What got you interested in coin collecting?
CCGGG
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Do you remember what got you started/interested in coin collecting?
I can remember exactly what got me started. I was in the second grade and on the front page of our "Weekly Reader" was a picture and article about the new Lincoln Memorial penny that would be coming out in 1959. I wish I still had that specific Weekly Reader issue.
I thought that was so cool and I couldn't wait to get one in change. The rest is history, been collecting ever since then.
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My uncle give me a copy of the 13th Edition of the Red Book and two Whitman cent folders for Christmas in 1959. Everything else started from there.
My grandfather had a collection he assembled from circulation, I assume. He showed them to me when I was 6 or 8 and helped me put together a whitman tri-fold lincoln cent book which is the only coins from my childhood I still have.
I'm late to the game. At the ripe old age of 34, I saw a coin sales show on late night TV, and coins I'd never heard of before....like that rare and amazing Franklin Half Dollar!
Thankfully, I didn't spend (much) on TV sales, but instead ran out and bought a few books.....
I've had a fascination for old coins since my dad found a 1916 Buffalo nickel in the early 1970's, but I did not start coin collecting until my wife (who worked at a bank) brought home a bunch of 90% silver quarters in the 1987. That's when I really started collecting for the first time.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
I got interested with coins when I was very young after seeing them set up in a display case for sale. I have been hooked on coin collecting ever since. That was in 1965.
working in the Industry
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
Finding a 1923-S Lincoln cent in my paper route collection money. My dad bought me a Whitman folder for my next birthday, and I was off to the races! Best find back then was a 1914-D in pretty wretched condition. Still filled the hole in the album.
1964, my uncle, a coin collector, gave me a brand new 1964 half dollar.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
Getting different coins on my paper route as a young lad...coins have always intrigued me it seems...Even when I lived in Europe and the West Indies, I always checked my change...Cheers, RickO
My grandmother gave me a proof set for Christmas in 1954.
(Funny you should ask. I just posted the Lincoln Cent from that set in another thread).
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
I can't remember exactly when, but I also can't remember a week that my dad wasn't roll searching. His father and his father, and my mother's father and his father were all collectors. Even during the depression they had kept coins. No sense spending them if all your food comes from your land or you hunt and fish for it.
When I was a kid in the early '60's, my neighbor used to get sewn bags full of parking meter change in Racine, Wisconsin. On rainy days or winter days when we couldn't play outside, we would go thru the bags to see if we could fill our Whitman penny folders (made down the street at Western Publishing). Found all but the key dates and a bunch of Indians as well.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
My dad gave me a GSA 1882 CC Morgan and some silver American and foreign coins that he had accumulated. This was around 1974.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
A wide lipped shot glass, hot dog tongs and a 1812 half dollar.
The story goes, my Great Uncle Louie asked me to help him move a china cabinet in his garage in 1956. I remember the year because he bought a brand new Ford and it was a bit longer so he needed more room in his garage. Anyway, it was a 2 piece china hutch and when we took the top section off I noticed a dusty shot glass and grabbed it only to find a coin I had never seen before wedged into the shot glass. I showed it to my uncle and he said he thought the shot glass was his Dad's and wanted it back but said I could have the coin. 1812...am I seeing this right? Done deal, but now how do I get the coin out?
Not knowing much about science, my wise uncle said I should freeze the shot glass with the coin, remove it from the freezer and let it warm up, upside down. He suggested the coin would stay colder (shrunk) longer than the shot glass would (expanding) and the coin should just fall out. Well, we'll see.
The shot glass with stuck coin stayed in the freezer for maybe 3 hours, a lifetime for an antsy kid who wanted to see this jewel, but the time finally came to retrieve the frozen shot glass. My uncle handed me some hot dog tongs and said, "Be careful, that's hand blown glass." I was more concerned about the frosty half dollar but retrieved the frozen glass out of the freezer and placed it gingerly upside down on a dish towel.
We waited and waited and the frost began to clear...anticipating the release but nothing happened. My uncle looked at it and reached out and held the thick end of the shot glass and raised it about an inch off the towel when it suddenly let it go.
the half landed on the towel and as the frost cleared I could see the eagle on the other side of the coin. At the time I did not even know what 'reverse' meant in numismatics much less 'obverse' but this was my introduction to coin collecting, a AU-58 grade that did not exist yet.
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
One of my chores as a kid was to "rototill" the vegetable garden by hand using a pitch fork and a metal rake before we planted. We weren't farmers as it was just a small garden maybe 20 x 20 behind the house. When I was around 8 years old I uncovered lots of pottery and some coins, as I scrubbed the years of dirt off the coins they were Indian Head Cents (I still have them), my mother bought me a redbook that year for Christmas because I thought the coins were cool and have been collecting on and off for the last 35 years. I wonder how many other coins were in that garden?
