Did either of your Parents collect coins or paper money?

Gemini

Sentimental items? Gold handed down? excluding common change...

I'll start: My Mother saved mostly silver dollars over many years from circulation and had saved about 150 dollars which I still have. Nothing rare that I found mostly circulated dollars but a nice rememberance anyway.
She also left me many paper money that we didn't know much about way back and even some National Currency and also some Silver Certificates and even some error notes one is a printed fold over.
Sometimes a nice teller would say to her "Are you sure you don't want to keep this" this really started her collecting the notes.

MilesWaits

Yes Gemini, I too still have the beginning of my collecting - a tin of $100 worth of Kennedys my mother kept and I inherited from her.
Sentimental? Very much so...the first for me and the last to go.

Miles

BeeMan

My father was not a coin colector but he gave me an 1899 Barber half in VG/F and a Mercury Dime he had saved when I was about ten years old. Unfortunately one of my brothers friends stole them and a few of my other coins.

amercoin

My dad would buy me a $20 Lib or Saint back in 1959 or 1960. I still have them. The price is still on the flip $39.95.

lathmach

My Dad and Mother had 17 kids. There's still 5 boys and 6 girls alive, although my brother John at age 83 is dying of bone cancer.
Dad had a rough life, and only had a third grade education. His father ( my grandfather), died in 1906 after being dragged by a team of runaway horses.
Our family was dirt poor. There wasn't any money for this sort of thing.
I started work at age 11, and I began collecting coins at 13. Just the stuff from circulation there in the 1950's.

Ray

blueifalcon

I'm the first in my family that I know of. About two years ago, I was looking on e-bay when I saw coins I carried as a child i.e wheat pennies, buffalo nickles (I'm 55). Morgan dollars really put the bug in me. I don't know enough about the hobby yet, but I have interested a lot of people into checking their coins. They say they're having fun. It is fun, isn't it?

Coxe

Nope, my folks didn't collect anything. Oddly though for them, they got me some monthly club thing with Mystic Stamp and another company that sent out different cultural things from around the world (a pan flute and cowry come to mind) when I started school. That planted the collecting bug. Also I am sure collecting those old world stamps expanded me academically more than school did early on. Probably a lot of other kids in similar situations would say so too. There would be small glimpses into the languages and cultures of various countries as well as histories of nations and territories that have faded away. More than once, I have recalled those old stamps when I got a Jeopardy question right that was attributable to something I learned on a stamp. Unsatisfied with a month between mailings of those familiar trifolds from Mystic, I went to a local Stamp & Coin dealer to get a fix. Naturally, he had very few stamps but a lot of coins. That's where I got really going on coins. Stamps went right along side coins for years for me. Then we moved to a new town and I tried to find another local dealer. In that pursuit, I found an older gentleman who didn't appear to have had a customer in years. I'd go to his shop/apartment to get stamps as that was his stated business. One day, he said he had some old coins and should probably get rid of them and wanted to know if I collected coins. Anyway, he got them out and I got a motherload of OLD large cents and other neat, original US coins. The only price guide he had was like a 2nd edition redbook and used that for retail. At the time, I didn't know the difference and could have been over- or undercharged just as easily. The coins were so interesting, I all but dropped stamps entirely at that point. All through those years, my parents did little to encourage coin collecting and were as oblivious to my activities as other parents were to their druggie kids.

MrScience

I owe much of my interest in coin collecting to my Dad, who was an occasional proof- and mint-set buyer and a frequent horder of silver coinage even before I got into the hobby, and to my Grandmothers and Aunts, who had stashed away some coins over the years and who allowed me to discover them (great fun!). Dad gave me gifts of coins and paper money on birthdays and Christmases to get me started as a child. Though I left the hobby for three decades and returned to it a only few years ago, my family's coins are still an important part of my collection for both sentimental and practical reasons.

Trime

Yes and no!
My parents owned a small retail store. They saved coins for me that looked different to them. They also and circulated silver $ and $2 bills. I would work after school in the store and check the cash register for new finds. They introduced me to the local banker and I was allowed to sit in the SD box viewing room in summers and Saturday mornings and review rolls of coins. I still have the entire childhood collection.

Rodius

My parents did not collect, however, got a story to ponder. Last year I bought a business from a 93 year old woman that she and her husband ran for 60 years. It is rumored that they saved all silver $$ and obsolete silver. In the late '60 they saved all silver coinage. She passed away this year and her son-in-law told me the story of the silver. He estimated that it is 10k in silver rolled up some where. In just melt value that would be... and if there were varities like a 1916-D Merc. MMMMMMMM

Naturally I asked to look through the silver, but the family did not repond well. They deny the existance, don't know where they are, hidden in a box somewhere, the safe is locked and they dont know the combination. Each person had a different story about the stash. I gonna take out the metal detector and go over the property and see what I can dig up.

