Among the ways from which one can choose to possess wealth are various types of currency. While paper currency is collected to an extent, coinage is much more popular with collectors and investors. Coins are obviously far less fragile than paper currency and that is part of how they become so valuable. One can still go to museums and other collections and see Spanish doubloons and even Roman coins that endure to this day, many of them still having the designs with which they were stamped so long ago.
Coins are tangible, their value is easy to understand and, in the case of bullion coins, the materials are usually enough to make the value of the coin far in excess of its face value. Coins, unlike the stock market or other, similar, financial investment vehicles, could be as easily understood for their value by an ancient Greek as they could by any modern human being. There are very few forms of wealth that are so predictable in terms of retaining their value. Of course, it is always preferable to have one’s wealth in one’s own hands than to have it in a remote location.
A rare coin is also a very portable form of wealth. This is what led humankind to start producing currency in the first place: The need to have wealth that was easily transportable and which could be taken with them when one had to move from place to place has been a constant need since the dawn of civilization. Today, those who own coin collections can store them in their homes. There are no electronic transactions involved and there is no bank to visit if one wishes to withdraw their wealth. Their wealth, quite simply, is wherever they left it in the house.
Rare coins can also become heirloom items. Imagine the value of an inheritance that was made up of currency that was collectible or made of bullion! While one may inherit cash, that cash will likely not increase greatly in value, and it may plummet. If one inherited a store of Morgan silver dollars or even gold dollars from any nation, the amount of wealth they gained would likely be much more substantial over time. Leaving a rare coin, or a collection of them, to a relative is one of the best ways to pass along one’s good fortunes.