What was the first coin you ever bought and when?

magikbilly

Hi,
what was the first coin you ever bought in a coin shop etc, and when was this?
The first coins I bought were an 1892 Barber 10c in Good for around $2, and then a 1781 North American Token in Fine for $12. This was when I was 10 - 1979.

Best,
Billy

wam98

I bought a BU Morgan in 1979 in Depford, N.J. I was 22. Can't remember the date since it has been sold long ago. I believe I gave $45 for it. Big money to me then.

GTOster

My first coin was a 1964 Kennedy half
Given to me but my Aunt's boss who was a Bank Pres
And I still have it
First coin's ever bought 1966 sms set
Still have that too
Paul

ozzysdad

My very first purchase was a 1900 IHC, I bought at a coin shop in Little Rock, AR. in 1967, spent a whole dollar and i still have it......

LanLord

Uhm, that was over 35 years ago,

and since I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, remembering my first coin is way more than one can expect.

It was probably a coin in a plastic bubble from a "gumball machine" however.

Anyone love those experiences?

BillJones

The first two coins for which I paid more than face value were from my mother's cleaning lady. They were an 1846 large cent in Good and an 1838 half dime in Good-Very Good. Than was in the spring of 1960. I still have these two coins in my collection for sentimental reasons.

The same cleaning lady also owned an 1853-C gold dollar. She would never sell me that one because it was a family heirloom. Given the history of southern slavery I would guess that that coin might have had some interesting stories to tell if it could talk. During antebellum times slaves were about to save amazing amounts of money from payment they received from doing various tasks. In some cases a slave was able to save enough to buy his or her freedom. Given that this piece came from the Charlotte, North Carolina mint in 1853, it's tour though mid 19th century commerce might have been quite interesting.

razorface1027

I remember saving & saving my weekly allowance of .50 cents so I could order the first Ike dollar in the blue envelope @ $3.00 then. Cripes, the Kennedy halves that my pop kept giving me every week would've been worth saving when you see what some Kennedys are fetching today.

1956Quarter

1956 Franklin Half in GEM BU
About 1982 when I first got started into serious coin collecting.
Because its my birth year.

nwcs

1982 Hungarian mint set at the 1982 World's Fair.

DorkGirl

Believe it or not, I bought a "genuine Carson City Morgan" from Publisher's Clearing House in 1985 for $25. Actually, it's a nice XF coin.

SilverDollarMan

A 1888-O Morgan on a 1st day stamped card, didn't know shoot!

JrGMan2004

A few years ago, I have a short stint in collecting... went into the coin shop and bought a spiral bound Red Book, and then bought a pretty G4 Barber Quarter for like $4 Still have it to... it's in my Dansco Type Album

Hedger

1999 silver proof set back in '99.

Weiss

Technically my first coin purchase was when I was in Kindergarten. I traded Marshall Schacht an American cent for a German Pfennig. That would have been about 1974. And yes, I still have it.

WACoinGuy

An 1854 Large Cent in VG for $8.45. I was so amazed that pennies used to be the size of half dollars, that I had to have one...

Smittys

My first coin purchase was two rolls of silver dime one Mercury and one Roosevelt,
I had to give 13.00, silver was going at 30% over face. This was either in 70 or 71,
bought from a little grocery store on the corner who hoarded all his silver.
No I don't have them anymore, have sold my collections more than once.

Keyrock

Can't remember the first coin however my first slab was in 1994, a PCGS 1909 S VDB in 63RB. It was the first set of stock options I cashed out and it was like playing with the houses money, nothing to lose. I had always liked the coppers and I wanted that one and the 55/55 for decades.

mgoodm3

Bought a cleaned AU 1880S Morgan from a pawn shop in the early 80's for $18. Used it as a pocket piece, but lost it a while back.

Murphy

1817 Large Cent, because I remember that when I was 10, I broke into Dad's collection to get money to buy fireworks with and I saw that he had a very big penny in his collection. SO I couldn't collect coins unless I had a large cent like my dad.

I purchased it in 1999 at Treasure Island on Broadway in Louisville, Ky. Also purchased that day was a 2-cent piece and they started my Type Collection.

phut

$8 in May 2004.
Had many coins in jars, but this was my first purchase.