291fifth

No.

fcloud

no.

Cladiator

<< <i>Did either of your Parents collect coins or paper money? >>

Nope.

AuldFartte

Neither of my parents collected anything, and they never could understand why anybody would do so.

To tell you how they thought about it, (and how utterly stupid I was!) I got a Canadian half dollar in change when I was a little kid maybe 8 or 9 years old. I asked my father where I could put it to keep it safe (I thought it was the coolest coin I'd ever seen at that time!), and he said "the bank". So he took me to the bank where I had a little savings account and I deposited it. A couple of weeks later, I went to the bank to look at my coin, and I was appalled when they told me they didn't have it

DeusExMachina

My parents did not collect but my grandfather did collect coins.

My dad used to give me foreign coins that his co-workers would give to him. I remember spending hours looking at them, trying to figure out where they were from, etc. I think that is what planted the seed.

SilverEagles92

My parents didn't collect coins, my Dad collected sports cards though. It was my grandfather on my Dad's side and my great-grandparents on both sides that got me into it. The great-grandparents have quite nice collections if I do say so myself.

123cents

My Dad collected a few Morgans and Peace Dollars. That's about it.

lkrarecoins

My dad was my collecting partner (see my sig line)...worked out pretty well for me....he would pay for half of any coin that i wanted

He wasn't much of a collector, but he saw that i enjoyed it, and he supported me 100%.
He would take me to shows and help me organize our collection. It was a great bonding experience.

For the record, this collection will never be sold...so don't PM me

BowTieCoins2

My Dad inherited some coins from his grandmother, and has saved them all these years.

My Uncle saved me Kennedy's when I was small, and my Mom has always saved 2 dollar bills.

But they wheren't really collectors.

Shamika

Other than the odd ball coin, they did not. They would be classified more as hoarders as opposed to collectors.

Hugegut

My grandfather collected Ikes, Barr notes, and krugerrands. My dad collects from circulation and also amusement tokens. I just recently looked over a collection of circulation finds and masonic coins that my grandmother has been quietly collecting over the years. My uncle has also been a collector for a long time. It must be hereditary

Lakesammman

Nope - they had no extra money.

MICHAELDIXON

Neither of my parents collected anything. We were poor and didn't have the money for other than necessities. My mother was livid whenever I paid .75 for a Walking Liberty half. I started buying BU Morgan dollars from Elsie Correl out of Campbell California for $3. each and selling them for $10. at school. She saw how I was making extra money and didn't object anymore. A coin collection came up for sale for $225. and I only had $150. She loaned me the $75. to purchase it and I paid her back with interest in no time. Unfortunately, she passed away when I was 16. In her belongings was a 1963 proof Lincoln I had given her. That 1963 proof Lincoln is my most prized possession.

mgoodm3

Not really. A few odds and ends. My mother worked at a bank and saved away a few things. She had a Hawaii $20 that i saw once, must be in a SDB somewhere.

bigbadchad777

My parents could care less about old money.
My grandparents did have some old coins and currency that was passed down to me.
Morgans, Peace, Buffalos, Mercs, and Wheaties. Plus a few Silver Certificates.
They will go to my kids (who show some interest).

LincolnCentMan

I had a grandfather that collected coins. I'm sure he didnt collect to the extent I did, but he did have a jar in the bathroom that I remember he had wheats, indain cents, buffalo nickels, and silver coinage that he would pull from circulation. I have one coin of his, a 1982 Washington commem half.

I had another grandfather, buy marrage, that also collected coins. He was an alcoholic that absolutely despised me. It didnt help that I actually had to live with the guy for seventeen years. He enjoyed carrying around a pouch of coins and showing them off to people. One day they turned up missing. Since I was the only person in the house that collected coins and he hated me with a passion, I caught all h*#% for it. From that day, until the day I moved out (about five years) he layed into me about those coins. About five years after I left home, he died from esophageal cancer. My grandmother was cleaning out the bathroom a couple of weeks later, and found a dried out leather pouch cracked with time with his coins in them. He had misplaced them and never found them. The following time that I visited, she gave me the pouch of coins and said that no one deserved them more than me. To this date, they remain my most costly coins. I still have every one, about seven years after I received them. The current market value.... about $30.

