GIVEAWAY! CLOSED Congrats Type2!
*** GIVEAWAY CLOSED ***
Winner: @Type2
Hello All,
As promised in my upcoming specials and events post, we will be hosting giveaways on all of our social channel's to celebrate PCGS surpassing 40 million coins graded and encapsulated. If you would like to enter to win the forum prize package, the rules are simple.** I want to know how you got into coin collecting! **
Everyone who shares their story in this thread will be entered into a random drawing this Friday 10/26 at 11:00 AM PST.
So what can you win?
A limited edition PCGS Coinfacts Periodic Table of Coins Poster, 30-year anniversary collectible PCGS medal, sample slab, lanyards, collectible greenbox, pens, the current edition of the Rare Coin Market Report and a PCGS polo (in your size). Just to be extra clear, the giveaway is NOT for 40 million coins
For more chances to win, participate in one of the other giveaways!
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Heather Boyd
PCGS Senior Director of Marketing
Comments
Cool.
I collected a bit as a kid, but got back into collecting in a big way when I purchased some junk silver from a guy in NYC. According to his story, his parents pulled silver from circulation in the laundromat they operated for many years. Among the stuff he sent was a circulated 1861 quarter. I had never really seen a Seated coin before and started doing a little research on the web. My curiosity was piqued and imagining where that Civil War coin had been was fascinating. That led to collecting a few silver dollars..... which eventually culminated in a top 10 Registry set of Peace dollars..... which led to a US type set that is about 80% complete (the easy part).
I decided to start collecting mid 2017 ...... after my Mom gave me 2 Morgans she said were found in the LV jackpot pay-out
Just a little hobby for me until stamps come back into fashion.
I really don’t know what got me into coin collecting. I was around ten when I started, and I guess I just read a magazine with a coin advertisement in it. It looked cool, so I got my parents to buy me that coin. That sprouted into buying more expensive coins from my money, and the rest is history.
Always buying nice toned coins! Searching for a low grade 1873 Arrows DDO Dime and 1842-O Small Date Quarter.
My story is original and hilarious.
I found a 1944 wheat cent under my ginormous refrigerator. I thought the design was very cool. Being the enthusiastic kid I was, I searched it up to do some research. A simple google search on a circulated wheat cent, is what introduced me to coin collecting. Who knew life could be so simple?
My Dad always saved bicentennial quarters because the design variation, along with wheats and halves. When my Stepdad passed he left me a few small sets and a graded Lincoln.
Their saving coins had me interested and I began looking at the year on coins I came across. When I traveled the world with the US Navy I saved coins and sometimes stamps from each place visited.
When silver and gold exploded in price around a decade ago, I began actively collecting nickels and silver.
In 2015-2016 I started my PCGS registry set after I submitted several Jefferson varieties and scored a few top pop coins. I now collect primarily Pcgs graded coins, with the occasional raw variety or non-US coin.
Thanks for the chance!
Rocco
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/publishedset.aspx?s=142753
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
My Dad always ordered mint sets and proof sets every year when I was young.
I always had an affinity for coins, but I really started collecting after my dad gave me his old Canadian Cent collection a few years before he passed. Since then, I've sort of went off the deep end and am up to my eyeballs with coins! I love this hobby! It is very fun and rewarding.
I started by stacking silver. I had a weekly dollar amount that I would use on bullion. I eventually started hitting coin shops asking for "junk". I started to sort my junk by denomimation and year. Started paying a bit more for circ silver dollars and sorting them. At this point I was hooked. Started looking for better stuff and this year I finally joined PCGS at the Philly ANA. Found this site shortly after and now I'm spending more time on here than actually looking for coins.
My mother and father owned a Tavern in a small town in Eastern Oregon. Mother always pulled earlier silver coins out of the days haul. About 1981 mom decided it was time to pass her finds on to someone and I was the guy. In her haul was a Mercury Dime Whitman Holder that had many holes filled. I was immediately drawn toward the Little Ladies and from that day on the journey to collect Mercury Dimes began. The rest is history. Now I am putting a Mercury Dime collection together for my 4 grand daughters. Hopefully they will get the bug like I did.
