When I was ten years old, I was riding my bike through downtown Inglewood, California and stopped to look at a window display. There was a bowl full of Indian Head cents. I had never seen one before so I went in and checked them out. There were some nice coins. A lot with full Liberty. Your pick for 10 cents. That was my first coin purchase.
I found a whole new world in that little coin shop that I had never know existed and I have spent as much time there as I could ever since.
I started when i was a kid, pulling intersting coins out of circulation. Fortunately, interesting older design coins were still in circulation (1960's). I think the coin that did it was the Buffalo Nickel, although Walkers and Mercs were close behind. I could only dream of the gold coins.
I got into coins in the early sixties. My grandmother had an old pitcher she had filled with liberty head nickels she had taken out of circulation. Most of them were culls but I enjoyed sorting them by year and picking out the nicest one. Later on I got more into currency but still collect US coins by type.
I started collecting coins with my best friend when I was 8 years old. We collected Lincoln cents and Jefferson nickels. We loved going through the Red Book and finding all the 'really valuable' coins and dreamed of finding them in some abandoned building.
A vivid memory of those early collecting days was when my mom gave me a 10 Francs coin from Morocco. I was entranced by the its date ... 1371. For years I marveled at how old this coin was and, like many kids, thought such an old coin was priceless. It was years later that I really understood that the date was from the Islamic calendar and the coin was struck in 1952. I still have that coin.
Numismatist Ordinaire See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Thanks PCGS for the chance! I got a Kennedy Half from my uncle and loved the Presidential seal on the reverse and of course JFK's portrait too. This was in the early 1980's. The State Quarter Series came along right when I started working and had disposable income to buy coins.
I got into coin collecting after my grandmother used to have my brother and I look through thousands of early Lincolns for key dates, bag after, bag. When I got older I was just mesmerized by the larger silver dollars with all of their booming luster. Now I primarily focus on early commemorative half dollars, with all of their history and intriguing designs. Thanks to grandma, I am where I am at today.
I have been a coin collector since Christmas Day 1964 when, at the age of 6, my brother gave me a Blue Whitman "Penny folder" and some Lincoln cents. That gift from my only brother John, has turned into a lifetime fascination with coins. It is with sincere gratitude that I thank my brother for giving me that Whitman folder for Christmas so many years ago!
Growing up poor, it was difficult to keep the "pennies" in the folder, and sometimes those "pennies" had to be used for the necessities, such as food. But...I never gave up and completed that blue Whitman folder as a teenager. Those years we did not have much, but looking back they were great times. The coins made me dream of other times and places and what life would be like if I had a sack full of "pennies." Filling that folder was one of my first goals and made me realize I needed to establish goals and complete them. In reality, coin collecting has made me a better person.
Spring National Battlefield Coin Show is September 5-7, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
I am not really sure what got me into collecting. I think it might have been an episode I saw of My Three Sons when I was a kid. In the episode a rare 1914-d penny was lost and one of the brothers thought the other brother spent it. But the accused brother said he would not have made that mistake, all the coins he used were wheat cents??? I re-watched the episode years later, and in the final scene, (spoiler alert) when the coin was ultimately found they showed the coin as an Indian head penny!
Could my introduction to coin collecting been based on a really bad error?
I started collecting Lincoln Cents and Jefferson Nickels in Blue Whitman Folders at around age 8 in the early 1960’s. I would search through my father’s loose change to fill holes in my albums.
He would help me fill in the tougher dates by “salting” some special coins for me to find, unbeknownst to me at the time.
I got hooked in collecting by the Excitement of finding those coins from circulation, and graduated to collecting the silver series coins of the day Roosevelt Dimes, Washington Quarters & Franklin Halves by picking them (and older silver series Mercury Dimes, Standing Liberty Quarters & Walking Liberty Halves) out of circulation.
It was a lot of fun!!