Y2K mania followed by the reckless spending and debt creation of one GW Bush. Both made me realize I'd better be stacking a little more than butter and canned beans. I prefer to label myself a stacker rather than collector (they can somewhat crossover) but you get the picture.
Now I will many times throw a slabbed collectable coin in the stack provided it's gold or silver and it can be purchased for melt value or less. I love pre-33 US gold for this very reason, I get to stack real money while some out there also believe them to have an additional collectable value. Somewhat of a hedge against the pure bullion play I guess. So long as we don't become some 3rd world country that drifts into total chaos at which time it could be reasonably assumed that all collectable value would totally vanish. But then I still have the Au.
I do love my Morgan and Peace dollars though and actively work on completing and upgrading both sets. This all started too just by stacking rolls of worn out common dates purely for the silver content. Just a fun little side hobby though outside of the stacking operation and the only coins I will pay above melt value for.
Zita Lindsey - she opened a antique/coin shop across from the Fire House in Arlington, Virginia - Parkington Shopping Center area circa 1963. A group of us stopped in (or were pulled in) her shop and all were hooked.
WS
...my gramps hooked me in the late 90’s with some Morgan’s for Christmas...but this poster would have worked also
I don't get it? I don't see "any coins"
in the picture above?
Gregg Bingham ( monsterman) got me intested in coins. We befriended each other and then a couple years later it was on.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Spent a week in the hospital as a 5 year older in 1963. My parents would make daily trips to the bank getting rolls and I would fill album holes. Unfortunately I was limited to pennies and nickels. Fast forward 50 years later and the passion is still there.
No idea........
Really. Maybe a gene I was born with?
Coming from a poor family at age 7 in 1954, I collected coke bottle caps, I filled our barn, my bedroom and the garage with trash bags full of bottle caps. My dad came home one day , came to my room and "insisted" that I clean the garage as he had no place left to park the car. I explained that I had no Job, and he didn't pay me an allowance so I couldn't collect anything that cost. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins dropped them on my bed and said " collect money, you'll never be broke" Those 22 coins now reside in a framed holder on my wall in a place of honor , and I've been collecting for the last 64 years. And he was right I can spend every penny I have on my hobby and have MONEY left over.
@bobsr thank you for taking time to write that. Wonderful account.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
@bobsr that's good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
It's like the ping pong trick..
Two older brothers working & completing the coin collecting Boy Scout merit Badge.
My mom was also the ONLY employee of our small town credit union. It was my "job" to count ALL of the change, every day before closing time.
Late last year my mom gave me a old coin with my favorite bird; bird of Paradise on it....
I really became a collector in 2008. I found a small stash my father had hidden, well, probably not hidden but just a space it would fit... leaning against the back of the heater in my home. I lost my dad to cancer in 2002 and these sat back there until 2008...might still be there today if the heating unit did not need to be replaced. (It dated to the 1950s). I had never seen stuff like I saw then, before! What really made the most impression on me was the 4 peace dollars and the large size dollar bill. I was hooked! These were truly special items to me...and I knew, by the dates, that I had to be the third generation to have them. I poured over them for days. Then I went through all the change I could find and built date/minmark sets, which was very successful, and lucky too because usually we don't keep much around...but I was able to get every year of the clad era in every denomination quarter or lower.
Then, the very next month, we visit Cape Cod and while driving around, I spot a coin shop, and we double back and go in. I got what is, 10 years later, still my oldest US coin, an 1832 half dime, which I didn't even know what it was, or the 1852 large cent I bought with it.
A couple of weeks after we get home, I put up a post on a NASCAR collecting forum asking if anybody can direct me to a good coin forum. That was here. I registered that day and here I am.
But that wasn't my first go around at coin collecting. I really got started in 1995. I remember hearing about the double die Lincoln center that year and I remember looking through lots of coins trying to find one. I never did, and still don't have one. I purchased a couple coins at the time, as there were some coin/NASCAR shops locally, long since closed. But it didn't stick. Based on what was in the binder when I pulled it out in 2008, I stopped in 1996, probably discouraged by the lack of finding that double die Lincoln. When the State Quarters program started, I collected one of each of them....the only series I've ever completed. At the time I didn't pay attention to mint marks, so I had to go back in and fill the other versions later, which I did in 2008. (Still looking for a few upgrades, too)
But I do not count those first two times as being a real collector. In 2008, it took, and it was a big part of my life until 2013, then, I almost died from a disease I didn't know I had, and when I got out of the hospital I didn't really come back to the hobby, until last year, when I all of a sudden started missing the hobby and collection. I'm not really buying anything but I am on the board often, always reading, occasionally commenting.
Those bathing suits look photoshopped, I swear.
bob
Couple of school buddies got the bug first and they were altar boys and were allowed to go through the church offerings after the service. Then Father got the pick of what they found and then they were allowed to take what they wanted for face value.
