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If you were a child in the late 50's & early 60's what coins did you collect and how did you do so?

braddickbraddick Posts: 22,994 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited December 30, 2020 3:21PM in U.S. Coin Forum

Was it type? For example, would you go to coin shop bid boards and purchase 3c silver or two-cent copper pieces? Did you attempt a date run of Buffalo nickels and place them into an album (the period for the time)?
It would be fun to 'go back in time' and experience through your eyes the type of collecting you did along with how you did so (on a child's limited budget, I'd imagine).

peacockcoins

Comments

  • OKbustchaserOKbustchaser Posts: 5,438 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 30, 2020 3:48PM

    early copper half cents and cents...bought from local store, shows with my local dealer, and from CoinWorld ads.

    I was fascinated by the size of a penny.

    Just because I'm old doesn't mean I don't love to look at a pretty bust.
  • alexercaalexerca Posts: 243 ✭✭✭

    I traded a candy bar for a 1903 Indian head at the y. My grandma had an old penney jar from when she used to play bingo and in it was the mother load of Indians and early lincolns. It was there that I also saw my first v nickel! That was the beginning!

  • LRCTomLRCTom Posts: 857 ✭✭✭

    My parents were very sociable, and had friends over all the time. I would ask them all "Can I check your coins?" and fill my Whitman folders that way. I could never afford to do the halves...

    LRC Numismatics eBay listings:
    http://stores.ebay.com/lrcnumismatics

  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,580 ✭✭✭✭✭

    From mom and dads change. My Grandmother was an AVID collector with Whitman’s from cents to silver dollars. I was a reader of coin books and aware of a lot. By age 10 I saved enough to buy a nice NJ cent and 1796 Liberty cap Cent.

  • jesbrokenjesbroken Posts: 9,155 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Lincolns, Mercury Dimes and Washington Quarters out of change. Half Dollars and Dollars were just too valuable to save for me. All my collecting in the mid 50's and 60's was from change. Even into the 70's but silver shortly dried up. Lincolns were the most memorable. While I never got an 09 s vdb nor 09 s in change I did get all the others to include the 14d, 26 s, and 31 s. I did not do well with the Mercury Dimes as my book was barely half way full by the late 60's, I think they just wore so poorly and were quite slick most of the time. The Washington Quarters were easy, like the Lincolns.
    I had a sock full of odd IHC's, V nickels, some Barber coins and lots of Roosie's. Don't think I ever looked at a date on a Roosevelt Dime with any interest. My paper route was my saving grace. I had 126 customers and on Sunday I had to hide my paper bundles that I couldn't carry and retrieve them as I made my rounds. Customers always paid in change, each week so I would have nearly $150 in change to go through less the deadbeats.
    What a wonderful world for beginners was the 50's and 60's.
    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
  • jesbrokenjesbroken Posts: 9,155 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MasonG said:
    Lincoln cents by date/mm, out of circulation. Nickels? Forget about it. When your budget consists of a 35 cents/week allowance + whatever pop bottles you can scrounge up for the deposit, there's not much money for buying coins.

    Speaking of pop bottles, I paid for all my gas in my Morris Minor(48 mpg) each week in the mid 60's with pop bottles gathered near the high school football field early every Saturday morning. $1.50 to $3.00 each week during the sports seasons. I would fill up my MM which took about $1-1.25($.20-.25 per gallon), buy myself and my best friend Johnny each a pack of smokes and the weekends were ours. Sometimes enough to go catch a matinee for a dime.
    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
  • CoinJunkieCoinJunkie Posts: 8,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My dad had a lot of Whitman folders, and that probably sparked my interest in looking through pocket change. Merc dimes and Buffalo nickels weren't uncommon at all. Even Barber coinage still circulated to a degree until silver was discontinued. I remember acquiring a few mint (SMS) sets and loving how coins looked when uncirculated. The only thing I remember collecting for sure was Morgan and Peace silver dollars in Whitmans. I think various relatives gave me some they had in drawers to get me started, but I can't remember much about how I built the collection. I think I'd buy one occasionally at a department or coin store, and maybe I'd get paid with one now and again when I had a paper route in my early teens.

    I sold the whole (incomplete) dollar collection shortly after I graduated high school (1976) for around $300 (not chump change back then), and blew through the proceeds in a matter of weeks. Didn't even think about coins again until around 1998 when I was playing poker in Nevada and somebody at the table had an ASE in a plastic capsule to use as a card guard. For whatever reason, I'd never seen one until then, and decided to acquire one. eBay and high speed Internet were relatively new phenomena and one thing led to another, as they say.

