Collecting was much easier when I was a child...

LincolnCentMan

Here I am, 29 years old. I have the wife... the house... the cars... the coins.... the budget....

Man. Life was easier when I got that $20 a week allowance for mowing the grass. I didnt have to worry about my reach exceeding my grasp because if my cash didnt buy it, I was out of luck. I remember the days when I'd save up for that long awaited trip to the coin shop.

Sure, it was 1989... not the best time to buy coins for an emerging coin hobbiest. I know I was paying full retail, but the seeds were being sown. I remember paying $2.50 (plus tax) for common date mercury dimes and just looking at them like they were treasure. I can buy an SVDB now and not get as much enjoyment as I did then on those dimes.

Man, those were the days.... and that's what collecting should be.

David

Clankeye

<< <i>Man, those were the days.... and that's what collecting should be. >>



It's still all right there. Take it from one who has spent multi-thousands of dollars on coins, and now delights in under one hundred dollar purchases that make up the bread and butter of my collection.

I've said this time and time again on this forum, your coins have as much value as you are willing to invest them with.

Clankeye

airplanenut

Thanks for scaring me

SarasotaFrank

when I was a kid, my dad would get bags of walking liberty & franklin halves from the bank and we would sift through them on a saturday nite. He also would get bags of silver dollars, quarters and dimes which we would pick through. He would take the rejects back and get new bags the nexzt Friday.

among my very fondest memories of being eight years old was sorting those coins at the kitchen table with my Dad.

LincolnCentMan

Take it from one who has spent multi-thousands of dollars on coins, and now delights in under one hundred dollar purchases that make up the bread and butter of my collection.

I hear you. I have a few (very few) of those mult--thousand dollar coins in my collection. I bought a few AU's off ebay the other day... and a few more in a direct deal from the same seller after the auctions. I felt kind of pumped with the prospect of adding a few coins to my old dansco album.

I've been concidering selling out and going to a more modest collection. I think I'd enjoy it more.


when I was a kid, my dad would get bags of....
I'm too young to have done that. I did go purchase bags of half dollars at the bank and pick the silver Kennedys out of them. You can still find the 40% ones in bags today. Loads of fun for kid-o's. The unfortunate thing is that a bag is $500 face. Lots of $ for kid-o's.

David

Clankeye

I definitely have what might be considered a "modest" collection. But, it's a collection born of experience and purpose. Every coin in it is there for a reason, and it's not just a random hodge-podge of junk.

Putting together a collection that is meaningful to you--makes the hobby exactly that--a hobby. And it makes it interesting and fun.

Clankeye

Myqqy

Thanks for scaring me

Don't stress- some of us have more and more fun with this goofy hobby as we get older....

Mrpawn

I still remember the first Barber Half that I ever got.

The old codge at the counter knew that I collected coins and had saved it for me. At first I did not believe that it was a US coin, but I took his word for it and looked it up in my Redbook as soon as I got home.

Kept that one for quite a long time - wish I still had it now.

FrattLaw

One of the ways to avoid those feelings are to get back to your "collecting roots." What I mean is do some nice Dansco raw sets. Whether its a BU Franklin or nice circulate Merc set, you can still get that feeling.

I often use these types of sets to re-energize my collecting bug as I wait and wait and then wait some more for the right registry coin to come along. I still say there's noting quite like the feeling of an album full of heavy coins.

If you really want to go back to your childhood do a set that you did as a kid in slightly better grades. A full horn XF Buffalo nickel raw set. That would be challenging but not impossible.

Michael

Gemini

When I was much younger collecting coins from circulation was a snap with silver everywhere. Morgan dollars were so plentiful in circulation that they were not happily accepted in trade by most merchants including our family run business and we couldn't wait to take them back to the bank and get rid of them....who knew!

TUMUSS

I forget about ALL the money I have spent every time I pull out my toned Morgan collection!

cladking

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

It's ironic that in an ocean of great coins that anyone need thirst.

