childhood coin memories positive or negative?

veryfine

Back in the 70's, I was a New York teen who loved coin collecting. But I must say, when I look back, walking into a coin shop was sort of like walking into a lion's den. Many coin dealers were dismissive, deceptive, unprofessional, or all of the above. How do I know this? Well, I still own some of the turkeys I bought, back in those bad old days, and it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth; cleaned, added mint marks, cast counterfeits, etc.
Now maybe there was some kind of greedy virus that took over the New York tri-state area back then, but it lasted for quite some time, and there was no vaccine in sight!

Some of you might spew forth those tired old lines, such as:
"We all learn from our mistakes."
"If you have the knowledge, you won't get burned."
"It's your fault; nobody forced you to buy those coins."

Yeah right, I should have an encyclopedic knowledge of coins, be incredibly shrewd and savvy at age 16. Give me a break.

However, I do agree that these are sensible statements, but I still cannot get over how prevalent the problems were. Of course I made some sound, accurately graded purchases, but I often got burned because I trusted certain dealers.

So when I think about those days back in the 70's and early 80's, prior to the great TPGs, I have both positive and negative feelings.
Negative because of the HUGE percentage of crooks out there.
Positive because I found maybe one or two trustworthy dealers in a sea of sharks. And yes, I did learn from my mistakes.

CoinKing1969

Mine was pretty good. Our local mall back in the 70's had a Woolworth. It had one of those display cases that rotated when you pushed a button. I bought Buffalo's, wheaties, V nickels, etc. Most coins were under $2 at the time, which wasn't bad then. They had special 2x2 flips that only Woolworth used. I noticed that other Woolworth stores had the same machines and flips. Sometimes these old flips appear on the Ebay.

VAMSKY

Mine were all positive because they centered around my dad.

Back in the late 50's (whew this guy is old) dad would pick up a $50 canvas sack o' cents from the bank about twice a month. We would spend the weekend looking for key wheats. We would usually keep about 250 of them and Dad would take the rest back to the bank. He also gave me $5 a week "seed money". I visited all the local retail shops in town and asked the cashier to look for any coin dated 1939 and earlier. I always waited till they weren't busy and it seemed they were happy to help out a fledgling coin collector. Needless to say, in 1958 and 59 there were alot of coins in their tills dated prior to 1939 (Walkers, SLQ's, Mercs, and Buffaloes).

We didn't have a BM coin shop in our little town of 9000, so I don't have those negative "coin shopping" experiences. My acquisitions were all even-money trades. Dad and I filled in many Whitman albums and put the excess coins in coin tubes by date/mm.

My disappointment came later in life. In the mid-80's Dad was out of work and soon out of money. I was in the military and stationed in Japan when I learned he liquidated the collection for about 10% of it's worth. He didn't ask if I would help him out ... his pride got in the way. But it was fun putting it all together and my greatest memories are those times spent with Dad.

Broadstruck

veryfine

VAMSKY,
Nice story.
I was looking for type coins and the completion of circulated sets like Washington quarters and Peace dollars. My trust in those dealers resulted in some good and lots of bad.

Their only purpose was to make a sale, regardless of the crap they were selling. "The end justifies the means" was in full force.

notwilight

When I was a kid in he early 60s I had blue whitman cent folders that I was working on. My dad was a bricklayer and a bit of a jack of all trades who often bought and sold a little junque. he bought an old ice cream truck and junked it out. Taking it apart he found hundreds of coins that had fallen into the various nooks and crannies. The truck was probably 30 yrs old at least and coins probably dated back to the 19th century. I remember buffalo nickels and indian head cents. I was too young to take control of it and I think most of them were just spent but looking back now it would have been quite a cool hoarde if we'd had a real numismatist in the family. --jerry

NHSBaseball

I very much enjoyed VAMSKY's post. If my father had been into coin collecting, I could have seen much the same result.

