Advice needed.

[Hitesh]

Sirs,
I started collecting different types of coins in my mid-teens. I'm 20 right now.
Over time i have collected various types of coins and medals from various sources like jewelers, holy places like Haridwar and people in general.
But i must profess that i usually had no idea as to the kind of coin i used to buy from these sources.

Finally, after all this time i have taken up a task to actually start cataloging my collection. But i really have no idea where to start. By scouting the internet i have been able to find about some of them e.g. some punch marked coins from the Gupta period, some princely state coins etc. This process is hardly efficient and time consuming.

I live in a small town in India, thus hardly any resources or help is available.
Thus i would like to request any advice and tips so as to how should I go about go about in cataloging. Also, i would like to pursue this field with a renewed vigour once I am financially independent(soon to be). Thus any tips about coin collecting would be really appreciated. I would like to become a serious collector in future.

I would be really grateful for any and all advice.
Thank You.

[Coinsforever]

Sirs,
I started collecting different types of coins in my mid-teens. I'm 20 right now.
Over time i have collected various types of coins and medals from various sources like jewelers, holy places like Haridwar and people in general.
But i must profess that i usually had no idea as to the kind of coin i used to buy from these sources.

Finally, after all this time i have taken up a task to actually start cataloging my collection. But i really have no idea where to start. By scouting the internet i have been able to find about some of them e.g. some punch marked coins from the Gupta period, some princely state coins etc. This process is hardly efficient and time consuming.

I live in a small town in India, thus hardly any resources or help is available.
Thus i would like to request any advice and tips so as to how should I go about go about in cataloging. Also, i would like to pursue this field with a renewed vigour once I am financially independent(soon to be). Thus any tips about coin collecting would be really appreciated. I would like to become a serious collector in future.

I would be really grateful for any and all advice.
Thank You.

Welcome to world of coins collecting , every advance collector has to begin aT some point of time.

If I understand correctly  you need basic catalog ie Standard Catalog of World coins.(Krause) where various sections of Indian coins are listed with their identification nos and tentative prices.

Although the catalog needs updation but to start with you can refer it.

Most important way is to list out in ( spreadsheet/excel) that is quite handy .

Further refer section here at WOC " printed material " to see what is freely available online.
Cheers

[Hitesh]

Sir,
I live in a small town in India. Thus most of the coins i have collected have been based mostly on luck. (Living in a small town has had the advantage that the coin is available at a much lower rate compared to that in a big city or the internet).
So how do i go about actually procuring coins and where?

Standard Catalog of World coins.(Krause)- This is a catalog based on coins from different centuries. Right? So if i am to search for two different coins from different centuries then i will have to get two different catalogs? And sir, how do I search for a particular coin if I have no knowledge whatsoever about it? Is there any way to estimate the date of any coin?

Thank you in advance.

[saro]

Welcome to WoC !
It's a good idea to try to classify your collection, as said by Coinsforever you'll find good reference on WoC with free useful catalogues today online.
But before looking at specialized catalogues, to avoid fastidious researches, your first job is to separate medals, tokens from states official issues and then to try to gather them by periods or dynasties; machine struck or hand made, metal, language, size and weight are the good characteristics : mini scales will be to purchase if you haven't (not expensive today).
Then you can easily separate old indian coins, sultanates, mughal and indian states.
After that, try to find dates on your coins, from medieval period, islamic indian coins are often dated and it's very useful to look for rulers. Dates on indian coins are mostly in arabic and it's very useful to learn how to read these dates.
Now you can try to identify by yourself the state, dynasty, ruler; for example, you'll find many different topics on WoC with useful index and thousand pictures from members.

And if you meet difficulties to identify a coin, you can post it on WoC, no doubt you'll obtain a quick reply...

[THCoins]

Welcome Hitesh ! As said by the others, just start !
Krause is a good choice for a reference for modern (post 1600 AD) coins. But it can be a bit impressive to start with.
If you have a wide range of coins just start with dividing in broad categories like:
-Ancient punchmarked.
-Early medieval coinage.
-Sultanate
-Mughal period.
-Princely States.
To start with a broad comprehensive overview of what coins from different times look like i recommend this site: CoinIndia. Just try browsing the different categories at this site one at a time. Likely you will be able to put the majority of your coins in the  right category then already.

And last: don't hesitate to ask !!

Anthony

[capnbirdseye]

Sir,


Standard Catalog of World coins.(Krause)- This is a catalog based on coins from different centuries. Right? So if i am to search for two different coins from different centuries then i will have to get two different catalogs?
Thank you in advance.

