Wall Street Rarities launches new site offering coins and collectibles

The new site includes: 

• An Education Center; explaining how to start building a coin or paper money collection, and suggesting reference books and collecting supplies for beginners.
• Images of coins that can be flipped from front to back and enlarged using a zoom feature.
• An online collection portfolio manager, called Intellicollect, which allows collectors to inventory their items, create online "want" and "for-sale" lists, and track each item's value.
• Online, interactive galleries depicting educational themes such as the evolution of George Washington's portrait on coins and paper money.

``For many years, the easiest way to begin collecting coins was to search through your pocket change and hope to find an old or unfamiliar coin,'' said William T. Anton III, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wall Street Rarities. ``While it's much tougher to find a valuable coin in general circulation today, it's now possible for anyone to jump right into collecting coins or paper money by visiting our Website.''

``According to the U.S. Mint, over 100 million Americans are actively collecting coins as a result of the Mint's introduction of the new State Quarters,'' stated Anton. ``This is a sure indication that interest in coin collecting is on the rise. Wall Street Rarities welcomes the new State Quarter collectors who want to take the next step in their collecting by learning about and purchasing historical coins or paper money.''

For anyone wishing to get started in collecting, Anton recommends four basic steps:

1. Determine what you want to collect. People most enjoy collecting according to their own personal interests. This may be related to a particular period in our nation's history, an historical figure such as Washington or Lincoln, a geographic area such as one of the fifty States, etc.

2. Determine how much you want to spend. A collection can be started for as little as $20, but more rare coins can go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. So it's best to decide in advance how much you can spend each year on your collection.

3. Educate yourself. Books are available on almost every type of coin and paper money, and provide information that will enrich your collecting experience, such as where and when your coins were made, how many were manufactured, the technologies and materials used, how many specimens survive today, etc.

4. Purchase your first item. After you've bought your first item, your future purchases become easier as you build your collection. For example, if your first purchase is an 1878 silver dollar (the first year the classic Morgan silver dollars were issued), you'd build a collection by buying subsequent years in this series, starting perhaps with the 1879.

07/19/00 SOURCE: Wall Street Rarities