Do You Remember Your First Purchases From a Coin Dealer?

BillJones

The first time I purchased coins from a professional coin dealer was just before Christmas 1964. My parents had planned a holiday trip to New York City and during that time I was scheduled visit the coin department at Gimbels Department Store. I was 15 years old and had been collecting coin since "Christmas morning, 1959."

The coin counter there was not very large. In fact it was located under an escalator and was not all that impressive. Although I didn't know it at time, company's (The Coin and Currency Institute) biggest claim to fame was that one of the principles, I think it was Jack Friedberg, had bought an 1894-S Barber Dime over the counter sometime before for $2,000. The coin was a "discovery piece" and only was in Good condition as the story goes.

I was armed with a want list, and I still remember the first treasures I purchased:

1908-S Indian Cent, VG-Fine @ $35.00
1875-P Twenty Cent Piece, Fine @ $20.00
1857 Flying Eagle Cent, Fine @ $9.00
1858 Small Letters Flying Eagle Cent, Fine @ $12.50
1858 Large Letters Flying Eagle Cent Fine @ $12.50
1854-O Half Dollar, VG @ $4.50
1855-O Half Dollar, VG, really nice eye appeal for the grade, VG @ $4.50

All of these coins and I have long since parted company although I might wish I still had the 1875-P Twenty Cent Piece. LOL

The first person I dealt with behind the counter was very courteous and helpful. After that the Christmas shopping rush descended, and things got chaotic.

Some odd things stick your mind when you think of events from more than 50 years ago. I remember that there is young man wearing a U.S. Army dress uniform there with a partial set of Barber Half Dollars in a Library of Coins album. He was looking to add to his collection, and I remember seeing a woman, whom I took to be his mother, hand him a $20 bill. "Wow" I thought, "I wish I had another 20 bucks to spend!"

Nevertheless that was my first experience with a professional coin dealer.

AUandAG

I had been a collector for just a few years when I made a trip to my first coin shop. Redwood City, California and
it was early in 1960. Did not have much money to spend, just a few bucks. Friends who were also collectors asked
me to go with. They were more experienced than I and a bit older as well. Two of them had the privilege of being
able to pull coins from the collection plates after Sunday Mass. I was not that lucky but loved the hunt anyway.

Dealer said that these were a sure shot for rarity/increase in price and at 25 cents a set it was a no brainer. Got
a dozen sets if I recall correctly and still have most of them...waiting for the increase in value to hit.

bob

DRUNNER

I have mentioned this story before in other threads . . . . my apologies.

As a 11-12 year old in Rose Park, a subdivision of SLC, I used to mow lawns for a couple people for $3 - $5 or so. Gas was 24.9 a gallon, I rode a Schwinn, and had a friend, Robert Vaughn, who was also interested in coins. Mom and Dad had an old safety deposit box insert in the cupboard with some large cents and an old original Iowa Commem (we were from there). We decided to embark on collecting with our lawn-mowing money. I was fascinated and Rob found a magazine ad that listed a variety of coins for various prices. Mail order. They listed 30-40 Lincolns in 'circulated' condition for 10c - 25c. each.

Rob and I ordered a few for our Whitman folders. I remember sending off the cash (!!!) and waiting by the mailbox daily for three weeks. Those days were an eternity. I will never forget the day they arrived . . . sitting at his kitchen table with coins I now give away to school kids for free. I was positively thrilled.

One of the coins I ordered was a killer at the time. I think it was $1.00 . . .a 1909-VDB. Almost slick when it arrived -- I could not have cared any less. Those faint letters on the back were like seeing the Holy Grail of numismatics.

The thrill has never left . . . . .

Drunner

TopographicOceans

Wow Bill. $98 in 1964 is the equivalent of $750 today. That's a lot of lawn mowing and newspapers delivered.
In the late 60's I got a Whitman Lincoln Cent album and some cents for Christmas. My brother and I could easily add to our albums from searching in change with lots of wheat's floating out there. But growing up in the Valley (as Tom Petty would later sing in Free Falling I was living in Reseda) there was a coin shop downtown. We would ride our bikes there to buy some coins.