  • Tom147Tom147 Posts: 1,420 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Like Golden, started with a Whitman folder of Lincoln cents my father ( R.I.P. ) gave me in 1964. No shops or shows where grew I up. Collected out of pocket change only. Late 60's with a $ 2.00 allowance on Friday and Saturday, I frequented a local pool hall. Bought silver dimes @ 2 for a quarter from the owner. I'd buy 8 dimes on Friday and 8 more on a Saturday. I still have them all. Had a dollar left to shoot pool. Didn't get serious with my collection until the 70's.

  • amwldcoinamwldcoin Posts: 11,269 ✭✭✭✭✭

    While I started with a whitman folder for Lincolns, I don't think I had a rhyme or reason for what I collected when I was pre-tween and tween! I wanted everything! >:) When I became a teen I was distracted by cars and girls!

  • In4apennyIn4apenny Posts: 298 ✭✭✭

    Early Fifties for me. Out of change would collect standing liberty, Indian Heads, some Barbers. Liked the Walking Liberties the best, spent the Franklin's. My Grandma would save only dimes in a old beer can, when full would take it to the bank.
    My mom had cigar tubes full of dimes.

  • UtahCoinUtahCoin Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was born in 1952 and started collecting "pennies" with the new reverse about 1960. Like others have mentioned, I too started with a LoC Lincoln Cent album. The only 3 coins I never found were the 09 S, 09 S VDB, 14 D.
    I remember Buffalo 5c, Merc 10c, SLQ 25c, WL 50c all fairly common.

    My dad would bring home a few rolls of cents every Friday night for me to go through, then return them on Monday. I remember in 1965 when clad coins arrived I couldn't wait to get them. They were so cool to have rather than those dirty old silver coins.

    I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector.
    Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
  • WAYNEASWAYNEAS Posts: 6,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I too collected wheat pennies in the Whitman holder.
    To get coins was simple for me as school milk cost 3 cents and my mom always gave me a nickle so I got 2 wheats in change.
    With cashing in pop bottles, I was able to buy other wheat cents from my fellow classmates at face value. I filled many albums minus the key dates and forced me to buy them later in life. This is how I became a collector.

    Kennedys are my quest...

  • MasonGMasonG Posts: 6,268 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @UtahCoin said:
    I remember in 1965 when clad coins arrived I couldn't wait to get them. They were so cool to have rather than those dirty old silver coins.

    A kid at my school brought one in one day. He told everybody that his father was VP of a bank and that each branch was only allowed to have two of the new quarters. That night, when my dad got home and emptied out his change for me to go through, it turned out he had 8 or 10 of them.

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,208 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I too went the Whitman route pulled from circulation. Still have them. Quit before filling the cents. Years later began collecting certified coins and stacking bullion.

  • TRTR Posts: 50 ✭✭✭

    Early 60's the priest at our church gave us altar boys a silver dollar each year, Pretty cool.

  • koynekwestkoynekwest Posts: 10,048 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Back in the early sixties it was the Whitman Lincoln folders #1 and #2. Buffalo and Jefferson 5c in folders, too. My dad was a bartender so I usually got to look thru all the coins in the register change. Couldn't afford the quarters and half dollars but that's where most of the good stuff was.

    I remember the excitement over the new clad coinage, too. That got boring pretty quick.

  • DBSTrader2DBSTrader2 Posts: 3,444 ✭✭✭✭

    Like just about everyone who's posted here, I started out as a young kid in the early-to-mid 60's, collecting in blue Whitman folders from circulation. Usually on the living room floor at my Grandparents' feet, from their pocket-change. I started with pennies & nickels, and eventually expanded to the rest. But I only made it as far back as IHC's, Liberty nickels, Mercury dimes, Washington Q's, Walkers, & Morgan/Peace $1's.

    By the time I could afford and was aware of silver coinage, they were no longer being produced, but I would still get a few from circulation, bank rolls, or searching thru coffee cans of "melt" silver coins at the smelters in downtown Philly. I stuck back then to just dimes & quarters, as my allowance wouldn't support halves & dollars. After all, it was 3 to 4 times face!!
    I wish I had expanded to those back then, as they are my favorites & I often think of what could have been. I also regret not starting on SLQ's or Barbers.

