These stories are REALLY interesting and a goodly number also are quite touching. It's interesting how many started because of something a garandmother did.
My story revolves around my father and a friend of his. My parents sometimes played penny ante card games with their friends. One Friday they played and my father was the big winner--probably he won about $3.50. Even in the early 1960s, when this game took place, $3.50 wasn't a ton of money. Anyway, my father was a physician and when he went to work the next day (yes, he worked on Saturday--this was the 1960s, remember) one of his patients was a friend, named Bill Skinner. Mr. Skinner was a collector and he told my father about the hot coin of the era, the 1960 SD cent. So my father looked through the change he had won the previous evening and...and...and didn't find a 1960 SD cent. Sigh! But he did find an old quarter. It was dated 1932. Mr. Skinner got excited and told my father to turn the coin over to ascertain the mint mark. It was an "S." So my father had won a 1932-S quarter in his card game! Mr. Skinner offered my father $30 for the coin, which was a fair price at the time. But my father decided he did not want to sell the coin. He brought the coin home with him that evening and told us all about it. I thought finding a $30 coin for "free" was so cool, that I immediately decided I wanted to collect coins. So far, though, I have found nothing significant in circulation. (However I did receive a slightly circulated proof 1980 quarter in change at the local taco place yesterday! ) My father remained a stamp collector, with very little interest in coins. So after a couple of years, when he saw I was serious about numismatics, he gave me the quarter. I still have it. I think my wife hates it because of all the time/energy/and sometimes money I have spent on coins. But I love it!
Great story Lord. My story is of the darkside persuasion. My uncle Ray did quite a bit of traveling and would keep all change from his trips and throw them in old cigar boxes. Every couple of years he would show up at our house with a box of coins from his travels. I think he enjoyed my of excitement going through these boxes as much as I did. He would give me little geography lessons to go with the coins as well. As I got older my uncle's health declined so he was unable to travel anymore. About 10 years ago my uncle died but I still have all of the coind that he gave me and I still to this day enjoy going through the boxes and rediscovering these coins.
I was about ten I think when my grandfather showed me his coins that he had been hoarding over the years. He knew I had a small collection that consisted of Whitman Lincoln folders. He had a red wooden box made from scrap peices of pine boards. It measures approximately 6X4X4 with a hinged lid and slot like a bank. (I have it today tucked away in the closet somewhere) Mostly this box was filled with wheat pennies, but it had a few silver coins mixes in as well.
One of the silver coins was a 1945 WLH AU50 or so. It was the first I had ever seen and the most beautiful coin I had ever seen up to that point in my life. I was really excited about it. I ended up getting that coin for my 11th birthday. Still have it today and will never part with it.
Although it wasn't really my first coin, it was my first meaningful coin that really got me excited about collecting.
It's been told a number of times here, but here it goes.
Similar to LMC, I too got intrigued w/ coins at a young age; 5 to be exact. I was going to the hardware store w/ my dad one Saturday morning in May (or something like that). The main reason I went was to see if I could find any change at the checkout line. When we eventually got to the checkout line, I searched the area for pennies, nickels, and dimes. I only found a few pennies and I was disappointed, I had bigger hopes then that. I then noticed a small dark area under a shelf. I stuck my hand in there and felt for any change. I did feel a coin, but it seemed to be slightly stuck. I eventually forced it out, and to my surprise, it was like no other coin I had ever seen.
The coin I found had an Indian on the front and a Buffalo on the back. My dad, who was not a numismatist by any means, looked at the coin and told me it was a Buffal Nickel. WOW, that was neat. I then noticed that it was dated 1920. The coin doesn't grade more than a VG, but it means the world to me.
For me, it was a combination of finding a neat coin I had never seen before, having a coin that (at the time) was over 70 years old, and the latter fact that I learned that it was worth more than just 5 cents. All of this has led me to collect coins for the past 13 years...a lifetime!!!
LMC, thanks for the giveaway and I hope you enjoyed the story.... Here's a picture of the coin of which I would never sell for any amount of money ever.
It was back in the late 50's as I recall, about a year or so before Roger Maris broke the HR record my neighbor called me into his house where his Dad, a bank examiner, brought two bags of unsearched wheats into the kitchen. I can guarantee you these were unsearched wheaties unlike ALL the banter on ebay about finding a jar..., a wheel barrel full of..., an old mans farm...,you get the picture. I was asked to help them go through them to find as many BU wheaties as I could but carefully hold them by the rim. Not only did we find many BU Lincolns, we found many mintmarked dates in the teens, twenties, through the fifties. They also bought a Red Book and we looked through it and we saw the value of many rare coins. I was jazzed and upon conclusion of the endeavor, his Dad said to me, here you go, you may take ten pennies if you won't buy bubble gum with them. I assured him I wouldn't and when I got my .50 cent allowance for the week, after hours and hours of yard work, I promptly went to the grocery store bought my bubble gum with my allowance. In my change, the grocer gave me a 32S Washie in EF condition----My eyes lit up, sought out the Red Book and I couldn't believe its worth....From that point forward, this hobby got me hook, line, and sinker. From then on we'd pool our money and buy rolls of coins from the bank and search and search and search. Unfortunately, my bubble gum habit played yet another troubled devils advocate and won out mostly with my "keepable" coins. Thanks a lot Bazooka Joe and Double Bubble---
Holeyest of Holeys, one could only hope to display the literary prowess of yours, and other stories in this thread.