I don't remember the dates, but they would have been early Lincoln cents.

I do remember learning something back then that holds true today -

1) Grading
2) The Spread

After buying some dates and later finding them in change, I would take the coins I bought back to the dealer to sell. If I bought the coin as VF for 85 cents, he'd tell me it's a Fine and offer me a 25c for it.

In high school I joined South Park Coins out of Texas mail order program. Where each month I'd get like $20 worth of coins, mostly silver. I still have a lot of those.

I always wanted a $2.50 Indian gold coin, but it was way too expensive. I stopped collecting in my early 20's and didn't pick up again until 2002. I bought an 8mm projector on eBay and noticed they had coins for sale. My first purchase was a 1999 Silver Statehood Quarter Set for $160.

I started buying PCGS modern commemoratives and built the #1 Registry Set (because I had one PR70DCAM - a 2001 Buffalo). Then I figured with the amount of money I had into the set, I could buy some real nice classic coins. So I sold the set for $15k on eBay.

My first classic coin was, yep, a 1925-D $2.50 Gold Indian, PCGS MS-64 for $895 on eBay in 2002. I did a major type gold Registry set in 64 and it was ranked #5 back in those days so I got it pedigreed.

Looking at the Price Guide, it hit a value of $2,400 back in May 2006. Today it shows a value of $920, so I guess I'm up $25

silverpop

yeah bought two morgans a 1921 and a 1899o VAM 11a

still have them both

roadrunner

When shopping at Christmas time in the early 1960's a trip to Macy's and Malley's in New Haven, CT meant going by Frank Dupee's coin shop. I was bit by the bug in 1962 and could only dream about owing the "$4-$12" large cents displayed by Mr. Dupee. They might as well have been 1804 silver dollars. My first purchases were probably Lincoln cents through the mail to either Frank Zyglia or Littleton Coins...both were frequent advertisers in the Marvel Comics I bought at that time. I went after some of the early S and D mints worth 5c to 20c each. Couldn't afford anything better. My Christmas present in 1964 was probably from Dupee's.....a 1924-D Lincoln cent in VF....value about $25....the high point of that market for decades. It was only until the past decade or so where that coin made it back above the $25 level. And that same $25 back in 1964 probably could have bought you several choice RED unc Indian cents. I wonder if my parents were trying to teach me a lesson about buying high....and eventually selling low.

I idolized coin dealers in those early years. Who knew that in <10 years I'd have just the opposite view. And those local B&M's deserved it.

agentjim007

Saw my first coin shop in the Yorktown mall 1968 and couldn't believe people bought coins. Everything up to then was collecting from change. I was well indoctrinated into the world of ripoff coin dealers. Bought a brand new 1968-S ( S was a big deal to us Chicago area kid collectors, you never spent a "S" mint cent) proof set for around 17 bucks. I probably delivered newspapers half the summer to make that money.

JJSingleton

Dang it... I really can't remember. Thanks Bill for making me feel so old and that my mind is going.

keyman64

I still have four of the five.

1963 PR Washington 25c Raw in 2x2 $3
1916-D Barber 25c Raw in 2x2 $9
1859 IHC 1c XF in 2x2 Can't recall the price right now but I learned later in life it was whizzed. I should use it as a pocket piece.
1939-D Jefferson 5c VF in 2x2 Raw Can't recall the price on this one either.
1950-D Jefferson 5c XF in 2x2 Raw (actually, I sold this one for a profit)

topstuf

First was a $2.50 Indian for $14.50

10 years later, I was getting reamed 35 bucks for a cleaned Seated Dollar.

Cameonut

When I was about 8 or so (1962), I had amassed a potpourri of different coins. Most of my coin collection was cents and nickels culled from bags of parking meter coins and placed in blue Whitman folders. I couldn't afford dimes or quarters so I stuck to the small stuff.