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Thanks Much for the chance.
Ken
I got into coin collecting at a very early age (around 8 years old) because of a Great Uncle of mine. Whenever we would go somewhere and he was there, I knew to go up to him and give him a handshake because he would always have a coin in his hand for me when I shook his hand when first seeing him that day and if the coin was a rare or special coin, he would tell me about it and tell me to put it away with the other coins he had given me and coins that I had collected (still have a lot of those coins). My grandmother would also save a lot of change years ago when I was a kid and whenever I went to my Grandparents house which was just about every weekend and summers that I would stay with them, we would sit and go through all of the coins that she collected to look for the special coins, usually a lot of wheatback cents.
That is how I got into coin collecting and been having fun with it ever since.
Welcome to the forum @HeatherBoyd, hope you have a long career at PCGS and thank you for the opportunity to win a prize from you and PCGS!
Edited to say: I also do the same thing with my great nieces and nephews and did it with all of my Nephews and Nieces when they were younger and a couple of them now collect coins and currency today because of it. Also would give mint sets as Birthday and Christmas gifts to get them interested in collecting and still do with the younger kids in our family and they all seem to enjoy the sets when they get them. I am also 54 years old today.
My first post on the forum after lurking for quite a while!
I got started back when I was about 9 years old. My uncle gave me a Silver Eagle from his visit to the mint, as well as a really worn out Mercury Dime. Well, my little mind went into overdrive when he told me they were silver! I thought that meant they were treasure! (Of course, they ARE treasure....to me ) And ever since, I have just been picking up bits and pieces. My current goal is to fill a 7070!
My mom was in the Peace Corps from 1962 - 1964 in Nigeria, and traveled all around Africa and Europe before she came home. She amassed a metal can full of coins from she places she visited. She let me look at the coins around 1977 when I was an 8-year old kid. In the can was a 1911 Liberty Nickel and a couple of dateless Buffalo nickels, and she explained that those were old money from the United States. I was really interested in those, so she took me to Alamo Heights Coins in San Antonio, and bought me a Red Book and some 1920's Lincoln Cents, which I still have. I started buying coins with birthday and Christmas money, and when I was in the 4th grade, I found a 1972 DDO die 3 in circulation. That got me hooked on varieties, and I've been into them ever since.
easy i got into collecting when i went overseas in 1996 and got my first world coin as change and well i was hooked and have kept collecting since then
https://www.banknotebank.com/security/users/profile
Thanks for the game and congrats on your goal of 40 million graded coins.
In 1957 my uncle Schley gave me an 1880 O Morgan Dollar that was shiny as new. The first week I had it, I lost it(turned out to be in a dresser drawer). He decided it best for me if he kept it in his little black leather coin purse with a snap. He put it in a small envelope in the purse. He often told me, get all the silver you can in the 60's and I did. My small bank account had small deposits weekly of the silver I got from various jobs I had in the early 60's. When he died the little black purse died with him, I thought. I later in the late 60's started collecting buffalo nickels which were still sometimes common in change. Then Mercury dimes. Then Washington quarters and so on. BTW, I got that change purse back in 2014 with the Morgan Dollar still in the envelope, unfortunately ruined black by the chemicals in the envelope or leather. I tried to soak it in acetone but it just turned to a mottled look. Anyway, that was how I got my start and 61 years later I am still collecting.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
I went with my brother years ago to a coin shop and watched him buy 5 silver eagles, and the next time he purchased some Morgan's. I went home and started digging through change, found a couple copper pennies and I was hooked! Now several years later, I have gotten both of my young children into the hobby, as well as my wife. It's a family hobby that hopefully will be passed down for generations to come.
I received some coins from an Aunt that needed to be sold, so I started researching and ended up here at the forums and getting a few of the more valuable coins graded. The best coin she had was a 1850 strong C gold $5 piece which PCGS grade AU50.
Don't quote me on that.
Thanks for the chance.
I was 9 in 1976 so the bicentennial issues got the interest started. 1999 it restarted.