For myself, it was a combination of my mother and grandmother who got me onto collecting coins.
As a young boy, I would go into my parents' room and look up in the closet to see two big jars of pennies. I asked my mother what all that money was doing up there, and why was it there? At first she would tell me that that was 'her money' and that they were worth a little bit of money, I shouldn't go up there and try to get them. Maybe one day I will let you look at them. (Later on she explained to me that while her and Dad were living in Florida she saw her friend going through change and picking out all of the 'wheat pennies' as they would be worth something someday. She decided that wouldn't be a bad thing for her to do as well, so she ended up with I'd guess about a gallon's worth of wheat cents.) I guess I must have nagged her for quite a while, as I eventually was granted access to look at all of the old money. I guess mom knew a little something about coin collecting because before we took down the two jars of wheat cents, we had already gone to the coin store to buy a loupe and the blue whitman folders that you push the coins into the proper slot. I'd guess that we filled up just about 2/3 of the albums from her little stash of wheats. After that, it was a matter of getting to a coin store to find the remaining coins that I hadn't found. I remember going through these wheats and the oldest one I found was a 1909-P. I was really hoping to turn it over and find a VDB on the reverse as that one had a much better value in good and VG, which is about the condition most of them were in. Come to find out, years later, actually about three years ago, I went through all of these wheats again and picked out a 1927-D/D RPM#1, a 1955 DDO#2, a few 1941 DDO's and a host of other rather minor varieties. This all happened right after the 'new' CPG came out. The one with cents through nickels in it..
During this tme period, every Sunday we would take a ride down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I knew there was a coin shop down in that area, as we had passed it many times before. Actually, it is the Stone House Coin Shop(reference many times in this thread. I would always hope that it would be open, I just didn't realizze that it would never be open on a Sunday. Upon arriving at Grandma's house, I must have been complaining about the store being closed again, and Grandma said I may have something for you. She went into her bedroom and came out with a little jewelry box that I could hear metal clanging around in. I opened it up and was astounded to see silver Washington Quarters, Mercury dimes, a few Morgan dollars, a plethora of Buffalo nickels, a handful of Indian cents, a few wheat cents(that I quickly realized were duplicates that I didn't need), and a VF/XF Columbian Half Dollar. When I got done looking all though them, Grandma told me that one day she would give them to me but not yet. "You'll probably just go to the arcade or buy poison(candy) with it!" So I wasn't allowed to take the coins with me that day, but for some reason I was really excited that one day I would own all of those coins!
I did eventually end up with the coins Grandma told me she would give me, and I still have a few of them that I can identify as definitely coming from her. There is the Columbian Half, an 1864 Indian cent in AG with a nice rotated reverse die, and a couple of worn Buffalo nickels.
I really liked everyone's story, and thanks for the giveaway LordM!
It has been many years (too many) since I got my start in coin collecting. However, the beginning does not dim in my memory. Where I grew up, in the Catskill Mountains, there were many caves - and at an early age I got the 'bug' for exploring caves. Always with the idea of finding 'treasure' of some kind. There was this one group of caves - called 'Indian Caves' by us locals, that had many branches, mostly carved by water in the limestone. It was obvious that generations of kids and who knows who had at one time or another investigated these tunnels that went deep into the mountains. After many trips into them, and becoming familiar with the major routes, I decided to see if I could find any 'new' areas. After going very deep and exploring a few dead ends.. I was on my way back to the surface when I noticed a 'shadow' behind one outcropping. Curious, I pushed behind the abuttment and there was another opening. As with all 'new' discoveries, my adreniline was pumping as I crept into this area. It only went about 25 yards further, but angled up and ended in a round chamber that appeared dry and out of reach of any spring flooding. Moving my light around, I noticed a 'shelf' about five and a half feet up one wall. I moved my light up to it and then felt around on the top... and contacted a 'rag' I thought - It was dry and crumbly.. but was indeed a small bag. It was breaking apart in my hand and there were three coins in it..... an 1899 Indian Head Cent, an 1817 Large Cent, and a 1911 V Nickel. Wow.. was I excited. Naturally I climbed up as far as I could, looking for more treasure - but aside from an old candle stub, there was nothing more to be found. That did it... I was hooked forevermore on coins.... and I STILL have those three coins. Never did find any thing else in those caves... but that was more than enough. Cheers, RickO
My mom was this business woman who traveled the globe before I was born, and had accumulated a group of coins from 20 or so countries. When I was 7 or so, I found the box of coins that she had and started looking through them. I ended up organizing them and looking at them a few times, but didn't do too much with them. Before I continue on into the story, I'll throw out there that my parents will tell you that I was slightly obsessed with money growing up. When I was 12, I wound up buying the new westward journey nickel roll sets from the mint and a silver proof set to go along with it. I honestly have no idea why I bought them, but looking back I'm glad I did. Then a year later, we were at Borders (bookstore for those of you who don't have on near you) and I spotted the coin books near the back of the store. I picked up a Redbook, looked through it, and decided that I wanted to seriously collect coins. So I did, and well, that's the story. Not as cool as some of the other ones, but still a fun one with some details that I don't know entirely.