David

ricko

My parents did not collect... but my Dad 'accumulated' some coins - indian heads, two cent pieces, foreign coins. I have them. As a kid I had a paper route, and started 'collecting'. I actually had three 'S-VDB's'... that disappeared when my Mom cleaned out my room after I joined the Navy... oh well, she had no idea.... Cheers, RickO

BigE2

<< <i>My dad would buy me a $20 Lib or Saint back in 1959 or 1960. I still have them. The price is still on the flip $39.95. >>





Thats

BigE2

My Dad started Whitman bookshelf albums for all 6 of us kids. Lincolns and Buffalo nickles. He used to buy bags of wheats and have us kids sort them by date & MM. The bonus for us was we got first crack at ones we needed for our books. (My sister found a 1909-S VDB, the little snot!) Man, I have looked through a LOT of wheaties over those years.
When we turned 18, Dad gave us the books to do whatever we wished. I'm pretty sure I was the only kid who kept them for very long. I finished the Wheats and sold the set about 15 years ago.
He also bought us each a mint set each year.
Memories... I remember going to Freddie Scholls(?) coin shop in Syracuse once a month to sell date rolls of wheats. He had one of those display cases where you push a button and the trays rolled around. Another shop I barely recall was Sheldon Moses. What I remember there was being amazed at how he could find anything!
We belonged to the Oneida Coin Club. Met in the basement of the municipal building and afterward we'd go to either DanDee donuts or the Softserve ice cream place.

Huh. I'm suprised I remember these things.

Jdurg

Not really. My dad was in the Navy when I was younger and he had put together a collection of currency from all over the world which he still has to this day, but there was never anything of value in there. Just common dates and items picked up in circulation over the past 30 years or so. For American Coins, he had quite a few steel cents, a morgan dollar or two, a peace dollar, some Walking Liberty Halves, Franklin Halves, etc. Still, none of them were of any key date and they were all pretty well circulated. (Hehe. Many of these coins fell to a horrible fate when as I kid I broke out my mother's polishing kits and shined them up realy good for daddy. )

Today, my father collects the state quarters and is putting together rolls from circulation for each state at each mint. He also buys the proof sets every year. My own state quarter collection is quite a bit more complete as it is comprised of mint set quarters, silver proofs and regular proofs (Though I'm missing the 1999 silver proof quarters. Just can't afford to buy them right now, but I'll probably NEED to buy them in the next year or so as when the state quarters program ends I can see these things skyrocketing in price).

anablep

No. They hoarded some silver and had some gold too. My grandparents had a lot of silver coins, but it wasn't a collection, just an accumulation that I'll probably inherit some day.

I've seen most of the coins and none are numismatically valuable.

seemyauction

Parents no.....but my mother's father did collect coins and he got me into it......now I have some of his coins.....They may not be the best condition coins but they are dear to me because they were dear to him....


AL

tizofthe

I remember back in the 60's my dad had a little woden chest that looked like a treasure chest. I remembered he had some nickles and silver dollars but did not know what kind. We took a trip back to Columbus Ohio (drove) and I remembered my mom had him sell some along the way for extra cash. I aked him about them when I went to vist him 5 years ago what type were they. He told me he had some buffalo, nickels, Morgans and a few rolls of peace dollars but did not know the year. He said my mom made him sell them along the way and had only a few silver certificates left and if I wanted them i could have them. I told him no because they were his and a good remberance of what he once had. I sure wish I had those coins now.

NumisOxide

My father collecting coins when he was in his teens in the 60's but not that seriously. I have more knowledge than he does about numismatics.

GoldenEyeNumismatics

no one in my family collected coins ever, but my grandfather collected stamps as a child. He sold his collection when he was a teenager to buy some jewelry for a girl

chiefbob

Not exactly.

My Dad was in the Navy when I was a kid (late 50s-60s). He did give me foreign coins from his travels, though. I then drove a currency exchange in New York City nuts when I would get in line and dump coins from a bunch of European countries on the shelf. The exchange guy was nice enough to convert the Lira, Franks, etc., into US currency. Usually it amounted to about $3 or so. I was also advised (warned?) not to do this anymore as "someone else in the bank might not be so accommodating".

My Mother gave me a 1909 2 1/2 dollar Indian Head gold piece that belonged to my grandmother. I still have it and am holding it for my son.

My Uncle Jim, on the other hand, got me started in coin collecting. And stamp collecting. The neat thing was that he worked for the NYC Transit Authority and would set aside scarce coins and sell them to dealers at night. He worked on the 3-11 shift and made a nice chunk of change doing that. He also set aside some coins I needed and some that he collected.

DorkGirl

My dad and my grandpa both collected Morgans.

cladking

My maternal grandfather accumulated some darkside coins when serving in WW I which
were lost or otherwise dispersed when I was young. My father was a natural collector but
had relatively little interest in coins. He still has a small accumulation of mostly large cents
and early nickels but it's junk. He collected stamps as a child and tools after he retired. His
collection was really quite impressive. He did collect three legged buffaloes as a contest
with his schoolmates.

My dad's brother had a small accumulation of medals which he gave me when he got older.

KCC

My parents did not collect coins, but they didn't discourage my hobby. I started collecting about the same time I started delivering newspapers -- lots of coins to look through. A few of the coins landed in Whitman folders; for some reason I still have those old folders.

Ken