any suggestions for buying any type of coin that would have numismatic value for grandchildren?...something I could get them now that would go up in value for them?
I would feel kind of not-right doing so, because I am pretty anti-numismatic, myself. I started out collecting coins, but over the past 20+ years I have only bought junk silver and generic bullion, with maybe a grand total of 10 silver eagles. The eagles are in great but not inordinately great condition, only because I don’t take them out and jangle them. Brand new coins have to be in astonishingly great condition to be numismatic, and there you’re paying very high premiums for what I consider “air” = nothing. They’re really just silver, for me.
One potential issue with numismatics is, you’re by definition only going have a few, most probably. That makes them harder to sell. Whereas if you have dozens and dozens of generic rounds, you can sell ten or twenty and still be in the game. If that means anything. If in your plan for grandkids you buy them some “rotten” silver, eg; plain old worn US coins pre-1964, aka “junk” silver, this gives them something to sell they are not in love with.
That said, I would look to pre-1933 $10 or $20 US gold coins in the numis dep’t, PCGS slabbed, medium-rare dates. “Rare” means...obviously rare, but they are rare because the mintages were relatively low. I happen to really like the $10 gold Indians with the incuse design. They did not make $20 Indians. But any pre-1933 US gold coins are in this category. “Incuse” means the design is pressed >into< the surface of the coin rather than protruding UP from the surface. I mention these coins because premia have traditionally been lowish. To determine which dates/mints are rare, you will have to conduct some research: From 2 viewpoints: 1: mintage numbers, just search for “1904 gold coin mintages” or some such. 2: Go on the PCGS website and study the number of coins (rated on an MS (mint state) scale where MS70 is perfect and MS65 is really darn good....and get a feel for the population of existing coins that have so far been rated “MS67” or whatever. Not that difficult, but a $10 gold piece is still going be well over $1K each.
I’d have no issue buying new gold eagles for this same purpose but I am so anti-numismatic, I hesitate to bring it up. Cana maple leafs are just as good in this category. Gold OR silver.
You really have to get a good feel as what makes a coin MS68 vs MS63, where the usual wear occurs. That is going to take some time and study. Whereas with generic bullion, nobody cares about condition, you just have to shop for lowest premium-over-spot and you can wait for a sale and buy handful-handful-handful, achieving dollar-cost averaging math with no real extra effort.