How did you get started in the hobby?

KevinGlo

Just wondering about all your life stories! How did you get started with coins? Personally, I found some Morgans in my mom's old jewelry drawer, and havent been able to stop looking at coins since (30 yrs ago). I went to local coin shops, and one of them 'took me under their wing' and my fascination flourished.

parkave

I collected coins with my Grandfather. Years later when I got married and wanted to buy a house I sold my collection. I was so amazed at the price increases I went into the business. That was 20 years ago and I'm still a collector at heart. Some coins are so hard for me to sell.

cladking

My older brother started collecting coins in 1957 and I had to try to keep up
with him. Since he picked all the best Lincolns out of our dad's change, I went
for the buffalos.

ksteelheader

My grandmother got me started in 1960!!!...Ken

RegistryCoin

My mom hoarded silver and obsolete coins found in her change for years. When I was very young, I "sneaked" the best out, put 'em in Whitman folders, (just in time).
At some point, a year or two later, she got bored with hoarding, for some reason, and took it all back to the bank for face.

FatMan

Television Coin Show. Ouch!!!!!

Gilbert

I gravitated to coins after being a collector of "oddities." As a little boy, I kept every key I found wondering just what lock it may open. Surprisingly, there were a lot of lost keys in those days. Anway, I have collected various things througout my life, and, being curious, delved into coins. Unfortunately, I had never known anyone who collected coins until my adult life, so I have no "family heirlooms." My mission is to make sure my kids do.

09sVDB

My gradmother had an old pennyboard of lincolns on top of her dresser. It was a complete set, less the 09SVDB, all of which she found in circulation. We used to look at them all the time and it just stuck. That was around 1968. It wasn't until I was in high school that I started buying coins. There were nine grandchildren(I was the oldest) and she tried to get each one interested in something, but I was the only one who stuck with it.

rd5425

I found a wheat penny in change and ever since then have been collecting coins.

barberlover

I have said this before, but since you asked it was when my dad geve me his lincoln and jefferson collections back in the 60'S

MrKelso

Grandpa left me a mint bag of Morgan Dollars and 5 Saints

Veep

I started metal detecting in a neighborhood park that dated to the late 1800's. Besides a zillion bottle caps and pull tabs, we filled cans with Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, silver coins (even a few Seated ones), Indian pennies and on and on. The best coins: 1877 and 1909-S Indians.

SarasotaFrank

started with my Dad in 1959 sifting through bags of coins he would get at the bank. He had me read the dates for him because he has about 40 at the time and his eyes were just starting to get a little weaker. Sitting at that kitchen table with him is among the very fondest memories I have. We collected Lincolns, Jeffs, Mercs, Roosies, Washingtons, Walkers, Franklins, Morgans and Peace Dollars. We stopped when all we got from the bank was clad stuff.

I have been selling a large portion of my collection, but those blue Whitman albums, which I still have today, will never be for sale, they'll go to his grandchildren, and hopefully to theirs.

Legend

Ditto the wheat penny thing! I found one (worn 17S) and started to hoard them. Did the buy the rolls at the bank thing too. Then I began reading about coins and thought they were way too cool.

I NEVER really thought I'd be a dealer until 1976 when I held the 1913 5C (which I am a partner in) at the 1976 NYC ANA SHow-which still to me, was the best show I EVER attended.

stujoe

agfox

Was all about the money at first. Gold had dropped to about 260 an ounce in early 1999, I bought a few GAE's on advice from a friend. It went back up to 340 or so in about 6 months, I resold for a decent profit. Kept watching Ebay sales of gold coins looking at the trends, just kinda grew from there. For all Ebay's faults, it sure is a nice place to start an education in coins.

FrattLaw

My grandfather was in the Merchant Marine and he visited Panama and other ports of call in the 20's and 30's. At the time they were still using 19th Century US coinage. He'd grab a bunch to take home with him. When I was a kid, he gave me his small Hoard. I then started collecting and stopped once I got into High School, girls, football & basketball took over my free time.

Fast forward 18 years and my Mom is moving out of my childhood home and asks if I still want my coin collection. Well of course I do! So she sends it off, and once again I am grabbed by these coins and my fascination with them.

