At what age did you become interested in Numismatics? And what age did you make your first "rea

2ltdjorn

To All:

I first laid my eyes on my Uncle's childhood accumulation of coins. Each coin was individually wrapped in 2x2s, and properly displayed in a binder. He had a complete set of 1932-1964 silver issues, all pulled from circulation. He even had some red 1901 IHC which he received in payment for mowing a yard. He still talks about how the lady pulled them from an OBW roll. He gave me a redbook, and I remember searching through the pages, and checking within his binder to find the coin. I was 15, and I was hooked. I was a weekly guest at the coin shop during the summers. My uncle talked about a guy from his town, Springfield, TN. A doctor (which my uncle is as well) who assembled the greatest gold pattern collection of all time. Dr. Wilkison.

I didn't make my first real purchase until after graduation from college. I was stationed at Walter Reed AMC in Washington DC. I was lucky to find 2 coin shops within walking distance from my apartment. The first shop ( I won't name the name, but they have dealt with 8 out of 10 of the Dollar/Quarter Mules) yelled at me and kicked me out of the shop because I did not call ahead and had the nerve to ask to view a coin within the case.

I walked to the next shop, Bonanza Coins. I met Julian Leidman. He was friendly, and knowledgeable. I quickly ran up a $750 tab. While I expected to pay over the next 2 months, and leave the coins there. To my surprise Julian let me take the coins home with me that day. I couldn't believe it, what trust. I was hooked. I also learned that Julian had been one of the dealers to help broker the collection of Dr Wilkison's gold patterns when they came to market.

I also joined two coin clubs within the DC area, The Montgomery County Coin Club & The Washington Numismatic Society. Both clubs opened up my eyes, and paid for the membership cost 1000x. The members were knowledgeable, and very proud to show their finer pieces off. I met a older gentleman, by the name of Wayne. I remember he displayed some interesting patterns at one meeting. Which included a 1850 J-119 1C. I contacted him by email, and he agreed to meet and possible sell a few items. He came to my apartment, and on my kitchen table pulled out some US currency, and about 10 different patterns. I couldn't believe I had about $25,000 worth of coins on my ikea table. It took about another year, and a deployment in Afghanistan. But I finally added that 1850 J-119 to my collection.

I trace my holdings to my Uncle, whose fascination with a small town physician, spawned a new generation of collectors. I was 24.

commoncents05

I started collecting in the fourth grade, so about age 10. I bought a quite a few cheap coins in my teens, but my first "real-deal" purchase I made on my 18th birthday, a 1942/1 Merc in PCGS VF30.

-Paul

oneor11

Thanks for sharing your story.

I first became interested in coins when I was 14. Got a job at a Barber Shop sweeping up hair and shining shoes. Went to my first coin show at 15 and bought a few "BU" Peace Dollars. I dropped out of the hobby until I was 24, and that was only to sell all of my small collection so I could move my then fiancee to Houston with me. Now I'm 33 and just re-entered the hobby. I made my first "real" purchases in December of last year and now and am back fully in the swing of things...learning things, reading books, trying to form connections through forums, etc. I think this is a real keeper hobby for me.

Jacob

Cocoinut

I was interested in coins by age 5, and started my first collection from circulation at 6. I didn't buy any coins until I was 15, and by 18 really got into buying uncirculated early Lincolns, Mercuries (at 85 cents for common dates), and Walking Liberty halves ($3.50 for common dates plucked from original rolls). One of the local dealers offered 6 different BU Morgan dollars for $9.95, and those were the first dollars purchased. Those really were the good old days (late 1960's).

Jim

BillyKingsley

I have recounted this story, but I'll recount it again.

Back in 1995, I was 11 years old at most, for the first 10 months of the year, I was 10 years old. That's when I got into coins for the first time. A lot of it was spurred on by the error 1995 cent, which I remember looking for quite a bit. (I've never found one, and still don't have it). I lost interest sometime circa 1996. I'm not sure when exactly, but when I got into it to stay, I pulled out my binder and the last coins in there were 1996.

I don't know if I purchased anything back then- most of what I had was from circulation, pulled by me or by my parents back in the day.

