Genius, GDJMSP thinks it's free to travel and enter as many coin shows as you can, you'll be saving your money that way, I guess everyone lives near many, many coin shows, walking distance.Unfortunately, if you wish to examine silver coins, which almost everyone aspires to from the early beginnings in this hobby, you will have to buy those. This hobby is about coins. Maybe the experts on books should provide a few content reviews and recommend only the worthwhile books, because from what I can tell, too many of the coin books out there are poor quality images, poor quality content, bright shiny covers and are part of the add on sale when you start your collection. It's a racket. The internet makes most of them obsolete before they are even printed or published.So, you need a lot of coins in hand. Got it!So, now I don't need a lot of coins, just a lot of time and travel money, so I can say I collect coins by not having any, just traveling from show to show and looking at items that I can't easily go back to for reference in my own spare time, at home. Brilliant! So, am I a coin show groupie at this stage, or am I starting in the hobby in order to collect coins?Don't coins in a variety of grades present an opportunity to learn about grading by looking at physical coins in the privacy of your own home and more importantly, not through a shiny plastic slab?Am I collecting coins, or mileage and books that may end up being a complete waste of my time, as a beginner? Not everyone is concerned about losing money on a purchase, when doing what they enjoy. One must ask themselves a question, am I interested in coins, am I interested in books or am I interested in traveling? If you plan on collecting coins, in my opinion it's probably best that you buy coins. How fun is it to collect coins and not actually have any to start with? There is no staying power in the dull approach.