What my wife thought would be a quick passing fancy has turned into be long lasting and she is finally getting use to it. I don't golf, fish, hunt or really anything else, so this makes for a nice hobby.

Michael

MrEureka

I was so young when I started that I honestly don't remember how or when I got started. My mother has a picture of me at age three holding a coin. I probably wasn't collecting yet, but it's something. I'm pretty sure I started accumulating some coins by the time I was five. To the best of my knowledge, none were slabbed.

ajaan

My late uncle got me started in 1964 with a new Kennedy Half. Uncle Art was a true collector who took coins out of circulation, including an 09-SVDB, or bought sets directly from the Mint. He never bought a coin from a dealer.

MrEureka

1976 NYC ANA SHow-which still to me, was the best show I EVER attended

As a NY kid, that was my first ANA. I was fifteen and had already been dealing in coins for a couple of years. I went to the show with my heart set on buying one of the aluminum $20 Libs in the Stacks auction, but I didn't get any. I also remember seeing an amazing 1870 pattern half dollar - Barber's Seated Liberty, in silver - in M.B. Simons' showcase. He wanted $800, which was twice what I thought it was probably worth. It's one of the several handfuls of coins that I have always regreted not having bought.

Ronyahski

Grandma got me started. My mother unexpectedly (to me) left me at Grandma's house for an overnight stay, when I was 8-9. First time away from home, I was bawling. Grandma brought down a couple of cigar boxes full of old coins, something for me to look at and take my mind off things. It's worked ever since.

JamminJ

Hi everyone,

I also started with the cents. My older brother was a collector of many things: stamps, coins and baseball cards. Since I seemed to like the coins the best, in 1977 (I was 8) I received for my birthday a pair of Whitmans for Lincolns along with a $50.00 bag of cents. At that point I was hooked and spent the next few years filling Whitmans with circulating coins, hounding friends and family for coins from their overseas vacations, and spending allowance/snow shoveling/lawn mowing money on inexpensive US coins. Like many others I lost interest in my teens.

Fast forward to a few years ago I found myself kiling some time at the Public Library where I browsed some recent issues of Coins magazine. In these I found an ad for an upcoming coin show in Long Beach. It was pretty close so I went on a whim and browsed for a day. I guess I remembered the enjoyment of my youth because that night I broke out my childhood collection. I returned to the show the next day (which was the oh so very slow Sunday) and managed to pick up a few Lincoln's for my old folders along with a few books (including Scott Travers Coin Collectors Survival Manual which was a great piece of luck!). From that point I was hooked again, and here I am today.

A fine trip down memory lane,
-JamminJ

GaCoinGuy

I come from a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong line of known packrats, starting with my GreatGrandMother, then my Grandmother, then my Dad, so it was only natural that I would be a packrat as well...............over the course of my 33.75 years, I have collected everything from stamps, old keys, baseball cards(was a part-time dealer in the late 80s), foreign money, and little odds and ends coins found in circulation. I gave up on most of my collections, though I still have em all, and got back into to coins when my Grandmother gave me a small cigar box of coins my Grandfather had left when he died. The coins in the box were worn, dirty, and in the case of a high MS '21 morgan, polished , but I wouldn't trade em for anything..................

wingedliberty

I started about 22 years ago, and its gets better with each year.


Brian.

LanLord

Back in 1969 or 1970 a friend of mine that lived across the street talked me into walking to a nearby coin store. I took one look around that place and was hooked.

I ended up getting a job there a few years later, when I was still too young to have a job, but I just had to be there all the time.