I get as big a thrill adding coins to my circulating collections as I
do adding them to the gem sets. These coins may not be as "val-
uable" but then the gems hold no value to most collectors and had
a nominal market value until recently.

The hobby is about fun and this makes them all priceless.

keets

when i started in mid-1964 i had the basics------a Redbook and a paper route. i long for the days when a paper route was all i needed.

al h.

razorface1027

Man, those were the days.... and that's what collecting should be.

Man...I hear ya! The days when pop gave me .50 cents to put the trashcans at the curb and it came in the form of a Frankie or Kennedy silver. The days when grammy and uncle Willy would give me coins for various reasons. Yup, those were the days. I miss them.

earlwbollinger

When I was a kid, collecting was really neat, as you could still find old Indian Head pennies, and other old coins in change. Plus many people had change jars, and they'd let me look through them sometimes.
I was always finding some sort of a "old" coin for my Whittman albums.
Then the 1965 disaster hit and all the silver disappeared from circulation. But for a while you could still come across a old silver coin from time to time. The color of the coin would make it stand out quickly.
I was surprised yesterday to get a old 1962 dime in my change at the restauraunt. I didn't think any would be left in circulation by now.
It was funny a llong while back when I spent a old beat up yucky IKE at our office building snack bar. The lady who runs the joint, she kept it for a long time in her cash register thinking it was a valuable coin, like it was a Morgan Dollar or something. Once someone asked her about it, and she said it wasn't for sale as it was too valuable to sell.
It's nice to be of help sometimes.

Goober

I still have dreams of coming upon an old home, coffee can in hand, finding a treasure hoard. It'll last 'til I die. My son is enthusiastic now about the hobby, maybe not so as he grows older, but I will foster it as long as I can.

Shamika

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LincolnCentMan

Add three kids to the mix and we'll call it even.

...not interested in making that addition to the collection right now.

David

Trime

Most things are simpler and easier when you were a kid.
No going backward might as well live for the day

Baley

3 things we can do TODAY:

1. Buy an inexpensive but really interesting coin. something old, maybe foreign, something worn to Fine, and/ or a coin with a pretty design. hold the coin in your bare hands, flip it, carry it in your pocket. think about where it came from, and where it might be in 200 years. Be a kid again for a few minutes.

2. Give a child you care about a handful of inexpensive but interesting coins, again, some possibly foreign. Maybe a coin book or an album, if the child shows a spark of interest. Fan those flames occasionally and relive the joy of childhood collecting, vicariously.

3. Spend some cheap old US coins. Tip jars are great for 'seeding' a few old buffalos, mercs, indian cents, war nickels, wheaties, etc. Have fun thinking of the employees finding them and dividing them up and maybe taking them to the library and looking them up.

Coins are a really great hobby. Unfortunately, all the "business" of coins sometimes sours the fun.

ddbird

I have the solution for everyone!


Marry rich! Get loaded! Then you wont have to worry about money!

See, and people think us kids arn't smart...

LAWMAN

I'm with Fratlaw - get back to your roots. Dansco raw sets will keep you hopping at show after show. Try raw large cents, figure out the varieties, read some of the treatises, get in deep -- in lower grades but still nice, they will give you all the thrill of anything.

Get into cherrypicking. Really learn how to grade one series for a few years and then cherry pick and get some good grades to reinforce your knowledge.

Read, read, read. There is a wealth of numismatic literature.

Get into the history of the hobby and the dealers who made it what it is. Bowers' has many, many books on it. I'm reading his Abe Kosoff bio right now. Great stuff!

Start a new series in an affordable condition so you don't have to mortage the house.

nwcs

I follow you David. We're basically the same age and I collected in 1989, too. It did seem simpler. Although there was no such thing as helping a YN out. Funniest thing I remember was a dealer trying to get me to buy overpriced war nickels and he said, literally (I'll never forget it) "if you shine them up, they'll be BU!"