How Old Were You When You Started Collecting Coins?
savitale
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And what did you start with?
How Old Were You When You Started Collecting Coins?
This is a public poll: others will see what you voted for.
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Probably collected coins (Lincoln and Jefferson coin folders) and stamps from 8 -14 then stopped. I also remember pulling wheats and silver (after paying for them) from the register at the fast food restaurant I worked at as a teenager.
Started again in my 30's after the birth of my daughter. I looked for coins (birth set) that were 100 years older than her birth, like Morgan Dollars etc. Then a morgan set, a buff nickel set, an old silver commemorative set, a 7070 type set, and then I found error coins. Sold everything to specialize in error coins.
I was inspired by an older cousin who used to take me with him to local coin shops, back when there were local coin shops. He gave me my first Red Book and probably gave me my first coin. I used to read Coins magazine and Numismatic News. I remember dreaming of ordering something from those big Jack Beymer ads.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
Lincoln cents and buffs.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
I started collecting when My Dad was chief minister to Basileus Alexander IIi Macedon. I got to look through much of the new treasure brought in from every conquest. A lot was just "modern junk," but there were some nice early pieces and many from India, too. Collecting by mints was fun, also. If I needed a certain mint for my collection, Dad would have one opened and some pieces made for me.
Collected Matchbox cars as a kid. First real numismatic purchase was a PCGS MS64 Morgan off of Ebay when I was about 45.
No CAC stickers then so the $44 purchase would have made Karl Wallenda shudder.
I selected 5-10 but I believe it was younger. I was already delivering 20 small afternoon newspapers by 5. One of my earliest memories is going through wheats with grandpa. Not much before that except swinging on vines behind the school, and I was collecting then. I learned to read from comic books and learned math from coins.
Outside of being a toddler I think I've literally been collecting my whole life. My first few years growing up, I was larger and smarter than those my age. I still have flips and books and letters and mint postage boxes addressed to the old homestead. That kind of stuff is what would be devastating if someone stole my collection.
As a paper boy. Started filling blue Whitman folders and saving a little bit of everything in box in my dresser drawer.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Checked change as a kid. Filled Whitman folders and had boxes of stuff. Got serious in my 30's, books, auctions, slabs etc.
Five years old. My mother taught me how to count by lining up pennies on a table. Single lines and then by twos, threes, etc. Counting was fun but there was something about those pennies that I really liked. Mom got me a single blank penny page from a Whitman type folder with 8 holes. I still have that page with my 8 little treasures. It's only worth 8 cents but it's more valuable to me than anything money can buy.
5-10
I started with Lincoln cents and still am working on them trying to get it right! I was maybe 10 and sold my first coins at age 12.
Kind regards,
George
Why didn't I get the Little red box and the 5-10?
@Hydrant that's amazing...
Didn't vote?
Cub scouts in 1959. I was 8 years old. I needed a hobby to earn a badge so my dad got me involved in coins very young. He was a big time coin collector too so he created the spark that has never left my bones.
Joe
About 7 or 8.
About 7 or 8.
I've never stopped in all those years.
RogerB may be somewhat older than I suspected.
I started at 13 but did not know how it all worked till I was in my late 30's that is when I spent more time with my nose in books it all started to click then Gold, Silver, Flip, Pick, upgrade, keep the nice one's let some go have fun, I went coin crazy.
Hoard the keys.
I got my start at 14. I was at a get together with my Mom & Dad and their friends house. They were an elderly couple and the man had several sets of coins in the Blue Whitman Books with slides that he had pulled from circulation. One set I still remember to this day is the Buffalo Nickel set, which was 100% and XF or above. When he saw my interest he gave me to coins that got me started. A 1882-O Dollar in VF and a 1905-O Half in good. That was 1961and I still have them both to this day.
Whoa. I just remembered something I haven't thought of in decades. Can't believe I remember this kids name lol. We were friends over the summer and he came to my school for a few months. We sold some error coins and wheats and uncirculated rolls. We had a pretty successful venture for a little until we were making good money and the teachers stepped in. I kept my paper route money on me and searched change so I think they thought I was Scrooge McDuck ripping kids off. I know I had a few good sales but they were good coins from shows to two kids who always came by to see what we had.
We worked hard to find nice ones and put them in plastic and labeled fancy and "adulty" lol. Man I wish I still had some of those. That was super fun. We never made a lot (lunch change gave 15 to 20 cents). Adding another serving of something was the first time our lunch was over a dollar, so sometimes a little more. Some kids used half dollars a lot if they were in the summer camp. They don't get wet in the pool and fit in swim trunks.
I wonder if we got anyone interested in collecting. Four other scouts got the badge and may have been in the same summer and fall classes in our small little town. One kid Dustin got into roll searching, I remember him doing it through high school. Having lots of small things to examine seemed to calm him down and help him focus, now that I think of it.
..but anyway..
My grandfather gave me a Blue Book, a 1802 Large Cent, and a box of circ. Indian Head Cents for Christmas in 1957 and that's what got me started. The Indian Cents are long gone and I've moved over to Paper Money but I still have the Blue Book and the Large Cent.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
Five or six. Went thru municipal parking meter bags of cents and got my first proof set for my 6th birthday.
