Can you imagine owning a genuine gold or silver coin dating back from the 1800's? Coins from those early days of America were the backbone of this nation's commerce and may have been carried in the pockets of famous Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln as well as hard-working merchants, farmers, cowboys and soldiers throughout the land. But when you consider the number of coins originally minted in the 18th and 19th centuries, only a fraction have survived the passage of time.

Collectors prize those survivors as beautiful works of art, rare antiques from yesteryear. As witnesses to America's past, coins are history you can hold in your hand. The scarcer the coin, the higher the price collectors and investors are willing to pay. In addition, the better the condition of the coin, the more desirable it becomes and its value can increase tremendously as a result.

Throughout history, only the most affluent could pursue coin collecting as a hobby. In fact, coin collecting was usually referred to as the “Hobby of Kings.” Today, collectible coins trade in all price ranges so virtually everyone can participate in some way in this most satisfying and rewarding of hobbies. Over the years, coins struck by the U.S. Mint have been accumulated by serious rare coin collectors and museums as well as hobbyists and individuals interested primarily in investing.

Today, there's a strong and growing base of coin collectors in the United States. Recently, the U.S. Mint reported that over 150 million Americans were currently participating in collecting coins. Many of them first got started in 1999 with the U.S. Mint's State Quarters program and quickly discovered the joys and excitement of coin collecting.

Once introduced to the hobby, many neophyte collectors became aware of the wide range of available U.S. coins beyond state quarters and their collections expanded to include both pre-1964 dated U.S. silver coins and pre-1933 dated U.S. gold coins. The hobby has been on fire ever since.

People collect coins in many different ways, depending on their interests. Some collectors only want silver dollars minted with precious ore from the famous Comstock Lode in Nevada; others only collect gold coins from the California Gold Rush days.

Some collectors seek out coins from famous 19th century shipwrecks, the Wild West era, or coins from the Civil War. Some want to collect one of each type of coin issued by the U.S. Mint. Yet others have discovered the beauty and satisfaction of collecting U.S. paper money.

Finding a particular area - or areas - that interest you can add immensely to the pleasure of building your rare coin collection or portfolio.

Many classic rare U.S. coins have proven to be far less speculative than bullion. The prices of gold and silver change daily on the world markets and are subject to rapid fluctuations in price. Most pre-1933 gold coins give you leverage in an aggressive gold market. A bull market in precious metals has shown to dramatically drive up demand for older gold coins and many of the older issues have enjoyed increases in value far more than that of gold bullion alone. For many collectors, buying rare coins has satisfied their desire for asset appreciation.

There are further advantages to owning historic coins over modern gold bullion. Rare coins are scarce with a fixed supply while modern gold and silver coins are minted by the millions every year. A modern gold bullion coin for example, is worth exactly its weight in gold plus a small minting premium. Its value goes up and down in step with the spot price of gold bullion. Likewise, the value of modern silver bullion coins will vary according to the changing spot price of silver.

On the other hand, U.S. gold coins minted before 1933 have a fixed and limited supply based on how many coins the U.S. Mint struck during that year, and it's extremely important to realize that millions of gold and silver coins were melted down over the years. In addition, veteran collectors and investors are adding rare U.S. coins to their respective collections and portfolios daily, and additional demand is growing dramatically among the new crop of collectors further diminishing the supply of those desirable older coins.

Most U.S. gold coins that are rare today were minted before America's Great Depression. In 1933 President Roosevelt's Emergency Banking Act became law, one result being that holders of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates had to surrender them to the Treasurer of the United States and to accept paper money instead. The minting of circulating U.S. gold coinage ceased.

In addition, in prior years U.S. Government Acts resulted in the melting of hundreds of millions of U.S. silver coins. The 1918 Pittman Act alone resulted in the melting of some 270 million Morgan silver dollars for their bullion content. Additional millions were melted in subsequent years, forever removing even more mint state coins from existence.

Today, from the original number of coins that were minted prior to the year 1933, it is estimated that less than a few percent of them exist in Uncirculated Mint State condition, with only a small percentage of those survivors of the highest quality. Those specimens are eagerly sought-after by collectors and investors alike, further decreasing their availability and increasing their value.

Instead of depending on a buyer's or seller's personal opinion of a coin's grade, it can be to your advantage to acquire coins that have been certified authentic, assigned an objective grade and then sealed in a tamper-proof holder by a trusted independent grading service.

Independent audits by the Professional Numismatists Guild and the Industry Council for Tangible Assets have named both Numismatic Guarantee Corporation (NGC) and Professional Coin Grading Services (PCGS) as having set the standard for certified grading services in the rare coin industry today. Most of the highest quality coins we offer are graded by one of these two leading authorities.

So regarded are the grades assigned by these companies, rare coins can actually be traded sight-unseen by dealers over a computerized network system similar to the way the stock exchange works.