In 1999, when the State Quarters were introduced, I got one of them, too, but I just put them into a Littleton folder, I didn't pay attention to the mint marks- I didn't even know what they stood for until I joined this forum. While we did have to pay for some of them, I don't think that counts as my first real purchase, or when I really got into the hobby.

Then, fast forward to May of 2008. We had to get a new heating unit, and when we were getting out, my dad's collection was found...leaning against the back of the heater. (!) To this day, I still am amazed that our house didn't blow up because he also stored congealed house paint right next to it as well. (Our new heater has nothing at all next to it on any side!)

Anyway, this was stuff I hadn't seen before. A handfull of Mercury dimes, a bunch of wheat cents- several $2 bills, some older paper money, like a large size note, a couple of red seals, a North Africa $1, and 4 peace dollars. I had never seen anything like them before. I hadn't even known the US had issued large size paper money, or large size dollars before that day.

Then, late May, we go to Cape Cod for a vacation. While we were taking a ride to the ocean, we passed a coin shop. It was closed, but we went back the next day. I purchased, among other things, a slightly bent 1832 half dime and a 1852 cent. I had no idea what either was at the time, but I knew they were old, and I knew they were affordable- $5 each- so they came home with me. I consider the cent my first actual purchase, and to date is one of only 2 large cents I own. That half dime remains my oldest US coin. I have gone long stretches without anything new, but even though I may not be able to afford new additions often, I still consider myself a collector for life now.

I joined this forum on June 1st, 2008, and was quickly directed to purchase a Red Book- which I did- and taking in as much knowledge as I possibly can, which I still try to do.

guitarwes

26

When I was in my early teens my dad had some accumulations of earlier 20th century coins (Buffalos, Wheaties, Merc dimes) that I thought were really neat but were more interested in baseball cards at the time (oh how I wish I would have gotten interested in coins instead). My brother was an avid metal detectorist and I would go with him finding all kinds of coins and such which kinda sparked some more interest in coins since he was find real silver dimes that were worth 70 cents each back then. The bug bit when I was 26 when I saw a VG+ 21-D Mercury Dime in an antique mall case. It cost $45 at the time and I thought I was crazy, really really crazy for spending $45 on a dime, but "the book" had it valued at more than that, so I justified the purchase, whoops. I found out that a town close to me had a B&M coin shop so the next day I headed straight up there and bought a BU 04-O Morgan Dollar from there for $33.

The rest is history and the bug had been biting heavy since.

bronzemat

One day in 1985 I asked my step grandfather what the "D" stood for on a penny I had & his eyes beemed, he told me what the mint marks meant and about a hour later he pulled out a box with some pretty slick mercuries, v nickels, buffs, and wheats. He said I could have them. Later I ended up getting the usual penny folders and such. About 1986 I went to my first coin shop visit, had $10 to spend & ended up buying a 1883 EF V Nickel, paid a little under that at the time & the owners could tell I was a newb, the female in the shop told me to wait and she came back with a sandwitch bag full of low end stuff like a over cleaned 2C, very very slick shield nickel, some silver rosies and world coins. I was happy.

From then on I always bought my coins there, most expensive was $35 on a bid board for a 1921 D Morgan, its in a MS64 NGC Holder now

I quit collecting in 1995 cause of teenage years, school and such.

I got back into collecting for some reason in late 2008, boy did times change. Never had I seen "slabs' before & the cost of coins going up so much.

I did resume my U.S. type collecting, getting rid of childhood coins I didnt want.

I joined my first messageboard for coins in 09, viewing the world coin section I saw Ancients being posted. One thing led to another I ended up buying one in that sites BST section and from then on I have been hooked.

All my coin $ now goes to ancients. I dont have to play the slab game, they are fairly cheap, and they are more historical then U.S. coins.

As DH would say, "I am having fun with my coins".

RichR

I became MORE interested in coins when I inherited my grandfather's [relatively basic] silver and copper collection when I was 10, back in 1977...which was odd because my father was always a collector, but the switch wasn't turned on until then.

And it's been downhill ever since!!!

Mission16

Birth? Dad started us kids young sorting bags of wheats by date and mintmark.

