How did you start collecting coins?

silverdollarfitz

Just wondering...

Since I'm new, I don't know many peoples stories, and I thought this would be fun.

Meltdown

I was buying .999 silver as an investment for a couple years.
A good friend of mine and longtime collector convinced me that 90% silver was a better buy, rich in American history and just plain ol' more fun.
After a few purchases, I bought an album and started putting together sets of circulated Franklins and sometime shortly after that I went crazy.
After a few expensive "grading lessons learned the hard way" I bought some books and joined here.

That's my long story short.

BillyGoatsGruff

My Grandmother used to have an antiques store. And, on occasion, she would give me silver dollars from her many gambling trips to Lake Tahoe. That's how it all started. It has now turned into a passion that parellels a bad drug habit.

sumnom

There were several experiences but the key event was my grandfather giving me an 1801 cent in AG/G when I was eight years old. I still have it.

kiyote

My older brother brought me a French coin that he got at work. I had no idea other countries had coins!

curly

I started collecting back in 1964. I was in Klamath Falls, Oregon at the time. I'm taking Mrs curly back there in August to visit some old friends.

intence

runs in the family.

BillJones

I started "noticing" coins and medals in 1959 when I was in the 5th grade. I had read in The Weekly Reader, which was a newspaper for elementary school kids that the Lincoln Memorial was going to appear on the cent. That got me started, and I pulled out every one of the new cents that I could find in circulation.

Then on my 5th grade school fieldtrip, I purchased this Delaware medalet for 50 cents at the John Dickenson Mansion. I did not know that this piece had been made for the 1938 celebration of the 300th anniversary of landing of the Swedes in Delaware. The state was still selling them more than 20 years after they were issued! Today this piece is listed in the So-Called Dollars book. Of course the best known pieces from this celebration was the Delaware commemorative half dollar. The state did not have any of those for sale, however.



Then my uncle gave me the 13th edition of Red Book and the two Whitman Lincoln cent folders for Christmas, and I was off an running!

COINB0Y

This Forum got me back into collecting when I was googling info for US Mint Sets as a gift.

I came across Eric's 2006 W Unc Platinum Posts and the rest is history....

ricko

As a youngster, (9 years old), I had a paper route.... and got IHC's, SLQ's etc in payment.... that started it all.... Cheers, RickO

AOEDAD

Here is copy of my start .. was listed in Heritage's Collectors Corner

Lincoln's Last Stand

"Wow ! I have not seen one of these in 10 years". It was 1955. My dad was paying a bill at the local village hall. In change he received a 1905 Indian Cent. That was the start of my coin collecting and I still have the coin my dad gave me that day.

My dad was born in 1911. He told me how, when he was young boy, he and his older brother use to play a game with pennies on the dinning room table. My dad would set up his Army of Lincoln Cents. His older brother would assemble his Tribe of Indian Head Pennies. They would recreate Custer's Last Stand and other battles of the Great Plains based upon the stories and books that their dad shared with them.

My dad's father, who was born in 1885, had a chance to see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. After that he bought Western Dime Novels from which he shared the stories with his sons.

In the battles they would take turns sliding a coin across the dining room table. If your coin the hit the others coin it was wounded and turned over. If hit a second time then it died on the battle field and was honorably removed.

I played the same game with dad in late 1950's. It was the old worn out Buffalo Indians verses the Jefferson Nickel Calvary. But I often still wonder, back when my dad was young, how many 1909-s Indians or 1909-s VBD's died in those historic battles.


Submitted by:
Thomas Jankovsky


www.jankovsky.net

silverdollarfitz

great stories guys! Thanks for sharing!

My grandma started giving me coins when I was in elementary and middle school as gifts. I didn't care much then. Then this summer a co-worker got me back into it... baley! So now i've been buying them (without my grandma's help)

morgansforever

1999 SHQ program, then bullion, then Morgans, then Peace dollars, then.......

yellowkid

I had collected a couple of times, 60's,70's, late 80's, but never really serious. I'm an antique dealer and one night while searching fleabay I came across a commem and thought " a few of those might be fun", and I was off and running. This place has been a great resource, quite a help to my coin acumen.

Buffalode

I got interested last year when a good friend showed me a couple of coins he had just received from the Mint. One of them was a gold buffalo. Of course I had to order one (will try to post pics here if I can). It is still one of my favorite coins. Like many other new collectors I started buying many random coins with no idea what I was doing. This forum has provided a lot of great information and advice. I still have much to learn but at least I have a better idea what I should be looking for and do my homework first.

coinman420

my grandma had lincoln and mercury dime albums that i used to look at when i was 6 or 7 years old in the mid sixties. my bro and i were eventually given the albums. this was my start in coin collecting.

pocketpiececommems

My aunt was a teller at the local bank. She told my dad that they bought the pennies that the 1 Cent gumball guy brougnt in. (they bought them by the pound) She thought that it might be fun for my brother an I to look through a $25 dollar bag. He got a couple and we were hooked. One of the things that we would do was to put a magnet in the bag to see how many steel cents would stick to it.

