What got you started?

sellsatan

Hello everybody! I've been lurking on this board for the better part of two years and have now decided to get involved. I'd like to thank you all for being such cool individuals but even more for the TRUCKLOADS of information I've picked up here.

Here's the big question: what got all of you started in this great hobby? Was it a specific coin, an influential person or maybe something else like a good book?

Just about three years ago I bought the house I live in now very cheap. The people that owned it were very old and the road that it is on has no winter maintanence, so life here had become a big hardship for them. One day I was talking to the old fella (I lived in the house next door) and he told me he was going to sell it. The house was a lot nicer than mine (though after living in it for three years I can tell you it's just a little better than a hunting cabin) so I asked him how much he wanted. Get this: he sold it to me for what he bought it for in 1941 - $1000. We were at my lawyers office the next day working out the deed.

About six months later I had moved in and gotten comfortable. I decided it was time to start some of the household projects I'd been putting off (as you can imagine, any house you buy for 1k is bound to have a LOT of projects). I was in the basement tightening a jack under a joist that was sagging a bit when I found the item that brought me back to the hobby. In a tin on top of the back foundation wall I found an 1875 Carson City Seated Half.

At that time I knew just enough about coins to know that I'd never seen a seated half and that the Carson City mint isn't always easy pickins (that information courtesy of our friends on the Coin Vault - lol). I started reading up on general coin info and soon found my way here. So that's how I got into this hobby and why I joined this board. Hope to hear your stories as well. I'm working pictures of the half in question, but they are not good pictures. Still learning a lot here....

mgoodm3

My earliest memory of coins was when I was about 7 and found a 1943 P nickel in my money stash (may have been planted there?) I have been interested in coins ever since, although I didn't collect much for about 20 years in the middle.

ER

Is that your grandma? She a Longhorn?

Myqqy

That's a wild story!
I think what initially hooked me was being about 10 years old, and seeing these amazing morgan and peace dollars at this small local coin shop. They were probably worth $20, but to me they seemed like these magical, noble relics from the ancient past.....

pharmer

and be sure to check out the "Explain your handle" thread currently running.

cladking

Welcome aboard.

I was about born a collector and have long been fascinated by the idea of coins circulating.

carl

Don't really remember exactly when I started but when I was really young a long, long time ago I remember being with my Dad at his gas station and seeing this strange looking penny in his cash register. It was silver colored instead of copper. My Dad said they just changed pennies to look like that so I started collecting them from him. He gave me all I wanted. Turned out they were 1943 steel cents. I ended up with about 25 rolls of them and many of them are like brand new or MS something or other. That started me on collecting everything I could get my hands on. One bad thing I did was to spend all the silver dollars he gave me to go to an amusement park. I sure wish I had all those back even though sure had some fun back then. My Dad is gone now and so is that amusement park but the coin collecting llingers on.

TommyType

Embarassing to say, but I got hooked watching the coin sales pitches on TV. I was about 35 years old at the time, so I wasn't one of the "started in my youth" guys. In fact when I was a kid I used to harass, tease, and generally annoy my brother for popping Lincoln cents into Whitman folder.

Never spent much with the TV salesmen, (just enough to realize they weren't the best place to shop), but it did get me searching out local stores, which led to local shows, then internet sales, then auctions, etc.

I still have my first "big" buy. A 1963 Franklin half in AU. I didn't even know the things existed before the TV sales pitches!

Tom

xbob

Welcome! Awesome handle BTW.

I've had cent albums since I was a kid. My mother had them too. Neither of us ever did more than filling from pocket change so they were never very complete. Anywho, she has been buying mint sets and commems for me throughout the years and gave me a bunch of hand me down coins from her grandparents (Morgans, Peace, 2c, Indian cents, etc..). My grandfather has given me some neat stuff too.

I saw the National Geographic show about the S.S. Republic and the slabbed gold coins mesmerized me and piqued my interest in serious collecting. So last summer I decided to take "my best" to the Baltimore coin show and see what I had. They were all nearly worthless to dealers but my jaw hit the floor when I saw the stuff at the show.

I went to the show on Sunday and as some of us found out last weekend, Sunday is a ghost-town show. So this one dealer (Frank Leister) spent some quality time with me and told me about grading circulated stuff and to get Photograde and a Red Book and read up. At the next Balto show I returned the favor by completing my first set, Washington Quarters, by buying my last coin needed (1932S) from him. He hardly remembered me but I noticed a father and son next to me with their bag of stuff and Frank was helping them just as he did me almost a year earlier. As to why he got hooked, he told me, "It's not just about the coins, it's the people." I agree.

