Resources and societies

Official sources

The United States Mint's Collecting Basics pages are the authority on how American coins are made, marked, and cared for. Its mint marks and caring for your collection pages are short and worth reading in full. The Mint also publishes historical production and sales figures, which is where mintage numbers originate.

Societies

The American Numismatic Association is the national collectors' body. It publishes the Official ANA Grading Standards, which the whole American market runs on, and it operates a money museum in Colorado Springs that holds one of the five known 1913 Liberty Head nickels.

The American Numismatic Society is the scholarly counterpart, with a research library and collections database.

Specialist groups go deeper than any general reference can. Collectors of early American copper, the field where the grading scale itself was invented, gather at Early American Coppers. Most regions also have a local coin club that meets monthly and will teach a beginner more in one evening than a week of reading.

Grading services

Two third-party grading services dominate the American market: the Professional Coin Grading Service and Numismatic Guaranty Company. A coin sealed in a holder from either one, a "slab," carries an opinion on grade and, more importantly, on authenticity. We link to them as a matter of record, not endorsement, and we have no relationship with either.

Prices

We publish none. For current retail values, collectors use a printed guide such as the annual Guide Book of United States Coins, along with realized prices from major auction houses. For a coin you actually intend to sell, realized auction prices for the same date, mint mark, and grade are worth more than any guide. Our note on what makes a coin valuable explains how to read them.