My Favorite Coin!

semikeycollector

This is what got me started in Liberty Seated coins. My dad found this 1890 dime in change in my grandfather's Brooklyn, NY candy store about 1940. This was in an old fuse box with a 3 Cent piece, Flying Eagle cent, some Indians, V Nickels and a Barber dime. I instantly fell in love with this coin! He gave me the box and contents in 1966.

It was so cool to me that this coin was from 3 designs back. It felt like i owned an extinct species.

What coin was instrumental, in getting you started in your collection?

Shane6596

Originally it was a cigar box full of coins when i was very young. Years later a 179X (dont remember exact year) that a friend had that sparked my interest to where im at now. I still love the EAC stuff the most.

Tramp

Wheat pennies while working at my grampa's gas station back in the early 70's. Then it was the occasional merc's, silver quarters and halves.

DCW

My grandfather's 1942/1 dime he got in change while on a coffee break.
That is a story still told at holiday dinners.

ricko

For me, it was an IHC I got in change while on my paper route as a kid. It was so cool... I could not stop looking at it... it was my prized possession for a long, long time. Cheers, RickO

WQuarterFreddie

I always loved the buffalo nickels but never collected coins until the W quarters program. This was the first one I found😎

OAKSTAR

@semikeycollector said:

What coin was instrumental, in getting you started in your collection?

Like most, probably trying to fill the old Lincoln Cent Whitman folder. But I know the bug hit me when I started saving those penny's. As soon as I got 50 (and that took quite awhile), I would run to the bank and ask the teller for one of these. I remember looking up at the tellers. I could barely reach the countertop to give her the penny's. 😂 🤣

dsessom

I used to stay the summers with my maternal grandparents way out in the sticks in southwest Texas, near Fort Davis. Grandpa would put me to work bailing hay (the hardest work I have ever done!) but would let me goof off on the weekends. My uncle Charley had a metal detector and I borrowed it one hot summer July day and ended up finding all kinds of buttons, silverware, nails, and even an old pocket knife - but the best find of that day, and what got me hooked on coins, was an old corroded 1886 V nickel (Yes, an 1886!). I didn't know it was a key date until a few months later when I bought a coin book.

And this is where I found it - grandma's house that was built in 1898.

FranklinHalfAddict

@dsessom said:
I used to stay the summers with my maternal grandparents way out in the sticks in southwest Texas, near Fort Davis. Grandpa would put me to work bailing hay (the hardest work I have ever done!) but would let me goof off on the weekends. My uncle Charley had a metal detector and I borrowed it one hot summer July day and ended up finding all kinds of buttons, silverware, nails, and even an old pocket knife - but the best find of that day, and what got me hooked on coins, was an old corroded 1886 V nickel (Yes, an 1886!). I didn't know it was a key date until a few months later when I bought a coin book.

And this is where I found it - grandma's house that was built in 1898.

Cool story! I did some poking around Fort Davis on Google earth and found this…

dsessom

@FranklinHalfAddict said:

Cool story! I did some poking around Fort Davis on Google earth and found this…

It is very common in that area of the country for local people to put the town initials on a hill side for some reason. I'm not sure where the tradition originated, but it is pretty common. "F D" is of course "Fort Davis". The original Army fort was established in 1854, and served as a Frontier post until it was abandoned in 1891. Today, Fort Davis is a small tourist town in the Davis mountains.

semikeycollector

@Shane6596 said:
Originally it was a cigar box full of coins when i was very young. Years later a 179X (dont remember exact year) that a friend had that sparked my interest to where im at now. I still love the EAC stuff the most.

There is an intense desire to get certain coins when we were young that we admired that someone had and we didn't. I probably sound like captain obvious, but I know the feeling!

semikeycollector

@DCW said:

My grandfather's 1942/1 dime he got in change while on a coffee break.
That is a story still told at holiday dinners.

Wow that 1942/1 dime is the kind of coin that young (and older) collectors dream of having! Have you ever published any version of the story on this blog?

semikeycollector

@Tramp said:
Wheat pennies while working at my grampa's gas station back in the early 70's. Then it was the occasional merc's, silver quarters and halves.

We found similar coins growing up. I started looking in the mid 60's but I think you had access to more change than I did, which must have been amazing fun!

semikeycollector

@ricko said:
For me, it was an IHC I got in change while on my paper route as a kid. It was so cool... I could not stop looking at it... it was my prized possession for a long, long time. Cheers, RickO

Ricko,

I never found an IHC in circulation. That's exciting! My parents once bought me an Indian like 1903 for 50 cents at an old Inn restaurant that had a store. I lost it! They were loving enough to buy me another one. My 7 year old brain kept saying,, "Wow I could have had two!" (I know there wouldn't have been a second, if the first was never lost)

semikeycollector

@dsessom said:
I used to stay the summers with my maternal grandparents way out in the sticks in southwest Texas, near Fort Davis. Grandpa would put me to work bailing hay (the hardest work I have ever done!) but would let me goof off on the weekends. My uncle Charley had a metal detector and I borrowed it one hot summer July day and ended up finding all kinds of buttons, silverware, nails, and even an old pocket knife - but the best find of that day, and what got me hooked on coins, was an old corroded 1886 V nickel (Yes, an 1886!). I didn't know it was a key date until a few months later when I bought a coin book.

And this is where I found it - grandma's house that was built in 1898.

I always wanted one of those, especially as a kid. What a find!!!