There is a misconception among people that collecting coins is only for the richest of rich. Well, it's false, but it is true that it was a hobby pursued by Kings and even a lot of US presidents. However, there are a lot of ordinary folks like you and me for whom collecting coins is a passion.

Well, a lot of people start collecting coins because they may have obtained or stumbled upon a coin which they were fascinated by for some reason or the other. These 'keepsakes' are what start off the hobby of 'coin collection'. There aren't any strict guidelines on how they should be collected. You can collect whatever you like.

However, you shouldn't go about it aimlessly or waste money on some worthless coins. You should first learn something about the types of coins that you are into, and should also know how you should value coins, so that you won't get ripped off. Coin collecting can also be profitable if you know how to deduce the value of a coin!

In 1949, the Sheldon Scale of coin grading was invented. Before this, coins were just graded with the words 'poor', 'bad', 'good' and 'excellent'. The Sheldon Scale included a numerical 70 - point scale to these terms. Though a lot of coin collectors knew about this Scale, it didn't come into common use until the 1980s when third - party coin graders became popular. These people combined Dr. Sheldon's invention with the descriptions used before to come up with the United States Coin Grading Scale, which measures coins from P1 to AU58, the former being the worst and latter being the best.

Here are some tips on coin collecting:

· Coin collecting doesn't always have to be an expensive affair. Save up some money till you've learnt the rudiments of coin collecting and then start off.

· A fab way to start the hobby is to empty your pockets and check these coins to see whether any of these are valuable or not!

· Find out what type of coins you are interested in.

· Look for a good book on coin collecting, and read them, page - to - page. Like they say, "Buy the book before you buy the coin'

· Learn the Grading Scale which I mentioned earlier .That way, you'll know how to grade the coins you have collected.

· Once you're ready to spend some money on purchasing coins, look for multiple samples of them so that you can pick the one which has the least wear (and which will be the most valuable).