Ironically, I used to frequent a store in Racine, Wisconsin - RAM Coin - owned by Roy A. Miller who I believe was also a contributor to the Red Book at the time. Whitman (Western Publishing) was also located in Racine as well. Anyway RAM Coin was also a stamp shop and I was more interested in the variety in stamps than coins, so I traded some of my "extra" coins and notes for stamps for my album.

But I saw the light a year or two later and stuck to coins only. My first coin purchase was an uncirculated set of 1955 dimes for my Whitman album. I don't recall what I paid, but I still have the dimes today.

winky

Columbian half for .75

amwldcoin

<< <i>When I was about 8 or so (1962), I had amassed a potpourri of different coins. Most of my coin collection was cents and nickels culled from bags of parking meter coins and placed in blue Whitman folders. I couldn't afford dimes or quarters so I stuck to the small stuff.

Ironically, I used to frequent a store in Racine, Wisconsin - RAM Coin - owned by Roy A. Miller who I believe was also a contributor to the Red Book at the time. Whitman (Western Publishing) was also located in Racine as well. Anyway RAM Coin was also a stamp shop and I was more interested in the variety in stamps than coins, so I traded some of my "extra" coins and notes for stamps for my album.

But I saw the light a year or two later and stuck to coins only. My first coin purchase was an uncirculated set of 1955 dimes for my Whitman album. I don't recall what I paid, but I still have the dimes today. >>



Are you like me and wish you could get what you paid for those stamps even in todays dollars?

pennyannie

I never bought a coin from a coin dealer (B&M) until 2003 or so but as a kid in the mid 1970's on Saturday I went to my dads office while he checked the mailed and did what ever he had to do. I had 2 hours in downtown ft worth to call home. I used to go into Wallace coin store but never stayed more than a few minutes before they basicly told me to move along. Hit a magazine store after that. My aunt worked at a bank and every xmas I got a morgan dollar and in 1976 I got the bi- centeninneal sets. I still have them.

SaorAlba

I had started collecting with coins my dad brought back from SE Asia. The first coin I bought though was when I was about 10 years old, I bought an 1822 large cent for $6.

rec78

Can't really remember my first purchase but it was something like an 1899 Indian head cent for 10 cents or a 1898 V-nickel. The first mail-order coin I got was an 1816 large cent for $2.50 from a dealer who had a hoard of Randall hoard dates. (1816-1820). I wanted the earliest possible dated coin in g-f condition for as low as possible cost. I still have it in my large cent collection. I never looked up the Sheldon number-they were not important back then. This was around 1967.

ldhair

I do but don't know for sure what coins I walked away with. I was a little kid searching the junk silver to fill holes.
Between mowing yards and coke bottle money, I had fun only paying 2X face for silver. I really miss those days.

ambro51

I had a great fascination with NJ Coppers at age 10, and bought one with lawn mowing money. Still have it.

oih82w8

I guess you could call the counterperson a "dealer" at Woolco Department store. It was a 1927 Standing Liberty Quarter at was housed in one of those 2 x 2 holders black with four white stars. It was kinda grungy from what I remember, so I took it out and "cleaned" it with baking soda and water paste mixture that a "friend" told me about. I still have the coin and need to take an image of it...although it is pretty rough looking, especially after 35 years after the cleaning incident.

