How Old Were You When You Started Collecting & What Was Your First Purchase?

RichR

I'll start...as a child I was prone to severe ear infections. They were so bad that I would miss weeks of school at a time and needed to study at home.

Well one day, dad came home from work with a pile of comic books and a Bicentennial 3-coin silver proof set to cheer me up. Apparently, there was a coin shop near his office in Brooklyn and he thought I'd like it.

Well that was it...45 years later...and my collecting is still going strong. Unfortunately, dad is gone for 15 years now...but I still have that stupid little set...not worth much except for sentimental value...and every time I stumble across it, I think of him (and mom).

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

What say you? How did you get started?

nwcoast

I was in elementary school and my older brother had a small coin collection which fascinated me. He would often say that some ancient Chinese coins he had were priceless! Looking back, I think his were pretty common but I thought it cool.
The old Newberry’s department had a coin section with a button operating rotatable coin case too.
There was also a small coin shop in the shopping center up the hill.
Not sure exactly which coin was my first purchase, but this might be one of them.
I got it because it was OLD.

WAYNEAS

I was 12 and started with lunch milk money change.
Milk cost 3 cents and I got back 2 Lincolns.
First purchases were direct from the mint.
Proof sets.
Wayne

pmh1nic

I wouldn't call it "collecting" but as a kid growing up in Manhattan I would tie a string to a padlock, put Vaseline on the bottom of the lock and go "fishing" for the coins people accidentally dropped through the subway ventilation grating on the streets. I'd walk with my head down looking for shiny objections and then via trial and error find the proper square to get the lock above the coin.

2ndCharter

In 1960, at the age of 10, my aunt took me to a coin shop in Poughkeepsie, NY and I bought a 1955-S Cent in order to complete my 1941 to Date Whitman Folder. (Still have that coin).

JMS1223

I was eight years old when I started collecting and my first coin(s) was a set of three uncirculated steel cents, P, D and S. I bought them at my local coin shop for like a dollar or two.

johnny9434

I started around 1974 and my first purchase a 3 piece proof set that I still have today

ernie11

I was also eight years old when I started, My 4th grade teacher gave all of us in the class the Whitman cent folder starting at 1941, as a holiday present. This was just 4 weeks after President Kennedy was killed. I unfortunately cannot remember my first coin purchase, but I remember the first purchase that drew a reaction - circa 1966, I went to the coin booth at the local farmer's market and bought a 1939-D nickel for $5. My mom cussed me out for spending so much money foolishly, in her words. And yet a few years later, it was my mom who willingly drove me to a coin shop to buy the 1950-D nickel. Maybe by that time, my mom figured that at least I wasn't spending money on drugs - after all, it was the 1960's.

Floridafacelifter

14yo, went to a coin show with my Dad. I spent over an hour at a very kind dealer’s table who allowed me to spread out 3 or 4 rolls of beautiful 80-S Morgan $ on a tray and make my selection.

koynekwest

I was 12 in 1961 when I started collecting. I bought a Whitman folder #2 and the proprietor let me go thru all his cents and I started filling the holes. I was hooked! Still am!

BustDMs

I was 5 and began with a birthday present of a few Whitman folders.

Can’t remember if it was my first but a 1950-D nickel to complete my set.

MWallace

I was about 9 years old. That would've been 1965. A 1909 VDB was one of my first. I just recently had it holdered. Value wise not worth holdering but being one of my first, it was worth it to me. I actually remember that I paid $1.10 for it.

Walkerfan

I was about eight years old and it was 1974. Dad bought two 1882 Carson City GSAs for he and I. He only paid $15 apiece. I treasure that coin and my dad.

Kliao

About 9 years ago, I was about 8. My first coin memory was finding an old corroded wheat cent in my dad's change. Still have that cent somewhere. My first purchase was 2 buffs from an antique mall for 1.50 each. Yeah, not the best purchase but I was young and not very smart thinking they were $100 coins .

Mr_Spud

Probably about 7 or 8 years old. I think my first purchase was foreign coins out of a gumball like machine that had coins in plastic capsules. It was in front of a coin store in South Hills Village shopping mall in the outskirts of Pittsburgh PA.

Crypto

I inherited a collection when I was 7, one of the other relatives had taken out the S mint coins out of the IHC folder because those were the valuable ones. My first coin purchase was a 1908s in XF for 25$. My 2nd and first lesson was a VG 1869/“8” corroded for full guide

RichR

As somebody mentioned rotating coin cases...I'll add this (and I know these stores will be alien to most people under 25):

When I was a kid I hit the rotating coin cases in Woolworth's, Newberry's, McCrory's, Grant's, and even one of the largest Sears in the country, in Hicksville, on Long Island.