Stuart
Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal
"Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
My older brother and one of his friends already collected coins but in 1961, my dad bought me a 1909 vdb cent in Good condition at a department store coin counter for 25 cents. In 1963 I ordered my first coins from the Mint - a 1963 Mint Set, and it took months of waiting, but it finally came in the mail. By then I had already completed my first Whitman blue folder of Jefferson Nickels, consisting of the 1962 and 1963 nickels. Hey, it was complete at the time!
Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally
My grandmother first got me into collecting in the early 70's.
We have a large family with lots of siblings and cousins but for whatever reason, my grandmother always chose me to help her inventory her jars of What Cents, Buff Nics, etc...
She would also take the time to go through the few Whitman albums she had.
When she passed I ended up with her collection which has very little monetary value but is priceless to me.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
When I found out that the US was going to stop silver coinage, I started to take interest in coins. There was no one person that influenced me.
Instead of spending silver coinage, I started to keep it. From there it went to reading about coins in coin magazines, then the visit to the local coin shop.
I started buying Whitman folders. Soon after it became roll searching for Nickels and Cents.
There have been ebbs and flows in my collecting hobby through the years, but everything I got in the early days I still have.
..................And here I am today.
Pete
"I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
i grew up in Colorado Springs and in 5th grade we went on a school trip to The US mint in Denver and I have been hooked ever cents ha ha I started with pocket change and now I’m in to the tokens and so called dollars
Wow! Thank you all for participating and sharing your stories. The winner is @Type2 ! Please pm me with your shipping information and I will have your prize package shipped to you!
Again thank you @HeatherBoyd for giving all of us a chance at winning the prize given away. Look forward to the next time you and PCGS give something away.
I left this post up for a while to give everyone the opportunity to read these fantastic origin stories. Now it's time to let it sink. Thank you again, everyone, for participating.
Comments
When I was ten years old, I was riding my bike through downtown Inglewood, California and stopped to look at a window display. There was a bowl full of Indian Head cents. I had never seen one before so I went in and checked them out. There were some nice coins. A lot with full Liberty. Your pick for 10 cents. That was my first coin purchase.
I found a whole new world in that little coin shop that I had never know existed and I have spent as much time there as I could ever since.
I inherited both of my grandfathers coin collections and the rest is history!
I started when i was a kid, pulling intersting coins out of circulation. Fortunately, interesting older design coins were still in circulation (1960's). I think the coin that did it was the Buffalo Nickel, although Walkers and Mercs were close behind. I could only dream of the gold coins.
I got into coins in the early sixties. My grandmother had an old pitcher she had filled with liberty head nickels she had taken out of circulation. Most of them were culls but I enjoyed sorting them by year and picking out the nicest one. Later on I got more into currency but still collect US coins by type.
I started collecting coins with my best friend when I was 8 years old. We collected Lincoln cents and Jefferson nickels. We loved going through the Red Book and finding all the 'really valuable' coins and dreamed of finding them in some abandoned building.
A vivid memory of those early collecting days was when my mom gave me a 10 Francs coin from Morocco. I was entranced by the its date ... 1371. For years I marveled at how old this coin was and, like many kids, thought such an old coin was priceless. It was years later that I really understood that the date was from the Islamic calendar and the coin was struck in 1952. I still have that coin.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Thanks PCGS for the chance! I got a Kennedy Half from my uncle and loved the Presidential seal on the reverse and of course JFK's portrait too. This was in the early 1980's. The State Quarter Series came along right when I started working and had disposable income to buy coins.
Receiving a buffalo nickel in change started me in this hobby of coin collecting.
I got into coin collecting after my grandmother used to have my brother and I look through thousands of early Lincolns for key dates, bag after, bag. When I got older I was just mesmerized by the larger silver dollars with all of their booming luster. Now I primarily focus on early commemorative half dollars, with all of their history and intriguing designs. Thanks to grandma, I am where I am at today.
I have been a coin collector since Christmas Day 1964 when, at the age of 6, my brother gave me a Blue Whitman "Penny folder" and some Lincoln cents. That gift from my only brother John, has turned into a lifetime fascination with coins. It is with sincere gratitude that I thank my brother for giving me that Whitman folder for Christmas so many years ago!
