Anyone remember??? Post your favorite collecting memory

longtimecollector

I remember as a kid how much I wanted to be able to pull the "RARE" filler out of my Whitman Merc folder for the 16-D slot....... Once I realized that no one could see the reverse once it was in the album, I yanked it out and put in a 16 P..... I was the HERO amongst the other 10 year olds on my block !!!!

StillLurking

Being paid for a week's worth of newspapers with 7 Mercury Dimes at Christmas time. They were in a Whitman folder.

LincolnCentMan

Oh so many....

Well, I'd say my favorite collecting memory was from when I was about eight or nine years old. My grandmother bought a VG 20 cent piece for me. I remember it was $36. That was a fortune for me at the time. I got more satifaction out of owning that coin than probably any I have ever had. I still have it. It will never be sold.

David

mrfred

Here is my favorite coin collecting memory.

DoubleDime

Earning the Boy Scouts' Coin Collecting Merit Badge in 1971.

kieferscoins

I bought a PCGS PR-68DCAM Kennedy half dollar off Strat about 3 years ago at a show. That started my interest in certified coins.

Cameron Kiefer

ARCO

As a young lad in the 70's I had little money and my family was on our church's welfare. I remember saving up my birthday money and taking a city bus down to Monarch coin in Salt Lake City and buying a beautiful Proof 1961 Quarter at the height of the silver boom. Just the vast array of coins in the place was awe-inspiring.

I remember seeing coins marked at $60.00 or $70.00 and thinking that it was a fortune beyond anybody's hope to afford coins at those prices.

I still love the place, the smell, the display cases, the coins.

Tyler

dorkkarl

laughing at walter breen as he stumbled around the ana bourse floor, high as a kite

K S

MrEureka

As a ten year old collector, I had saved up $50 (including my recent birthday money) and my mother drove me to New York to visit the coin shops. I had my heart set on a few circulated key date Lincolns to fill in some holes. I had visited some other shops before, most notably a company called "Tru-Value" (does anyone know who owned that company?), but this time I thought I'd stop at Stacks first. After a long wait at the counter, a man in a suit came to the counter and offered to help me. I told him what I wanted and he turned around, pulled out a tray of coins, and laid them before me. I had found the mother lode! He had every coin I needed! I calmly asked the price on several of them and then, calm but disappointed, said Thanks and Goodbye.

I walked two blocks to Tru-Value and bought the same coins for 40% less.

Striker

I remember when I was about 13 or so going to feed the cat. I was pouring the dry cat food out when out came a buffalo nickel, inside one of those protective wrappers. I looked at the bag and they were having one of those promotional deals where there were coins inside all the bags, with a chance of getting the one bag that had a gold coin in it. I looked inside the cupboard and opened the next bag also and there was a mercury dime in that one. By the time my parents bought more cat food the promotion was over. But I had my first couple of coins for my collection, both were circulated and not worth much but it got me started.

ms71

Trips with my dad to visit Bartlett's Coin Shop in Olean, NY, and a dealer who worked out of a private home (C.F.Smith & Co?)in LeRoy, NY in the early 1960s.

ksteelheader

ttt

bridgerrrrr

@MrEureka said:
As a ten year old collector, I had saved up $50 (including my recent birthday money) and my mother drove me to New York to visit the coin shops. I had my heart set on a few circulated key date Lincolns to fill in some holes. I had visited some other shops before, most notably a company called "Tru-Value" (does anyone know who owned that company?), but this time I thought I'd stop at Stacks first. After a long wait at the counter, a man in a suit came to the counter and offered to help me. I told him what I wanted and he turned around, pulled out a tray of coins, and laid them before me. I had found the mother lode! He had every coin I needed! I calmly asked the price on several of them and then, calm but disappointed, said Thanks and Goodbye.

I walked two blocks to Tru-Value and bought the same coins for 40% less.

My dad owned Tru-Value Coins; he died in 1973 and I recently found this thread because I happened to google the name of the store. If anyone else has any memories of Tru-Value, I'd love to hear them! Thanks!

MrEureka

@bridgerrrrr said:

@MrEureka said:
As a ten year old collector, I had saved up $50 (including my recent birthday money) and my mother drove me to New York to visit the coin shops. I had my heart set on a few circulated key date Lincolns to fill in some holes. I had visited some other shops before, most notably a company called "Tru-Value" (does anyone know who owned that company?), but this time I thought I'd stop at Stacks first. After a long wait at the counter, a man in a suit came to the counter and offered to help me. I told him what I wanted and he turned around, pulled out a tray of coins, and laid them before me. I had found the mother lode! He had every coin I needed! I calmly asked the price on several of them and then, calm but disappointed, said Thanks and Goodbye.

I walked two blocks to Tru-Value and bought the same coins for 40% less.

My dad owned Tru-Value Coins; he died in 1973 and I recently found this thread because I happened to google the name of the store. If anyone else has any memories of Tru-Value, I'd love to hear them! Thanks!

You might want to start a separate thread on the Tru-Value coin shop in NYC. Or better yet, a more general post on the NYC coin shop scene back in the 60’s and 70’s. The few people who may remember anything are less likely to find your comments buried in this thread.

ricko

@bridgerrrrr ... Welcome aboard. Are you a collector or a dealer? Cheers, RickO

PerryHall

My best memory was buying my first gold coin. I bought a $20 Saint in BU condition back in the mid 1960's for $47 from an ad in the back of Coin World. It was a 1927 and it would probably grade MS64 today. I cut a lot of lawns to buy that coin.

MJD

I remember the excitement of getting a “welcome” letter from the Mint assigning me my very own customer number!