My mother helped count the collection money at the church we attended in Detroit Lakes, MN, in the mid-1960's. She brought home a worn 1901 Liberty Nickel. I was 11 or 12 at the time and I was hooked.
I used to buy storage units and my very first unit had two 1000 count bags of mix Morgan & Peace dollars when silver was at $35/oz. Made a killing and decided I should look more in to this coin thing. Then I made the mistake of starting to VAM the coins I had left and the rest is history. Resistance is futile when you start down the VAM path
Thanks Heather. I didn't start collecting until I was well into adulthood. I'm not embarrassed to say that "Coin Vault" with Robert Chambers and Paul Hollis on Shop at Home TV selling Sacagawea Dollars created my interest I was not interested in spending premiums to buy the nicer ones, but started collecting them from circulation. Of course the State quarter program was going on at the time as well and EVERYONE around me seemed to be collecting those. I didn't care anything about those, but during the shows they would offer many other coins. All kinds of gold, silver and copper coins, mint & proof sets, Morgans and Peace Dollars...tons of cool stuff! I remember waking up early in the morning and watching before going to work just to see what they were going to show. I never bought anything from them because even when I was in the infancy stages of my knowledge I knew the prices were not "fair"... but they inspired me to do my own research and learn about numismatics. I collected pretty intensely for about 7 years in the early-mid 2000s, then left for 10 years to pursue other hobby interests. I have been back for a few months. Very happy(so far) with the choice to return!
When I was a kid my father bought all of us the current year proof set. Then he bought a Capital Plastics Proof Set holder in a different color for each of us and put the set into it. This yearly event happened for may years. I still have those sets.
My Dad. It all began with a pile of pennies on the living room floor and an old blue Whitman folder.
Thank you for the chance.
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
I blame Ebay. Grandmother had several Morgan dollars in well worn condition. Interesting but not exciting. In 2001 or so I bought a common Morgan in a PCGS MS64 holder on Ebay and was floored by the beauty of the $45 coin.
I was hooked.
My Dad and moderns got me into this. He liked to collect coins pulled out of pocket change, typically anything earlier than 1965 he would simply toss into a large glass jar. At the time it seemed like superstition to me, after all why put coins in a jar instead of spending them? I did not show interest in coins at all until the state quarter program when my Dad showed such a high level of enthusiasm and that started it for me. I decided to collect all of them as well and before I knew it I discovered all the various types of old US coinage. Since then I've ditched the moderns and I'm currently hooked on CBH.
When I was a boy of 5 yrs old my family always went to my Grandparents on Sunday afternoon for supper. After we ate my Grandfather who was a coin collector had always cashed his paycheck at the bank on Friday and brought home rolls of dimes, quarters and half dollars. This was in 1964 and 1965 and we (myself and my 2 sisters and Grandpa) searched the rolls pulling out all of the silver coins.
As you know this was the time silver was about to be removed from circulating coinage. After pulling out all the silver coins Grandpa deposited the remainder back into his bank account. Then next week we did the same search all over again with different rolls he got with his paycheck and we did this for years until it got to where we didn't find silver any more. Grandpa amassed quite a hoard of silver coinage by doing this.
As I said Grandpa was a coin collector and he always had much for me to look at and amaze me. I remember the first real coins I owned were Steel Cents and Indian Head Pennies and Buffalo Nickels. These were purchased for me and my sisters by Grandpa when he took us once a month to a coin auction. I don't remember the exact location but we went almost every month.
On the way home we stopped at White Castle and my oldest sister would go in and get us a to-go order. Grandpa was thrifty,,,,,, one time my sister came out with our order and Grandpa always counted the change to make sure. Once he found my sister was a nickel short on the change so he sent her back in and she walked up to the counter and didn't have to say a word and the girl handed her a nickel,,,,,,, she knew that she had shorted her.
I remember Grandpa liked Panama coinage and one year he ordered Panama Babola Proof Sets and when they came he waited and let me open the package. I loved those coins and he knew it and he gave me one of the Proof Sets.
