What's your earliest numismatic memory?

Dentuck · July 12, 2012 4:40AM

For me, it's when my brother Mike showed me some of his coin collection, which he kept in an
old steamer trunk. I must have been six or seven years old or so, and he would have been 19 or 20
(there's a gap of 13 years between us; when I was going into kindergarten, he was going
into the U.S. Marines).

Mike gave me a Buffalo nickel in a 2x2 holder, and showed me a copy of the Red Book, and explained
how to grade the coin. I was fascinated by its design, and I remember reading the Red Book from
cover to cover.

This was the spark that got me into coin collecting.

I still have that nickel!

acloco · July 12, 2012 4:45AM

My mom was the only employee at a small town credit unit in north central Montana (28 miles from the US/Canadian border). She used to "let" me count the coins everyday at closing time. I wish I would have been a collector of denominations higher than a cent!

guitarwes · July 12, 2012 4:47AM

An older gentleman who is a family friend took me out to eat one year at Shoney's for my 12th birthday. He presented me with 2 pristine US Mint Proof Sets (one for the year it then was and one from the previous year) and told me to hand onto these and that they were going to be valuable one day and to never take the coins out of the holder. I had never seen any Mint Proof collector coins before and I was amazed at how shiney the were and well presented in a hard plastic case and purple box.

The proof set years were 1988 and 1989. I wrapped them up in a sock and secured them in the back right corner of my sock/underwear drawer for years and years occasionally taking them out to look at them.

That probably initiated the coin bug in me but it wasn't until 2004 (16 years later) that I really fell in love with collecting and haven't stopped since.

SmallTownCoins · July 12, 2012 4:51AM

1960, I was 8, my Dad worked at AC Spark Plug in Flint, he made a suggestion to improve working conditions and won a Morgan Silver Dollar for it, He gave it to me :-)

ctf_error_coins · July 12, 2012 5:07AM

I did the whitman cents and nickel thing as a kid.

In High School we went on a East Coast trip and went to the Philly Mint. I think I remember seeing some really cool errors on display at the mint but the images in my mind aren't vivid as they are coins and not high school girls.

I started collecting error coins 20 years later. Must be some lantent image in my mind from the trip.

rhedden · July 12, 2012 5:08AM

I found a 1917 Buffalo nickel in AU or better in the wall of the double house we rented in Scranton, PA when I was about 3 years old. My mother "did the right thing" and showed it to the landlord, who immediately confiscated it without so much as a "thank you."

anablep · July 12, 2012 5:17AM

I used to separate the wheat cents from the regular memorial style cents when I was around 7 because they were "different." Around that same time my cousin and I were in Boston and some shop owner gave us a handful of common foreign coins. We thought they were so cool; we had never seen anything like them. I still have them today. That was back in 1980 or so.

During middle school I was collecting nickels from circulation. So the gap was about 5 years or so.

I did no collecting in HS or college to speak of. Once I got a job and got married, I was able to start a Morgan dollar collection around 2004.

410a · July 12, 2012 5:19AM

I was ten years old and we lived in an old style brick "flat" upstairs. It was in Albany, NY on Western avenue, it had banisters you could ride on and wallpaper with Victorian era ladies and gentlemen dressed to the nines with umbrellas and top hats. Like they were enjoying the sunny Sunday at the park. Oh yeah! So, in between the living room and the dining room there was a pantry, linen closet hallway with drawers. We were moving to our new home across town and Dad decided to pull the drawers out and see if anything had been lost. Below the bottom drawer on the wood floor, in the dust he found an 1859 Indian cent and 1 1/2 Martha Washington stamps 2 of them still hinged together. I never forgot that find, the coin must of been an AU+ as I don' t have it. That nice handsome cent started me collecting at the old coin shop on Central Ave. Indian cents 15c each. I never put together a set of coins without owning an 1859 Indian Cent. Miss Liberty with a headdress.
I still keep one around 46 years later. Regards, Mike

illini420 · July 12, 2012 5:29AM

Being around 4-5 years old cleaning up wheat cents with Tarn-X at my dining room table before putting them in my Whitman folder. I also remember taking my Whitman folder in for show and tell in Kindergarten. Too bad those coins didn't stay bright and shiny forever.

Timbuk3 · July 12, 2012 5:32AM

Early 60's, my grandfather who was a collector
haggled with a local dealer to buy (10) Unc.
$5.00 Indians for $13.00 each. My grandfather
spent most of the day working on a deal and
finally got it for $12.00 each. $120.00
was big money in those days !!!

sparky64 · July 12, 2012 5:42AM

Probably 5 years old or so.
Spent time with my ill grandmother, shining up some older wheaties with a pencil eraser.

erickso1 · July 12, 2012 5:43AM

Pulling into a Dave and Busters and deciding that I wanted to learn more about coin collecting. I called my co-worker who was meeting me, had him bring a couple books, I read them over the next couple days and that was it. That would have been...about 3 years ago or so?