Now I'm hooked in by the beauty, history, endless interesting information to learn, AND sense of community and friendship. There's even a good bit of great humor in the hobby thanks to witty board members and the busts of eBay scams and shady dealers.

I'm glad collecting discovered me.

CheckersFred

Almost 15 years ago, we had a project at work that involved a lot of late nights. As four of us worked together, we got to talking about coins. Next thing you know all four of us brought in what we had to show and share, none of which amounted to much. We used to kid Marty that his Lincolns graded AS-2 (for "about shot"). Mark had some mint sets, I had some Peace dollars. Next thing you know Jolene bought a Red Book. That made her the Queen. From there we all got in the habit of going on Friday night to the bid board in the San Fernando Valley. We would each spend about $50 bucks on junk and adjourn to a coffee shop to show and tell about our winnings. During lunch we would traipse out to see another local dealer and cherry pick stuff from his vault. From there we ventured out to Long Beach, and we were hooked. All these years later, the four of us have stuck with it. Marty has some very exceptional halves from the late 1700s. He still attends all the Michael Aron auctions. Marc has complete sets of Morgans (missing only 93S), Washington quarters, Mercs, Lincolns, and Indians all in Dansco albums. Jolene always had the eye for the good coins, and she knew how to drive a bargain. At our first Long Beach she picked out a nice 1909S VDB in XF. I started with commems. My basic philosophy at first was to buy one of each type of commem in the lowest possible grade to have the most affordable example possible. I still have a Bridgeport that looks like it came out of a sewer. So, that's how we got started.

pf70collector

I have always been a collector. I started young collecting stamps(mostly US mint state) -about 11 years old I guess can't remember exactly. I have sinced stopped collecting stamps. Then comic books. Then toys(star wars mostly). I dabbled in coin collecting thru most of my life but not seriously. Collecting old coins in pocket change. My first real first substantial coin I bought was the Christopher Columbus Commemorative Proof Set in 1992 from the US Mint and in 1999 the 1999 State quarter proof set bought at the US Mint Store in Union Station in Washington DC (ebay and the internet didnt exist back then). I bought the Columbus Set because it marked an important date in history and I love history. Coins as well as stamps and to a small degree even comic books seem to convey a sense of history for me. Holding something from the past just facisnates me. But I didnt seriously start collecting coins til about a year ago. Blame it on Coin Vault although I hate to admit it. Didnt buy anything substatanial from them except a SS Repulbic Coin. I have collected mostly modern proof coins.- NGC slabbed modern commmemorative gold and silver(cant help but love those presidents in gold-now only if the US mint would make a Lincoln in gold), ms state quarters, and ASE in NGC Silver, Gold and Platinum and a few in PCGS, about 10 PCGS Morgan DMPL dollars. The only thing I wll focus on now is completing my PCGS State Quarter Set, NGC ASE Set in MS69 and PF70(caught up til now-whew!). I want to focus now on more classic coins like the Morgan Silver Dollar, Standing Liberty Quarter, perhaps the Barber series and Walking Liberties. There are many series I would love to collect but like every collector I have limited resources.

hughesm1

I've had a fascination with coins as far back as I can remember. What got me interested ( when I was 5) was searching through a gallon size bank full of pennies, then sorting them out by dates.

What really got me hooked was finding a new looking (AU58) 1939-D nickel while helping my father change the drive belt on our dryer (at age 9.) I picked up a Jeff. folder and started to hit the bank for rolls of nickels to search and fill the book. That was 25 years ago and I still haven't completed my goal of filling the book from circulation finds (am still searching for the 1955-P.) The only one I purchased (back in 1981) was the 1950-P.

BillJones

Welcome.

My uncle gave me the 13 th Edition of the Red Book and the two Lincoln cent folders that held the coins from 1909 to 1959 to me for Christmas in 1959. From there on things have just grown and grown.

I still own the Red Book. It's part of my complete set. The cent albums are backed up somewhere. I know that part 1 was upgraded to a Library of Coins album in the 1960s.

meos1

My Dad collected from circulation and managed to put together quite a collection of WLH, Mercs, Lincolns, Buffs, V nics, jeffs, Franklins, and Kennedies. He had redbook going back to late fifties or so. Since he travelled he would bring back lira and marks, etc. It was the start.

