Coins

Seeing Opportunities Others Miss - Paper Money

How times have changed since I started collecting money as a child. In my book, 31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques and Collectibles, I tell about how I would go to the bank and purchase rolls of coins, take them home then, sort them so that I could keep the silver ones and any rare copper pennies for my collection. After doing this, I returned the others to the bank and exchanged them for more rolls. I did this for several years.

When I enrolled in college, I was able to pay for my education by selling off my coin collection. Not only did this make my parents very happy, it also taught me the discipline that has served me well for most of my business career.

Jump ahead about forty-five years, this opportunity to do as I did is no longer available to young collectors, because all the silver coins became clad ones. That means the dimes, quarters and half dollars now are copper coins with a thin silver coating over the top and bottom. Back when I collected, all the coins were solid silver or copper. The clad coins resulted in coins that had little metal value. Additionally, as years passed, the mints began to produce more of each type of coin, so there were very few rare coins to be collected.

Today, if you tried to collect coins as I did, all your work would probably be in vain. But, there still might be a way to use the same principle, only with paper money. Most paper bills...

Read more...