Then later, as a teenager, I often hit the coin departments in Macy's, Gimbel's, Abraham & Strauss, and Wanamaker's.

And now those stores are all gone (except for Macy's)...and those rotating coin counters are antiques. And every day, I feel a little more antique too!

golden

I was 10 years old when I started. The first coins that I bought were some circulated Indian Head Cents.

nags

Started in my mid-30’s, around 10 years ago, and began reading this forum shortly thereafter. I believe my first purchase was a NGC AU1875-CC trade dollar

mrcommem

I started collecting coins in the mid-sixties along with my little brother and two first cousins. We were all trying to fill the1st Whitman Lincoln Cent album. We would go various store and restaurants trading rolls of cents. I never found anything significant but my brother and cousin found a 1914-D cent in one of the rolls. My cousin eventually confiscated the coin. I didn't finish that album until just recently when I bought the '09-s, 09-S VDB, 14-D, and 31-s. It took me almost 55 years to finish that album. The second Whitman Cent album I found all the coins in circulation except the 1955-S. That was the first coin I purchased at about 11 years old at a coin shop several blocks away. I still have both those collections now housed in a mahogany coin chest. Now I am hooked on branch gold dollars. A much more difficult and expensive collection. Only three dollars to go.

jesbroken

On my 7th birthday, 1955, my favorite uncle gave me an 1880 O Morgan Dollar Uncirculated. Wonderful start, but I spent the next 10 years hunting change and going to the bank and aggravating them a dollar at a time for rolls of pennies and occasionally a roll of nickels. Did rather well. Never left the hobby, even when in the military. Amazing how many rolls of Buffalo Nickels I got at the NCO club searching rolls from the slot machines in Europe.
Jim

ricko

I too was eight years old... Looking a coins in JJ Newberry's... and getting them on my paper route.... I did not save any at that age, but loved looking at the old coins (even IHC's in circulation, though not common).
Started saving them at about eleven years old.... Had quite a few (even two '55 DDO cents).. Then I joined the Navy at seventeen.... and Mom cleaned the 'change' out of my bureau. Oh well, had to start collecting all over again. Cheers, RickO

kimber45ACP

33. It was a 1998 1/4 AGE unc

dagingerbeasttt

22. My first purchase was actually a box of Lincolns searching for errors/ varieties

MarkKelley

I was 8 years old in 1969 and my parents made their yearly 50 mile trip into Atlanta to do their holiday shopping. In front of Service Merchandise (anybody remember them?) were several gumball-type vending machines that dispensed slick Buffalo nickels, Indian cents, and steel cents in little plastic capsules. I begged every quarter I could to feed into these machines. The steelies were actually in BU condition and I wish I could still find them for 25 cents each!

jesbroken

Loved Service Merchandise, Kingsport, TN.
Jim

RichR

Funny thing is...way before third party grading...I bet those gumball type vending machines and rotating cabinets at Woolworth's and Newberry's etc., may have actually held some pleasant surprises.

I mean, back in those days, little old ladies or college kids were probably packing up millions of coins from estates and coffee cans and other "bulk" sources, for a couple of dollars per hour, without any actual examination by knowledgeable collector for rarities. Plus, some things that were not rare in the 1960s might be rare today!

alohagary

I was 10 and my mother took me to the coin show and I purchased a 1950-d bu nickel for $20. A lot of money back in 1964.

RichR

I spent LOTS of Saturday & Sunday mornings at coin shows at VFW and union halls all over Long Island and New Jersey as a kid! Usually split between coins, stamps, old jewelry, and some baseball cards!

At the time, I didn't even consider that maybe mom and dad would have liked a quiet day at home with the Sunday paper instead of driving me all over town!

CoinHoarder

When I was about 8 years old, I found an old wallet on the sidewalk. I thought it was empty. I tossed it high in the air. When it landed on the sidewalk, a large cent popped out! Don’t remember what year the. cent was. I sold it almost right away to my uncle’s friend for $1. That was a lot of money to me back then. I was hooked ever since.

I collected exclusively from circulation initially. Thought I would never pay over face value for a coin.

Around 1969 or 1970, I paid .60 cents for a 1940 something dinged up Walker. I bought it at a coin stand at Universal Mall in Warren, MI. I still have the coin stashed away in a tube somewhere. I recognize it when I see it, because of how ugly it is.

BillJones

I was 11 when my uncle gave me the 13th edition of “The Red Book” and the two Whitman Lincoln Cent folders for Christmas. I started filling the folders right away from my parents pocket change. I have no way of knowing which coins I pushed into the spaces first, but I have considered a 1917-D cent in Choice VF to be my “first coin.”

I bought my first “old coins”, an 1846 large cent and an 1838 half dime, both in Good. I still have them.