Depending on your numismatic preferences, there any many famous coin collections on display in museums as well as in the vaults of some private collections. The Hermitage Collection, for instance, contains over 63,000 ancient Greek coins and is considered by some to be benchmark for coin collecting. However, if your interest in coins does not include those from an ancient period these types of famous coin collections will probably hold no interest.

Famous coin collections of Asian coins from the 13th through the 15th century are also displayed in museums, but many of the most famous coin collections can be read about only when they are put up for auction or if they are stolen. Most private collectors keep the details of the coins quiet for many reasons, among them not becoming a risk of attempted theft, but also because they collect coins for the pleasure of collecting and not for amassing a fortune in rare monetary pieces.  More on Famous Coin Collections

Coin collecting has been around for centuries, initially as amassing wealth and then finally as putting together different kinds of coins for the sake of their value as collectors’ items. At the highest levels of coin collecting, some collectors strive to outdo each other by procuring the most sought after or rarest coins available. This hobby is expensive and very informative since collectors need to now about their preferred coins.

Kinds of Coin Collections  More on The Different Themes of Coin Collecting

Coin Collecting

Coin collecting is a hobby that entails gathering or collecting coins for specific reasons. The reasons for collecting coins are the collection themes. These themes range from country collections to type collections.

Initially, collectors might have started coin collecting because of having extra coins after a trip or liking the design of a certain coin as it is encountered or seeing a really old coin which is not in circulation anymore and just wanting to keep it. As the collectors’ interest increase, so will the appetite for more variety or more specific coins. Most coin collectors are generalists and they prefer to have a little bit of everything while others are very specific with what they want and prefer to collect coins of a certain variety. More on Coin Collecting, The Hobby of Kings