Dan

TerrapinWill

Well this is likely to sound a bit corny but my step daughter gave me one of those State Quarter maps about five years ago, and I've been chasing coins since. It's ironic, since she's the one that got me started, yet she picks on me relentlessly about the coins......typical teenager....

Prethen

Dear ol' Dad started me off around 1975 (I was 9) with a Whitman Lincoln Cent folder. I realize this is very cliche amongst collectors, even today. I don't think he realized then what he ended up getting me into now, 30 years later.

SanctionII

Great story on your Seated Half dollar.

I got started when I was 7 years old (in 1963). My dad came home from work and gave me a blue Whitman folder for Roosevelt dimes. That evening I scoured through all of the loose change my mom and did had for dimes to fill in the holes in the Whitman book. I was hooked.

GoYankees

An older cousin of mine got me started when I was 10 years old (1976). He showed me Lincon cents and told me about wheats and memorials as well as the various mint marks (D&S) under the dates. From that moment on, I was hooked. As for my cousin, his love affair with coins was brief and shortly after pursued a career in music and computers. He makes databases and is a professional jazz guitarist.

Chazpear

When I was probably 7 or 8, we use to go visit my grand parents at a gas station they owned. It was also a gathering place for a number of locals. Well, often they would give me change for no reason. I did not mind. Anyway, one of the coins that someone give me one time was a penny with an eagle on it. I had that penny for a long time and I thought it was neat. About the same time, I was also “helping” my father fill his Whitman books with pocket change. Usually once a month or so we would break out the books and see if we could fill any of the holes, every once in a while we did fill a hole or two. In a one of his books for pennies there was a whole page that had no dates of mintages on them, so we put my penny in there and wrote my name right under it. Fast forward 20+ years and I had forgotten all about my penny but was still collecting. A few years back after my father passed away I was given all those Whitman books and as I was looking through them I ran across the book of pennies with my penny in it. I could not believe how shiny and almost red it was after all those years in that book. You can imagine my disappointment when I looked at the coin again after all these years to see it was in fact not an eagle on the penny but a dove as in 1967 Canadian penny. I still chuckle about that and I still have the penny.

Mercury

In the mid 70's when I was 7 or 8 or so, when we would visit my Grandparents, they had a friend, who would give me wheat cents and buffalo nickels in 2X2 holders. I thought they were great and kept all of them, I even talked my sister out of the ones he gave to her. I have collected coins from circulation my whole life. However, It was when my daughter was born and I decided to start a collection of proof sets for her that I started ordering stuff from the mint online, then other web site, coin shows, etc.

Hedger

glad to see you here. What got me interested in the coin collecting hobby was seeing my uncle's vast collection when I was about seven. He used to give me old coins for my birthday or Christmas but it wasn't until my mid twenties that I got serious. After I married I dug out some boxes I had stored in my old bedroom closet at my parent's house and ran into those coins once again. From there I just kept going.

DNADave

When my grandmother died in 1986 she had a pill bottle with some old coins in it. There were Franklins, mercs, silver Roosevelts, etc. The pill box had my name written on it and was hidden in the kitchen cabinets. I found it and it left a lasting impression.

MoeSzyslak

I found a 1959 Memorial cent on the playground back in first grade. Finding a penny was cool enough but, since this one was more than twice as old as I was, that made it extra nice. That find led me to searching through my parent's penny jar for wheaties, the Whitman folders, and, eventually, to mowing lawns just to buy more coins.

librtyhead

Back in 1969 when I got my first "moon"penny again when I talked to my friend MARTY G. in N.Y. about 5 yrs ago.Also everytime I find something in the ground,or in a wall my job seems to have been created for finding old things and filling my albums.(I renovate very old buildings and install high velocity heating systems).One time when I was about seven I found an old commemorative from the 20's.I put the coin in the wall to keep my brother from getting it,I went back to get it afew days later,and would'nt you know it that coin fell three stories to the celler.Well my Dad sold the house,I never found the coin and I think I have been lookin for it ever since.

Artist

I remember in 3rd grade having one of those "March of Dimes" folders, that when you fill up totals $5.00 or something. I had never seen a Whitman folder before - so I just wrote in the dates to that March of Dimes folder and collected that way.

A while later, my Dad gave me a little metal pirate chest filled with coins he had snagged from circulation as kid - late 1940s / early 50s. It included a 1905 nickel and a 1905-S dime both in G-4, several mercs, buffalos, and walkers, a Long Island commemorative half, and several common date Morgans that his dad had won a trip to Vegas. What a dream! And boy those silver dollars polished up nice! Doh!

