After you've been collecting coins for a little while there is usually the chance that you will begin to zero in on something more specific than just collecting coins at random. Quite often, people turn to collecting coins from a specific country, a different era or a specific set like silver dollars. In fact, silver dollars are probably one of the most common coins collected in the United States today. Why?

Because silver dollars are large and beautiful, striking coins. They easily attract attention whenever you go into a coin shop or you see them at a flea market. In fact, these coins have attracted attention from the very beginning of their production in America. They were really a big deal in the old "Wild West days" of the United States. They far preffered to carry a silver dollar than a paper one.

Silver dollars were first made in the 1700s, not long after the independence of the United States from Great Britain. In the beginning, they were actually worth the value of the silver that they were minted from. You could actually say that in the beginning that a dollar was really worth a dollar. Silver was used because other metals were simply far too heavy to carry if minted in a size that reflected their metal value, Because of this gold was actually too valuable to mint. The gold dollar that was really worth a dollar in gold metal value was actually too easy to lose because it was so small! So silver actually made the most sense to use and mint into dollar coins.

Silver dollars are actually unique art pieces as well and each series over the years has been easily recognizable and unique. And that's probably why they are so eagerly sought by collectors. You have the first ones that were minted, the Liberty flowing hair silver dollar. Then there were the Liberty draped busts dollars and the seated Liberty dollars. And then along came the famous Morgan Silver dollars beginning in 1878. Then came the Peace dollars, the Eisenhower dollars and down to the Silver Eagles of today. All of them are beautiful coins to add to your collection.

The most common silver dollars collected today are the Morgan [1878 to 1921], the Peace [1921 to 1935] and the Silver Eagles minted from 1986 down to today. These dollars are readily available and relatively inexpensive in comparison to the other collectible silver dollars. If you want to zero in on just collecting silver dollars then those are the ones that you want to look at. You can easily find some beautiful specimens. And if you want to zero in even more on the more valuable ones in this series try finding the 1889-1893 Carson City dollars, the 1893, 1895 and 1903 New Orleans silver dollars, the 1893-1895 San Francisco silver dollars as well as the 1893, 1894, 1895, 1899, 1921 and the 1928 Philadelphia silver dollars. The 1895 "P" Silver Dollar can fetch well over $10,000 while the 1893 "S" can fetch over $250,000 in the best grade. Now those figures are something to shoot for in your coin collecting.

Collecting silver dollars is a unique hobby. Just looking at and collecting the various US silver dollars can keep you occupied for a long time. Not only can they teach you a lot about American history but they are a great investment that can allow you to make a good profit should you decide to sell the best of your collection. You can buy gold coins or you can buy silver dollars to start your coin collection.