Luckily for you hitesh you don't need to buy all those different Krause catalogues because you just need the recently published 'Indian edition' which has all the Indian sections from each century all in one book! and since buying this I've never had need to look at all the individual catalogues unless it's somewhere else in the world.
Also luckily for you the book is published in India & therefore should be easy to get at lower price than I had to pay.

[Abhay]

The detail of the South Asian Catalogue is here:  http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,16765.0.html

Abhay

[Figleaf]

As you can see, we are ready to help, but you need to make some important decisions. The most important is "what do I want to collect". That's because there are far too many coins to collect them all. I call that the collection definition. The collection definition determines which books you need, where you have the most chance of buying good stuff and even how you will store your collection. It is tempting to collect Indian coins. However, that is still a huge area. Moreover, there are many ways to collect coins. Try answering these questions:

What do you like best:

• Collecting by small details or a few representative coins of a long period?
• Coins from circulation, old coins or very old coins?
• Shiny coins you can easily find in a catalogue or coins that need research?
• Coins of all parts of India or coins of a certain region? Non-Indian coins?
• Expensive coins or cheap coins?
• Private fun, amazing your friends or investing your money?

Please post your answers and I can give you some ideas.

Peter

[Hitesh]

I'd like to thank everyone for their overwhelming response

Regarding the Krause catalogs is this link legit-

http://www.ebay.in/itm/Krause-Standard-Catalog-of-World-Coins-2013-5-Volumes-DVD-Encyclopedia-/321482528153?_trksid=p2054897.l5658

I would also try and get my hands on the Indian edition of the catalog ASAP.

@Figleaf
I'll try to answer the best i can.
As such till now i have been collecting all the coins that i have come across.(Most were quite cheap)
But i am very much inclined towards 3 main dynasties- Mauryas, Gupta's and the Mughals. So i guess coins from them would be pan -India.
Once i am financially independent i would not be averse to invest money(both cheap and expensive).
Am i being realistic because the dynasties belong to different periods of Indian history?

Thank you.   

[Figleaf]

The area of Mughal coinage is vast, because some of them used many mints. To collect these coins, you need the ability to read at least a few words in Arabic script. Take into account that letters can be crude, deformed or put together in an unusual way to make a nice pattern and that the names of mints and emperor may be incomplete or missing. In other words, this is an area where you need study.

You can cut down on the number of coins you "need" in several ways. One is to ignore dates and mints, unless you can get them at a very attractive price. Another is to concentrate on a mint near to where you live. You can also decide to collect one coin for each emperor. However, some pretender-emperors ruled for only a short time. Then again, you can ignore the pretenders. To get an idea, have a look here. If you set up such a "skeleton" collection, you can always expand later.

Maurya and Gupta coins are quite another story. You would be grateful for any coin you can get, but you can still set up a basic collection quite cheaply. They are catalogued, but new types surface regularly, so good catalogues and solid research are a must. Try looking around in our splendid index of ancient and medieval coins to see what they look like.

The Krause DVDs are copyrighted by Krause Publications, but illegal copies circulate. It is not clear if the ones offered on eBay in your link are legitimate or not. The main point is you don't need them, as the content is available on the net Krause's version is discussed here.

So here is my proposal for you: group the coins you have in Independent Indian coins, Colonial Indian coins, Princely states coins, Mughal coins and pre-Mughal coins, with separate sub-groups for Gupta and Maurya. It doesn't matter if there are no coins in a group. Now, one by one, identify those coins - either with a catalogue number or by finding out as much as possible about ruler, denomination, date and mint. Use this site and ask questions whenever necessary. Take the groups in the same order as listed above. Note how easy or difficult it is to identify the coin and how much you liked chasing up the necessary information. This will help you make up your mind about what you want to collect.

Once you know, have a look at the bibliography. Underlined titles are freely available from the internet, but not necessarily the latest information. Knowing your coins will help you make better purchases. It doesn't matter where you live. You can buy by internet. In case of doubt, you should ask here, because, just like in real life, there are tricksters and fraudsters everywhere. Your best defence against them is knowledge and helpful souls. You found the helpful souls already

Peter

[capnbirdseye]

Regarding the Krause catalogs is this link legit-

http://www.ebay.in/itm/Krause-Standard-Catalog-of-World-Coins-2013-5-Volumes-DVD-Encyclopedia-/321482528153?_trksid=p2054897.l5658

I would also try and get my hands on the Indian edition of the catalog ASAP.


Thank you.

That is almost certainly not legit, it's not an official issue but a home made compilation of the DVD's that came with the original books,they are earlier editions but still under copywrite

[Hitesh]

Well thank you so much to everyone!
You've been of great help!
Hope to collect a great many quality coins in the future!
Thank you!