What was the first coin you ever bought as an adult for collection and do you still have it?

Justacommeman

This was the first coin I ever purchased period. It was at the big Fall Michigan show. I had read about commems and Walkers for over a year a prior to ever buying a coin as I was so afraid of making a mistake. I was actually a little nervous. The irony of this commem is that it is one of the only white coins in my collection of any kind. But, I doubt that I will ever part with it because of it's sentimental value.

What was your first coin and tell a story about it if you wish. Post a pic if you have one. MJ

Prooflike Rhode Island

AuroraBorealis

Cool Rhode Island MJ...Sounds like you did your home work before pulling the trigger...

My memory of my first coin purchase isn`t that good... Was many moons ago...I know it would have been an Injun Penny and circulated...Most likely in the xf category and in a card board stapled holder...

AB

MidLifeCrisis

I can't remember which I bought first - either a run of proof sets from 1955 to 1999 because I remembered buying proof sets from the mint when I was a kid and how cool they were to me then; or a 1773 Virginia Halpenny in PCGS MS64 off of eBay because I didn't know much at all about colonials and I was amazed that I could get an uncirculated 18th century coin, especially for not very much money.

ricko

Wow.. I have no idea what it was.... that was a loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnngggggg time ago. Many, many coins ago..... Let's just say it is somewhere in my coin safe, since I am 100% certain I still have it. Cheers, RickO

RedTiger

I remember my first coin shop buy as a kid, it was a 1955-S cent BU. I still have it, it is in a 2x2 and might grade MS64 RB today. I can't recall my first coin show buys as an adult. I also bought stuff from the U. S. Mint, and from mail order dealers. Most of that is a blur.

Catbert

I have an educational story, but you'll have to go across the street to read it:

A Year in the Life of a Seated Dollar

I learned a great deal from that first purchase and I was very lucky to have profited from it. I don't own the coin anymore (sold it for a nice return), but the experience was invaluable. Since then, I've made mistakes that did not turn out so well, but again, this was the price for tuition. I'm still learning, but feel I've come a long way since returning to the hobby.

Baley

Collected coins as a kid, put collection away in high school (after selling some duplicates to fund alloy wheels for the Camaro, ski trips, stuff like that)

finished HS, college, started working, bought a couple of pistols, near the gun shop in a different part of town was a coin shop, wandered in, picked up a then-current 1995 ASE

went back a few times, picked up some capped and draped busts my childhood type set was lacking, a couple of foreign, a couple of ancients.

Discovered ebay and other internet sellers in 1999, quit my job, sold a bunch of stock, and became a full-time collector (and traveller and partier) until my marriage in 2002.

Coin buying has been in continual decline after finishing my primary collecting goals, going back to work, starting family, etc.

I still have the 1995 ASE

MrSpud

Except for buying junk silver at the flea market from time to time over the years, this was the first coin bought as an adult for colection

It's a PCGS MS63 that me and MrsSpud bought on Ebay. I got interested in coins as an adult in mid 40's after collecting as a kid when MrsSpud suddenly started showing an interest in coins. I remember going to the bank and getting rolls and having her go through them and sort them by date and mm and then taught her to grade them by having her sort the individual date/mm from most worn to least worn. Old fashioned grading that I remembered from when I was a kid. Well anyways, we ended up surfing the net and found the PCGS price guide and started looking at stuff on e-bay. We found the 3 cent piece and liked the looks of it. We then looked it up on the PCGS price guide and accidently looked at the PF 63 price instead of the MS 63 price and thought we found a coin going for much less than what it was worth. So we put in a nuclear bid and won it and thought we hit the jackpot. Then we realized our mistake and realized we got the coin for just exactly what the PCGS price guide said it was worth. We still have the coin.

johnny9434

I think mine was the 3 piece Bicentenail coin set. I still have it today and was just the start of it all

Billet7

I wasn't quite an adult, but the first coin I paid more than face value for was a 1936-S Walker in XF (nice looker too!) First coin I bought when I was an adult years later was actually a grouping of roman coins while I was living in Guadalajara, Spain. I also got a hold of a really cool arrowhead (iron) from the dark ages.

chumley

bought 4 morgans from a public tv auction.one for each of my kids...all whizzed....the coins are gone...still have the kids

RYK

An ugly 1858 FE cent that I ditched long ago.

yellowkid

I have to qualify my answer to the first toned piece I bought. I had been picking some things up on eBay for probably a year, with a few commems in the bunch. They were all white, I don't think I even knew there were coins with color. Then I saw this Long Island, it changed my whole approach to coin collecting.