I gave it up for a number of years in the late seventies and early eighties, but got interested again when the silver and gold eagles came into being.

longtimecollector

I got started at about the age of 8 in a real strange way...... My Mom was a secretary at a good sized Catholic church, and it became my job to count the "change" on Mondays after school....... I put aside every silver coin and wheatie I came across...... this was about 1967 !!!!! I sold a ton of the silver at 49 times face !!!!!!!! (Thank you Hunt Bros) I still have a cuppla bags of wheaties that Im gonna search for varieties if I find the time before my eyes fail........ Interesting note...... I recently sold off my mini-hoard of war nickles..... about 8000 pieces !!!!!!!! Kinda makes me sad that whats in circulation these days is nothing more than "pocket change"..... makes new collectors fewer and further between

longtimecollector

Oh yeah...... and my best "finds" from circulation were an 1888 Seated Half (mintage 12000) in nice VG, and a 1929 National $10 "STAR" note that I sold last month on Ebay for over $900 !!!!! a sad note.... I havent found ANYTHING in change that got into the safe since1972

KenzoT

My mother gave me a Red Book, a Whitman folder, and 10 different Indian cents for Christmas one year, probably 1961.
Two years later, after carefully studing EVERYTHING in that Red Book, a coin store opened a block from my house in Beaumont, Texas.
I must have looked like the woman on the MERVIN's commercials "Open, open, open!!!!"
Kenny Chubb hired me on the spot. He was a branch of Major's Coins out of Pasadena, Tx.
He evidentally trusted my grading more than is own and, I feel, was justified. I have to yet to meet a more honest and decent person in my life. He taught me "honesty"!

DoubleDime

The Coin Collecting Merit Badge in Boy Scouts.

PBRat

One day while surfing the internet, I came across this message board, and read all the sniveling, complaining, and arguing. I thought "Hey, I like to complain too, I need to join the boards.". So I wouldn't feel like an outsider, I bought a few coins.

Bailathacl

As a child my grandfather would greet me on his occasional visits by extending his hand to shake mine. Inside his hand would always be a coin, usually something interesting (Indian Head, Buffalo Nickel, Mercury Dime, Kennedy Silver Half). This led to many years of dropping my entire paper route proceeds each week into the hands of the local coin shop owner. Gave me an appreciation and a sense of wonder as a kid that is still right there.

WACoinGuy

I started in 1980 with the Whitman folders. About a year later, I started going to a local coin shop and was amazed by all the older coins that I had never seen. I remember my first purchase was a VG 1854 large cent.

You know, now that I mention it, I don't know where my old Whitman folders are. I had them in a drawer in my old house, but we moved a year and a half ago, and I don't ever remember unpacking them. They're probably still in a box in my garage. I'll have to dig them up someday and see how my progress I had made on those sets.

smprfi

By pulling wheats and silver out of change.Stopped,then my dad started collecting and that got me back in.

Baley

great stories, all! I hope we are all passing it along by showing and giving small coins to youngsters!

my own neices and little cousins get ike dollars, kennedies, buffalo and indians, frankies and walkers, foreign coins, etc. on occasion, and enjoy looking at my albums, slabs and flips sometimes, but none have shown the absolute fascination I had as a child, the interest in all things small round and metal.

my grandparents had little jars and envelopes with coins they had saved out of circulation from times when "the money changed", and they would give me a few every once in a while, once I knew what money was, around 5 years old, and they told me not to spend them, that they were worth more than "normal money" so I saved them, well most of them anyway, a few silver roosies and washingtons went for candy once in a while hey, they looked just the same except for the edges, and weren't really that old or rare, there were so many of that kind!

anyway, at about age 8, started mowing lawns and taking out the trash, so actually HAD a decent amount of cash to work with, at least for a kid, started searching pocket change and getting rolls from the bank, to look for obsolete types. I was never very much for putting together date runs, and knew nothing about varieties, so I wanted coins that looked different. So as you can imagine, except for most of a set of high grade jeffersons from circulation, the occasional wheat cent and some decent kennedy half rolls that had silver ones, didn't find much in circulation and interest waned for a while.

eventually i got a coin magazine down at the 7-11, and then a redbook, and then when I was about 11 or 12, on saturdays dad started taking me down to the local coin shop to get some types I wanted but didn't have yet, finished my 20th century type set before I got to be a teenager, dad and I speculated in a few rolls in the late 70s and did ok, and used some of that money to buy some seated and capped coins, but still only dreamed of getting into the gold series or the really early US type.

