What got you "hooked" to collect coins?

boston

Wondering how or who got you started in this hobby... What it is you like about the type or series of coin you collect.

I started collecting pocket change in the early 60's. A childhood friend 's parents collected and would get me going looking for certain dates. I don't have any of it now.
(You don't want to hear about it)
Started collecting again a couple years ago with some moderns, proofs. Then decided on a set collection. Thought Jeffersons would be a reasonable,
low cost for a nice set of mint state coins. Decided on FULL STEPS and the cost went up. Then decided to go for the higher grade coins and the cost is still going up!
Jefferson's are not known for strong strikes and full steps are the exception. (Looking for a real stand out 1950-D FS though)
I remember when you could get a real candy bar for a nickel.

Bob

clw54

I think it was when I learned that coins had mintmarks on them and that people collected them by date and mintmark. I started saving pennies (yes, I know they're cents, but to a kid they're pennies). To this day, I like circulated Lincolns.

gsaguy

I'm afraid I was just born this way.

Interestingly, my grandmother and mother were both collectors.

GSAGUY

tander123

I blame it on goold ol' grandpa who gave me a box of about 30 1bs of silver coins. That's all it took!

Shamika

In truth I could collect just about anything, but my grandparents got me into coins at age 7 and here I am 30 years later.

I focus primarily on Buffalo nickels as I love the design. Unfortunately, they're kind of expensive.

TayTay

Probably unlike most, I am a first-generation collector. I think that this is how it happened: My uncle had a comic book collection in the mid-70's (I was about 12 when I began), and I loved to read some of the Westerns. I believe it was here that I saw one of those "Do you have this penny?" ads (i.e. '72 doubled die). This is what got me started looking at coins. I had some support from family that kept me interested (Dad took me to my first show when I was 13 or so, bought me some Whitman folders, Grandparents gave me some Morgans). I am now doing the same thing with my stepson, who is at that age. The great thing about that is that it is creating a bond that has not existed. Hope he stays with it (but he is driving me crazy by asking if I have any new nickels EVERY DAY )

shirohniichan

A guy hanging around my school offered me a "dime bag," and it turned out to be full of silver Roosies.

coincollector1989

I just started saving change one day when I was in highschool. Thats when I caught the bug.

construct

I think it feeds on my perfectionism.

Baley

handful of old coins from grandparents when I was 10.
dad took me to coin shops and shows when I was 11 and 12
collected all the 20th and late 19th century US types and some rolls of BU silver
was 13 in 1979-1980, sold all the junk silver and some of the bu rolls, put money in bank
<for the next 10 years, instead of coins, buy movie tickets and video games and fast food and save for a car and buy gas and insurance and meals and tickets for girls as well as myself and tuition and books and rent and clothes and groceries and a different car and a condo and nicer clothes and sporting goods and electronics and go travelling>
and then, finally, in 1997, had enough disposable income to get back into some of the older and golder coins I always dreamed of having as I was laying around reading the Redbook of an afternoon.

MacCoin

I was given a roll of new 59 memorial cent back in 59 and that was the start of it but I still wasn't a real collector just a kid with a roll of pennies in the sock draw in 64 when the new half came out I would save any I found and the in 76 I loved the bicentennials and saved all I could find. so by the time the state quarters came out I had a pretty good bunch of change saved but still not really a collector. in 99 the new state quarter came out I found this forum and ask if anyone want to trade P for D state quarters and old Spooly replied we traded quarters, cents nickles and dimes. he and another member who always asked not to be IDed kind of took me under there wing and help me go from a guy who had a basket of change to a collector. I still like quarter but now its bust barbs and standing/seated liberties. I also have a type set from the 1790s to date I,m very proud of.

jhar

This

nwcs

3 things in this order got me hooked:

1. Precious metal
2. History
3. Getting 5 silver halves when I was 15 at face value

pmh1nic

I'm also a first generation collector. It started with an interest in precious metals but quickly changed to the coins and their beinga a tangible connection with history. After that the more I learned about the history of U.S. coinage, legislation, minting process, the people behind the designs, etc. the more I got hooked.

MadMarty

I got started when I was a kid, collecting silver proof sets.

ROBBItheOKIE

Well when I got started was when my parents gave me and my brother each a dime to go buy us a comic book at the local store we was 8 or 9 at the time and there happened to be a whole section in the back of the comic book I bought that had This AD:: BUY A GREAT PIECE OF HISTORY, 100 LINCOLN CENTS FROM THE TEENS AND TWENTIES, INCLUDING A 1909 VDB. Well there you have it I paid $1.50 plus .25 cent shipping and here I am today best choice I ever made.


That was in 1970 or 1971,

dpoole

My grandmother gave me a 1954 proof set as a present when I was 9. I dont know why she did that, but I remember it was followed by Whitman folders, for the Lincolns, the Buffs, the Mercs, eventually the whole bit. Pulled a lot out of my grandfather's change (he was a bus driver, and come home with lots of coins). I remember the 1955-S Lincoln, too, as the sure fire future rarity, and bought me an UNC. My mom decided that'd be a good birthday present, for for the next couple of years, she bought and gave me a couple more. Little did I know people like Robbie the Okie were hoarding them, too!

