How/why did you get get started in the series you are most interested in collecting?
raycyca
Posts: 1,645 ✭✭✭
I know this might be a boring discussion, but perhaps many of us might have gotten their start in collecting their series the same way. I'll go first. I have several raw complete sets, but the one that's most dear to my heart is the Kennedy series, both mint state and proof.
It started back in 1964 with my grandfather on my mother's side gave me a brand new shiny Kennedy half dollar. For some reason, I placed the coin into the top left hand vent of the fireplace. They had vents on both sides, top and bottom. I didn't know that as a little kid. I was afraid to tell anyone I lost the coin my grandfather JUST gave me! Fast forward several years when I was in the military travelling around the globe. When it finally looked like I was going to stay in the states for awhile, I got an album for Kennedys and visited the local banks and tried filling in as many spots as I could from circulation, like my grandfather did. At first it was going great since I needed every coin. But that soon became disappointing because it was becoming very hard to locate any new coins in circulation.
Then I discovered the internet and PCGS. So I started with a few coins from eBay and that got me thinking and I changed my focus. So decided to restart my set, but was now going to be collecting a complete set that was using PCGS slabbed coins because the holders protected the coins, plus the boxes held the holders safely and in order. So I decided to start the set and PCGS started the registry for the Kennedy set, complete, so off I went. As soon as they opened it, I added my coins to the set and I actually had the #1 complete Kennedy set listed! BUT, it was the ONLY set listed! LOL It sure felt great! But that didn't last long, because Richard Green listed his set and he became the number 1 set owner. Whom was this fellow, how DARE he burst my bubble?! I just HAD to beat him, I guess I became a competitive individual for which I never was, until now, it was personal. a short time later we became best of friends and actually starting helping each other. When I had a better coin than his, we would trade, but he would always make me whole. He even sold me coins at a loss to him. I even gave him a few coins that were better that was his, but I had a lower one as a spare so I thought he needed it more. Besides one day I might even get back to the top again?
I then discovered online auctions and bought many coins from these online auctions that actually had some graded coins, or, the coins were so nice that I submitted them raw to PCGS looking for upgrades. Then I found out about Teletrade, Stacks and Bowers, etc. Richard told me to get the lowest populated coins first because they have only a few at that grade and are expensive because I will always need them. As usual he was right! Many of the coins with the lowest populations are still very low populations, some only gained a couple of more coins, but there are some dates/mint marked coins that have added 10-15 coins in the MS 67 grade, but now there's a plus grade that has changed the game as well. Since I started over 30 years ago, I have viewed, bought/traded over 1000 Kennedys both raw and already graded. For this very second, I have reached my goal, which is a VERY rewarding experience. But I didn't complete my primary goal, to complete a RAW set of Kennedys in both mint state and proof. Since it became VERY hard to get many of the upgrades, I changed my goal to add in that I wanted to complete the variety set since I could actually find some of them. Also I didn't have to wait over a year to get an upgrade/update to my set, but it's only as a backseat to my main set.
Before he died on Christmas 2008, his goal was to complete a Lincoln set in circulated condition. So in the last year or 2 I completed his set. I bought a very large Lincoln lot of coin with several books/albums, rolls, coins in 2x2 flips, some were even graded. I paid $250 for this large lot. With the lot I got the 09-S, 09-S/S, 14-D in VG 10, 1922 plain in PCGS fine, etc. The box weighed about 35-40 POUNDS!!!!! Again this was an online auction that doesn't usually sell coins. It seems like I get the best deals from auctions like these. Just my 50 cents. Ray
Comments
Like so many, I started with the two Whitman cent folders around 1967. Not as fond of circulated cents since the change in composition. I was 6 when JFK was murdered and it had a huge effect on me (and so many others). So Kennedys were next. The photo is of one of two that graded 70 (I purchased the JFK/RFK set direct from the Mint). I inherited 40 Morgans and Peace Dollars (circulated) from my grandfather, so they joined the party. Just auctioned off my 1895-S (XF45 PCGS), still have the rest and use one as my pocket piece.
"Brother, can you spare a dime?" (Especially a 1975 no S proof?)
When I collected series, all but one were coins I collected as a kid back in the 50’s and 60’s, so call this nostalgia. My other series was IHC’s in MS and PF. Nostalgia to a degree but mainly just love the look of IHC’s. Once completed I sold them all and now collect type of all sorts, US Federal, Colonial, Foreign, Medals. All for history and artistry.
This related thread from May will add what other members have shared on this topic:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1104116/your-first-coin-or-cornerstone-that-started-you-toward-series-collecting
I was a type collector, but decided on the seated halves for more of a challenge.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Well I don't know actually about COLLECTING and PURCHASING as they are pricey (for me) and my purchases are few and far between.
But I have a passion for Saints and it was sprung by the 2009 Ultra High Relief.
