Post the coin that got you excited about collecting.
Avocet
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This must not be a new theme but lives on as a great topic.
I have been collecting since I was a kid and while growing up I read everything I could get my hands on. I frequently checked rolls, pocket change, shows, dealers, and magazines for the latest updates for U.S. coins. Over time excitement for specific types of coins developed, especially for those coins with interesting stories behind them. For many of the coins that triggered a thrill for me, I felt as though there is no way that I would ever be able to get them— perhaps part of the draw was the rarity, but I knew that there was more than that.
It is interesting to learn what catches the imagination of each collector— this varies so much from one collector to the next. As a kid, I was blown away by the story of the 1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent. I have read that during the minting of this coin the Philadelphia Mint may have been suffering power outages during an electrical storm while the erroneous cents were being produced overnight; a less-than-full staff was content to turn a blind eye to the error as they were pre-occupied with other challenges at the time. Eventually, the double die was corrected, but not until after up to 40,000 cents were produced. Many of those cents were rumored to have been placed in cigarette packets— two at a time— as cigarette machines in those days could not provide change. Cigarette packs cost 23c but quarters were used in the machines, so 2 cents change were required. What a cool story.
What is your favorite coin from early in your collecting days - not necessarily the most valuable coin price-wise, but the coin that captures your imagination the most— What is your story, and share an image if you have it.
Comments
The '55 ddo is probably on the top of most people's lists concerning coins that attracted them to the hobby. It is certainly mine, as I thumbed through my grandfather's Red Book as a child.
Years later, ironically, it was the 1995 ddo that brought me back as I read about its discovery in USA Today.
Though common in comparison to the 1955, it took me about 20 years to actually find one in change!
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Not what got me started, but this is the first certified coin I ever owned. My parents saw I was interested in coins and brought me to a dealer and I picked this out. I still remember staring at it non-stop in my room for weeks — I thought it was the coolest damn thing, and still do. I also think it's one of the reasons I have a proclivity towards toned coins as I've always loved the colors and originality. Bought it in an old ANACS small holder but had it crossed to PCGS a couple years ago. MS62.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
As a kid?
As an adult?
The three coins that got me interested in collecting were the Indian Head Penny, the Silver Dollar, and the three-legged Buffalo Nickel. Of course I was just a child, but it was exciting to me to hear about the Indian Head Penny and the three-legged Buffalo from my Dad and to see the accumulation of Silver Dollars that he had.
As a kid growing up outside of San Jose (Monte Sereno), we rode our Schwinns to neighboring coin shops and looked at the bid boards. Paper route money along with birthday and Christmas cash (thanks, Grandma!) would allow for the occasional splurge on a problem-free VF large cent.
peacockcoins
It’s great to be a kid, as an adult
Actually...it looked something like this...then my grandma gave me a few silver coins and I started hunting through penny rolls for VDBs in the 1970's
There also used to be ads in comic books about getting rich from finding the 1943 copper pennies too but I couldn't find a copy, anyone remember that ad?!
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
It was sort of multi-factorial for me. The Susan B release in 1979 got me slightly interested. Then, life happened and I forgot about collecting until finally securing a job with actual income. I bought a bit of silver, discovered the Peace dollar, discovered this place, and one thing sort of led to another.
Early in my journey I bought a particular lot of junk silver on eBay. 99% of it was relatively recent Roosies and Washies, but there was an 1861 quarter just sitting there along with the rest. I'd never really played with a Civil War relic before.
Mine was also the 1955/55 Lincoln cent.
After I had been working on US type set and some commems, this one really sent me down to the darkside. 300 years old, silver dollar size, truly mint state... and didn't cost an arm and a leg.
My current "Box of 20"
First slabbed coin I purchased when I got back into collecting.
It wasn't so much a coin as it was a folder, in my case the Whitman Lincoln Cent Vol 2, 1941 to date back in 1961. Once I started filling those empty holes in I was hooked-for life.
I would post a picture if I could but I really don't think it's necessary. Who here would be interested in looking at a common 1959 penny? That's what got me started. Ho- hum for here......But not for this little kid in 1959.