Neat story LordM, as always. As for the coin that got me interested in numismatics... I found it only a few years ago when I was 19. I was working as a carhop at Sonic and I used to transact more change every day then a bank teller. I was never too interested in any of the coins and may have passed up some nice ones during the years I worked there, but one day I was piling a handful of change into the change-holder when I noticed a wheat cent in the bunch of them. I flipped it over expecting to see a Lincoln from the late 50s and was amazed to see a ..... 1919! That was by FAR the oldest coin I had ever found in circulation or owned for that matter. I remember thinking, "This coin circulated during the Great Depression!" I took it home and placed it on my bookshelf and I still have it to this day. As a matter of fact... I even focus on Lincolns now... hmmm.
Back about 5 or 6 years ago, I had knee problems for a while. It was diagnosed that I had goiut & artritis in both my knees. This meant that I had to stop doing what I really loved: volleyball. I lived for playing volleyball. Since I couldn't run more than 3 steps or even get out of bed sometimes, I had to stop playing ball. I decided to walk around the local flea market just to get out of the house one Satiurday afternoon. . There was a table setup that sold nothing but coins. I picked up a rather cheap common date Morgan because it was big & shiny. Next thing I know, I'm hanging out here.
PCGS Currency: HOF 2013, Best Low Ball Set 2009-2014, 2016, 2018. Appreciation Award 2015, Best Showcase 2018, Numerous others.
I no longer have the picture of my first coin, and it wasn't really a coin per se. My grandmother gave me a little brass medallion that outlined what a loaf of bread and other groceries cost in Germany in 1922 shortly before she and her husband came to the U.S. This was the height of post-WWI inflation... I believe the amount for a loaf of bread was 50 million marks.
Sobering, but it got me started on collecting German coins...
Random thought: I guess I'll reach my 50th anniversary in numismatics in another 20 years.
Since the 50th anniversary is the golden anniversary, the theme of "50" and "golden" stands out, so what better giveaway than a 1 oz ($50) gold eagle?
Here's my pledge: if I'm still breathing and a CU forum member on November 25, 2026, I'll give one of those away. Since the pledge is being made in 2006, I suppose the coin should be a 2006.
Comments
My story revolves around my father and a friend of his. My parents sometimes played penny ante card games with their friends. One Friday they played and my father was the big winner--probably he won about $3.50. Even in the early 1960s, when this game took place, $3.50 wasn't a ton of money. Anyway, my father was a physician and when he went to work the next day (yes, he worked on Saturday--this was the 1960s, remember) one of his patients was a friend, named Bill Skinner. Mr. Skinner was a collector and he told my father about the hot coin of the era, the 1960 SD cent. So my father looked through the change he had won the previous evening and...and...and didn't find a 1960 SD cent. Sigh! But he did find an old quarter. It was dated 1932. Mr. Skinner got excited and told my father to turn the coin over to ascertain the mint mark. It was an "S." So my father had won a 1932-S quarter in his card game! Mr. Skinner offered my father $30 for the coin, which was a fair price at the time. But my father decided he did not want to sell the coin. He brought the coin home with him that evening and told us all about it. I thought finding a $30 coin for "free" was so cool, that I immediately decided I wanted to collect coins. So far, though, I have found nothing significant in circulation. (However I did receive a slightly circulated proof 1980 quarter in change at the local taco place yesterday!
I like their smiles. They look... well... grandparently. If that's a word.
PS- that was a helluva nice first post. I'm glad you linked it up because I missed it the first time around.
Thanks for the chance Lord.
Steve
One more day or so.
One of the silver coins was a 1945 WLH AU50 or so. It was the first I had ever seen and the most beautiful coin I had ever seen up to that point in my life. I was really excited about it. I ended up getting that coin for my 11th birthday. Still have it today and will never part with it.