I read about the coin in one of the investment forums I belong to and that pretty much started me on my 15-year journey. There were lots of older, conservative income-oriented and gold-buyers in the forum (this was right after the 2008-09 Financial Crisis, remember) so I would guess some of them bought Saints as investments for bullion (not numismatics) and the 2009 UHR was readily available at a modest premium so there were some threads about it. I read about it....was able to buy a 2009 UHR direct from the Mint....and the rest is history.
What's frustrating to me is that despite having my coin collecting bug re-ignited a few times -- during the SSCA craze, and in the 1990's when gold prices plunged -- I never followed up on Saints. I even had clients BUYING the damn things...and it went in one ear and out the other. I missed the chance to buy gem quality MS-65's for $500-$600 and even some 66's for probably $1K. Uggghh....
I'm interested not just in collecting and seeking out Saints, but how gold coins/Saints were tied up into the history and fabric of our economy and the use of the Gold Standard. Reading about hoards...escaping the FDR meltings....coins staying in French/Swiss/European banks for decades....the extent of French gold hoarding.......the early dealers and their battles with the government (Mehl, Switt, Kosoff, Kreisberg, etc.)....it REALLY is a fascinating story.
Which is good, because I have alot of down time to read about that stuff in betwen my purchases !!
Have always been a cherrypicker.
Found six rare VAM's over six months and flipped them for a large profit.
Now I fancy myself a Type Collector with a focus on varieties.
I enjoy casting a wide net, but with ability to focus on what catches my fancy.
If I were to rank... Morgans, Peace, and Buffalo Nickels
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
From page 3 in the old Red Books. Not sure which page covers it now. That's where i first saw it.
My collection was cleaned out in a robbery about 7 years ago. I started to rebuild it when a friend suggested a set of quarter eagle gold indians. Only 15 coins and only one key date that wouldn’t break the bank.
I started and finally finished this year with the key 1911d.
Happy ending and I like my collection better - have expanded into British coins now.
2024 marks a personal milestone of fifty years collecting. While I have nothing against graded coins, somewhere around 10% of the hoard being encapsulated, collecting in the raw has always appealed to me. It's how this was done for many years before such things, it forces one to learn grading and how to spot cleaning. Not 100%, but extremely close. That said, I have completed all of the modern series (some twice) never parting with any including the old blue of Lincoln cents started in 1974. Answering the question, it began by getting the Boy Scout badge. Which in turn brought me the lifelong joy of coin collecting.
And by the way, what happened to that Kennedy in the fireplace vent?
Thanks for your inputs folks. Some of us have been collecting for over 50 years and have many series that we collect, or have collected. My favorite sets were my dad's of course. He had a complete CBH set that was 100% complete, and had about 50-70 different varieties back then. They did have some books, but he had to have several albums to fit them in. The next was his type set. He had a friend that had the most awesome type set that I have ever seen! For instance, his early type coins were: half cent 1793 in BU, large cent: 1793 chain in AU/BU: half dollar 1794 in BU, early dollar 1795 in gem BU, morgan dollar 1895 gem proof. Every time I looked at his set, I almost lost my breath. He even let me take them out of the album to look them over. Of course I took care of them the right way. He would just paw over them with his grubby fingers even if they were dirty! He was a part time coin dealer in Cape Cod and would get coin collections to evaluate and he would cherry pick them and get free coins!!! Talk about a thief!!! He got his in the end, he died and I have no idea what happened to his million dollar set, way back in the early 70's.
As far as my original Kennedy, I never saw it again. I guess one of the times when he cleaned out his fireplace, he either saw the coin and picked it out, or while cleaning, maybe even threw it away? I still have the 1921 Peace dollar I got from him that he pulled from circulation. It would grade AU today.
I have been collecting for over 60 years. It's hard to pick just one. I have collected a few date and mint sets, but I am more interested in historical eras.
Most recently I finished a group of coins form the reign of British king George III. The British coinage system was really mess up through most of his reign. They got their act together with a coinage reform and a new mint, powered by steam, after the Napoleonic Wars.
Here was the last coin I needed, which was one of the first chronologically, a 1763 Northumberland shilling. Believe it or not, the British had two issues of shillings, in 1763 and 1787 before then end of the Napoleonic Wars.
This is one of those coins with deep toning and very nice luster, which makes it hard to photograph. PCGS graded this one MS-64.
Angle shot.
This piece was named for the Earl of Northumberland who ordered 2,000 of them for circulation in Ireland. The total mintage was actually 100,000, which makes the coin collectable, but it's still hard to find at the shows. I had to go the auction route for this one.
My next era will be the Gobrecht Dollars and the modernization of the U.S. Mint in the second half of the 1830s.
I assembled this set in the late 1980s. It's still raw.
Congratulations on staying with the hobby after you were robbed. It would be tough to start over.