then girls, movies and video games, fast food and gasoline ate up all my budget, then college, then working and living, and not until my my late 20's did I get interested in coins again, and only in the past 3 years have I really upgraded some types and moved into draped bust era coinage as my current interest, as well as upgrading some of the capped bust and seated coins, and of course, finishing the gold type set, am back throught the classic heads but am finding the early stuff really elusive.

did put together sets of bu ikes and franklins , working on my AU/Bu peace set, the early lincolns and indians continue to elude me, the second half of boths sets done in VF and up

Woodwind

I think it got started in 1979 when my school took a field trip to the San Francisco Mint. My parents encouraged it by buying me a Redbook and a Lincoln Cent folder. They also had some Walking and Franklin half dollars and I was fascinated by them. My grandmother also gave me a few Morgan dollars as a gift. I also had a couple of friends who collected, and there was a nearby weekend flea market where a friendly coin dealer treated us kids well. I dreamed of actually owning a gold coin some day.

In 1983 my dad drove me to a coin show where I tried my hand at selling some of my coins. At 14, I certainly didn't understand the economics of coin dealing, nor the fact that I "bought high" as a result of the high silver prices of 1980. No dealer would buy them (you know, the ones that have signs that say "we buy anything" at their booth.) One dealer called my hard-earned collection junk, and another even laughed at me. Jerks. I stopped collecting on a very bitter note, though I did keep all my coins.

Ten years later I purchased a coin magazine and was amazed at how low coin prices had dropped. MS Morgan Dollars for under $20 ?????? Wow. This was also the first time I had realized that slabs were invented and saw the protection they offered collectors. Since I was a college graduate and working full time, I got back in the hobby, took advantage of how affordable coins had become, attended my first Long Beach show and haven't looked back since. I even fulfilled that dream of owning a gold coin several times over.

CalGold

Well I've been debating whether to tell my story and it is probably a mistake to do so but here goes.

During my early 20s I came into the employ of two retired MI-5 men who I met through family contacts. One was English (who had the quintessentially English yet annoying habit of referring to me as "my dear boy" and men closer in age to him as "my dear chap"), the other was Rhodesian (with connection to the diamond trade). During the war they had compiled a list of aristocrats who supported Hitler and Mussolini. During the post-war years MI-5 operatives were free to lure arrogant former SS men into dark allies where they could be summarily dispatched with a 9mm Walther (38 cal Smith&Wessons were used if they wanted to cover their tracks by making it look like the Yanks were responsible). But the blue bloods were protected by Piccadilly.

Eventually these fellows retired on civil servant pensions–which did not go far in inflationary Britain. To put it in perspective, while James Bond was driving an Aston-Martin, wearing a tuxedo and sipping champagne, these fellows were driving a 1960 Peugeot and a 1959 Anglia (when it would start which was not very often) and wore threadbare tweeds and rumpled trench coats. So they had this idea that would allow them to supplement their incomes while getting even at some level with the fascist aristocracy. They would rob these people of their family jewels.

So, yes I started as a jewel thief and rouge in my youth plying the French and Italian Riviera and relieving certain countesses and marquessas of their tiaras and broaches. In so doing I came upon a few Louis d'Or–c'est a dire la belle monnaie n'est pas. My employers did not want to dabble in rare coins–their expertise lay in unsetting and recutting gemstones that could then be infused into mainstream channels and could not be traced. But they let me keep a few for myself, so long as I agreed not to try to fence them myself. We did strike it rich one time in coins when we snatched a bag of Swiss 20 franc gold pieces–almost got a hernia hauling that out of the villa!

I only lasted at this for a little more than year. It was not safe to linger while the gendarmerie were snooping around. And frankly my employers were concerned that I might become too fond of a life of larceny, so I returned home and my days of black bag jobs were over. But I had those Louis d'Or and a few US double eagles as well that popped up on a job. And those came home with me and started me off into coins.

CG

lordmarcovan

Long story. I'll summarize.

Thanksgiving Day, 1976. Grandmother Dobbs' house, Atlanta. I was 10 1/2 years old. Got underfoot in the kitchen and was banished upstairs to take a "nap".

Mom said, "Go take a nap".

I said "I'm not tired".