Although it wasn't really my first coin, it was my first meaningful coin that really got me excited about collecting.
Dennis
Looking for PCGS AU58 Washington's, 32-63.
Similar to LMC, I too got intrigued w/ coins at a young age; 5 to be exact.
I was going to the hardware store w/ my dad one Saturday morning in May (or something like that). The main reason I went was to see if I could find any change at the checkout line. When we eventually got to the checkout line, I searched the area for pennies, nickels, and dimes. I only found a few pennies and I was disappointed, I had bigger hopes then that. I then noticed a small dark area under a shelf. I stuck my hand in there and felt for any change. I did feel a coin, but it seemed to be slightly stuck. I eventually forced it out, and to my surprise, it was like no other coin I had ever seen.
The coin I found had an Indian on the front and a Buffalo on the back. My dad, who was not a numismatist by any means, looked at the coin and told me it was a Buffal Nickel. WOW, that was neat. I then noticed that it was dated 1920. The coin doesn't grade more than a VG, but it means the world to me.
For me, it was a combination of finding a neat coin I had never seen before, having a coin that (at the time) was over 70 years old, and the latter fact that I learned that it was worth more than just 5 cents. All of this has led me to collect coins for the past 13 years...a lifetime!!!
LMC, thanks for the giveaway and I hope you enjoyed the story....
Here's a picture of the coin of which I would never sell for any amount of money ever.
For myself, it was a combination of my mother and grandmother who got me onto collecting coins.
As a young boy, I would go into my parents' room and look up in the closet to see two big jars of pennies. I asked my mother what all that money was doing up there, and why was it there? At first she would tell me that that was 'her money' and that they were worth a little bit of money, I shouldn't go up there and try to get them. Maybe one day I will let you look at them. (Later on she explained to me that while her and Dad were living in Florida she saw her friend going through change and picking out all of the 'wheat pennies' as they would be worth something someday. She decided that wouldn't be a bad thing for her to do as well, so she ended up with I'd guess about a gallon's worth of wheat cents.) I guess I must have nagged her for quite a while, as I eventually was granted access to look at all of the old money. I guess mom knew a little something about coin collecting because before we took down the two jars of wheat cents, we had already gone to the coin store to buy a loupe and the blue whitman folders that you push the coins into the proper slot. I'd guess that we filled up just about 2/3 of the albums from her little stash of wheats. After that, it was a matter of getting to a coin store to find the remaining coins that I hadn't found. I remember going through these wheats and the oldest one I found was a 1909-P. I was really hoping to turn it over and find a VDB on the reverse as that one had a much better value in good and VG, which is about the condition most of them were in. Come to find out, years later, actually about three years ago, I went through all of these wheats again and picked out a 1927-D/D RPM#1, a 1955 DDO#2, a few 1941 DDO's and a host of other rather minor varieties. This all happened right after the 'new' CPG came out. The one with cents through nickels in it..
During this tme period, every Sunday we would take a ride down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I knew there was a coin shop down in that area, as we had passed it many times before. Actually, it is the Stone House Coin Shop(reference many times in this thread. I would always hope that it would be open, I just didn't realizze that it would never be open on a Sunday. Upon arriving at Grandma's house, I must have been complaining about the store being closed again, and Grandma said I may have something for you. She went into her bedroom and came out with a little jewelry box that I could hear metal clanging around in. I opened it up and was astounded to see silver Washington Quarters, Mercury dimes, a few Morgan dollars, a plethora of Buffalo nickels, a handful of Indian cents, a few wheat cents(that I quickly realized were duplicates that I didn't need
I did eventually end up with the coins Grandma told me she would give me, and I still have a few of them that I can identify as definitely coming from her. There is the Columbian Half, an 1864 Indian cent in AG with a nice rotated reverse die, and a couple of worn Buffalo nickels.
I really liked everyone's story, and thanks for the giveaway LordM!
Lincoln set Colorless Set
Thanks for the giveaway Lord M!
As a matter of fact... I even focus on Lincolns now... hmmm.
Probably gonna pick the winner here, shortly, so if you have stories, post 'em! Nobody says you have to write a term paper or anything.
Sobering, but it got me started on collecting German coins...
1/2 Cents
U.S. Revenue Stamps
Congratulations, (other)Rob! The random number generator liked you!
Since the 50th anniversary is the golden anniversary, the theme of "50" and "golden" stands out, so what better giveaway than a 1 oz ($50) gold eagle?
Here's my pledge: if I'm still breathing and a CU forum member on November 25, 2026, I'll give one of those away. Since the pledge is being made in 2006, I suppose the coin should be a 2006.
Mark your calendars, folks.
Thanks for the fun contest.
I haven't been on since Saturday and just wanted to thank you for the giveaway! I'll be sure to post a photo when the coin arrives.
Lincoln set Colorless Set