Dream coins from your green days

Sylvestius

Transport your mind back to the days when you were as green as grass in the numismatic world.

Okay so we all remember sitting down with a coin book or two as a newbie, looking through the pages at all the stuff available.

Well i sat down and i sifted through the pages and i thought; "oww gotta have one of those, oh and one of those, and one of those... now that, that i'd love to have!"

Well i remember sitting down as an impressionable 5 or 6 year old with my rather tatty 1985 Spinks (courtesy of my father who had quit coin collecting about 4 or 5 years previously)

And i looked at the pictures and i picked out a number of coins i thought i would want (never dreamed i'd get any of them); The following 5 being fairly memorable to me;

1) Charles II Sixpence

Well i saw a picture of one and i loved it... it was a gotta have coin (i bought one about 2/3 years ago 1674 just like the one in the book), and then i went on to buy 5 more.

2) Stephen penny

Stephen the only king who's name started with an S, and as a child i always felt slightly fond of the king cos our names both started with the same letter, amusing but that's a typical childish thought for you. Then it was a period of war and Anarchy of course, and since i've read more about the king the more i've grown to actually like the guy, it turns out that he was a fairly pleasant chap (very unusual at the time for a king) who would sit down happily to dinner with beggars and rich alike and he actually would apologise for things. Plus the coinage is interesting, i always planned to get one and thus last year i finally did! (Now i'm buying another)

3) Athelstan penny

Well he was the first true king of England (as a whole) and i even liked his name!

4) Elizabeth I groat

Elizabeth I, can i really say more? And a redhead too! (Still haven't got one yet!)

5) The rare Victoria 1882 (no H) penny

Well mine had a H, and no matter how much wishing and praying i did that the H would go away it never did! Hoped i'd get one one day, still haven't got around to it yet!


So anyone else remember coins from their newbie days that they promised or hoped they get? And more importantly why?

CIVITAS

I always saw U.S. colonial coppers in my redbook and truly lusted after them because they were so OLD.

Now I buy and sell ancient and medieval coins for a living and consider anything post 1500 to be modern. Go figure.

(Of course I say this with a scarce variety of a New Jersey copper sitting on my desk for which we just received payment.)

farthing

I'm afraid mines lightside (I guess that stands to reason) but I grew up wanting a nice 1955 double die cent.







Still do.

shirohniichan

I checked out a book on coin collecting back at my elementary school library and was struck by the famous Athenian tetradrachma (the one with the owl on the reverse). I've always had at least a faint interest in it, so I'll probably buy one one of these days.

I also remember going into a coin store while an elementary school pupil and being intrigued by a trade dollar, Gobrecht dollar, and fractional currency. For a few years I focused on trade dollars, but I've never even tried to buy a Gobrecht dollar and have only bought a few fractional notes for a study I'm doing.

weresteve

<< <i>I'm afraid mines lightside (I guess that stands to reason) but I grew up wanting a nice 1955 double die cent ... Still do. >>





Also lightside ... tho' in my case I have always seemed to have a fascination with Carson City ...

Aethelred

I started collecting when I was about six years old. Not very long after that I can recall seeing a photo of a medieval coin in a book. I thought to myself that I would love to own just one medieval coin someday.

lordmarcovan

I remember the first time I saw a Cartwheel 2d. Had to have it.

wybrit

I wanted a farthing because it was already demonetized in the waning days of £sd.

I wanted silver threepences for each monarch Victoria through George VI since you would never find one in change (even though they were legal tender).

Once I had them, they were my favorites in my collection. Today, they still are.