Me too.
This is the first gold coin I purchased after getting my job out of college (I was an Aerospace Engineer). I suppose it got me started down a long and winding road.
The 55 DDO did it for me too.
For me... as a kid... the coin that most excited me (among others) was the IHC... The Indian Head Cent was sooooo intriguing. And I would get them in change on my paper route. No longer have the ones from my childhood, but the interest remains. Cheers, RickO
My first W quarter I found which was the American Memorial. 😎
This is great history to relive-- I remember some of these adds, and the copies you have shared bring back all kinds of great memories. Mail order coins right next to ads for mail order live seahorses in those days!
Yeah-I remember those ads. I remember one where you could purchase a tapeworm in a capsule as a diet aid, too. And for squirrel monkeys and tiny Chihuahua puppies that fit in a teacup.
@koynekwest I remember the teacup dog too lol!
Some of those my brother and I actually ordered!
We ordered...the ant farm, sea monkeys, a coffin bank where the skeleton grabbed the coins an pulled them in...I think I remember ordering a book called "amazing abs" or something like that, it turned out to be a 5 page pamphlet of how to do sit-ups and crunches and leg lifts lol! I think we ordered stink bombs at some point too, and itching powder that literally turned out to be a little pack of sawdust!
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
They sure had all the angles covered with those ads, didn't they!
Prototype dollar and quarters by Dan Carr @dcarr .
I was drawn to these because these were coin designs that were submitted to be minted into government coins.
Back in the mid-sixties when I was a boy of eight or nine my cousin got me started collecting Lincoln and Indian Cents. I bought a grab bag of coins at the local B&M coin shop looking for cents for my collection. In that grab bag there was very few cents but several coins I did not want. My cousin traded me some Indian cents for them. The trade caused a problem with his little brother who also wanted the Indian cents so I traded them back for an 1884-O Morgan Dollar. I thought that it was the most beautiful coin that I had ever seen and the "o" mint mark was just fascinating to me. I didn't have money to collect silver dollars but it did encourage me to look for more Lincoln cents and eventually Jefferson Nickels. I still have the 1884-O dollar. It is in a Capital Type Set that hangs on my bedroom wall.
Overland Trail Collection Showcase
Dahlonega Type Set-2008 PCGS Best Exhibited Set
Just got back into collecting recently. This coin started a 20th century type set. All my coins are ms 65 and cost under $200 but have outstanding eye appeal. If you enjoy seeing this coin I can post the rest
Just need a standing liberty quarter to finish the set.
This is one for me:
My YouTube Channel
In 1998, on one of my old jobs I was tearing carpet up to replace in a vacant apartment, Downtown Chicago. Under the old carpet were about 5 coins. The best one that caught my eye was a 1847 Large Cent. I couldn't believe the size, condition and old date. That's the coin that peaked my interest in the hobby.
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.Once again, here's the one that got me started. Image courtesy of buffnixx.
That is absolutely beautiful Terry-- I can see why that helped kick-start interest in collecting!
I love that story-- is the picture above the one you found under the carpet? Looks to be in great shape. I once found an Indian Head penny embedded in the ground on a trail my Dad and I were hiking on the way to a fly fishing spot in New England-- that was a thrill -- that penny was not nearly in as good shape as yours is!
I had been given a number of coins by relatives while growing up -mostly Indian Head pennies, Buffalo nickels and common Barber & Morgan silver. It wasn't until I stumbled upon this coin in the raw back in 1991 when the passion really hit... it's been an enjoyable ride ever since.
@CharlotteDude --My experience is similar in that I have a passion for Charlotte gold for personal reasons (home state, mined gold from the area where the gold for this coin was likely mined)-- when I was able to acquire my first coin from the Charlotte mint, it definitely kick-started interest in more-- your coin is beautiful! A great find....
Same here - home state and origin of the nation's first gold rush. Interestingly, it took an assignment to the Californian west coast while serving in the USAF and a stop at a Pacific Grove coin/antique store to come across this first Charlotte piece for me.
