old man's advice

For all beginners: When starting your collection be sure to make up your mind on where you are going. We encounter a lot of collectors with thousands of coins with no apparent single motif. Others just collect and collect, thus they have many coins of different countries and different species. You may want to concentrate first on country or metal species, like gold coins which are very expensive sets (not to mention platinum which are seldom issued) or you can find silver coins which are affordable and not too expensive. I recall then as I was starting when I came across a friend who is concentrating only in Philippine coins and then I asked him why. He told me that it is best because he is a Filipino and it is an achievable goal (actually his collection is made up of Phil-Am coins only). He was referring to a set of around two hundred pieces only and it is locally available. His target was eighty to ninety percent of the total number because he knows that some coins will really not be available or too costly (Proof Coin issues only).. A collection will gain value if it is complete.

The bad thing about coins coming from the Philippines is most of them are cleaned and have been polished. Its very hard to get good and uncleaned coins from the Philippines.

Advice ko sa mga baguhang kolektor ay kumuha muna sila ng kopya ng coin catalogue...either CD version or photocopy lang...kung gusto nila ng libro ay second hand na lang ang bilhin nila.

Kung gusto nilang makamura or maka-jackpot sa coins ay subukan nilang maglibot-libot sa mga bangketa...marami sa mga namimili ng coins sa bangketa ay hindi marunong sa presyo kaya mas malamang na makamura ka roon kesa sa mga coin dealer ka bibili. Lagi mong titingnan muna sa coin catalogue kung magkano yung coin bago mo bilhin. At dapat ay marunong kang tumingin ng peke at hindi.

Based on my own experience...ang mga new collector/newbie/noobs ay malamang na itratong "prey" ng mga matatandang kolektor(predator). Gusto nilang manglamang sa mga baguhan dahil mas knowledgeable sila...kaya napakaimportante sa mga noobs na magkaroon ng coin catalogue at umattend ng mga auction.

Maganda rin puntahan ang ebay at ibang coin forum para mas lalong lumago ang knowledge mo.

Saka hindi advisable na linisin yung mga coin dahil mas malamang na ma-damage mo ang mga yon at bumaba ang value.