It’s great to hear from a young coin collector who really knows his onions. A follower of The Perth Mint on Twitter, @Sharpy96 (aka Daniel) tells us that he’s aiming for the ultimate prize in Australian numismatics – a 1930 penny! There’s no doubting his determination to build a broad-based collection, as he reveals in this terrific reply to our invitation to Write for Us.
“When I tell my friends that I collect coins they all say one thing, what is the point in buying a coin that has a face value of $1.00. But what they refuse to understand is that there is a collectible market for them and they are not just your usual everyday coins.
After showing them some of the magic that the Royal Australian Mint and the Perth Mint has created, they have started to realize the true beauty that was behind the coins and the reason that I spend whatever money I have on enlarging my collection with one goal I’m mind – to eventually get a 1930 Penny, the crown jewel out of all Australian coins.
When I was eight years old I started to get interested in coins. My dad had a few sets including the 1991 Proof Set and the 1991 Masterpieces In Silver, and when I started to see the shininess of the proof coins I started to act like a magpie. I was attracted to the lustre, but not the true art that was pressed into the coin. As I got older I started to see that there was an art to creating such a perfect coin.
In 2009 I really got interested in collecting and that’s where my hobby really kicked off. I started saving up and buying 1oz silver proofs and a couple of uncirculated coins and now four years on I’m still enlarging my collection at the age of 16.
Daniel nominated this 1996 Australian Kookaburra as one of his favourite Perth Mint coins.
I also recently got introduced to professionally graded pre-decimal coins which although expensive are truly magnificent, and I recently started a collection of Florins which will take me a fair amount of time to complete. But I know that the end result will end in satisfaction and I will have a piece of history which will last me a lifetime.
As I have gotten older I have started to not only think of them as a collectible items but as pieces of history, knowing that some of my coins which have a very limited mintage may never be on the market again for me to try to collect.
And for pre-decimal coins, due to time and age damaging the precious coins that once would have been the necessary coins for a family to get food onto the table for their family, they start to become harder and harder to collect in high grades.
My number one piece of advice for young collectors would have to be don’t give up; other people may think you’re silly for buying some old coins but really you’re buying a piece of history that they will never see and will never know existed. So go out there and have a great time collecting your own unique collection.”
