The back of your couch might be the place for you to find loose change, but you"re probably better off going through your pockets or your purse for any loose change which you"ve collected throughout the day.
I don"t know about you but I always seem to be weighed down by a ton of loose change. That"s mostly due to the fact that I don"t empty out my pockets until it gets to the point where I can"t walk without noticeable clanging and jingling.
If you"re really serious about your coin collecting hobby, then there"s no better place to start than by collecting all the loose change you have and going though it at least every two days. On a daily basis would be better but this will also work just as well.
You"d be surprised at the amount of coins you"ll find in the beginning that will catch your interest. Later on of course you"ll become more discriminating and discard the excess loose change you don"t want or need and which aren"t part of your own particular collection, or which hold no value for you.
Loose change though is always one of the best places to start your hobby and to learn all about it. If you"re interested in rare coins or similarly expensive coins, then you might not be satisfied with just going through your loose change.
I say this from experience - not my own - but Joe"s. After years of ignoring the coin collecting world, he suddenly decided to get into the whole thing, but Joe being Joe, he went straight in for the deep end and even now can be found swimming the waters of the rare coin world.
Whereas I worked my way up to that (from age three), Joe got the ball rolling immediately. The downside with that is, that you have no time to learn the finer points of coin collecting and have to rely on others to do your initial legwork for you.
This is all well and good for the investor who doesn"t necessarily see the mystery and the beauty of the coins they"re collecting. But for the person who becomes interested in coin collecting not only for its monetary value but also for its intrinsic value, then this can put a severe cramp in your style.
That"s why I feel that starting off small in some cases, at least for an initial teething period, is always good. It allows you to get your feet wet and also for you to get a greater understanding of this thing you"re getting yourself into.