One way that I like to build my collection is by Semi-Key Collecting. Instead of getting all the common dates, I like to buy slightly rarer dates. I don't get extremely common dates, like the 1936 Buffalo nickel, or extremely rare dates, like the 1885 Liberty Nickel, but I get mid-mintage dates, like the 1894 Liberty Nickel.

If you buy coins on eBay, you must take caution out of a number of things.

I have wondered how many unique coins are in the Red Book (for those out there that don't know what a unique coin is, it is a coin with only one known specimen to exist), so here they are:

Last summer, someone gave me a hoard of wheat cents that his father collected during WWII. I was already beyond amazement, and, when I examined the jar, I immediately saw a few BU wheat cents, several from the teens and twenties, and a Canadian Cent with Geroge V, and a token or foreign coin or something.