Still have my Whitman cent folders and the proof set in Capitol holder.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
5 or 6 I suppose. Dad would get bags of cents from the credit union and have us kids (6 of us) pull wheats by date and mm.
Haha, the kids have fun and get in the hobby, dad gets cherry picked coins for free.
When I was 12 in 1961.
One thing I enjoy about collecting is that it crosses social barriers on age or race or classism. Everyone can love coins and collect. It can be enjoyable even with the smallest of budgets, and if you put in the work CRH'ing, you can work your way up for free. With today's advancing technology, people who would normally give it up due to sight no longer have to do so.
It broke my heart when I read that listings that picture non-white, non-male hands or fingers bring in less potential buyers and often sell for less. Perfect example. I bought a gorgeous blue-rimmed CBH in 35/40, original surfaces listed as "cap bust half dolla". I would've liked to have kept it but it was the quickest 200 I had made. I should have auctioned not BIN but whichever.
You can surf parking lot meters and pick up change and collect. People who dug ditches in the depression still did
Probably pennies and nickels at about 9 or 10. Couldn't afford to collect dimes, quarters and halves until I was older.
I was 10 1/2. I started with the blue Whitman folders.
I was 11.
my aunt was a teller at a bank in the 50's. She told dad she could get $25 & $50 bags of pennies that the gum ball guy would deposit at the bank. They weighed them instead of counting. We found all kinds of stuff in there. One think that we did was to stick a magnet in a new bag to see how many steel cents we could get on there.
Lafayette Grading Set
Way late in the game here. Somewhere in my mid thirties and in the mid eighties. For the most part it has been Mercury Dimes. Sure have seen a bunch of them especially after the TPG' s arrived on the Coin Scene.
Ken
My dad use to get bags of coins from the bank and we would go thru them. After we stopped doing that I did not think about coins again until I turned forty. Have been enjoying the hobby since then. No one else in my family could give a hoot about coins. I guess that's why I spend a lot of time here.
I voted in the 5-10 category, but was actually 4 when I started my first Lincoln cent collection in a coin folder
Bought my first big boy coin around 27. My grandpa had coins I used to loom through when I was young but can’t say that I collected before my late 20’s.
Latin American Collection
Started collecting Lincoln cents just after moving to Michigan. My older brother collected and I felt an obligation to be a properly annoying younger brother.
"A penny hit by lightning is worth six cents". Opie Taylor
23 and I am 24 now
You don't have my age in the poll. 4. Actually my 4th birthday my parents gave me two Lincoln penny folders and $10 of pennies to look through.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
I am a little dense, but when I was four years old, you could not have explained to me what a "date" was. No day care, no "Head start", no Sesame Street. Captain Kangaroo, maybe.
5-10 I was collecting Kentucky Derby winner bottle caps from my Grandpa's Ballantine beer bottles.
Only discovered the thrill of coin collecting in late 6th grade
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Late bloomer. Was so completely oblivious to coins that when I saw a Franklin Half, I was blown away by the strange coinage I didn't know existed. (I got much more blown away after finding a RedBook).
My father passed in 1958 and I inherited his incomplete collection of IHC cents which he had collected out of circulation. I do not fill the spots that he left behind. His collection will just remain my inspiration. Instead I created my own set of IHC proofs in his memory. The set is Pahasapa Indians in the IHC PR Registry. I know he smiling from Heaven........
And I am smiling as well for the pleasure in my life that this hobby has brought.
OINK
I was 11 or 12 when I found a 1912-S Lincoln Cent on the floor in my grandmother's basement. XF45! I still have it.
Smitten with DBLCs.
I was about 8 when Dad gave me all his silver, blue Whitman folders, a very nice hoard of foreign coins (a lot of them were silver) and an 1882 Carson City silver dollar in a GSA holder.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I started collecting coins seriously for the first time in 1987 with some silver quarters that my wife brought home from the bank where she was a teller. I quickly graduated to gold pieces and did a small PCGS gold type set that included 2-3 pieces of each denomination. I think I had 13 gold pieces when I stopped. All PCGS graded between MS61-MS63. I sold them all in the 1990's to start a Nolan Ryan baseball card collection and to buy a 40' trailer that the wife and I enjoyed at a New Hampshire campground for about 10 years. It was like a vacation home where I played softball and volleyball every weekend. I started back up with coin collecting in 2017 after a 25 year break and I love it more than ever.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
My mom worked for a "gumball vending company" when I was in my teens. She would bring home huge bags of pennies for me to go through. In those days I didn't have much of an appreciation for "grades" so I was after quantity and not so much quality. I think I completed at least 10 sets of Lincoln cent (minus the key's) in just a few years before going cross-eyed looking at all those pennies. Never found a 09s VDB in all those coins.
I started collecting around 8 years old...with my first paper route. Coins intrigued me before then though... My Dad was not a collector, but did have a few coins - a couple of Morgans and a couple of large German, silver coins...and they were fascinating to me....Then, since silver coins were pocket change at that time, my paper route brought me all sorts of neat coins...most of those vanished when I joined the Navy... and never really went 'back home'...Still have the German coins from my Dad... Certainly a few 'breaks' in collecting over the years... but never lost interest. Cheers, RickO
i think it was 11 since i got crs bad i really cant remember
Morgans
Don't quote me on that.
late twenties when i made the switch from 90%. started with a 20th century whitman