By Tom Mashberg for the Boston Herald

Tom Caldwell was barely 11 when he collected his first coin - a nickel his mom gave him for milk money in 1964. It turned out to be an 1866 shield nickel, worth $20 at the time and from $300 to $1,750 today, he said, depending on condition.

“I haven’t stopped collecting since,” said the 55-year-old president of Northeast Numismatics in Concord. “It’s a way of life.”

Caldwell was one of scores of dealers at the Bay State Coin Show at the Radisson over the weekend displaying coins from every nation, era and metal imaginable.

There were Roman denarii used by Caesar to pay his troops. There were coins featuring emperors and kings from Persia and Greece and England, many in gold and silver, and of course there were highly collectible U.S. coins dating from Colonial times to the 21st century. And there were people.

“Attendance is definitely stronger - people are here to buy tangible assets, and they are aware that precious metals are going up in value,” said Merritt Reynolds, who owns Coins of Merritt in Watertown, N.Y. “Interest is strong.”

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