How did you start collecting coins?

kamehameha00

I remember finding a Bicentennial quarter in my dad's change,I said it looked nice and he let me keep it.Then he said to go to my grandpa because he has a lot a of Bicentennials.He let me have a Kennedy Halve and a Eisenhower dollar, two coins I seldom seen.At that point a found a copuple old redbooks and my grandpa started to show me more and more of his collection.This all happened over a year ago.How did you get started?


NOTE:Edited for spelling.

PutTogether

back in 87 my uncle gave me an SAE. It's in my dansco type set still, first coin i ever owned.

ealandg

Mine is kind of sad - my Dad died (he was only 50) suddenly. I inherited his coin collection, which I never knew he had. There wasn't anything super valuable, but a lot of variety - everything from a 1797 half cent to a Morgan. Just trying to figure out what was there was enough to hook me.

Shamika

My Grandparents gave me a jar full of wheat pennies and a few silver pieces. They also gave me two Whitman Lincoln Albums. That was 31 years ago and I've been hooked ever since (some years more than others).

09sVDB

My grandma started me in 1968.

CoinGuy42

My Grandfather, God rest his soul, the wisest man I ever knew in many respects, collected mint and proof sets most of his life. He got me interested in coins and gave me several when I was a kid. Additionally, he knew that coins would not always be made of silver and hoarded silver in the 30's through the 60's, very wise. He also collected IHC's. Unfortunately, when he passed, most of his collection was sold by his children for probably much less than its worth. Well, in short, my grandfather got me interested and I loved him.

mommam17

I got started in 1968 on a trip to Daytona Beach. My father`s friend told him to start to pull silver coins, 1964 and earlier, out of circulation. After the trip I looked at my cousin`s collection. When I saw her Pilgrim half I was hooked. The ship is so awesome.

mgoodm3

I think that my first coin was a 1943 P Nickel that I found in change. Then sometime after that we got a 1976 Red Book and I was hooked.

Blade

My Dad got me into collecting. When I was a kid (circa 1970) we used to sort through wheat cents and old silver coins together.

mrearlygold

I found an 1833 dime in change when I was 14 yrs old. It looked "cool man" to me ( guess the era)

So I brought it to the Garwood coin to get more info. Turned out to be a last 3 high variety, in ch au and that got me started.

Cool Man!

TP

ARCO

I woke up one day and thought. "I would like to collect coins again". Sure enough I was buying price guides and reading up that same day.

Tyelr

airplanenut

I saw an ad from Littleton for a merc and walker for $4.95... got it. I saw another ad a few months later, but I wasn't a new customer, so I had it sent to my grandparents . Since I was too poor to really buy much (this was in third-fourth grade), I just did reading--I've read the 1997 Red Book basically all the way through. A local dealer was my main supplier for a while, and is still a great person to see. Since I joined the boards, my horizons have been expanded--the ANA, local and world-wide shows, more internet purchases, etc.

Still, though, I've retained my hesitation to spend money with coins--back from the day when $10 was a big deal... I've gotten better and even threw over $100 without hesitation recently

Jeremy

Goldfinger

I started collecting as a Cub Scout, pressing Lincoln Memorial cents into a Whitman folder.

-Jay

boz

My start came from collections passed down for four generations. Coins were added along the way by the preceeding owners. It will continue this way for hopefully many generations to come.

mercurynut

I love antiques and some of the classic designs fit that mold.

MFH

I started collecting in the eighth grade, continuing thru college. Stopped for about 20 years and one day I found a copy of Coin World at a local bookstore; I was hooked all over again.

GottaGetCoins

I made an invesment in a small coin dealer as a silent partner. When the business went bankrupt I took over the collection and fell in love.

Dollars

Always liked coins. Would keep some I found in cir. but never "bought" any.

Wife died ten years ago, finally got around to clearing out room she spent her last days in and found coins that I had saved over the years.

Searched the internet, got a red book, joined this forum, went to coin shows.

Fully hooked, no return

tjkillian

When they started minting the new Barber coins, I knew I had to get all of the older Seated Liberty coins that were still in circulation. I must have picked up a hundred rolls of unc Seated coins, mostly from the eighties and very early nineties. All of those red indians that were all so mishandled by merchants just irked me like you would not believe. I got dozens of rolls of those directly from the mint, each each year starting in '92.

Tom

XpipedreamR

I got bored with Beanie Babies

mrearlygold

Thanks Drift for starting this thread. It's a good one!


Rgrds
TP

aem4162

my grandma (dad's mom) gave me a pair of kissing angels for my birthday in 1972 or 1973. there was also a 1943p walking liberty half tucked in the box - it was SO NEAT! i'd never seen anything other than what was current at the time (if i noticed it). i looked at it all the time. then she gave me a 1888p morgan and my sister a 1922p peace for i think the next christmas. my sister never took an interest in her peace so i've kinda claimed it over the years, but it's still hers if/when she wants it. i always thought that the peace wasn't as pretty as my morgan because it seemed worn compared to my morgan, but now i know it's because of how it was made. i spent the summers of 1976 and 1977 with her and got to look through her coins and paper money. she never had it displayed...everything was in little piggy banks in an old chest and china cabinet. she had some late 19th-early 20th century currency (the $2s blew my mind) and everything she had was what she got from circulation. she let me have a few coins when i left for home...for some reason i took barbers so i have a few of them now. she said they'd get indians, morgans, large pennies, barbers, peaces...all sorts of OLD stuff...when she was a kid (she was born in 1911) and worked at the drugstore in the '30s-50s. lots of what she had was worn but it was still NEAT. i kept telling her i wanted her coins and she kept saying i could have them later. she got cancer in 1980 and died in 1982 and i wasn't able to get to her funeral. i think my aunt has everything but i haven't talked to them in years and i feel weird about calling just to ask for the coins.

mas3cf

When I was 7, I got a 1942 wheat penny in change... it blew my mind to own something different and over 40 years old! It was my favorite toy until I rolled it under the kitchen sink, never to be seen again. I cried, so my dad gave me a *1941*, even OLDER than the one I had!! I didn't play with it because I didn't want to lose it, and that's when I realized old coins are worth keeping! Still have the 1941, after all these years... it's worth about $0.01000001, but it's the one coin that I would never sell for any price!

Baley

My great-grandmother gave me a coffee mug full of silver coins when I was about 7 or 8, will never forget the contents: 4 silver dollars, 1921 Morgan and 1922, 23, 25 Peace, one Franklin half 51S, one each dateless Walker and SLQ, 33 asst. silver Roosevelts, 6 silver Washingtons, one Mercury dime 1943S, 4 silver Canadian quarters, plus one indian cent 1901 and one 1959 British halfpenny.

Over the next several years, seeing my delight with coins, my grandparents gave me more coins of all types, all mainly junk like above but the first treasure I ever had and the beginning of a lifetime hobby.

hamiltonjh

Got interested in "old coins" as a kid. found some 1920s-1930s dimes where I grew up while digging around playing (back them we made our own fun...remember? ) Found coins off/on thru the years, and visited coin shops now and then, but nothing serious.

I didn't start "collecting" seriously until about 8 years ago when my neighbor showed me some of his collection and rekindled my intrest.