My first true dealer sale was a 1971 Proof Set I bought at the State Fair about 35 years ago. I still have it as well.

ricko

As a kid, I never purchased from a dealer (there was one in town...a candy store that had some coins as a sideline). There were plenty of good coins to be found in change then. My first dealer purchase was years ago... a '64 mint set with AH that the dealer did not have priced as such... minor cherrypick. Cheers, RickO

TwoSides2aCoin

No.

jesbroken

I remember it well, my brother-in-law took me to Mel's coin and stamp shop in Johnson City, TN in 1972
where I went on a mission to buy 1932 D and S Washington quarters. I found them and they both were in
VF condition(raw of course). I kept them for 40 years and found the 32S mintmark to be suspicious by a pair
of dealers at a coin show. I took them to Miller Coin of Bristol, TN who not only said the S was fine but immediately
made me an offer for both coins, which I accepted. Ahhhh, memories.

guitarwes

I was a little late to the coin collecting party as I was infatuated with stamps early on and then really heavy into baseball cards. In early 2003, after my baseball card craze had been dead for 10+ years, my dad and brother were metal detecting a good bit. I joined in on the hunt (mostly to be their "digger"), and my fascination for the history and value of old coins was sparked. In early 2004, I walked into the local coin shop in a neighboring town and purchased my first "collector coin" from a real dealer. 1904-O Morgan Dollar in Ch BU. Still have it in the same 2X2 it was in. Paid $33 for it.

My very first "collector coin" purchase that wasn't from a dealer was in late 2003 from a rotating display case in an antique mall that had a smattering of various cheap junk coins. Mixed in the junk was a problem free 1921-D Mercury Dime in F+. I kept coming back to it after several weeks of looking at it thinking how in the world could I justify to my wife spending $45 on a Dime? Heavy breathing and sweaty palmed, I handed over my money to the cashier. Still have it.

guitarwes

dupe

gonzer

1971. A 1950-D Jefferson for $8.50 from my local B&M, still have it.

golden

I have been trying to forget the first purchase from a coin dealer. After that I went to another dealer and had very many memorable purchases.

clarkbar04

Most of my buys were from a coin magazine, I think my first dealer buy was in a long gone coin & donut shop (couldn't have been many of those around?) and was probably some junk morgans for $6 or $7 each.

I remember I traded a friend for my first morgan, he lived in an old house and was dug from his yard. I traded a GI Joe X-wing fighter jet for it. The plane cost about $30 back in those days and the morgan was worth about $5 or $6. But to me, all old coins were surely worth a lot of money.

johnny9434

i dont remember that part of it ( which was the first coin purchase )

Rarity

Baggy MS60 1884 Silver Dollar
Decent looking 1945 Walking Liberty Half in Uncirculated
A flawless deep cameo 1961 US proof set
A flat below average 1955 US proof set
A pristine 1964 US proof set

Sold the 1884 silver dollar for a big loss Shipped the 1964 proof set and 1945 Walking Liberty to a dealer in NY to sell but the dealer never received the coins. Coins were shipped first class mail without insurance
Traded the 1955 below average looking proof set for a much nicer 1955 flat (not box) set. Bought a box (original toning) 1954 US proof set.

Regret:
Saw a few amazingly looking DMPL Morgan Silver Dollars in a local coin store but was too afraid to ask for the price. Bought a virtually perfect white (no tone) 1882-S Morgan Dollar instead

Walkerfan

I started buying coins, when I was in 4th or 5th grade, in the mid to late 1970s. So I don't know what the first was. I do remember some early Lincolns---1917-S, etc.. in VF-XF grade and an early Mercury dime in the same grade around that time. I started buying raw Walkers in 1994 or so and I remember buying a raw MS 63 1937-D at my first big show. I was about 28 y/o. My first certified Walker was from Numismatic Corp. of Arizona. It was a 1916-D NGC MS 62. I saw it advertised in Coinage or Coin World. I paid $280.00 for it, which included shipping. It was fully original but I sold it to help fund an upgrade about 4 years ago. I kept the original receipt, however, which is dated 11/06/1996.

WildIdea

I think some of the first coins I bought were bullion, wanted and oz of gold. K rand was 350.00 I think in 1998-99. Went back in to buy some classics and got wailed on in the end as I was buying raw problem coins with no education. Must have looked like an easy mark and a dumping station. I wailed on him years later though as he never attributed his foreign coins. Sitting on some killer Mexican coins some top pops. He's closed now and his old shop a parking lot.