    Later on, I helped deliver & collect for my brother's paper route, and picked up some smaller-denomination silver that way.
    Even later, as a retail manager, I was able to pick thru rolls of change & the tills when setting-up & cashing-out, and picked up silver, wheaties, and miscellaneous silver certificates, etc. THOSE were the days! More recently, the internet opened up a whole new world of information, buying & trading, and making new friends & trading partners. After a long hiatus, I was back in the game!

    I never ventured away from those blue Whitman folders, and still have every folder & coin I ever collected. Over time, I branched out to various new denominations, types, & countries (England, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, early Euros, and even a 1-per-country set that morphed into a monster), as I found coins in change or from my Dad's years in the service, or as used or new folders popped up at the local coin shop. I even rounded out my Darkside Whitman folder collection with the help of Randy at Chief Coin & Supplies, which carries a wide assortment of U.S. & Darkside folders/albums/etc in both new & used condition, as well as "obsolete" folders.

    At this point, I'm down mainly to the more rare/expensive key/semi-key/lower-mintage holes to fill in all the folders, and can't justify buying any of them at my age just to fill their holes, but I do try at least to keep up with each year's releases - - made tougher by trying to keep up with denominations now available only by order from the Mint (like halves & dollars) . The only reason I keep up with those is the fact that I long-ago started them, and would like to have an up-to-date set to pass along to future generations. But I have drawn the line at Inno-Bucks, etc, where they are starting out as non-circulating...... just not worth my time & effort on those base metals these days..........

    For me, besides the thrill of the hunt & filling holes, the joy in the hobby has not been to amass any great wealth (although I can still DREAM about it!), but to have in my hands/folders a history of our country & coinage - - especially types no longer made & seldom seen in the wild. But more importantly, it's a link back to my youth & my grandparents & a simpler time........ and that's what matters most, and what I hope to pass on to my kids as well. :)

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Early fifties I had a paper route... and collected out of change... No coin shops, never even heard of a coin show then. As stated above, silver was common change... IHC's could still be found, along with other old coins... I remember my first Columbian half dollar given as payment for a couple of weeks of the paper... That was amazing to me. Cheers, RickO

  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,307 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm not sure I was ever not interested in coins. I saw my parents use coins when they were acquiring things we needed and asked questions about them. In 1957 I started collecting buffalo nickels and completed it after buying several coins from mail order dealers in the late-'50's and early '60's. I actually made a few dollars when I sold it to a local coin shop.

    I quit actively collecting until 1972 when I saw a newspaper article that said the mint and FED were going to start rotating their stocks with the introduction of FIFO accounting. Since then I have collected almost everything and am now in the process of selling the coins from my safety deposit boxes.

    The hobby has been wonderful for me and given me the chance to meet some of the most wonderful people in the world. It's kept me active and allowed me to travel. It kept me focused on all the things that are most important and provided a unique perspective on the human condition. It is continuing to be a hoot.

    Tempus fugit.
  • Klif50Klif50 Posts: 660 ✭✭✭✭

    I was born in 1950. Remember going through Dad's change in his dresser drawer looking at Buffalo Nickels and Indian Head cents he had hoarded away (when he died he had almost 20,000 Buffalo Nickels that he had hoarded over the years, most were dateless or common date but it was a huge number of coins.

    I digress again. In 1957 I started looking through the cent hoard the various family members had and picking out dates. My Grandmother bought me set of Library of Coins albums and I was off and running. After I filled as many holes as I could I started knocking on the neighbor's doors asking if they had any old pennies and they would let me go through their hoard and keep anything I found. I did find a nice high grade (later graded as an XF) 1922-D cent. Around 1960 I put the albums away and went on to other things (fast bicycles, roller skates and skateboards and my new .22 rifle).

    Around 1964 we visited with some of dad's work friends and found they had a lot of the Whitman Folders and were making regular trips to the bank picking up rolls and filling spaces. I was amazed they could afford to bring home rolls of silver dollars and how they could afford to put up all those silver dollars when wages weren't very high. It was interesting but didn't reignite the bug.

    In 1970, I was in the Air Force and stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska and the bug again hit. I started walking the 3 miles from the dorms to downtown Anchorage to a small coin shop in a book store. He was always selling 10 different Mercury Dimes for $3 and I picked up a lot of them and started filling holes in the Whitman Albums. Also started collecting the new proof sets. After that I never put the hobby down but got rid of most of my coins a few years back when my eyesight went really bad. I still buy a coin here or there but always buy graded stuff and only stuff from our host to add to my hoard. Can't really see much about what I am buying except the stuff I buy on Ebay and from Great Collections mostly come with enlarged views so I have a bit of a clue.