First thing I can recalll was buying a set of Irish 3 pence from Bill Rys in central New York. Guess I was 7 or 8 at the time. I had that thing for 30 years.


First coin club I belonged to was The Oneida Coin Club. (Oneida, N.Y.) It was held in the basement of the municipal building. And we would go to either the Dan-Dee Donuts or the soft-serve place afterwards.


Oh. Hell. Am I getting old.

PerryHall

I started filling holes in a cent album from circulation at about the age of 7. At 17 I bought my first real coin---a BU 1927 Saint Gaudens double eagle for $47 from a mail order dealer. It was a nice coin that would grade at least MS63 today.

mrearlygold

I took a pencil eraser to my older bro's collection ( complete lincolns, indians, typical "sets" we all put together in whitmans ) when I was home sick from school . Boy oh boy did I face the ultimate collectors wrath when he got home and saw all the nice shiny coins! That was a long time ago, early 1960's, maybe 1960/61 ish. First purchase was probably 1969 after I brought an 1833 dime , last 3 high which I found in pocket change into the Garwood Coin Shop to evaluate it and then I bought a red book too. The owner had an original bag of morgan dollars which I also had the pleasure of viewing

renomedphys

Around 13 years old I got a handful of early wheats in change and started from there. Nothing I collected back then was bought for more than about $40. I did Lincolns and a 7070 set, and it was a lot of fun. I used to ride my bike around town with a bucket and wash cars to fuel my habit. I did OK. I had all but the 3 expensive Lincolns in decent grades. I still have most of that set. The 7070 was also pretty well filled out, except for the early dollars and early cents. I did have this holed EF 1839-O Half that I eventually sold for about $50 when I was in college. I think I actually sold the entire 7070 set for about $600 that day. At that time I had very little interest in collecting. School and life took over, and collecting went on hiatus for a couple of decades.

Fast forward to age 35. My silly wife found my old Lincoln book and decided to buy me a nice EF 1909-S for Christmas. I remember opening it up and thinking "what's this for?". She was miffed at the time, as my appreciation wasn't really that apparant. But she awakened the beast, and it soon took over. I guess that made it a double back-fire gift. My first "real money" coin was an ungraded 22 no-D in high VF for about $2000. It eventually graded at VF35 by our hosts, so I didn't do too bad. From that point, I started upgrading my set until I hit the top ten in the "with varieties" set on the PCGS registry. Proud day. Up to that point, I think the most I spent on a single coin was for the '55 DDO in PCGS 64RD. I bought that coin for $13K. That was a record price for that coin at the time, but it sold eventually for $16K, so again, I don't feel too bad about it.

Now my focus is on the proofs, and mainly on small cents, although I do buy the occasional large cent for type. My biggest purchase was the 1909 VDB proof in PCGS 65RB for $63K. I bought that coin at the top of the market, and suffered greatly for it. I did sell it last November for $38K, taking a stunning $25K loss on a single coin. It all turned out OK, though, as I was able to turn that money toward a "bottom of the market" home purchase, saving about $450K over the original 2007 price of $750K. I guess I'd rather lose $25K than $450K like the bank did, so again, I did OK.

ricko

I was eight years old, with a paper route. Started pulling coins from circulation. Lost them when I went into the Navy and my Mom used them for cash - she just never understood coin collecting. (That included three '55 DDO's) Never purchased a coin until the 80's.... do not remember what it was now. Cheers, RickO

IrishMikey

First interested at age 9, also a paper route. Bought my first real coin at age 14, a Proof
Barber half dollar. Bought a 10 coin gold type set at age 17, from the money I made over
an entire summer of odd jobs. All eventually proved to be genuine!

nibanny

My dad always had coins around (for the majority gold ones). Almost every present to family members for important occasions where either Sovereigns or Krugerrands. (some times in the form of bracelets or jewelry)
I have been saving all the coins (good ole italian Liras) with a different design along with all the foreign ones I could find back then living in a small town in the middle of Tuscany.
I wasn't though a collector, I just liked to have some coins in different shapes and colors but wasn't following a series or studying the history behind them.
When the Euro arrived, I started a set (how tough to get the 1 and 2 cents from Finland!) but my first big purchase though came in 2009, with the UHR.
I am now something in between from a bullion stacker and a collector. I am enjoying but sides!

