“Nu” Year, “Nu” You?

“Na-nu, na-nu?” No, this isn’t Mork from Ork, the fictional planet in the disco-era comedy series Mork & Mindy starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. But this is a longtime “nu”-mismatist from planet Earth, where the year is now 2024. I realize that, like so many other coin collectors, maybe it’s time to start things anew in this new year. I know, I know… There’s a lot to do during these next weeks as we turn the page on a new calendar. I’ve got a gym to hit, there are some new leafy foods to try, and this is the year I vow to learn a new language (Orkan, perhaps?). But I also want to try building some new coin sets.

Buy That Book First…

I subscribe to the well-known numismatic maxim, “Buy the book before the coin.” The principle is quite simple. It boils down to learning about what you’re buying before you buy it. It’s some practical wisdom no matter what you’re buying – a car, a house, or that gym membership both you and I may have been contemplating during these first weeks of 2024.

And learning about new coins also caters to my innate curiosity of wanting to know more. It may be why I became a journalist. It may also be why I took up the avocation of coin collecting, which requires more than a passive interest in the sets of coins that I’m assembling. Although I must make a little modern-day annotation to the whole book-buying wisdom… While I absolutely encourage you to both buy and read numismatic books (open disclosure here – I’ve written some!), this is the 21st century. Some of the best information you’re going to find as you study up on a new series is no farther away than your fingertips at PCGS CoinFacts, so be sure to check out this free, comprehensive resource. There’s nothing else like it on the internet.

Spring Cleaning!

Starting the new year by establishing a new set goal for my collection gives me the opportunity to clean house, so to speak. Yes, some of us just continue building onto our existing sets. But my budget is limited. So, if I want to build a new coin set, it often means reevaluating what’s in my collection and deciding what of it I can sell to fund my new collecting goals.

While this financial strategy may or may not apply to your numismatic goals, it hopefully gives you pause for a beat to think about your collection in a critical light. Is there anything you really don’t want to collect anymore? Many of us evolve during our numismatic journeys, and our tastes may change. I might still collect Lincoln Cents as I did in the early 1990s when I was just starting out as an adolescent collector. However, I also have an appetite for a few major varieties – maybe some of those mint sets I bought way back when and no longer want can help fund the purchase of a nice PCGS graded Doubled Die Lincoln Cent or two.

Liquidating a coin collection isn’t always an easy task, and I’ll tell you right here and now it can be an emotional one. I’ve written more than once about what I call seller’s remorse. But I will also tell you that there are few things I find more numismatically liberating than selling coins (or sets) I no longer wish to collect so I can muster the funds to build a new set I simply can’t wait to dive into!

Don’t Throw it All Away…

It’s not always out with the old, in with the new. Many of the collectors we’ve profiled here in the popular PCGS Market Report column Collector Spotlight have shared stories of refining goals for sets they already had.

This often manifests in the form of taking a simple date and mintmark set and adding varieties. Or sometimes they embarked on an upgrading project, replacing coins in their sets with better-quality examples. In at least two cases, we interviewed collectors who traded in run-of-the-mill coins for brilliantly toned specimens of the same issues.

Does it Register?

There’s a good chance you’re already building at least one set on the PCGS Set Registry, the oldest and most popular online platform for collecting coins while vying for top prizes. But if not, what are you waiting for? It’s a new year, and there’s a first time for everything! The PCGS Set Registry hosts more than 170,000 sets from collectors around the world. And guess what? It’s free to join!

One of the many things people love about the PCGS Set Registry is that many find it a fantastic inventorying tool. Of course, this feeds right into what I was talking about a moment ago when discussing selling the coins I no longer wanted to collect. When you can see your whole collection at a glance, it makes it much easier to determine what you want to keep or sell.

Yet, there’s more to the PCGS Set Registry than organizing your collection. One of the best features of the Registry is “showing and telling.” That’s right… Even if you prefer anonymity, something many collectors understandably seek, many – maybe even most – collectors like showing off what they have. And isn’t it fun showing off your latest acquisition to others who will appreciate it? The PCGS Set Registry is an exciting and safe environment for doing exactly that.

The PCGS Set Registry is perfect for building that new set of coins you want to build in 2024. It provides you with an easy-to-follow outline for determining what coins you will need to assemble that new set (preset from among thousands of categories for U.S. and world coin sets). It also offers you a place to publicly showcase all those new coins you will be buying in the months ahead. Perhaps your new set will even win a PCGS Set Registry Award later this year…

Making it All Happen in 2024

Here we stand in the first weeks of the new year. What’s it going to look like? Is it going to be the year you completely revamp your collection? Will you trade in some old coins to buy new ones? Are you going to upgrade part of your collection or perhaps expand a basic set? The choice is completely up to you, but ultimately you won’t be alone if you do something numismatically new in 2024. Many successful collectors embark on new collecting goals at the start of the year. And it’s not just about the motivation of kicking off the new year on a new foot. Oh, no…

There are practical aspects to pursuing new collecting goals in the first weeks of the year. Certainly, for many collectors the start of a new calendar year means a new budget – one that might include replenished funds for building a coin collection. Then there are the bevy of major shows happening during the early months of the year, including the Florida United Numismatists Convention, New York International Numismatic Convention, Houston Money Show, the Long Beach Expo: The Collectibles Show, and the PCGS Members Only Show.

Not only are hundreds of dealers offering coins at each of these shows, but there are also major auctions being held in conjunction with these events, giving collectors innumerable opportunities to add new coins to their collections. Don’t forget the hundreds of PCGS Authorized Dealers who also offer mail-order and online sales, allowing you to buy the coins you want right from the comfort of your home.

The bottom line? Whether or not you decide to start building a new set or two this year, hopefully 2024 brings many good things your way. As I hope you always remember, PCGS serves as your partner in numismatics and endeavors to make all your collecting goals easier, safer, and more fun. And with that, I’ve got to run – run to the gym, that is! Happy New Year!