While my Dad was not into coins himself, he was very encouraging to me as a young collector. I got started with a couple of folders of Lincolns that my grandmother gave me. My other Grandmother then gave me a small glass bank with a metal lid and small lock on top that had been a promotion for one of the local banks many years before. Over the years, she had set aside various obsolete coins she found in circulation. As I recall, there were many Mercury Dimes, SLQ's, a few Half Dollars, etc. She also gave me a wall clock she had that had 1964 coins mounted in it- Half Dollars at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock, and other coins at the other hours. I thought it was supercool.

I used to ride my bike to the "Pak-a-Sak" up the road to exchange rolls of pennies to look through. Sometimes Mom would do the same for me at the bank. At Christmas, I could always count on a couple of things: my Dad would always buy some coin that I couldn't afford and put it in my stocking (an'08-S Indian and Stone Mountain Commem come immediately to mind), and my Grandmother who had given me the Lincoln set would give me a proof set each year.

My Dad would also always take me to Cohen's on Royal Street in the French Quarter whenever we visited New Orleans. I thought it was the coolest place in the world, between their coins, antique firearms, swords, cigar store indians, etc.

When I went to college I was foolish enough to take my coin collection with me. I moved out of the dorms and into an apartment near the North Gates of LSU my Junior year, and the day after I moved in it was burglarized and my coins, bike, stereo, gun, and even CLOTHES and phone were stolen. They totally cleaned me out. The one loss that I almost couldn't bear were the coins. I didn't have the heart to even start another collection until about 10 years later.

I guess in answer to the original question, my childhood memories were overwhelmingly positive. It ended on a bit of a sour note, though.

VAMSKY

I wonder what today's young collector must be thinking as he/she reads this thread? Probably exactly what I was thinking as an 8~10 year old ... man I wish I was around in the 20's and 30's to snag some of those 1916, 1921 Walkers; a 1916 SLQ; a 1914-D, 1922 no-D or 31-S Lincoln (the 09 were probably out of circulation then); an 18/17 or 37-D 3-legged buffalo.

Except these young folk might be wanting to go back to the early/mid 60's when silver was still in our coins. As an older and wiser collector I know that every generation has its future treasures freely circulating (except Statehood quarters ... there are just too many of them ). You just need to keep a sharp eye opened and learn to recognize opportunities.

My sons never got the coin bug (they collected sports cards). But I've started my 20 month-old grandson down the proper path with some strategic modern acquisitions that I gave to his dad for proper keeping. As soon as he is able, I'll bring him into the fold.

cinman14

I would have to say negative..The reason would be my lack of intrest as a child. I fully remember getting
clipped planchets and throwing them away. I asked my childhood friend to verify we also found DDO and DDR
coins and spent them because they were whole coins...

And the fact I started working in my Grandmas restaurant when I was 14 and was getting CRAZY money for tips and
wages..

I look back at what Gold and Silver was trading for and kick myself where the Lord split me for not buying then.
I remember wasting rolls of quarters playing video games and feeding my fat with candy and pop.

This was all in the late 70's early 80's

291fifth

My early dealings were with Chester Powderski, a dealer who would set up at Club of Illinois Numismatists (C.O.I.N.S.) meetings in the early 1960's (and much later as well.) He always dealt fairly with the YN's.

My early/mid 1960's dealings with store dealers were mixed. Some were very helpful and others were not, but I don't have anything I would classify as a horror story.

Longacre

I was treated fairly at a local coin shop as a teen. However, I mainly tagged along with my older cousin, who collected gold. I remember that he always complained about the buy back prices that he got for coins with the dealer, though.

veryfine

I would also like to hear from fellow New Yorkers, born and raised, like I was. Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn?
Describe the memories of your local "mom and pop" coin shops. What were your experiences?

ricko

There were NO coin shops where I grew up (Catskill Mountains, NYS)... all coins collected from change. Cheers, RickO

veryfine

<< <i>There were NO coin shops where I grew up (Catskill Mountains, NYS)... all coins collected from change. Cheers, RickO >>


I think I would have been less cynical if I had your experience; no coin shops.

rooksmith

I was Milwaukee Journal paperboy (carrier) back in the 1968-1970 time frame, in a rural area. There was no coin shop in our town, so my collection came out of change. Back in those days you still got a few Franklins and 1964 Kennedy's. I kept the silver quarters and of course, filled out as much as I could in my Whitman books. The rest I had in a cigar box. loose.