Mom said, "Then pretend to take a nap. Or read. I don't care. JUST GO UPSTAIRS AND DON'T COME DOWN 'TIL IT'S TIME TO SET THE TABLE!"

"Well, geez, there ain't any reason to shout about it..." mumble mumble shuffle shuffle...

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

"Nothing, Mom... I just said I was going upstairs..."


In the room. What to read? Well, Grandmomma had stacks of literally hundreds of issues of Reader's Digest, going back to the fifties. Or...

A 1971 "Black Book" of United States coins. Hmm. Looks interesting.

I was totally absorbed for at least an hour. Man... look at these prices! Here's an 1877 Indian Head penny worth almost a hundred dollars!

When called down to set the table, I asked Grandmomma if she had any old coins lying around. She said there might be some in the drawer with the silverware (there was a bunch of old papers and keys and whatnots in there). She said I could keep any old coins I found when I got the silver out to set the table.

There was a 1936 Mercury dime in there, and a 1943 steel cent. Wow, that dime was forty years old... really ancient!

I still have that dime. I'm almost as old now as it was back then. It's a VG. I wouldn't take $500 for it.

RonMan

Got started in appx. 1960 when I was about 8 yrs old. My Dad was the one who counted the money on Sundays from church. Every Sunday afternoon all the coins were spread out over the coffee table along with my Whitman folders and would see what holes could be filled. I'm not sure back then if it was about the coins or just filling holes in an alblum. I kinda think it was more just hole filling because I'm still somewhat that way. Love to see my Dansco's with every hole filled.

I also have no idea what happened to those Whitmans.

Ron

Liberty

Well, I started waaaaay back in....what was it.....right....last month.

Actually its one of those things I had always had an interest in learning but hadn't gotten to. A few years ago, with all the state quarter and Sackie buzz I started reading a bit but had other, big, life things going on to get into it too much (sick family members, large move/career change etc).

Well, last month I was in a Borders Book store and noticed they had some whitman albums for the state quarters. I finally decided to put all those hoarded SQs in an album to see what I had. The hook set in my jaw. I've learned a lot in the last couple of months and am intrigued enough to continue on. Great little "hobby", this is.

Liberty

PS: Though my Grandparents weren't collectors per se, they did make note of and pulled buffalos, mercs, silver etc from change and my granmother was an avid stamp collector so I'm sure a lot of my interest started back then.

Liberty

CalGold- Fascinating story.

anoldgoat

Since someone brought up this subject in a new thread someone pointed him, and me to this thread.

Mine was in a rounabout way. In the early 1960's i took over a friend's paper route, The Grit. He showed me his route and poined out one elderly lady (i'm there now) and told me he'd gotten her collecting coins, he only collected cents but she collected everything .50 and down. So i ended my route at her place each day and she'd go through the coins with me, i didn't know what was worth anything so she got the at face. She'd show me the mintage and what was hard to find. I got hooked but never did think of them more than a nice collection, not a premium over face though.
And what was the clincher was around '57 when i was about 6 i found a pennie while walking in town (different would back then). It was a '55 but everything on front was double. Thought it was counterfiet, looked around and quickly put it in a bubble gum machine. Well a couple years later i found out it was worth $25. When i was collecting back then i only thought of the 1909s vdb, 1922 no D and 1955 Double Die as worth anything beyond face.

Well after marrage in the early '70's i stopped collecting although i kept my collection. Then in the late '80's they where stolen. Didn't get back untill 2000. Got me collecting cents again and am now into mint sets and a few mint rolls i'll put away.

lclugza

When I was a kid my mother and father found a lot of coins for me in circulation: Indian & Wheat cents, Liberty, Buffalo and War nickels, Barber, Mercury and silver Roosevelt dimes, silver Washington quarters, and Walking, Franklin, and silver Kennedy halves, and a dime (or was it a half dime? Most likely a dime) that had no date and a (somewhat) bell-shaped outline on one side, I think it probably was a Seated Liberty coin. My mother cleaned it but you still couldn’t see the date. At that time I had never seen any Seated Liberty coins, except (maybe) for that one.Also, my uncle gave me 4 silver dollars. One was different from the others. I was able to borrow someone’s “Red Book” and I found out the one silver dollar that was different was a Morgan, the others were Peace dollars. Looked up the value of my collection and found it was over a thousand dollars- or so I thought, for to calculate my collection’s value I used each coin’s price in Uncirculated or Proof and my coins were just common circulated coins worth much less! I got my first “Red Book’ when I was about nine.