  • HydrantHydrant Posts: 7,773 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 31, 2020 10:34AM

    Pennies from around 5-6 years old and then at 14-15 years old Jefferson nickels. All from circulation. As a little kid I also had several large cents that I found in a rat's nest in the barn, an 1853 three cent piece and an 1836 dime both of which I found in one of grandpa's old books. The first coin I ever bought was a 1912 dime. I was around 8-9 years old. It cost me 15¢. It was the center piece of the collection.

  • semikeycollectorsemikeycollector Posts: 923 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I began with the Whitman albums starting with Lincolns, Jeffersons and Roosevelt dimes. Something clicked in my head, when I bought Whitman book 2 for Liberty Seated dimes at 10 and noticed that the first hole for 1863 showed a mintage of 14.5K. That low number got my interest in scarce coins started. It was a lot lower than the 484K number for a 1909-svdb and was a lot less expensive. I only had an 1890 from my dad and no idea how to find dimes like that in 1969 at 10 years old. After only nearly fifty years later and after many fits and starts the Seated Dime set was complete, minus the 73-cc no arrows.

    At this point, most of my funds are for mid-grade semi-key coins like Seated Dollars. Looking to possibly start a limited set of mid grade scarce 5.00 gold. I can't afford scarce $10 and $20 gold.

  • JimTylerJimTyler Posts: 3,034 ✭✭✭✭✭

    “S” mint pennies. Scarce in Chicago and all I could afford.

  • BLUEJAYWAYBLUEJAYWAY Posts: 7,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Older brother got me interested in Lincoln's w/the Whitman folder. Purchased at the local coin shop a few blocks from our home. Mainly searched coins from circulation. Did not buy my first single coin until 1970, not counting mint products, which began with 1970 proof sets.

    Successful transactions:Tookybandit. "Everyone is equal, some are more equal than others".
  • metalmeistermetalmeister Posts: 4,584 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Mom and Dad collected Silver dimes and quarters.The halves were too valuable to be collected. My brother and I collected Cents and Nickels. Most from local banks. The run on Silver in 1965 was pretty crazy as I remember. The end of real money.

    email: ccacollectibles@yahoo.com

    100% Positive BST transactions
  • crazyhounddogcrazyhounddog Posts: 13,776 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It started out with Mercury dimes then after about a year I went all in with buffalo nickels. Stapled flips for the most part along with Whitman folders. That was in the 50’s.

    The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
  • rec78rec78 Posts: 5,675 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My dad got me started with Whitman blue folders for Lincoln cents Christmas day 1958. He also had a bag of cents to go through and fill in the spaces. For awhile I did not know what was actually happening but I enjoyed filling in the holes. After some time I got more and more knowledgeable on better date coins. Every week or two my dad would have another $50.00 bag of cents to go through. By 1962 I had expanded to Jefferson nickels. In 1962 or 1963, I found a 1909-S VDB in a cent roll from a bank. The earliest coin I found was an 1857 flying eagle cent. Back in the 1950's and 60's you could still find key dates and a few worn down Indian head cents once in a while. I missed filling the No.1 Lincoln cent (circulation find) album by 6 coins, which I had to purchase later. My interest never waned. In mid 1962 my dad started getting bags of Silver dollar coins($1000) every Wednesday. I learned quickly what the scarce and rare dates were. These only lasted for like 22 weeks and ended in early 1963. cc's were common in these bag with a lot of low grades, my dad kept all the cc's and in the end had about 5 rolls of cc Morgans. We found at least 5 1893-s's There were some times however in the 1970's and 1980's where the prices were too high just or I did not have any money to purchase coins. Sometimes long periods of time, like 1982-1991.

    image
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,427 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I received the 13th edition of The Red Book and the two Whitman Lincoln Cent folders as a Christmas gift from my uncle in 1959. I pulled some cents from circulation, but my ultimate interests went toward Indian Cents and type coins. Early on I purchased some 19th century coins from my mother’s cleaning lady. Then I got to go to coin counters.

    I finished in Indian Cent set circa 1970 but later lost interest in it and sold it. The type coin interest continued. I finished that set a little over five years ago. Some of the coins in my set date from my high school days.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?

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