Some of the paperboys had collections, and would trade each other for key dates. I remember a friend showing me a 1909-s vdb penny he got on his route. I also remember a kindly old lady paying me with silver dollars (Peace dollars) once in a while when she found out I collected coins. We had no idea about grades, and that cleaning coins was a bad idea.

Coin collecting seemed to be in the blood. I got if from my Dad. I think it was more of an father-son hobby in those days. One year my dad took me to the Milwaukee coin show which blew me away. I realized then I was hooked. That is until I saw the coin collection of the son one of my dad's wealthier friends. He had every coin possible- all in Dansco's perfectly cataloged. After seeing that I think I was a bit discouraged. The collection obviously had a little help from his dad and his dad's money. My own dad gave me a couple of GSA carson city morgan dollars (in the blue box) in about 1972, which I still have.

I think that coin collecting in those days was different primarily because there was no internet. If you collected coins, it was probably because thats what boys did : ran paper-routes, collected coins, baseball cards, and of course comic books. until Mom cleaned out the closet.

The only negative memory was realizing that my younger brother spent my silver quarter collection while I was out of town.

BlindedByEgo

Mine are all positive - coin collecting was the strongest link that I had to my dad, uncle and grandfather.

I still remember the hours searching "wheaties", Jefferson nickels and indian cents, and filling holes in Whitman coin books.

STONE

Growing up as a very young coin collector in the mid-90's, I must say that my experiences were all positive, and I have no real regrets (that's not to say I made good purchases all the time).

Growing up I bought what I could afford, which wasn't much since the majority of my income came from B-Day's and holidays.
With that money, most went into savings, but the left over's were free to do as I pleased.
I made it a point to understand pricing and what coins were generally worth, and I would pass up coins that I deemed overpriced.

I usually asked to look in the "junk boxes" at my local B&M's, since this is where the more inexpensive coins were.
From these boxes I picked up coins that looked the best for their age, date, and type.
These early and inexpensive purchases allowed me to analyze later-on what were good purchases and what to look out for and prevent for the future.
I took this information and slowly learned how to better grade coins, generally from Red Book descriptions, and know what to look for in problem coins.

All of this fore-knowledge allowed me to be who I am today. I think I am a slightly more advanced numismatist (especially for my age) and I owe it all to dedication at an early age.

I can confidently say that I have no regrets from any of my childhood numismatic memories.

tightbudget

It has had its ups and downs.

Bayard1908

I enjoyed finding good coins in circulation and sorting through my mom's huge hoard. You could almost complete a set of Jefferson nickels from circulation 30 years ago.

charley

I was doing fine until my older brother relieved me (by force) of my future millions because he had a date, no money and she was a "sure thing'. She was'nt and the coins were gone(Hot Shoppes Teen Twists for every guy that offered him commiseration). From that point on, I didn't trust any person I came in contact with that had a girl friend(real or imagined) and I kept all future coins I collected behind the heating vent in my room. When it came time to depart from home, I gave the coins to my older brothers' wife and asked her to hold them for me, because I figured being his wife he found a 'sure thing' and my coins would be safe. Fortunately, I guessed correctly and when I returned 4 years later she gave them back to me intact. She had kept them hidden behind a heating vent. Imagine that! What a bright lady. Respectfully, John Curlis

Nic

VERY positive. Discovered coins at age 12; downhill from there. K

OneCent

My experiences were extremely positive as they were always centered around my Pop as we looked through unsearched and very circulated wheat cents. There was no emphasis on grade, PQ status or stickers. Just filling the hole was all that mattered. Heck, PQ to us was the coin having a date on it. These were priceless and simpler times.

The local B&M dealer was this portly guy that smoked a cigar and appeared as if he didn't wash frequently (if at all ). His washroom/bathroom was off limits to kids as the walls were gracefully adorned with the latest Penthouse centerfold. One of the older kids in the neighborhood clued us in to that one, which I later verified to be spot-on accurate. As far as the material, it was standard crappy overgraded junk...but it was cheap.

Good Times!