Soon I discovered a few local coin shops - my first purchase ever was an 1822 large cent VG-8, and for the next five years I spent all my lawn mowing money on coins. Coins I still own from that time include a GSA 1883-CC Morgan, a 1923 Mercury (now NGC MS-65FB) and a 'BU' 1939 Walker (now NGC MS-67.) Not bad for an eleven year old eye.

Unfortuantely, this was the eighties and prices then were as volatile as dealer's scruples in the pre-TPGS era. Also this was before Ebay brought a national market into our laptops, and so eventaully my experience with my local dealers left me feeling quite bitter. As a teenager I moved onto other things - like guitars and girls.

The State Quarters and the stability TPGS brought to the market reattracted me to the hobby a few years ago. I now enjoy buying and selling on ebay and going to coin shows. What's more, is my adult finances have allowed me to build a collection I could only dream about as a child...

But to this day, I don't know what got me started. I just love and have some bizarre affinity for coins. Especially nice ones!

mirabela

Inherited my great grandfather's collection of mostly better-AU & MS Morgans when I was seven.

Nickelback

I'm always amazed at the insight and variety of coin stories on this site...and am always happy to hear from others who feel the same way I do about collecting.

I wanted to collect coins at an early age and remember (vaguely) when the "clad" change occurred. Unfortunately, we were poor and all the pre-64 stuff went into a jar, but that just got me more interested, so I tried but failed miserably (hey, no money means no coins).

So I guess it's a Freudian thing and I'm re-visiting my childhood. So what - it's worth it and now my own son is interested as well.

LincolnCentMan

The lure of "buried tresure." I used to bury jars of cents as a kid, then go find them after a few days. It was a lot of fun.

David

LittleBitOEverything

.I remember back in the late 70's and early 80's going to my grandfathers house in Lambertville Michigan.(DOB 69..so im not ancient This man was a avid collector and roll searcher, I remember looking in his closets and seeing the brown paper bags that the grocery stores used..filled with mostly wheat pennies that he had searched through(had lots of time, retired from railroad..as I think ev1 grandfather did that was born around my time) At times he would sit me down and show me big silver coins that I thought were amazing just because of their size.(now I Realize they were mostly Peace and Morgans)..then he would get a coffee can and open it and inside were nothing but Ikes and he would give us (me and my brother) one everytime we seen him. But the neatest thing was his house sat on about 10-15 acres of land and he had a big garden next to the woods with a old barn on the west side of the property and a big pond that was really stagnant that sat back in the woods on the north side..and his property was part of the Indian trail that chief Pontiac used when traveling.(east side of property was wooded)..Well to this day it amazes me that my 1st metal detecting took place on that property in his garden of course..and my 1st find a IHC(dont know if he planted it or not but me and my brother probably pulled 6-7 Ihc out of that garden with our 20 dollar MD..well anyways he was my 1st contact with coins.and thats what I remember most about him..I wont tell the rest of the story about his collection as it was a real sore spot for years to come (but in the end my stepgrandmother was a lonely woman...even to her own family)...well collecting was the furthest thing from my mind until mid 99. I was at work and got a coffee from the vending machine and pulled my change out, sat at the table..plopped my change on the table and heard a funny sound..looked at the change and I had a 54 dime in there..Just really shocked me as I knew silver had been out of circulation for a long time.....And since then its been all a upward climb...Only thing I wish i could of taken from my GF was his knowledge and appreciation of the hobby...didn't have enough time though..

MAN this is a expensive hobby...and the wife lets me know it too

sellsatan

Wow. This board never ceases to amaze me. I'm so glad to finally be involved here. Thank you all for your stories. This is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to hear.

Somebody asked about my icon. When I was registering there didn't seem to be any way not to have an icon and I couldn't import one of my own, so I had to choose a "user icon" to proceed. If that's somebody's icon (or somebody's grandma) just tell me how to get rid of it and I will do so.

The biggest irony to me about my collecting is that like many of you I did it as a kid, but I hated it. A friend of mine wanted to get the coin collecting merit badge when we were in scouts, and we got all of our badges together, so I started the requisite collection. As soon as I got the badge I ditched the collection (traded it in at the hobby shop for a Mike Schmidt rookie card). Now I'm so in to coins that I could never possibly get enough.

Thanks again everybody.

ElectricEye

Are you related to the board member, "leasesatan"?

sellsatan

Are you related to the board member, "leasesatan"?

I hope you're just ribbing me, but if not I definitely need to meet this person.

Kurt4

1943 steel cent.