What did a bright eyed, bushy tailed you look for at coin shows when you were a younger pup?

bennybravo

I was just talking to a friend of mine here on the forums and told him as a younger fella in the early 90's, with a not so big bank roll, that I'd look to cherry pick those late 50's to early 60's mint sets that you could pick up for 12 or 15 bucks back then and find Awesome Franklin Halves. Did you have something in particular that you sought out?

Clackamas1

I liked well worn large cents. They were old and affordable.

Manifest_Destiny

Seated half dimes

Copperindian

Morgans & more Morgans!

tcollects

personally, I specialized in worthless dreck

fluffy155

Seated material in F-VF. Could pick up nice dimes for $5 and quarters for $10. My best buy was an 1838 quarter in VF I picked up for $30. Wish I still had that one...

bennybravo

@tcollects said:
personally, I specialized in worthless dreck

I think we all specialized in that a little bit starting out. Great post.

Vetter

Buffalo Nickels. I’m still looking for them. Its funny how time doesn’t change much on somethings.

Steven59

Pre 1960 Full Step Jeffersons.

bennybravo

@Vetter said:
Buffalo Nickels. I’m still looking for them. Its funny how time doesn’t change much on somethings.

That was my other area of interests too back then. I still have a capital plastics holder with VF and above buffs, so many of which were purchased for bargain basement prices compared to now. Harder series to learn to grade properly for sure.

seanq

@Steven59 said:
Pre 1960 Full Step Jeffersons.

Absolutely this, you could still find great raw coins at shwos back in the early/mid 1990s, when the FSNC was active but the designation hadn't filtered into the mainstream hobby and TPGs were not designating steps on their holders.

I also looked for war nickel RPMs, CPG varieties, nice (slider) early Lincolns, error coins, and once I started hanging around here, early cameo proof coins.

Sean Reynolds

yosclimber

Kibbles 'n Bits?
But I always got chased out by security, with my tail between my legs....

ShaunBC5

I got some cool Mercs and Proof Franklins. Nothing special, but that was mostly what I looked for.
If there was a slabbed coin that I could afford (usually in the $30 range) I would consider that a score.
I have a lot of nice war year Mercs from those days. Also a ton of crap that I’ll probably start giving to my son to “boost” his collection. Things I wouldn’t buy today but enjoyed finding in my teens.

Edit to add - I got a lot of raw stuff that would likely come back in details holders if anyone ever tried….but will never be worth that effort.

lkenefic

Indian Head Cents... until I saw my first very large piece of copper with a "17xx" in the date...

braddick

XF/AU Large Cents.
I couldn't purchase a lot of them but their charm was inescapable.

oldabeintx

High grade Lincoln cents. This was before high-end Lincolns were in demand, but they were tough to find at local shows. Did well with them years later.

renomedphys

At my first coin show in Gatlinburg, Tennessee circa 1985 I was 13 years old. My mom was going gallery shopping and there was a coin show at the convention hall. She said I could go in for 30 minutes. I was probably looking for Lincolns or affordable type, but at one of the first tables I saw a chain cent. I asked the price… $5000! Don’t know the grade but it was high. I remember it was dark, but a lot of meat on it. I remember thinking, might as well be a $million and left heartbroken. Likely with just minutes to spare

Walkerfan

I liked to cherry pick the best ungraded GSA dollars (you could do that back then). I remember when 82, 83 and 84 Carson City $s cost $50 apiece and the better dates were $100-$200.

Raw Early to Mid Date Walkers in XF/AU were also at the top of my list.

Smudge

Silver commemoratives with nice rim toning in the 61-64 range keeping them affordable. Then I sold them when I got the gold bug.

divecchia

As a young pup (in my 20's) I collected PCGS graded gold mostly. I still love PCGS graded gold, but I also collect high grade silver.

Donato

JimTyler

Forget about coin shows in the 60’s everything was from change. It never occurred to me there were stores people could buy coins. The first thing I bought was a 1968 Proof Set in 1968 it has never been close in value to what this dumb ass kid paid for that set. The first real coin was a 1912-S 5c I believe I paid around $50 for whatever grade $50 would buy back then. It was probably another 20 years before I learned about coin shows.

cladking

Gems.

I was good at finding US and world Gems that nobody else was looking for. I could go through a double row box in no time and fly through mint sets. In the late-'70's Gem morgans were starting to get popular so I sold my collection and went after the unloved and unwanted.

I picked up tokens and medals along the way just to stay busy.

MapsOnFire

Beginning in 1961. Rare die varieties of half cents and large cents. Spectacular condition: finest 1875 trade dollar. Unusual coins: proof 1836 reeded edge half dollar. Unusual condition: gem seated dollars. Surprise lots: 50 1835 half dimes, all gem, all together since they were struck.

TimNH

Holes in my Whitmans! There was this one dealer who would give me 5 wheaties for a Liberty nickel (which I had a little pouch of), looking back I think i got bamboozled but it sure was satisfying filling in those holes.

Barberian

Inexpensive, common date seated Liberty dimes, low to midgrade large cents, type coins and Lincoln cents. I was getting back into the hobby and was looking around a bit. Type coins included half cents, 3-cent silver, 3-cent nickel, half dimes, seated dimes, bust dimes, SL quarters, Liberty nickels.

BillJones

Gold type coins, type coins in general and Indian cents.

Compared to today, gold coins were dirt cheap. You could get a common date Indian or Liberty $10 gold in “Choice Unc.” for less than $50. Common date Liberty $5 gold pieces were about $30. The doubled eagles could be had for $49.95, but they were very baggy. The “nice ones” from dealers who weekend out the counterfeits (Yes, that was a problem.) cost $65 to $75.

I made out on the gold, but the Indian Cents did poorly financially. The type coins also served me well financially.

may

Cheap stuff!

crazyhounddog

Hall eagle Indians, buffalo nickels and walking Liberty’s. This was back in the 60’s 70’s.

alaura22

In the 70s it was all about Morgans, Peace, and Walking Liberty Halfs. The coin shop where I used to hang out on Saturdays with a 5 others let me cherry pick the rolls. Man those were the days.

MojaveGhost

When I was a little kid I was fascinated by any coin with an animal on it.

seatedlib3991

I have never been to a coin show. I have been young. When I was 10 I put my vast profits from my newspaper distribution business into purchasing an AU 1880-O Morgan Dollar.
I know for a fact I put more hours into that decision than I did into deciding what college I would go to, what degree I would get, what business I would open and what woman I would marry; combined.
Still have the degree, the business, the wife and the coin. sometimes very little changes. James

GaCoinGuy

@tcollects said:
personally, I specialized in worthless dreck

Me too....

GaCoinGuy

I mostly focused on proof sets from the 50's-1970. Mints sets when they could be found. And foreign toners.

JWP

When I was a young puppy, the only coin shows were the Banks.