What coin or currency purchase do you think was the pivot point of your collecting hobby?

2ltdjorn

When did you go from sifting through change and filing holes, to ponying up for a coin purchase?

Did you dabble in <$100 coins before you broke the glass ceiling at the $500 or $1000 mark?

Did you buy poplular coins before venturing off into the unchartered waters of specialty sets?

Own some bust 50C before buying that rare die marriage?

Outhaul

For me, it was 1965. I had always traded small change from my paper route with with an old guy named Henry Erickson who owned a general store in Chelmsford Center where I grew up. One day he showed me a 1955/55 he had. Every kid I knew wanted one of those. It took almost a year of saving every penny I could, but eventually, I bought it for $50. By today's standards it was AU/Unc. When my father found out, he nearly killed me. That was a lot of money back then.

That was the turning point for me. I suddenly found myself visiting Henry and buying fewer, but better coins. And here I am today; lots of coins, but flat as a floogie.

Cheers

Bob

Boosibri

I was buying random coins until my first Dahlonega half eagle 8 or so years ago. That coin tipped me into rare gold.

BillJones

For me it was when my mother's cleaning lady sold me an 1846 large cent and an 1838 half dime. The coins didn't amount to too much, and I still have them, but the age of those pieces fascinated me and got me started with older "classic coins." I was in the 5th grade at the time.

oih82w8

A fellow collector from another forum gave me an 1839-O 10C No Drapery RPM FS-501 F-104 as part of a Secret Santa program a couple years ago. It was a cleaned, but the RPM is so distinct and visible that I started looking for others. So far, so good. Looking for the images...

ricko

My first purchases.... sooooo long ago... were more the random type...one step above searching change (which, at that time, had lots of excellent potential). Did not get serious until going for CC Morgans...then I tipped into gold... heck of a transition. Cheers, RickO

cccoins

I had a few tipping points.

Started buying bullion / certified saints in the begining, and hit gold at just the right time.

Then starting collecting the Mormon $5's, because I thought that they were really interesting when I was a child and saw them in the redbook. Someone then suggested that I collect CC coins, so I started buying 5's, and wanted to complete a nice run of them.

Then one day bought a CC $20, so I to rationalize the purchase, a couple of months later I decided to collect all CC gold.

After that, I received a call oftering me an 1876 cc 20c piece. I bought it and then set my sights on a 109 piece CC set, which is two short of the total number of date/mm/denom issues.

As you can see, I choose the take the oath that was presented to me, instead of committing to a specific vision and calling it final.

OKbustchaser

I was the weird guy...never went through the "searching my change" stage. That stuff was just what I used in order to buy "real" coins.

50 plus years later and I STILL haven't ever been interested in putting together that Lincoln/Jefferson/Washington, etc. set.

TwoSides2aCoin

I earned my stupidity and am still learning from it.

Baley

It was the advent of eBay and this forum that brought me back into the hobby and sharpened my focus on pre-1839 type coins.

seanq

Tipped into collecting in the late 1970s by my father, who used to bring home rolls of cents and nickels to search through so we could fill a couple of Whitman folders. I still remember finding a dateless Buffalo nickel and thinking it was the greatest thing ever.

Tipped into variety collecting in the late 1980s by a dealer (Bill Affanato) who used to set up at the Milford, CT show every month. He baited the hook by selling me a 2nd Edition CPG, and it was set a few days later when I cherrypicked myself, finding a nice 1941 DDO#1 Lincoln cent. That coin eventually graded MS64RB and was photographed for Flynn's Authoritative Guide to Lincoln Cents.

Tipped into collecting incomplete planchets in the early 1990s by a local estate auction purchase, a coupe of Wayte Raymond albums of wheat cents which included two pages of incomplete planchets. A few years later the explosion of eBay convinced me that I could attempt a date set.

Sean Reynolds

Barndog