SanctionII

Nice thread with good stories.

In the early to mod 1960's my parents took me to Dan Brown's coin shop in downtown Denver. I picked out a 1950D Mint State nickel. Still have it, sitting in a 7070 album
I do not remember if I paid for it with my.money or whether my parents paid for it.

Dave99B

I remember mailing away for Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels from Joe Hollingsworth, out of Portland, in about 1968.

I think my first few orders were for $2 or $3 dollars, max, but I received some neat, early AG dates, which I expect I still have....somewhere. Don't recall the dates, but I could not have been happier!

Dave

OnlyGoldIsMoney

Yes - an uncirculated 1955-S Cent for about 50 cents back in 1965.

hchcoin

1884 O Uncirculated Morgan Dollar.

ProofArtworkonCircs

About 1947 I tried to get Whitman folders for my Lincoln cents. I ended up with album one ending in 1941 and album two starting in 1946.
To get around this I mail ordered from a dealer 70 miles away. He said he was out of stock and sent me a buffalo nickel folder. He said that was a nice series to collect.
It was more than I could afford to do.

The only victory in those days was buying a 1948 Israel 25 mil piece for fifty cents.

joeykoins

Interesting topic! I think I remember? It was back in 1995. If I recall correctly, it was the 1931s Lincoln Cent in a Fine condition. I only paid $22 smackeroos. I think anyway? My mind is very different since 1995. Now when I think of it, it was $42 smackeroos, not $22. See what I mean?

okracer

I remember well,

My first purchase was at age 8 (1967), my dad and I went to a local coin show. I got a nice 1902 Indian Head Cent for 30 cents.

Still have that coin today!

Hydrant

Yes, I remember it well. It was a Barber dime. A lovely gem. Cost me 15¢. Still have it.

Baley

I think they were indian cent, buffalo nickel, liberty nickel, started my first 20th century type set in 1977 at age 10, I'd gotten some silver coins from my grandparents but they hadn't saved any minor coinage. the 3 coins were in the VG range and were less than a dollar each. Still have them around somewhere, and they're now worth.. less than a dollar each.

lordmarcovan

I do... pretty vividly.

Believe it or not, one of my earlier YN purchases from a dealer was an 1870-CC half dollar I got for fifty bucks (!) of my birthday money.

I think it was the first Carson City coin I ever owned. Certainly the rarest coin I owned in my youth.

It was AG/Fair with a yellowish band across the reverse from an old cellophane tape stain, but the date and mintmark were clear.

I wonder what the same coin would sell for today.

Or, for that matter, what it has sold for over the last thirty years. If the tape stain were still there, I'd recognize it immediately if it ever turned up on the market.

halfhunter

<< <i>When I was about 8 or so (1962), I had amassed a potpourri of different coins. Most of my coin collection was cents and nickels culled from bags of parking meter coins and placed in blue Whitman folders. I couldn't afford dimes or quarters so I stuck to the small stuff.

Ironically, I used to frequent a store in Racine, Wisconsin - RAM Coin - owned by Roy A. Miller who I believe was also a contributor to the Red Book at the time. Whitman (Western Publishing) was also located in Racine as well. Anyway RAM Coin was also a stamp shop and I was more interested in the variety in stamps than coins, so I traded some of my "extra" coins and notes for stamps for my album.

But I saw the light a year or two later and stuck to coins only. My first coin purchase was an uncirculated set of 1955 dimes for my Whitman album. I don't recall what I paid, but I still have the dimes today. >>



If those dimes are still in that Whitman are they now nicely toned?
.

HH

rhedden

Bought an 1885 Indian in G4, a 1931-s Buffalo in scratched Fine, and a 1909 Liberty Nickel in Good for about $6 from a coin/jewelry dealer who took time out of his schedule to help a kid find some cheap coins. I think I was about 11 at that time. Fast forwarding to 25 years later, I had bought over $200k of coins from the same dealer. Not a bad return on his investment of 10 minutes, eh?