That would be a 1910 LC because it beat the 1919 LC my older brother had. And the old lady at the laundry mat she owned had a few old coins she'd show me just about every time we drove in to town to grocery shop or do laundry. And I'd walk around town up in the business street and exchange a quarter for 25 LCs. I was only 8-10 years old back in the 1960's but I think that guy, the barber, was peppering his cash register with old Lincolns, I think he knew I was coming. Than one day, the laundry lady showed me a Liberty cent in the bottom of a bucket. She said, Oh look, an old penny! It was a shinny 1890 cent and she let me have it. She ended up selling all those old coins she used to show me to somebody else though. And when my dad found out about it, he wasn't happy and let her know about it and how much I liked those coins.
I guess, that's how I got started, the competition with my brother and finding something to do around town when we visited.
I didn't get started in full step Jefferson nickels til 1990 or 91. Although, I did have a collection of circ. Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes etc before that.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
Cool story from when I was in first grade. A friend and I were walking to school and we passed a huge pile of shavings from a tree stump that was ground out. My buddy found an Indian penny in the shavings. It had a good sized gouge from the grinder but I remember wanting that coin so bad. I believe this is why my fist love for a series was the Indian cent. I sometimes wonder if he still has that coin.
is the picture above the one you found under the carpet?
Lol. No. Google pic, sold the coin (Stupid of me) way back in 2000. Thanks buddy.
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.Avocet-
You nailed it! The 55 DDO & S-VDB were the two coins I got excited about "and sparked my interest" back in the 60's as a kid. Never had them in my collection though.
Count me in on this one. My dad bought it for me in 1964. He's gone but I still have the album. Priceless.
That was quite a find, Joey!
My dad bartended at a club in the late 50s/early 60s. In 1961 or 62 a gentleman brought perhaps 20 old large cents in to show to him. I went out and bought a Whitman folder for him and he, in return, gave me one of them. That certainly accelerated my interest in coins.
Sadly, i no longer have the coin, but back in the 1960's my dad owned a Coffee Shop in lower Manhattan, and he'd bring home "old coins" that had found their way into the cash register. One day he brought home an 1875-S Twenty Cent piece that apparently someone thought was a quarter. I was fascinated, and that really got my collecting juices flowing!!!
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
When I first started any coin was exciting. I was much younger then and even a $10 coin would interest me for months. The first big show that I attended was the ANA in 2015 and for some reason I absolutely freaked when I got my hands on my first slabbed coins given they were samples that were free. At the time I couldn’t think about buying a slabbed coin on my own since I was around 10 at the time. Fast forward to now, I really like 1800’s type coins.
Young Numismatist/collector
70 Positive BST transactions buying and selling with 42 members and counting!
instagram.com/klnumismatics
1995 ddo was getting some publicity.
Bought three out of a CW ad for about $200 each... lol
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
I too remember the feeling that a coin in a slab was 'off-limits' as it was too special for me to get -- times change. Nice collection!
That is a great story -- a Twenty Cent piece like that in circulation is extraordinary, and a great way to jump-start collecting. Very cool.....
My great great grandfather lived in Ukraine during the Russian empire. He picked up a couple of 1898 gold 5 rubles and held on to them. My mom now has them and they have bean in the family for over 100 years. I always asked my mom if I could have them in my coin collection but she said she will only give them to me when I get married. Weird Ukrainian/ Russian tradition I guess. Me being the impatient person I am, decided to look for other means to obtain coins rather that wanting to inherit them. I did collect a little but my drive for gold kickstarted my more rigorous pursuit to obtain coins. I got a part time job at 16 and for there I was collecting dream coins, gold half eagles. My first U.S. slab coin was a 1899 s Au 58 half eagle. From there my collection grew and thanks to my job I could now afford to get more rare coins without having to wait till I inherited my own through marge. In short the 1898 gold 5 ruble got me into coin collecting.
Beautiful coin-- nice complement to the Eagles for you collection, and great story- thanks for sharing!
It was larger than life when I saw it as a kid--actually owning one was unthinkable at the time.