One time Grandpa bought some gold and I was amazed by it as I had never seen anything like those coins before. Eventually Grandpa had put together a Type Set (didn't know what that was at the time) of Indian Head Gold coins, When he died in 1985 Grandma put me in charge of selling his coin collection and it was quite substantial. At this time I was 27 yrs old and was still collecting and knew several local coin shops. I took the collection to 3 shops and got an estimate of what they were willing to pay and sold to the highest bidder. Grandma let me buy whatever I wanted from the collection at the appraised value and I bought several coins, mostly Morgan Dollars and some Franklin Half Dollars. I could not afford the Indian Type Set back then,,,,,,, it was out of my price range but I always longed for those coins.
One thing that soured me was I later returned to one of the shops that was the low bidder on the collection and the shop owner asked if I had sold the collection yet. When I told him I had he kicked me out and banned me from ever coming into his shop again. (what a jerk) I had been a regular customer for years at that point. He was not just a few dollars lower he was several thousand dollars lower than the other bids.
Anyway my Maternal Grandfather got me started in coin collecting and I have always stuck with it.
Years later I put together my own Indian Head Gold Type Set and I still have the coins. They are some of the most special coins to me and always will be.
This thread inspired me to create a Show Case Set for my Gold Indians. I still need a $3 Indian Princess.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/3303
All started when I got my first job as a cashier at our local health store. I found a penny that looked different - it had a weird back. Turns out it was a 1958 "wheat" penny. Started looking for more and found out another fella I worked with would look for silver dimes. Soon after there was the 2011 run up to $50 and I got all into buying silver bars, talked my dad into fronting me for a monster box of eagles and a box of maples. Put them all in airtites and flipped them on eBay before silver went back down. This was before Apmex and other large bullion dealers were on eBay mind you - so it was fun! Been hooked ever since.
TLDR - started with a penny, now have sold well into 6 figures online. Love high grade wheats the most!
https://tinyurl.com/wbuh7ba (Search PCGS on ebay)
I got into coin collecting as a young kid due to my father's box of family heirloom coins (bust halves, 20 cent pieces, etc.), and my grandmother's collection of silver dollars and gold coins. Fun times going through all those treasures.
At Christmas, 1956 my grandfather gave me an 1843-O quarter that he had received in change in 1933 at a place called Rory's Resturant in Chicago. I believe it was located near 77th and Vincennes on the city's south side. While he wasn't a collector he thought it unusual enough to save it. The coin is VF-20 but has scratches. In spite of that I thought a coin that old was really interesting. It kept my interest in coins up until I could actually start to collect in late 1961. I still have the coin.
My step-grandfather drove a D.C. Transit bus, and came home with bags of coins. On Sundays, we'd go to my grandparents' house for dinner. My grandmother gave me a 1954 proof set for Christmas that year, and I got interested. I acquired some Whitman folders (which I still have), and started filling them with cherry-picks from my grandfather's bags of coins.
There were still plenty of Buffalo nickels, Mercs, SLQs, Walking Liberty halves and even your occasional Indian Head cents. back then. I'd go down to the local Woodward & Lothrups department store to their coin department, and invest in UNC Lincoln cents (later turned out to be MS63s, for the most part). Kept it up until puberty, when I started prying out the common coins for dates, etc. (Half dollars could buy a lot, you see).
Didn't resume speed until 1999, after the kids moved out. Then I had money again, and didn't have to worry about dating any more!
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
When my father passed away in 2007, I was tasked with disposing of his coin collection. There was a lot of "bullion" silver- rolls of franklins, circ washies and roosies, worn Buffs and so on. The appraiser, a local collector, sort of stoked my interest in the hobby, and after the collection was sold I started buying. The only coin I had purchased prior to that was when I was about 12, at local show. From then until I went to college I was into stamps!
My Grandmother got me started into coins. When I was 11 she gave me a 1987 Redbook along with a handful of coins for Christmas, one of which was a heavily circulated 1838 large stars Seated Dime. That dime alone is what really bit me and gave me the bug. I studies that dime for hours and I looked it up in the Redbook over and over dreaming of how nice it would be in AU or UNC. I remember her getting out her collection and showing me, I was so impressed with how old some of those coin were. Then as I got a little older the interest wained a bit until I got much older. Then the silver rise in 2008 got me into coin roll hunting, which then sparked the numismatic bug again. I've been obsessed with coins ever since.