Bikingnut

It was a red BU Lincoln, that I believe was a a 1941 for my Whitman folder. I think I was about 11 when I bought it.

Merc

My first coins I bought when I was 12 when I was at a coin show by myself. My parents have no interest in coins so they just dropped me off with a friend at the show. It was a big show 150+ tables but no YN programs or giveaways. I bought several S mint Lincoln wheat cents from the 1930-1940 in EF because I knew the S mint ones were hard to find. They were in a dealer's half price box so I was paying 15 to 25 cents for them. It is amazing I can still remember that!

AuldFartte

The first coin I purchased was in about 1976 ... a 1901-o Morgan in (what was called at the time) "choice BU". It's still in my Dansco album Type Set.

ziggy29

I think my first purchase outside of my own family was at a coin show when I was about 10 years old. As I recall it was a 1912 Lincoln in VG that set me back a quarter.

Before then, most of my acquisitions were either plucked from circulation (mostly 1959 to early 1970s Lincoln Memorial cents) or obtained in purchases and trades within my family.

Wekar

My first coin purchase was in some small town antique store outside London, England, in ~1979. I was 7 years old and mightily impressed by the cool looking threepence piece which was no longer to be found in circulation. I have no idea what it cost me at the time and I still have it in my box of darkside UK currency. God save the Queen.

Shamika

1909 V.D.B in XF at a coin show in Knoxville, TN. I think it was $3.50. I was maybe 10 years old (1976) and I thought I'd faint at how much I had just spent for an old penny.

Edited to say that I still have it.

MoeSzyslak

1955-S Lincoln, VF-30 or thereabouts. I was in first grade, so I guess this would have been 1976.

I paid the ridiculous sum of $0.35 for it, but I had to fill that one last hole in my 41-58 Whitman folder and I got tired of looking for a 55-S in my parents' change.

OKbustchaser

1953 (birth year) cent through half dollar...had never heard of mint sets so I built my own. I remember that I got change back from a $5.00 bill which included a circulated 43 walker and a 45 merc that the store owner tossed in on his own.

Jim

Shamika

<< <i> 1982 Hungarian mint set at the 1982 World's Fair. >>


Nwcs,
My family and I had season passes. I still have mine around here some place.

MrSpud

It's hard to remember for sure which was first, but I think it was an Indian Head Cent I bought back in about 1969. I still have it. It looks really funny though because I cleaned it with my mom's Brasso. My older brother had given me a few coins before that. I remember him telling me that I shouldn't have cleaned the Indian Head when he saw that I had cleaned it.

coltgus

My 1st purchase was a 1942 proof set with both nickels for $173 in about 1975 from a friend who was a part time coin dealer. Guess what year I was born ?

DRUNNER

1969 to 1970 I was mowing lawns for $2-$3 and sending the money off to some mail-order place to buy basic wheats for my 1941-1969-S Whitman folder (9030). I ordered my first proof coins, a 68-69-70-S series of three for a couple of bucks and waited, checking the mail every day for their arrival. I was more excited for them to arrive than I've ever been for any coin since.

Around 1994 when I got back into collecting in a serious way I sold the folder on a bid board for 6 or 7 bucks . . . not realizing at the time what I was really doing. A collecting regular bought it and put it away, then a month or so later asked me why I had sold it (complete with my 6th grade writing on the inside). By then I had figured out that I might have really screwed up and I mentioned that I'd love to buy it back. The next week he surprised me and GAVE it to me.

I'm looking at it right now. My fingerprints are as big as life on those three proofs and etched into the coins in 3-D relief . . . but they are among the most important pieces of my personal numismatic history.

I learned a big lesson . . .

DRUNNER

morgannut2

First coin at bank--1878S Morgan cost $1----1957

First at auction--1881CC MS-66 cost $820

First at dealer--1880CC MS63, upgrade PCGS MS-64 cost $275

RGL

Gads, I can remember winning 1972-S and 1973-S JFK proofs off a dealer's bid board for about $1 each back in the early '80s. My first purchase, however, was a couple of grab-bags of 100 Wheats and rummaging through the Buff junk box -- lots of VFs in there -- for 25 cents each, or nine for $2, a few days earlier ... Came about after I rediscovered a bag of old coins a neighbor gave me and a few old Whitmans I started as a kid ... Hooked from there on out, except for a mid-life crisis/divorce/stop collecting from about 1992 to 1999... Then I got hooked on the Registry and PCGS. God save me ...

