Collectors of many different types, gender, ages and walks of life enjoy the hobby of coin collection. Reasons for collecting coins could be for future investments, a keen interest in rare or beautiful coins, for educational purposes or for passing on to future generations. Whatever your reasons may be for expanding your coin collection, one thing is certain--you want that collection to grow, and to do that, you need to know where to find them.

One of the most reliable ways of expanding your coins collection would be to consult a professional coin expert. Most professional coin dealers back up their purchases and sales by invaluable years of expertise and research and hence are genuine and trustworthy. They can generally be trusted to price coins based on actual worth rather than inflate figures unnecessarily. This does not always happen when some coins are rare or have been in dwindling supply in the market but those are rare instances.

A numismatic’s (or coin collector's) style of collecting will determine whether they choose a local dealer or opt for online dealers instead. Collectors who are not very particular about examining in person the coins they deal in might be served by selecting an online coins dealer. Chances of finding that elusive coin that one had been searching for days with local dealers suddenly go up when the online route is taken. On the flip side, online bartering and trading of coins have an inherent element of risk attached and trust becomes a key issue while trading. It would be advisable to select online dealers after a healthy amount of skepticism and scrutiny. This could be done through online search engines by careful phrasing such as "professional coin dealers", "buy coins online", "coin dealers in xxx location" etc.

On the other hand, coin collectors dealing with local coin dealers will give you the added advantage of physically examining the coins before buying or selling. This reduces the uncertainty in the transaction. With local dealers it is often easier to determine if they are reputable by finding out how long they have been in business and what others have to say about them in the many social review directories and websites. Local dealers would ideally be found by exploring local phone directories, online search directories and forums, as well as friends and acquaintances who also share similar hobbies.

Visiting local companies that specialize in buying and selling coins are a good way to get familiar with the buying and selling process. By meeting in person, you to be able to not only get to know the person or people you are dealing with but also see their process of evaluating the gold and silver while they do it. This way, you can be informed that not only are you dealing with a reputable company who specializes in coins, but you can also learn about the process so that future sales are handled with greater confidence.

To recap, coin collecting as a hobby is on the rise these days. Passionate coin collectors have a choice of local and online dealers when trading in coins. If the coins are being collected as an investment then enthusiasts would be better served by selecting professional dealers (whether online or local) for the sheer reliability of their prices and rating.