Rollerman

As a kid, I collected out of circulation, but in the mid 70's I really got intersted and first bought a 1908 O Barber half in cleaned "G" to complete a 20th Century Type set (the one with the brown backgound and framed). That coin is no longer around, but the next one I paid a princely amount of $20 to get, a 1929 AU58 Standing Liberty Quarter that still resides in my 7070 Dansco Type set.

It's been one great trip since then and I'm still having fun!
Pete

Jinx86

I'll let you know when......When I become an adult....Few more years ought to be enough

chaze215

I was (and still am) very new to coin collecting. In 2008, I went to a small auction with my parents out where they live in NJ. As I was looking around, I saw a few Morgans to be auctioned. I picked up the 1878 pictured below and tried to examine it as best I could with the naked eye (of course I didnt have a loupe with me....lol). I was able to notice that the reverse had 8TF instead of 7TF. I knew I read somewhere (probably in the Red Book) that the norm is 7TF....not 8TF. As i waited for this "rare" 8TF Morgan to come up for bids I thought that it would go for a lot of money given it "rarity" (in my mind) and the unusually large amount of people. In the end, I bought it for $22. I was excited to get home, photograph it and throw it on here to see how I did on my 1st purchase. I was then told by forum members that I had an 1878 Morgan 8TF VAM 5 Top 100 which was worth $200+. I was a happy man!It was graded by NGC last year as AU58.

AnkurJ

This, any many don't like it. I personally love the coin.

Justacommeman

I was dying to know what RYK's first coin was. That's for all the stories and memories............MJ

scottgardener

I can't even remember what would be my first as an adult, since the transition happened back in 1991, and at the time my collecting habits were very different from today. I was still filling Whitman type folders and collecting modern proofs, as well as SBA dollars.

In medical school I went through a coin revival, collecting a few bullion pieces and a few Morgans. I continued during my residency years, about ten years ago, visiting coin shows and working on a set of silver eagles, followed by a dabbling in ancient Roman coins.

I regret missed opportunity here, because after that, for about six years, I hardly collected anything except searching for Statehood quarters from circulation. Then, in 2007, I realized I could afford this:



I also realized that it would have been cheaper just a few years earlier, and that it was getting more expensive really quickly!

It also turned out to be my best investment that year. I bought it about four months BEFORE the economy crashed and burned, and I was into gold ahead of the rush, the hoard of grissly-bearded prospectors fast behind me!

Unknown

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Raybo

If you have images of your first purchase..........................

Raybo

...............unless you still have it?

drddm

May have been a 2004-P Peace Medal Jefferson nickel PCGS MS67, but I sold it not long after I got it

TwoSides2aCoin

I was an adult when I was fifteen and I can't remember the coin... it was like forty one years ago. I sold it thinking I was a businessman at 18. Time flies when you're losing money.

pontiacinf

I was about 15 years old working in a store-guy brought in a few morgans and I loved em at first sight. Boss saw
I wanted em so he lent me the money to purchase. I loved em so much I took em home, got out some silver
polish, and learned my first lesson "how to turn nice coins into junk"

all I got out of it was junk silver and black hands

MrHalfDime

Perhaps not the very first coin I purchased as an adult, but definitely the very first half dime I ever purchased. It is a decidedly common and markedly unimpressive 1853 With Arrows half dime, in VF-30 condition, purchased in 1982 for the whopping price of $4.00. In my half dime reference collection, now numbering nearly 2000 pieces, this is accession number 1 - the very first half dime I ever purchased. [Each half dime in my collection is assigned a unique accession number to distinguish it in my database.] I have actually retained that coin, certainly not for its great numismatic or monetary value, but as the OP stated, for its sentimental value. That coin, and a few others purchased around the same time, led me to specialize in this fascinating denomination that has held my exclusive interest for nearly thirty years. I do not have an image of that coin, nor would anyone be impressed with it if I did. It is significant only because it is number 1.

stockergreen

<< <i>This, any many don't like it. I personally love the coin.

>>



I'm with ya there!

crypto79

1908/8 20$ in NGC AU55 that was a marginal coin, not bad but not great. I sold it when I discovered focus and started TD's