Anyone's collecting date back to their childhood?

BBN

I was fascinated with them as young as 7 or 8. Loved wheat pennies. My mom used to have a beauty shop in the front of our house great aunt used to come to get her hair done about once a month. When wheat pennies were replaced in 1959 she hoarded thousands of them. When she made her trip to my mom's shop I'd get anxious because I knew she'd bring me a wheat penny. My dad had a large stash of silver and gave me a few mercury dimes and a Franklin half. That was the extent of my collection back then. I rediscovered coin collecting at age 30 when it suddenly hit me that I now had my own money and a good paying job. I haven't looked back since.

Jamericon

Struck at 11, on the return trip from McDonald's with a 1910 wheat cent in the change. Hooked ever since!!

Dennis88

Yes, since I was 7, but I'm now only 15..........

Dennis

Kriek

Definitely, about age ten or eleven.

I am now twenty-two years of age.

mrdq

11 years old 7th grade (started early) I was at a friends house playing and noticed his Whitman Folders on the bookshelf. Johnny showed me what they were. Before that I didn't know coins had different dates on them. BAM! been collecting 30 years now.

LanLord

I started in 1970 (or 71) at any rate, it was when I was about 11 or 12. Seems like a while ago to me.

DHeath

My grandfather started me in 1963.

Neptune

We all got Whitman books in the late fifties or early sixties. Just wish I had had the 'cents' to collect more then than I did. I still have those book, and recently 'redid' it because it was getting a bit dilapidated and some of the cents were turning green. I cleaned them all with mineral oil, just for sentimental reasons.

JamesW

Started collecting when I was 12, I am now 42. I still have every coin that I have ever collected. I just within the last 2 years completed circulated sets of 1932 - 1964 Washington quarters, 1938 - 2003 Jefferson Nickels (including modern proofs), 1948 - 1963 Franklin halves, 1916 - 1947 Walking Liberty Halves. I have several others that are very close, Mercury dimes (missing 16D), Roosevelt dimes (only missing moderns).

It's been fun and I am still enjoying it.

Goldfinger

I think most start young. I was a Cub Scout when I started at 7, pressing Lincoln cents into a Whitman folder. I'm 33 now, but only got more serious about collecting four years ago.

bearcave

Does getting a 1921 Morgan from the doctor that delivered you the day you were born count?

Still have that Morgan, it's now in a PCGS MS61 slab. For some reason I have always loved the Morgan Dollar. Been collecting pocket change since the 60's and got more serious in the 90's.

HalfCents

I started early, too. At age 8, I got a 1905 Indian Head cent in change at the local drugstore, and was promptly hooked. I gathered Lincolns out of circulation, as well as Merc's and Buffalo's, but then I discovered girls and promptly spent the Merc's and Buff's on them. Started again with a US Type set in 1976 or so, and then had two kids and a mortgage. The kids left home (finally!) a few years ago and I started again. This time I'm actually making some progress!!!

Tom

calgolddiver

Started at 11 ... coin collecting merit badge - 20th century type set ... lincolns, nickels, dimes.... 36 years later - still hooked.

mgoodm3

Started 7 or 8, lost the love in my teens, came back to the fold about 3 years ago.

coppercoins

I'm just a young piker - by the time I started at 7 filling penny boards, most of the wheats were gone from circulation...maybe two or three per roll, and most of those were common date. I started buying rolls of wheats at 12 with my allowance - $1 per roll. After accumulating some 150 rolls I learned about doubled dies and started searching for them. I was 17 then. The rest is history.

Jody526

I started about 40 years ago, when I was a child.

Numismanic

Mine started in the early seventies when my parents gave me a 1971S proof Ike and an 1884CC GSA Morgan. I was about 12 then. Big time hooked ever since.

Don

Jaywalker

My brother and I started with Whitman folders like a lot of other kids in the late 50s/early 60s. Put your thumb on top of that penny and jam it down until it snaps into place, and forget about seeing the reverse. I still have them. I wonder why some of them have thumb prints on them?

Recently got them out and finished some of the sets. Have been collecting ever since. Got the cashiers at my high school to save the silver dimes and quarters for my around 1969/70. Almost stopped collecting completely after getting ripped off too many times in the early 80s. Third party grading has helped a lot, and I've learned a little over the years. Now it's a major source of enjoyment again.

seanq

Goldfinger pretty much made my post for me. When I was 7 or 8 my dad used to stop at the bank on his way home to get $10 or $20 in cent or nickel rolls, then we'd go through them together and fill Whitman folders by date. By the time I was 10 I was riding my bike to the bank myself. I took some time off during H.S. then came back with a vengeance during college. I'm 33 now and just wish I had the time to paw through rolls like I did 25 years ago.


Sean Reynolds

TONEDDOLLARS

Started collecting in 1960 when I was a paper boy. Found 2 or 3 1950-d nickels and was hooked. You could still get Walking lib halves, mercury dimes , buffalo nickles in every day change. These are still some of the best looking coins along with the Morgan to ever be introduced to the american public. Left the collecting field in my teens and through my early married years. Took it up again15 years ago only to find out that my brother had spent all my collection after I moved out of the house and did not take it with me. Nothing really special lost but still would love to have it all back

Wondo

Started at age 10 and worked on mercs. Took me 4 years to complete the set (sans 16d). Sold out and rediscovered at 41.