BigE2

Mine was a set of Irish 3 pence in a green folder. about 30 years ago. Sold it this year for what I paid for it. Oh well.

OnlyBuffalos

Back in 1950, there was a company located in Michigan which advertised in the back of comic books things like X-ray specs, life-sized cardboard models of submarines, whoopee cushions and all sorts of other interesting things that appealed to people with ten year old minds. The large majority of items for sale were under one dollar.

I send ten cents for their gigantic catalog and despite all sorts of distractions calling for me to buy something else, I purchased three or four large cents for one dollar. One of the coins I received was a scudzy 1804 with the date barely legible. A couple of weeks after receiving that coin, I traded it for an 1858 large letters cent in very good condition. I don't remember what happened to the other large cents or the 1858 cent.

I do wish I still had the catalog from the Johnson Smith Company as it was a great fantasy read.

MFH

First coin I remember buying was in 1962 or 1963, was a 1931-S Lincoln, in VF, paid all of $18.00 for it. I never thought I'd ever pay so much for a Lincoln cent ! Never thought I'd ever get an SVDB ( still don't have one !! LOL !! )

fcloud

It wasn't until after I was married. My parents wouldn't let me buy coins when I was living at home. They wouldn't even let me buy a subscription to a coin magazine. Man am I glad my wife doesn't care if I collect coins. Anyway, the first coins I purchased were a fistful of Barber dimes. I had never seen them before and a guy at a flee market had a bunch really cheap (like three for a buck or something like that if I remember right). That was back in 1977. I'm glad my wife is supportive. She will even go to shows with me! A couple of coins she has given me as gifts over the years include coins like my 1942/41 Mercury Dime in VF25. A 1921-D Walking half in Good, and a 1937-D Three Legged Buffalo in VF35. And some of the MS coins in my Mercury Dime set. I'll stop rambling now! Previous to 1977 I pulled many coins out of circulation because I was a paperboy and got a whole bunch of change to search through. My grandparents had a grochery store, and they would find stuff and give it to me, too.

Here is the dime Linda gave me back in 1977.

legacycoin

Back in 1976 paid $1.75 of my hard-earned allowance money for a 1927-S Lincoln in VF and actually still have it. Current Coin World Trends for a 27-S in VF: $1.75........

Sphinx357

1886 Liberty Nickel in AG/G a couple years ago
Sold it for a handsome profit, I'm into paper now.

boz

I remember paying $80 for a Morgan Dollar. It was so long ago the Chit in my pants is now petrified.

Nickelback

I walked over a 77 Indian Cent - was going to keep going but my son (who I was walking to school on my bike) said we had to look...when he saw that it wasn't a "regular" penny, wanted to keep it. It was so worn you could hardly make out the date. We went to a local coin store (The Guilder Shop in Tampa) and were offered $200.00 for it. That was about fifteen years ago, and although I sold it, we both became interested and have never looked back.

Yep, I sold it to the dealer and have watched the prices go up (it was maybe a G-4). When we talk about it we still wonder how it got there...

kyleknap

Casey's Coin Shop in Cedar Falls, IA......an 1858 Flyer in VG/F or so for $12. Wish I still had it.

Kyle

Coppernicus

When I was 12 (1965) I bought a 1910-S Lincoln from the local coin shop. I really don't remember what I paid, but I liked the looks of it. Three years ago, I submitted it to PCGS ('cause now I know what I'm doing!) and is came back MS64RB. One of the nicest RB Lincolns you'll ever see. Mostly brown, but some really nice, subtle purple hues. It's one of my favorites to this day and is in my registry set.

I wish I had paid more attention to coins in 1965 - there were many "steals" in those days!

Mike

mirabela

1916-S Mercury dime, VG-8. Elegant album toning. 1979. $2.75 from Coins and Hobbies, Barre, Vermont. Still have it. Pretty coin, and if I ever get out of collecting altogether I'll still keep that one.

gn1090ss

1976 I was 10 years old a 1950-d jefferson was my 1 st purchase....the start of a lifetime love affar!!!