Poll........ How long have you been collecting........

longtimecollector

I'll start it off............. 39 years here.......... closing in on 40 !!!!!!!!

hamiltonjh

i said 5 - 10, but after thinkin about it, it's been more like 14 sorry......it's late and I cant count

airplanenut

I started in the middle of third grade... now it's the middle of 12th grade. 9 years... wow! Come March, that'll be half of my life (now it's even more!)

ychange

i'm still wondering why i'm even here, why i even care about coins at all. not even sure i'm a collector yet, but getting there, it's like a black hole pulling me in, i knew it would.

flash back mid '80s, a kid, parents say "why not get into coins, you like coins", they were always eager to foster any interest in a hobby i had. picked up a redbook, they bought me a '84 silver olympic commem dollar, i took it to show and tell. read some magazines and coin newspapers, must've had a subscription for a year. picked up the satute of liberty set when it came out, and dropped nearly all my "fun" travel money on a set of silver rounds at Expo '86 (way over priced). alas, the bug never caught on then, to me it was someting to spend money on and see it disappear into a lifeless piece of metal, and while they were kinda neat, as a kid, there were other things out there that interested me more than collecting pieces of metal.

half a life later, they now mean something to me, on a few levels. i can appreciate the art, the value, thrill of the hunt, and a hobby that can truly last a lifetime. this time i'm not intimidated by the vast number of possibilities open to me, but welcome it.

carl

It's been about 56 years since I started coin collecting.

razorface1027

35 years or more. PLUCKING

2-1/2 yrs. SERIOUS



Tom

DNADave

Can you define "serious collector"?

skydivdav

Still measuring mine in months! There's no button for months!

coincollector1989

16 years here.

jdsinva

It started when I became a paper boy in Richmond, VA in the mid-1970s. I used to get paid in all kinds of interesting coins and paper money. I still have some of those coins although some eventually got spent. I still remember the quarter I had that didn't have any clad layer in the middle and was thicker on one side than the other. The dude at the local coin shop told me it was nothing special but I didn't believe him and held on to it for the longest time. I'm not sure if I spent it or it got lost in the shuffle after all these years but I still wish I had that quarter. Plus those ads in the TV guide about the 1972 double die always had me checking my change. I guess the error/variety aspect of coins always picqued my interest. Then there was a break from coins during high school until the early 1980s and I've been collecting steady ever since. I guess this is why I enjoy VAMs so much today. . .there's always something cool to find!

etexmike

I just did make it in the 20-30 year span.

I probably should have went with the 30-40 year but that just made me sound old.
I did start really early though.

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etexmike

nwcs

Coming upon the end of my third year of serious collecting at the end of the year.

anablep

Started "seriously" in middle school collecting nickels & wheats, stopped in HS & college collecting only proof sets & SAEs, started up again seriously 2 years ago with Morgans.

pursuitofliberty

Getting close to 20 years year (almost half my life) that it has been anything more than mild infactuation, although I would say I became quite a bit more serious about 15 years ago, a bit more 10 years ago, and quite a bit more 5 years ago ... heck, I'm probably even a little more serious about it since joining this board last year ... I guess it's a progressive disease ...

mgoodm3

collected as a kid and teenager, lost the love, restarted 3 or 4 years ago

JrGMan2004

Seriously for a little more than a year now

K6AZ

I bought my first coin in 1971. There have been some periods where I have lost interest, but I've never been too far away from it.

Purple73

1 year and 1 month!

Stuart

I purchased my first coin in 1969, and have been involved in this hobby since then, with some dormant times when I lost interest in coins, and some active periods when my interest was rejuvenated.

tmot99

I had an interest in coins growing up but never had "my" collection. My dad always controlled it and kept it. I never had access to it. When I grew up and left the house etc., he sold off most of what had been accumulated. He then had inherited little bits from relatives along the ways and then when he died, I inherited what was remaining. Most of it was not worth keeping but it lit my fire. He had cleaned, well it was really polished, all of the lincolns and mercury dimes in his collection. Thank God there weren't any rarities.

ROBBItheOKIE

I have been collecting since I was 10 years old in the year of our lord, ninteen hundred seventy three, I have been collecting for 31 years.


Cheers Robbi

oreville

In 1964, I was the first in my club to get the 1964 proof set as Kennedies were all the rage.

That was until we realized what we missed in Franklins a few years later.

Then again, 1965 through 1967 was the time period of trying to accumulate anything and everything in silver coins at face value. Very trying on a kids budget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By then Barber coinage were essentially gone from circulation and mercs and walkers were disappearing fast.

Jody526

39 years!

Baley

I collected from age 7 to about 14, and then again from age 30 to now (7 more years)

so that's 14

dimples

Been collecting since I was 8 years old.... Completed my first type set at age 14.....
spent 10 years studying and collecting Canadian silver dollars and specimens. I finally owned my first Morgan dollar in
1988 when I put a collection together than sold it to buy a Condo. In 2000 I started my Dimple collection, now Peace dollars and along the way type set of gold sovereigns from the seven mints around the world. It's been a wild ride so far and I'm only 47.

This is a fantastic hobby for a child involving history, math, attention to detail,patience and above all else, plain old fun.

wvinchic

I am still counting in months, too! That year mark is fast approaching though...

Time flies!


Stacy

ziggy29

I was probably about 6 or 7 when I first became interested and starting filling in my own pennyboards. That would have been around 1972 or so.

BuffQuarter

Standing Lib quarters and Buffalo nickels is what I collect. Can't get enough of them.

dimples

Welcome Buffquarter!!

MajorDuty

About one entire year now on a regular basis. I've collected sequential bills for years just because I thought they were kind of cool, and placed every quarter I got in change into this really big glass cube (filled now - $600+), but got into old coins and proof sets only a year ago. What have I gotten myself into?

xbob

37 years saving the occasional gift mint set, proof set, or commemorative.

Got serious when I got so raw hand me downs about a year ago and took them with me to the Baltimore show. Just seeing all the coins made my jaw drop. I've been hooked since (and making all the right newbie mistakes to get my "dues" out of the way).