Started off my collecting journey by buying some silver eagles as an investment. Looking for more interesting and attractive bullion, I soon learned about historic US coinage and was hooked by both the beauty and history. Unfortunately I haven't had any other collectors in my life as mentors, but learning every day with the help of the fantastic resources that PCGS publishes, and the vast knowledge here on the forum. Congrats on 40M!
Instagram
When I was a snot nosed kid in the cub scouts I needed a hobby so as to earn a badge. So my father, a huge fan of US coins, and being a collector himself, got me interested when I was 7-8. That was back in 1958-59. It started with the Whitman folders but went quickly from mercury dimes to buffalo nickels and guess what? It sank into my bones so deep that now at almost 67 years old I’m still at it. My father was a great man that was in the air force in world war 2 and later on worked for NASA. I miss him to this day. So, whenever I look at a buffalo nickel or just coins in general it takes me back to when I still had my dad and we both shared together the things we both loved and were interested in. I have now passed this hobby off to my son and I’m also fortunate enough to have a grandson to share this hobby with.
Happy hunting, Joe
My dad was an electrician on a cargo ship back in the 70's. He traveled around the world and brought back lot of foreign coins. As a boy who grew up on a tropical island, it became one of my most exotic collections.
When the Memorial Reverse replaced the wheat back Lincoln cents, a buddy of mine and I started hoarding the wheat backs and we both then got a coin folders for them. When my Dad saw how interested we were, he said he had a surprise for me. He produced a leather pouch of unusual coins he purchased out of the cash register at the gas station he worked in as a very young man. There were IHC's, older Lincolns, an 1870 Newfoundland Half, Mercury Dimes, a couple of "V" nickels AND an 1837 Large Cent in Fine condition that really grabbed my attention and spurred my interest. It's been a lifelong hobby that I have enjoyed immensely.
The only bad advice my Dad ever gave me was that I should "clean up" the IHC's and put them in an album. My Dad lived to be 96 years old and after he passed, I completed that IHC set in his memory though all the cleaned coins had been phased out. The Mercury Dimes was completed many years before, that set was in honor of my Mother who I remember rolling dimes to take to the bank when I was a young kid. I used to get a Peace dollar from the tooth fairy when I was very young. I thought her face was that of the tooth fairy at the time! To teach me to save, they encouraged me to save the dollar (they just recycled that same Peace dollar after that I have a feeling. It's been a great ride and it's still continuing.
Louis Armstrong
Many years ago, my sister-in-law bought me a Lincoln penny folder. She gave me a handful of circulated cents, and showed me what to do. I was hooked forever!
Dave
I got my start coin collecting with my grandfather when I was probably 8-10 years old. He was a small time collector and kept his coins in old tobacco tins and cigar boxes. I imagine that get got most of his stuff from change and from his job as a bakery delivery man. I can remember looking through his cigar box of coins when I was a child. One day, he let me pick out several to keep and take home. I picked out several mercury dimes because at that time, I had never seen one before. I still have several of those starter coins in one of the coin books I keep.
It was my Dad after he went to the gas station the man took his .75 cents turned out it was $3.00 3-SBA he gave him and my dad and the guy had a long talking, That is when I ask what happen and he told me these darn coins but he did not say darn coin he said they look just like Quarters I ask to see one, I was hooked from there on for the longest time I thought they where called darn $1.00 haha back then Gas was .39 cents a gallon. Crazy when I think about it. Thanks for the chance and good luck to every one and be safe out there.
PS: Welcome oneofeverything.
Hoard the keys.
I started as a paperboy about 1954. I got a 50¢ commemorative with a wagon and Indian on it and that just set me off and running. My Dad took me back to that house to give it back (tip was too large he thought) and the man refused to take it back. (Oregon Commemorative). Got to keep it and Dad actually helped me understand what he gave me. Wish I had kept, but working on a bike I needed to do repairs from time to time and off it went to the bike shop....
bob
When I was a kid, my Grandparents lived next door to us. My Mom was a High School teacher. One day in February 1961 I was sick and had to stay home from school with my Grandparents. My Mom felt guilty about having to go to school and leave me. On her way home from school she bought me a Whitman folder ( cost 35 cents ) for Lincoln Cents. I was hooked from the first day.