MFH

I got started in the fall of 1960 while in the eighth grade...with the usual Lincoln penny boards...worked up to Buffalo and Jeffersons...a year or two later Mercurys...then Standing Liberty quarters. Almost all were pulled out of circulation.

In college I started Barber Halves ( no, not from circulation)...

aem4162

age 10, but it's been more off than on

kamehameha00

Started at age 10,now 12.

Coins101

I also started in 1960 when I was 5. In another post, I mentioned how I use to buy rolls of pennies at the bank and sit at the Soda Fountain looking for coins to fill my Whitman folder. Found everyone (1941 to 1959) except the 1955-S. Use to also trade silver dollars with the bank until I found a nice "shinny" one. But, being a kid with a dollar, they usually got spent sometime or another.

ajaan

1964 at age 6 when my uncle gave me one of those new Kennedy Halves.

anablep

Started in seventh grade (age 12, 1986) when I found a silver nickel in my piggy bank along with some others from the forties and fifties. My friend got me started then. I still keep in touch with him but I don't think he collects anymore.

Baley

When I was 6 or 7 my folks and grandfolks gave me a handful of junk silver, and I was hooked.

By age 12 I had completed this:



by 15 coins were boring compared to other things to spend money on, like fast food and video games, and then girls and gasoline. Besides, no way could i afford the oldest US type coins anyway, although I did have a few seated liberty and bust coins, just not the dollars.

Only picked collecting back up in about 1995, ten years after high school and five after college, when I finally had enough do to afford the older types.

Still can't afford the oldest US gold yet, though

ask me again when I'm retirement age like Bear

GoldCoinLover

I started collecting before 1997, I don't remember the exact date. I saw a some cartoon ( I think it was peter pan) and he and his friends were in his house. He got a gold coin for his birthday. I don't know how it stuck to me but I wanted a gold coin for my birthday, too. So on my birthday in 1997 with my birthday money for 80$ I bought a 1/4 oz. gold american eagle. Since then I've been addicted to go to every coin store I see. I used to live in california near LA where there were coin stores around.

Now I live in Arizona 4 hours away from pheonix in a city called Lake Havasu, (Home of the london bridge) and there is not one coin store here. So, I get my kick ordering off the internet, but its truly a much more fun experience going to a coin store and asking questions about coins

Most recently I've been collecting gold coins. I like it alot because it doesn't tarnish and since I don't have proper coin flips (I think their PVC) they can be put in those without tarnishing.

So far I have a 1/10 oz .9999 gold maple leaf year 2004.. A 1/4 oz american eagle. year 1997. and a 1913 gold british soverign. (Approximately 1/4 oz)

tsacch

I started early at about 5 or 6 with wheaties and darkside from family trips abroad.......back to the figs and olive farms of southern italy. I remember routinely pulling out a franklin or two and several 90% kennedy's out of a few rolls of halves and multiple complete sets of jeffersons and late wheaties were pulled in just a few trips to the bank for more rolls. I remeber the first mercury dime in change in the early 70's. The flea market was my main source for bu wheaties.....half were cleaned and i didnt know the difference 90% of the time...but i learned....some.............

cladking

I was interested in coins before I even really understood their function. It intrigued
me that they got passed back and forth at random. It surprised me that there were
differences from one to another. It behooved me to try to keep up with an older brot-
her who had developed an interest in coins.

foodude

I started when I was about 11 (about 1971).

Stuart

I must have started collecitng coins at about 7-8 yrs old becaue I remember picking through circulating Roosevelt Dimes, Washington Quarters, and Franklin Halves searching for Mercury Dimes (rarely a Barber), Standing Liberty Quarters, and Walking Liberty Halves (and rarely finding a Barber) back in the early 1960's.

You could also find lots of circulating Buffalo Nickels & some Indian Cents back then...

DorkGirl

When I was growing up (1950's) my dad and grandpa both collected Morgans. At family dinners Grampa would pull out the old cardboard holders and we would get to look at the Morgans. I collected steel pennies, still love them, but the Morgans are my passion. It took three generations to fill up those Morgan books. But we finally got it done, minus that nasty old 1895p of course!!!!

Conder101

Got interested in coins in 1966 when I was 5 years old. Didn't have any money so I couldn't collect. Instead I read everything I could get my hands on. Cleaned out the school library, the local public library, and the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library (30 mile bike trip. 15 miles into downtown Louisville and 15 back.) open stacks, reference, and periodicals. Read it all, started over and read it again. then once more for good measure. Finally began collecting in 1972 at the age of eleven and never stopped. Been studying now for 38 years and collecting for 32 years.

ColonialCoinUnion

I bought this coin from Walter Breen in 1973 when I was 10. Saved up about a years worth of lawn-mowing money.

Sold it via ANR in January of this year.

haletj

When 7 or 8 and I was bored one day, my dad said "why don't you search through this jar of pennies and see how many different dates you can find". Well now I have about 250 different date pennies.. all near gem mint state or better!

Conder101

Very nice Norfolk D&H 10