Why Do We Collect Coins?

It’s a question so many of us ask, and so often one we are asked… “Why do we collect coins?” It begs a series of followup questions: Is it for the designs? The metals they are composed of and how they reflect light? The years they represent? The investment potential? To assist our imagination of the past? The country in which they were made? Considering the many fields of interest that compose numismatics, perhaps the answer for many of us is some or all of the above.

Gold and silver coinage was created almost 3,000 years ago for the purposes of facilitating trade and as a store of value. It also served as the first form of mass communication by those in power who issued the coinage. In order to achieve these contemporary ends at the time of their issuance, metallurgical, political, and artistic matters had to be considered. To be a store of value, the coinage needed to be virtually indestructible. To be credible and deemed legitimate, the issuing authority had to persuade and convince, with images and words, those to transact with it.

As time passed, the coinage administered by these civilizations developed additional characteristics reflecting yet other disciplines such as economics, sociology, law, and chemistry. Has the economic environment of the issuing country or those of its trading partners changed? Or the leadership? How about the development and functioning of those societies, or the artistic trends of the time? As for the coins themselves, how had their composition changed, if at all, over time?

These aspects of coinage, individually and collectively, are what have enabled it to effectively carry out its purposes for thousands of years. Today, these coins (and bullion) still serve to facilitate trade and store value. Their symbolic imagery and words continue to visually contextualize the past. Few collectibles are imbued so densely with so many components of interest and endeavor. Coinage is not only money. It isn’t only art. It isn’t only metal. It is all of these. And to some, it’s a very meaningful connection to the memory of a loved one.

We all arrive at collecting for different reasons. Always fascinated by history, I was immediately hooked when my grandmother brought out a memory box full of Morgan Dollars, Franklin Half Dollars, other 90% silver coins, and a few Indian Cents and Buffalo Nickels. Within a short time, my interest deepened to include the metallurgy of gold and silver, sociology, and the financial history of the United States and the world. But regardless of the pragmatic aspects of why I’m into a specific coin at a particular time, I always think about my grandmother.

Over time, we will touch on different aspects of numismatics and reflect on what it is we do as numismatists – and perhaps more important, why. So stay tuned!