coin collector and accumulator would be wealthy.

It's a shame many collectors or their heirs have to find out the hard way, and after the fact, that their efforts did not build such a collection. Many of these people thought just because the coins have precious metal content or are old they automatically had to have appreciating value.

The same people failed to understand that, just like today's pocket change has little collector value, the pocket change of years past likewise had little collector value when it was issued. It still doesn't have collector value today.

It has been said that what is rare today will always be rare, but what is common today will always be common. Remember this when assembling a coin collection. How many people have accumulated copper-nickel composition circulating Bicentennial coins from 1976, $2 bills from the same year or Series 1935 or 1957 silver certificates? None of these have collector value.

In order to assemble a meaningful collection with the possibilities of appreciating value (notice I said possibilities, not probability), you need to have something special. Pocket change won't do.

Put yourself in the place of the person who saw the coins in the year the coins were issued. Let's take the year 1899 as an example. What would you have had in your pocket to spend? Probably coins including Indian Head cents, common-date Barber dimes and quarters and such. Maybe even a few Morgan silver dollars.

You must also consider that gold coins were still in wide circulation. It would not have been unrealistic to be carrying a Coronet $2.50 Quarter-eagle or $5 half-eagle coin rather than paper money at that time.

If someone put a few of these coins in the dresser drawer or pulled them from circulation to assemble a collection, this doesn't make them rare enough or of high enough condition to warrant being significant to today's collector. If it was run-of-the-mill stuff then, it is still run-of-the-mill stuff now. It is simply old with obsolete designs, nothing more.

Now, if in 1899 you were looking for key dates (such information was hard to come by in print at that time) or Proof coins, you had a collection worthy of bragging about at the time. The same coins would be worthy of bragging about today. If the coins were rare or special then, they are rare or special now.

There were more than 56 million Indian Head cents and more than 19 million (Philadelphia Mint) Barber dimes struck in 1899. Any experienced collector will tell you there are still plenty of each to go around even today. What was common then is still going to remain common.

There were more than 3 million Coronet half-eagles struck at Philadelphia and San Francisco in 1899. That was sufficient for circulation then. These only bring premium prices today in premium grades. In premium grades any of these 1899 coins are special. In Proof, if someone bothered to obtain them that way at the time of issue, they are special. They are not special if the coins were pocket change.

You do not have to have rare coins to necessarily have a significant collection with potential of appreciation. You do have to have a collection rather than an accumulation, and you have to have something that stands out above the average. Average brings average prices. Special coins bring special prices.

Coins were produced in massive quantities for use in commerce, regardless of when they were made. There are fourth century ancient Roman coins available for $10 each and less, while there are 19th- and 20th-century U.S. coins that sell for thousands of dollars.

Why? The demand of some of these coins due to either rarity or condition outstripping the supply, not simply because they are old or have obsolete designs.

Common sense should prevail when it comes to assembling a great collection. Put yourself in the shoes of the other guy, be it the person who encountered the coins at their time of issue or the potential buyer of today, then buy accordingly.

Richard Giedroyc is a numismatic writer, researcher, auction cataloger and coin dealer. He has been in the hobby and business most of his life, now having more than three decades experience in this fascinating hobby field. During this time Giedroyc has been the owner of Paris Bergman Galleries, owner of Classical Coin Newsletter, international editor of Coin World and owner of Giedroyc-Anderson Interesting World Coins. He is currently a numismatic consultant. He has written more than 2,000 byline numismatic stories and contributed to several coin catalogs.