My grandmother was a coin collector. I used to sit at her dining table going through coins with her. I lost interest as I got older but found it again almost thirty years later.
My dad brought home three silver dollars he bought from a co-worker for $1 each. I being the oldest - 8 years old - got first pick. I took the oldest, an 1887-O Morgan Dollar in Good condition. I still have it and it changed my life and added so much to an understanding of art, history, economics and GRADING! Thanks dad!
Grandparents. My grandmother had a 1923 Peace and 1882-s Morgan in a small box that I thought were the cat's azz. Grandfather took me to the bank frequently and would buy $20 in cents that we would go through for wheaties. I remember getting up to 20 wheats per roll (late 1960s), and he let me keep them for my folders! He also started buying Mint sets including the GSA Morgans.
A good elderly friend of theirs we played cards with (Euchre-So. Michigan) would DRAG out a large bag FULL of raw Morgans and Peace dollars (100s) to show me and sort through -- WOWZA -- their heirs got quite a stash. Love Wheats and Silver Dollars!
Thanks PCGS!
My Uncle gave me his nickel book and in the nickel book was the rare 1950-D and at that time it was a rare one. I was 11 years old and this kid about 15 saw the nickel because his father and mine were friends, so he would come over to the house with his son. The coins were in the book with the reverse exposed so all the D's and S's and no mint marks were exposed. You had to remove the nickels to confirm the dates. So this older kid offered me all kinds of stuff for the 1950-D Nickel, but I never would sell it and held onto it because it was a gift and a rare one at that. Well time passed and a couple of years go by I went to check my coins. I open the nickel book and take out the nickel to inspect it. Well it was gone the older kid replaced my nickel with another nickel with a "D" mint mark and he stole it. Missing for over 2 years I was so mad I cried and till this day I remember it like it was yesterday. I saw the kid/man many times over the past 50 years and I see no reason to confront him. He knows he took it and he knows I know he took it. So I guess he must think about it whenever he sees me and wonders if i will say something. I guess this is my way of getting even. Well I have not one 1950-D nickel but a nice roll of them and because of my uncle simple nickel collection has kept me collecting for 50 years. i love this hobbie. jim
Started by a friend handing me a couple of old wheat cents back in the the early 70's. Had to get the blue Whitman album to store them, and the rest is history. Still have the urge decades later!
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
Congratulations PCGS on 40 Million!
I received a half dollar in my "trick or treat" bag one year and my dad told me that it was a 40% silver Kennedy and it was worth holding on to. He showed me some of his "hoard" of silver that he plucked out of circulation when he heard that it was being phased out. My thirst for knowledge did not end there. I checked out an edition of Photograde (James Ruddy) from the local library and kept rechecking it out until I obtained my own copy. I kept going back to the Barber Half Dollar images and being fascinated by the reverse design. 40 some years later, I would up with a pretty nice one for my Type Collection. Still chugging away!
1892 50C PCGS AU58 CAC
(images by @robec )
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Mt grandfather had a small collection and I would like looking at them when I went and visited. He would give me stuff on occasion, like an circulated indian head cent.
Thanks for the generous giveaway.
Back in the early 70's I was helping a guy with his Sunday rural paper route (needed 2 people), and he owned local bowling alley. It was a 6 lane house and I helped cleaned up place. Anyway he asked if my dad saved half dollars, I said yes ( I only knew about the Kennedy's) so he paid me in the half dollars, which I learned were Walking Liberty and Franklins. I started learning what I could from library. My mom was a waitress and after she was done working I would go through her change, and that when I started collecting Lincoln Cents and Jefferson Nickels. My parents bought me Whitman folders to hold my coins and a box to hold extras.
Everything is all right!
I actually can’t remember how I got in but it was at a very young age, I was bitten by the coin bug and never stopped.