Pokermandude

Started when I was about 10. Relatives started giving me change from their overseas travels and my collection grew quite a lot. Made some small purchases at a local B&M including one slick 1907 quarter. I remembered that it said $1 on the 2x2 but I think he sold it to me for 75 cents. I remember really liking the design and King Edward VII on the obverse. I still have it, in my junk silver pile. Even today Edward VII is probably my favourite monarch portrait of any Canadian coin.

Took a long hiatus from collecting and got back into it in my mid 20's. First "real" purchase I don't really remember. I started off buying small lots of large cents and silver 5 cent pieces off ebay to finish those two series. Then gravitated to more quality coins.

MidLifeCrisis

When I was about 10, my grandparents gave me an 1878-CC Morgan Dollar and a 1926-S Peace Dollar. That started it all.

I bought my first "real" coin - as in, a really big deal for me - when I was about 13. It was a mint state Mercury Dime that I bought through the mail from New England Rare Coin Galleries. I practically camped out by the mailbox waiting for that coin to arrive! I think I gave $45.00 for it!

Unknown

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RGJohn

Once upon a time.............


Well OK, it wasn't quite that long ago but it has been a while.
But 'when I was a boy' we ALL collected coins. Everybody had the blue Whitman's and we all tried to fill them from circulation. I still have my dad's Lincoln cent album. It was a fun thing that virtually everyone did. We never paid our bill for our paper routes until we had carefully scrutinised every single coin. Those were primarily pennies and nickles (for our sets) but also dimes, quarters and the rare half dollar. I didn't collect dimes or quarters because I couldn't afford the capital investment but one of my older brothers did. I can't recall that anybody was sufficiently flush to collect halves. This was an era when I delivered the newspaper to your house (up to the door, not 'porching' it) for 42 cents per week ( 6 days, Sunday 25 cents extra). And a good many tight-fisted (now angels so let's just never mind how I regarded them then) paid me just precisely that. Others gave me 45 cents and a few, then and still angels went whole-hog and paid 50 cents.
-----
I can still recall the excitement when a peer found a 50-d nickel! The discussions surrounding Mercury dimes. Was this one better than that one? Would so-and-so be willing to trade this for (fill in the blank). Nobody handled a penny except that they
examined it for the possibility that it was 'worth' more than face value.
----
Numismatics isn't a hobby, it's a lifestyle

bosco5041

I don't know, and I forgot.really, but I'll guess I was about 10 when old coins interested me, and maybe 18 when I found my first coin dealer and purchased from him.I'm 61 now.

halfcentman

I was eight years old in 1974. My dad gave me a huge bag of Wheat Cents because I was ticking off by not doing chores. He told be to be quiet and look at the coins. The rest is history as I have never not been involved in numismatics since.

My first purchase was a nice BU 1943D War Nickel. My first real purchase was going into Stone House Coin Shop in Scotch Plains, NJ on February 1978. I got a nice 1909-S Lincoln for about $50.00.

messydesk

Started when I was 8 filling a Whitman folder with wheat cents from a paper bag my parents had. First "real deal" was probably shortly thereafter when I had to spend some of my money to get one I didn't have at a B&M in Waukesha, WI. It was probably less than $1, but it was a real $1. I'm not sure what other threshold to use for "real deal" other than "not face value." Compared to buying the stuff I buy now, that may seem like nothing, but what I buy now would be (who am I kidding -- is) scoffed at as nothing by some dealers and collectors.

jdimmick

I started collecting at the age of 5, when my brother bought coins from Littleton mail order, I would get to pick out a few of the rest left.

My first serious purchase was an 1877 indian in Fine for 450.00 around the age of 12. Last coin I needed for a VF set (minus the 77 which I could only afford the fine) saved all summer long to buy it at the local sept coin show.

magikbilly

Oooh, 1975ish? I was 7 or so? First purchased a few Barber 10C and 25C for $5 (and got change!). First "real" purchase was a Gem Proof Walker years later, that was my "coin" - after that Pr 37-72 and Pr 10c.

Best,
Eric