I was jealous but did NOT want to be an altar boy. So, decided to see if I could out do them on my own at the bank and through Dad and Mom's pocket change, etc.
Didn't work and never got close to what my buddies found. Learned early on that a good source was really a must.
But, it did give me the bug for collecting circa 1956.
bob
I needed a hobby to earn a badge in the cub scouts back in 1957. It’s never left my bones.
Loved history, fascinated by ancient Rome, was studying Greek mythology--bam!--I saw a coin or two and dragged my Mom to the coin store around 9 years old. She bought me a Red Book, which I thoroughly consumed, spotting the octagonal Pan-Pac which fed into my history bug, and then started on type coins for good grades. As soon as I showed the interest, I started getting coins from my grandfather's store, as I've written here in the past.
I've learned that I'm a collector at heart, maybe more of an antiquarian/hoarder and will buy anything that fancies my interest outside of coins as well (ephemera, books, Americana, political items, randoms).
Gonna get me a $50 Octagonal someday. Some. Day.
Found two buffalo nickels under an old fridge when i was 7. Was hooked ever since.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Not sure. It was one of three things. It all happened when I was very young. FIRST, my aunt worked at the town bank. She used to bring bags of pennies home every Friday night. Maybe she was a collector. Anyway, I remember her teaching me how to count, by the light of a kerosene lamp, by lining up pennies in rows, groups, And stacking them, etc. I loved those pennies. She also told me about Abraham Lincoln and how he learned to read by the fire light. We had no electricity on the ranch back then. I Can still count to a hundred, And I have respect for our history. Thank you, aunt Evelyn. SECOND, when I was around 6-7 years old, I just happened by fate to find a large cent buried in the dirt among my toy soldiers in my "fort." I loved that big penny. It was a treasure. Looking back on it, Thanks aunt Evelyn. THIRD, I liked books when when I was a kid. Grandpa had a shelf of books in the "Summer Room" where US kids would sleep in the summertime. It was screen enclosed and cool on summer nights. Looking through my favorite of grandpa's books I just happened, by fate of course, to find a Capped Bust Dime, in the book. I loved that dime. I loved my aunt Evelyn. Still do. SEMPER FIDELIS.
I'm a recent collector.
Like @ricko I had a paper route on L.I. when I was a kid in the 70's, and was taught to save the silvers.
Didn't consider myself a collector, but would occasionally look through CoinAGE and CoinWorld magazines when I was a kid. Never bought anything, but learned a bit.
Around 1993, I was at a used book store and picked up a book on Dahlonega coins. Cool, I thought, I remember reading about those when I was a kid. This was pre-internet, but I managed to pick up about 20 Dahlonega coins at local shops over the next few years.
I still do not know how to pronounce Dahlonega.
Sold tbem all for a loss on TeleTrade when I needed cash to adopt my first daughter in 1999. Done with coins.
About 2 years ago, while half drunk and looking for something else, I stumble upon a 20c piece on eBay. Bid too much and won it. The next day I did some research and discover the fantastic web book www.doubledimes.com and find that I have bought a 1875-s BF-1, a pretty scarce die variety. Got hooked, and now have a quite impressive set of 20 cent coins by die variety. Still working on completion, so if anyone knows where I can find a 1875-CC BF-5, please let me know.
I like coins, because it gives me an acceptable way to express my OCD without seemin too weird.
I like your honesty. I respect it. The world could use more of it.
As a paperboy with a couple of Whitman folders an older brother left behind when he moved to California in 1959.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
well had always been interested in coins but never was very serious about collecting them till 1997 when i went overseas and have collected coins ever since
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hz9Sh46ePLrqxefi6
In 1961 I saw a blue Whitman folder, Vol 2 for Lincoln Cents, in a case. I asked the proprietor what it was-he showed me then took all the cents out of his cash register and handed them to me. I started filling the holes and I was forever hooked! My mom reimbersed him for the coins-I filled every hole but a half dozen or so.
Dah-lon-uh-gah. No emphasis on any syllable. Sonetimes the lon depending on who says it. You'll hear it watching NASCAR, the Elliott family is from there.
Also, my auto correct changed cent to center above. Oops.
All the girls in middle school thought that coin collectors were hot. Ergo sum.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
My grandmother got me started. She gave me a 1987 Red Book, an 1838 Large Star Seated Liberty Dime as well as a handful of other coins for Christmas back in 1986, I was 11 at the time. It got me hooked. I used to study that dime all the time, wondering where it had been and who had carried it in it's past. As I got older, my interest for coins declined. Then around 2008 I started roll hunting and stacking silver. As this progressed, my interest in Numismatics began to mature. The more I learned, the more my interest grew. It then quickly became an obsession and I've been an addict ever since.
I got into bullion and semi-numismatics as an alternative to wall Street activity. I figured early on the best I would probably do is break even when I went to sell.