BillyKingsley

I've told this story before, but I like telling it so I will post it again. I'll even give a little more detail this time.

While I consider my actual start as a coin collector to be last year, May of 2008, it actually started much earlier. This would have really started around 1995, or so. I remember looking at all the new cents trying to find one of the errors, and I never did. I did however build up a small collection of coins, mostly things that most people would not consider worth collecting. I pulled and kept all Candian coins I found (I spend a lot of time in Lake George, New York, which is a popular vacation spot for Canadians) and anything else I liked. I also got some foreign coins, most likely came from the science store in the Danbury Mall in CT. My dad brought some home from work, too. One of his jobs was maintaining tour busses, and when they did not need mechanical work he would make sure the insides were clean and ready for the next trip. He brought home some then.

For some reason, I stopped in 1996. I don't know why, at this point, but I did. In 96, I was sick for the entire year, and that probably had a lot to do with it. I was also 12 years old. Occasionally when I found things in change I would put them with what I had collected previously, and somewhere, I don't know where, I had aquired a few more that I found in my dresser after I started really collecting!

When the State Quarter program started, I collected all of them, too. But I don't really count that as truly being a coin collector. My brother had been ordering the uncirculated State quarters for me from Littleton, so I would read through those catalogs when they came, but not really knowing much about it.

Then, fast forward to last year. My dad died in 2002, and we are still finding things he'd hidden away. One of the things we found last year was a box that had a handfull of coins and currency in it, and looking through that is what started me off. In that container were 5 Peace Dollars, a Morgan, a handfull of Mercury dimes, and about 25 BiCentennial quarters, which my dad saved whenever he got them. Looking through all them, (there were also lots of wheat cents) that is what really got me interested.
Then, a few weeks later, we went on vacation and I spotted a coin shop. We didn't stop that day, as we were on the way to dinner, but we went back the next day, and while the shop was not particularly large, it had some cool stuff! From the $5 junk box, I got myself a 1852 cent and an 1832 Half Dime. I had never even HEARD of a half dime at that point! I mainly got it because of how old it was. I was hooked. After we got home, I really got into it. I spent the next week sorting through all the coins from my dad's collection, going through the family change jar, and going through a bucket of coins that my mom had saved from circulation, in the 1960s! Unfortunatly, during a basement flood some water got into the bucket, so most of the wheat cents in there are now some various shade of green. I still love them.

By time I had sorted through all those coins, I had a list of what I had, and a list of what I needed. (I carry that around in my wallet) I have mostly pulled my collection out of change, or from roll searching, as I'm not very wealthy, let's put it that way. But, it's fun, and from time to time I save up some money and buy myself something classic. I've actually done fairly well, I am one clad Roosevelt dime, well, three as I don't have either 2009- away from a complete collection.

I joined this forum on June first last year, and I joined the ANA in August last year. I have not looked back since, and this time coin collecting is here to stay! I know that I will be participating in this hobby in some form or another for the rest of my life, and that makes me very, very happy.

I now collect everything. I may focus on something at some point, but for right now, I have not found something I have not liked. And even if I do focus on something at some point, I will still keep my eyes peeled and add to my collection whenever I can!

Well, that's my story. It's the most detailed account I think I have posted, too.

NightHawk

I got started as a kid back in the late 70's. My grandpartents had a jar of wheat's set aside that I'd look through once in a while. I remember looking through them thinking to myself "wow. 1944, that's OLD!!" LOL

My parents bought me a few Indian head cent's and buffalo nickles but I soon lost interest like many kid's do.

Once I graduated HS, got a car and a job, I started hanging out at the only local coin shop we had and started picking up a few coins here and there. I've been collecting ever since.

silverpop

An overseas trip back in 1992 got me into collecting coins and notes

gummibear

I was about 8 when one of my teenage neighbors showed me his collections and then gave me a few early Lincolns. The smell of early coppers still gets to me. I didn't get really serious until I was a teenager and had a few bucks to spend on it. Few head injuries later I am am pretty stupid about them.

Cladiator

Started off buying bullion. Mostly silver and gold Maples and laughing at my buddy for paying so much "numismatic premiums" for coins. Somehow it went from that to a half dime obsession. Had about a dozen steps between the two but those don't matter, only the half dimes do.

metalmeister

Back in the 60's my folks were pulling $ilver out of coinage.
I remember going to the bank and getting rolls and
pulling out white $ilver from the clad.
Finding worn buffs started the collecting bug.
I still have the Silver

Ed1840

My Mom passed away a couple of years ago. In the midst of all the clutter and confusion, I came across some old silver, and one 1846 small date large cent. 50 some large cents later, I'm a member of Collectors Universe.

clarkbar04

My grandpa gave me a bunch of wheat pennies from his collection when I was 10 or 11. Been at it off and on for around 23 years.