Growing up poor, it was difficult to keep the "pennies" in the folder, and sometimes those "pennies" had to be used for the necessities, such as food. But...I never gave up and completed that blue Whitman folder as a teenager. Those years we did not have much, but looking back they were great times. The coins made me dream of other times and places and what life would be like if I had a sack full of "pennies." Filling that folder was one of my first goals and made me realize I needed to establish goals and complete them. In reality, coin collecting has made me a better person.
Spring National Battlefield Coin Show is September 5-7, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
I am not really sure what got me into collecting. I think it might have been an episode I saw of My Three Sons when I was a kid. In the episode a rare 1914-d penny was lost and one of the brothers thought the other brother spent it. But the accused brother said he would not have made that mistake, all the coins he used were wheat cents??? I re-watched the episode years later, and in the final scene, (spoiler alert) when the coin was ultimately found they showed the coin as an Indian head penny!
Could my introduction to coin collecting been based on a really bad error?
Join the fight against Minnesota's unjust coin dealer tax law.
I started collecting Lincoln Cents and Jefferson Nickels in Blue Whitman Folders at around age 8 in the early 1960’s. I would search through my father’s loose change to fill holes in my albums.
He would help me fill in the tougher dates by “salting” some special coins for me to find, unbeknownst to me at the time.
I got hooked in collecting by the Excitement of finding those coins from circulation, and graduated to collecting the silver series coins of the day Roosevelt Dimes, Washington Quarters & Franklin Halves by picking them (and older silver series Mercury Dimes, Standing Liberty Quarters & Walking Liberty Halves) out of circulation.
It was a lot of fun!!
Stuart
Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal
"Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
My older brother and one of his friends already collected coins but in 1961, my dad bought me a 1909 vdb cent in Good condition at a department store coin counter for 25 cents. In 1963 I ordered my first coins from the Mint - a 1963 Mint Set, and it took months of waiting, but it finally came in the mail. By then I had already completed my first Whitman blue folder of Jefferson Nickels, consisting of the 1962 and 1963 nickels. Hey, it was complete at the time!
I knew it would happen.
My grandmother first got me into collecting in the early 70's.
We have a large family with lots of siblings and cousins but for whatever reason, my grandmother always chose me to help her inventory her jars of What Cents, Buff Nics, etc...
She would also take the time to go through the few Whitman albums she had.
When she passed I ended up with her collection which has very little monetary value but is priceless to me.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
When I found out that the US was going to stop silver coinage, I started to take interest in coins. There was no one person that influenced me.
Instead of spending silver coinage, I started to keep it. From there it went to reading about coins in coin magazines, then the visit to the local coin shop.
I started buying Whitman folders. Soon after it became roll searching for Nickels and Cents.
There have been ebbs and flows in my collecting hobby through the years, but everything I got in the early days I still have.
..................And here I am today.
Pete
i grew up in Colorado Springs and in 5th grade we went on a school trip to The US mint in Denver and I have been hooked ever cents ha ha I started with pocket change and now I’m in to the tokens and so called dollars
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Wow! Thank you all for participating and sharing your stories. The winner is @Type2 ! Please pm me with your shipping information and I will have your prize package shipped to you!
Keep an eye out for our next giveaway!
Heather Boyd
PCGS Senior Director of Marketing
Congratulations Type2 and thanks for the contest PCGS.
I liked reading the different stories.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Congrats Type2
+1
Congrats @Type2 on winning the prize given away!
Again thank you @HeatherBoyd for giving all of us a chance at winning the prize given away. Look forward to the next time you and PCGS give something away.
Wow Very cool and thank you for the nice items.
Hoard the keys.
Congrats Type2!
You deserve it.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
I left this post up for a while to give everyone the opportunity to read these fantastic origin stories. Now it's time to let it sink. Thank you again, everyone, for participating.
Heather Boyd
PCGS Senior Director of Marketing
Thank you!