route66

A neighbor gave me a Stone Mountain Half. In the mid fifties. I started going thru a bag of pennies every Friday night with my paper route money. Took the pennies back saturday, then paid for the papers. Found 2 1955 double dies and eventually sold them for $10.00 each. Steve

ANACONDA2

my dad got me started on coins a couple of years ago

callawayc7

I've always like coins as a kid but unfortunately nobody I knew (family or friends) was into coins so I started by visiting a local coin shop to just look. Of course, my looking lead to a small purchase and so on.

haletj

When I was 8, and sitting around bored one day, my dad suggested why don't I look through a jar of pennies and see how many different dates I can find. Well, I did, and soon after my parents were giving me older coins for Christmas and birthdays. A few years later I got a paperoute and spent about 99% of my profits on coins. I generally was working on a type set, got back to nice XF/AU Seated Libertys except for the dollar...

Eventually I stopped collecting by high school, except for I still got a proof set each year. I was only missing maybe 8 sets from 1956 and on...

Then when I was 23 I worked in England, and enjoyed greatly seeing what their money was like, I saved every different design I found (they have commemmorative designs fairly often on their coins), and even decided to buy the current year (2001) proof set! Well, the first thing I did when I got back to the US was look for the 8 missing sets for my U.S. Proof Set Collection, and then I started shopping around for proof sets from the early 50's... but then I thought... wait, if I'm really going to spend a few hundred dollars on coins, I should get that Seated Liberty Dollar I'm missing... and maybe finally some Bust coinage, and maybe put together some complete set of a series, and maybe... on and on...

numobri

Gramps got me started,he use to pay my sister and i silver dollars for washing his car,that was in the early 60's.

Casey

My grandmother got me started when I was a kid with some Morgans when I was probably 9. I got a nice shiney one and my younger brother got one that was more worn, but had really neat darker toning around the rim. I was 9 and was about to become obsessed with cool toning! I think spent a week negotiating a trade that allowed me to keep both coins. I remember parting with $4 and some stamps. He liked it as well and did not let me take advantage. After that I would take my allowance to the local Kay-Bee (sp?) toy store that also had a coin case and I started my type collection. I ended up with an 1828 half cent (12 stars and damaged), a flying eagle, a standing liberty quarter (damaged) and my first Barber quarter in addition to many IHCs, wheat cents and liberty nickels.

I stopped collecting for 20 + years. Then I must have read in the paper that the Buffalo commemorative was about to go on sale and decided to order one from the mint. I put it away for six months or so. I had remembered that the issue had sold out quickly so I decided to see if any were available for sale on Ebay to see what it might be worth. I saw big prices for Buffalos encased in plastic with strange codes PR69, PCGS, NGC. I didn't have a clue what I was looking at, but I was intrigued. I started pulling up all kinds of coin collecting related web sites and stumbled upon this one. At about the same time, I found that a relative had a large hoard of Barber dimes she wished to sell and I agreed to help. Now I'm a Barber fanatic also looking to get that type collection going again.

All of my Morgans and Peace dollars came from my grandmother and they will never leave the collection. Just yesterday I pulled three 1928-S (wouldn't you guess!) Peace dollars out of my box that I had never even bothered to look at before because they looked "dirty". All three have cool toning. One is so heavy, you can barely distinguish the design on the observe. I have a new appreciation for Peace dollars!


Casey

kamehameha00

I got hooked when my grandpa showed me his collection of old coins.Been hooked since(1 year ago!)

PBRat

I like shiny things.

TONEDDOLLARS

Paper route when I was a kid. Plus my grandparents lived downstairs from me in our two family house. They had a little tin box of coins that I looked at every night as I watched tv with them and munched on gum drops, jelly beans or garlic and cheese popcorn. thay always had a little something for me, to watch tv and look at coins by.