I've shared this story before but not in several years so i shall retell it.
I first became interested in coins in 1995, when the doubled die cent came out. I remember searching through coins on my living room floor with my dad...the only time we would ever do coin stuff together but not the only time he played a role. (I was 10 at the time). I purchased my first coins as well that year, either at the Science Store in the Danbury Mall in Connecticut or at Kingston Coin in Kingston NY, that's lost to history. But I didn't stick with it. I have some 1996 issues I'd saved new but I didn't stay in the hobby for long.
Fast forward to 1999. The State Quarters program began and I loved it. I began collecting them, but only one of each as I didn't know yet what mintmarks were (I learned that on this very forum). That was all I collected in this hobby and my original set is still in the Littleton folder I got at my local Barnes and Noble.
In 2002 I lost my dad to cancer.
In 2008 the furnace in my house broke...we had to get a new one. In that process, we found that my dad had had a coin collection! He had leaned it against the back of the furnace. Next to the paint cans. Yeah, fire safety was not in my dad's lexicon. It appears it was mostly built when he was younger, as there was nothing newer than 1976 in it. We don't know how often he went into it...we know he saved Bicentennial quarters. We found them all over, not just with the collection.
I saw stuff I had never seen before. There was a Morgan dollar, but what really struck me was the Peace Dollars of which there were four. It was spectacular! I had never seen a large dollar, or at least never took notice of them...I probably saw them for sale in Kingston Coin, but I was mostly going there for the NASCAR stuff he also sold. I was hooked in the hobby at that point. Coin stuff started taking up a lot of my time.
A week or two after I found his collection, we went on a family vacation to Cape Cod. Happened to drive by Black River Coins and made a uturn to go back. I bought two coins out of the "junk" box...a bent 1832 half dime and an 1852 large cent which has a bit of a curve to it. They were my gateway. I had no idea what either were but I knew I couldn't leave without them. I can't remember anymore but that half dime may still be my oldest US coin.
After we got home I asked on a NASCAR collecting forum if anyone knew of any good coin forums...I was directed here. Signed up that day. Then I really began to learn. I didn't know what mintmarks were when I joined I was so uneducated. I was directed to the Red Book which I bought and read cover to cover in one sitting. I also joined the ANA in 2008 but unfortunately I let that lapse.
I'm allergic to nickel, the metal, so every time I did anything with my coin collection it caused me severe pain, my skin would turn greenish gray and burn from the inside out. I suffered through because I loved the hobby that much, but then in April 2013 I came 5 minutes short of dying when the diabetes I didn't know I had turned into ketoacidosis. I was given last rights. But I pulled through...I did, however have to give up coin collecting. Now that I was poking holes in my fingers several times a day I couldn't handle them anymore.
I tried staying involved by reading and collecting books, but it was too depressing thinking I could not be in the hobby anymore.
I have found a work around now...I bought some rubber clad tongs that I now use to handle coins. I am back in the hobby on a lower level but looking to get back in full time again. I'm here again, although I've popped in from time to time over the past few years.
Unfortunately in the past seven years I misplaced the majority of my collection. I couldn't handle them physically and forgot where I put the majority of it. (I'm a hoarder, it's around somewhere! Hopefully).
Here is one of the Peace Dollars that got me into the hobby...
I must say I have gravitated more towards world coins. My "one from every country" collection had become my main focus...but I liked seeing all the different designs. Whether my first one or my 50th from a country, getting a new design still excites me, still gives me a reason to collect. I still am working on my date and mintmark US set too, but I've gotten a little lax on it. Can't figure out what I have and need until I can find it, because unfortunately I stopped keeping track of what I did get, even though I tried to maintain it, I failed.
I still live vicariously through the forum because I have a strict budget....$50 is usually the max I'll spend on anything although I try to keep it to $20 on any one item. Luckily the world coins are generally pretty cheap, at least what I'm collecting. It may be time to buy a pound of assorted again and see what kind of new types I can find...
I still save every Bicentennial quarter I come across in honor of my dad. At last count I was up to about 60 of them.
Thanks for reading. I know I write a lot!