Did a pretty good job filling my Whitmans. Went so far as investing my allowance money each month in UNC Lincoln wheats, and had a full set of UNCs from 1940 through 1956 when I temmporarily "retired" at 11. (Dusted them off when I got started back up here--turns out they were pretty low grades. Didn't have much of an eye back then! Still look pretty in the folder, though.)

jacktheknife

My Dad would bring home a bag of Lincolns form the bank and I would spend hours pouring through those coins. I would pull out old circulated wheats. When I saw my first few Gem BU wheats at a coin store I was awestruck! That's really all I have now, both slabbed and raw "bright shiny wheat pennies".

mgoodm3

I was introduced by my grandparents. They got me books and had coffee cans full of old cents. Then I got a redbook. I have always been fascinated by numbers. And dangit if the redbook isn't just chock full of numbers. I had all of the mintages and such memorized. And it just took hold.

09sVDB

My grandmother, circa 1968.

Stuart

Recently I was talking (long distance by phone) to may Dad, who just celebrated his 80th birthday.

He was proudly telling me that the reason he collected coins was to watch how excited I got, back in the mid 1960's when I was about 10 yrs old, when I'd go through his weekly pocket change and find a few coins worth about $1 each that he had secretly "salted away" in the batch.

That's how I got hooked on this hobby that's been the source of many years of enjoyment for me. I've made friends with alot of interesting people, and have learned alot about coins. But the great thing about coin collecting is that the more you learn, the more you realize that you don't know...

shylock

As a kid Indian Head cents had a magical look that sparked my imagination. As an adult, the first time I held a red mint state IH in my hand I was awestruck. It brought back that childhood feeling, plus it was just plain fascinating to hold a coin that looked just as it did to people 100+ years ago. At that point I was a goner.

Stuart

<=== By the way, it's coins like the one you see on the left that keep me hooked on collecting coins.

dizzlecc

The family found an old 1864 $500 confederate dollar. I decided to do some research to see what it was worth and kind of fell into coins.

With the help of a friend, I went to a local coin show and was pleasantly surprised by the number of people and how much there was to learn.

I became enticed by morgan dollars and haven't stopped since.

Side note, today I was looking at the coins I purchased from that show (2-3 years ago) and laugh about what a rookie I was. I would hope that today with some experience behind me that I would chose better quality coins.

MrLee

I used to watch my Dad and Grandfather, in the early sixties, pour over coins looking for key dates and started making trips to the bank for rolls of Lincolns myself. I still remember driving the tellers nuts by exchanging rolls for more rolls. I collected sporadically as a young adult but when my father passed away about four years ago, and I received a part of his old collection, the bug struck again. I guess it keeps a part of them alive in me.

Fairlaneman

Elsies look on a silver planchat intrigued me.

Ken

mdwoods

Old silver and wheaties circulated when I was a kid until I was about 12. I got hooked at about age 8.

Draco

The discovery that the US Mint actually produced a 1/2, 2, 3 and 20 cent coin not to mention that the designs use to be very artistic, the pattern designs the gold. . .it's all very appealing. It just never occured to me that many of the coins from the 1700s and 1800s survived. Then, of course, I learned the history behind many of these coins which makes colleciting even more interresting. The oldest US coin in my collection is an 1806 half and it always amazes me that the thing survived nearly two hundred years. Every time I hold it, I wonder who else has had this same coin in their hands (it's an F12 so many have probably held it).

Bear

When I was a child, yor those many years ago, we still had a plethora of coinage series.

around 1948 when I was 10, you could find the following in pocket change: Liberty Standing Quarters with dates - F to XF

Barber Quarter and Half Dollars -VG to Fine

Barber Dimes

Morgan Dollars VF to BU

Mercury Dimes galore Fine to AU

Walking LIBERTY HALVES
Liberty Head Nickels VG to Fine

Buffalo Nickels VG to XF

Indian Head Cents G to Fine

Wheat Cents early dates VG to XF
1909 thru 1930 easily

Ahhhhh, them was the days. You could gather quite an interesting collection for face value.

MacCoin

Bear around 1948 thats means you are a classic. I remember mercs, buffs, SLQ, and walking libs in cirulation

cladking

<< <i>When I was a child, yor those many years ago, we still have a "peltroha" of coinage series.

. >>



Dangerous words on a Sunday evening for a bear with wounds still healing....

By the time I was looking in 1957 there sure wasn't much left. Those days
may well be making a big comeback though.

Merc

My uncle was a collector and a small time dealer (2 shows a year). He would give me circulated walkers and SL quarters when I was a little kid. I thought it was neat to see the different designs and to see how old they were. Plus I knew they were worth something since they were real silver. He also gave me a few bad coins (cleaned wizzed) to show me what to avoid. From there I went to my first coin show at age 12.

callawayc7

I was born a coin collector. I'm not kidding. I just like coins for no apparent reasons. Nobody in my family collects coins and none of my friends collect coins. I had no prior exposure to coins. One day I just started collecting, although, I had like coins for a long time before that day.

boston

Finally got a chance to read the replys! Love the stories.

Hope it brought back good memories.

Bob