Walkerfan

Probably around 1977, when I was about 11 y/o. I remember, b/c the coin shop owner had a lot of posters of Elvis for sale, b/c that was the year that he died----it was a pretty big deal back then. I used to collect beer cans around that time, as well, and he was selling those, too, as they were quite popular in the 1970s. Before that it was baseball cards, when I was really young. The first coins that I bought were likely foreign coins, then early Lincolns and Mercs (both in VF-XF) and a Barber Half (in VG) condition. The Barber was a 1894-S and my dad actually bought it for me and I still have it. Although I dabbled in them; I didn't get serious into Walkers, until about 15 years later, when I bought a 1940-S in raw XF around 1993 or 1994 and then a 1937-D in raw MS 63 a couple years after that circa 1995.

kranky

I think my first purchase was at St. Clair Coin Shop in downtown Pittsburgh, probably around 1967. It was a 1960-P small date Lincoln, just like AUandAG. Don't remember the cost but the couple examples I had pulled from my paper route collection money were not BU and it must have seemed cheap for whatever the price was. My first coin show purchase was inexplicably a $5 National Currency from my hometown bank. It was at the first show I attended, I was too overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of coins for sale so I was paralyzed by indecision, and I had never heard of National Currency - to see a piece of paper money with my hometown's name was too cool. It was from the late Art Kagin.

CaptHenway

Yep. Went to a coin shop in Redford, MI to buy a 1955-S cent to complete my album. Cost 50 cents.

OKbustchaser

Yes, 1965 and I remember the dealer refused to sell it to me until I could convince him that I knew enough to grade this coin and show him why I wanted it instead of another. It cost 5 bucks---6 months allowance plus several grocery store deliveries for families in the neighborhood..

rhedden

<< <i>Yes, 1965 and I remember the dealer refused to sell it to me until I could convince him that I knew enough to grade this coin and show him why I wanted it instead of another. It cost 5 bucks---6 months allowance plus several grocery store deliveries for families in the neighborhood. >>




Well-meaning Dealer: "Tell me why you want this coin instead of this other 1794 cent."

YN: "Well Sir, this one is an S-48 Starred reverse, and the other one isn't."


It's not an S-48, obviously, but it would be priceless to hear this conversation at a show.

OKbustchaser

<< <i>

<< <i>Yes, 1965 and I remember the dealer refused to sell it to me until I could convince him that I knew enough to grade this coin and show him why I wanted it instead of another. It cost 5 bucks---6 months allowance plus several grocery store deliveries for families in the neighborhood. >>




Well-meaning Dealer: "Tell me why you want this coin instead of this other 1794 cent."

YN: "Well Sir, this one is an S-48 Starred reverse, and the other one isn't."


It's not an S-48, obviously, but it would be priceless to hear this conversation at a show. >>



LOL

supertooth

Ah YES, Bill Jones, I do remember. Sometime around 1955, my grandmother and I ventured by bus to downtown Baltimore to a B and M shop. Like soooo many others, I had finished a Wash set----all but the 32D coin. No matter how hard that I had looked, I just NEVER found one in change. So, my grandmother laid out 5 bucks for that coin for me. It was in a nice "good" condition----today it would likely be a G-VG coin. At any rate, I still have the piece----and a fond memory too. Bob [supertooth]

TigersFan2

<< <i>The first time I purchased coins from a professional coin dealer was just before Christmas 1964. My parents had planned a holiday trip to New York City and during that time I was scheduled visit the coin department at Gimbels Department Store. I was 15 years old and had been collecting coin since "Christmas morning, 1959." >>



What's the difference between a "professional coin dealer" and a "coin dealer"?

Anyway, my first purchase from a coin shop was either a 1971 Proof Set (forget where) or a circulated Franklin Half (at a coin shop at the Omni in Atlanta back when it had an ice skating rink and was a mall... I think it cost $3). Both purchases happened in the mid-1970s.