Baley · July 12, 2012 6:06AM

In 1974 (age 7) I received a coffee cup containing a handful of obsolete coins from my great-grandmother, which included one Morgan, 3 peace, one each slick SLQ, WLH, and Indian cent, one Franklin half, 33 silver roosies, and a 1959 british halfpenny. I loved those silver coins, and spent hours arranging them and looking at them. My parents and grandparents knew of my interest and also gave me their old coins (also in the "handful" catagory of misc junk)

In 1975 the bicentennial coins came out, and I got my first CoinAge magazine at the supermarket.
In 1976 my dad started taking me to the local coin shop on Saturdays, and I collected pretty actively until 1979-1980, when I sold all my junk silver and put my type set away in favor of other weekend interests (girls, movies, video games)

resumed collecting in 1995, and did a lot of buying 1999-2006, now slowing down again these past few years because i have a young family, but still remember that first group of coins and hope to pass a similar group on to the children someday soon

Ahrensdad · July 12, 2012 6:20AM

I remember being about 8 years old counting and sorting wheat/memorial cents with my grandmother. We did that every once in a while. I also remember her showing me a dollar from the old country that she saved for years. I asked for it at her passing a couple years ago, but no one could find it. That was unfortunate, because while it has no numismatic value, it had a lot of sentimental value to me.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

I wonder what my kids will remember of their childhood when they're my age.

yellowkid · July 12, 2012 6:29AM

Finding an Indian Head cent in my Grandfathers root cellar.

Dentuck · July 12, 2012 6:31AM

<< <i>I remember being about 8 years old counting and sorting wheat/memorial cents with my grandmother. We did that every once in a while. I also remember her showing me a dollar from the old country that she saved for years. >>

Which old country did she hail from?

TwoSides2aCoin · July 12, 2012 7:13AM

1961-'62 or thereabouts. I was 6, maybe 7. My dad told me about a 1943 copper cent and that there were only ten or fifteen. I had big dreams and woke up in a place called numismatics.

DorkGirl · July 12, 2012 7:19AM

Sitting on my grampas lap going the the Whitman Morgan albums.

Regulated · July 12, 2012 7:26AM

When I was about 6 or so, I can remember finding a dark brown ceramic bulldog in the attic of our house. His mouth was open and the lower jaw was meant to be used to hold change. It had a few old coins in it, the best of which was an 1857 Large Cent that had the surfaces of an AU58 or better, but had two deep cuts on the reverse, through ONE CENT. God I wish I knew what had happened to that coin.

Mission16 · July 12, 2012 10:10AM

Freddie Schols(?) Syracuse Coin and Stamp shop. Had those cases with the trays that you made go around.

Sorting hundreds of thousands of wheat cents by date and mintmark. Dad kept us kids busy in the winter that way.

ajaan · July 12, 2012 10:44AM

1964 when my uncle, a collector, gave me a brand new half dollar.

Buzzybest · July 12, 2012 11:01AM

Coins that the tooth fairy left when I was a little kid. Please don't ask me type and grade!

roadrunner · July 12, 2012 12:24PM

In 1962 a fellow classmate brought a wooden cigar box full of coins from his and his dad's collection for show and tell. I was in awe. Never saw a gold coin before, never mind
coins from the early 1800's. There was history in that box. I was hooked and started collecting Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels.

JCB1983 · July 12, 2012 12:30PM

I remember it like it was yesturday. It was 1987 and I was 4 years old. Most of my days were spent hanging out with my golden retreiver. I was born 80% deaf and don't recall having any friends. I was living in Jacksonville N.C. at the time. My mother would take me with her to the Piggly Wiggley's grocery store and I would mostly just stare at the lobster tank. Then oneday we were leaving and she asked me if I wanted to look at coins. It was the first time I'd ever been into a coin shop. I just remember walking in and seeing all of this shiny silver and gold metal. Coins in display cases wraping around the floor. I about fainted. I can still remember and have the first coin that I bought. It was an AG 1876 Liberty Seated Quarter in a 2x2. From that point on I was hooked. Trips to the coin shop became weekly and pretty soon I was picking weeds to get a trip to the coin store. Dansco's began to fill and things were good. Sadly when I turned 7 my dad got stationed in Okinawa and we had to move to the other side of the world. Good times.

SanctionII · July 12, 2012 12:55PM

My dad gave me a Whitman 1946-1964 Roosevelt album in 1963 when I was seven. That night I started filling holes from my parents pocket change.. Filled it completely from circulation and I still have the album. That is what got me started as a collector.

However, I remember three times when I was between 2-5 years of age finding a Franklin half dollar.

One time was in the gutter next to the sidewalk my parents, sister and I were walking down as we went to or back from church. Just bent over and picked it up.

Another time was in a parking lot next to the duplex my parents, sister and I lived at. Just bent down and picked it up.

Another time was while my parents, sister and I were in a store [Woolworths or Walgreens in downtown Denver] and I saw a half dollar wedged in between the metal frame of a display case and the glass of the display case [I badgered my dad wait while I worked with my fingers/fingernails to extricate the half dollar from between the metal and glass so I could get my grubby little hands on it.

ProofArtworkonCircs · July 12, 2012 1:32PM

I remember my father taking a shiny new penny of the current date and giving it to me. It was probably 1939. I probably spent it for two sticks of gum. About the same time, his sister gave me a dateless silver 3 cent piece. I still have it.

Speaking of 1 1/2 cent stamps ( aprevious mention in this thread) I remem,ber ing my father agonizing over the need for just one stamp
of that value. He did not know if he should buy one for two cents at a half cent lost or buy 2 for three cents nd risk losing it by next Christmas.

Senex · July 12, 2012 1:37PM

Mid-1950's I got a Mercury dime for an allowance each week, a few years later it was raised to a Walking Liberty or Franklin half.
I distinctly recall when the Lincoln Memorial cents were first issued.
Like thousands of other kids in those days, I had a collection of Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels in a blue Whitman folder.

Sonorandesertrat · July 12, 2012 1:38PM

My paternal grandmother's encouragement to pull silver coins out of rolls in 1965.

Tiny · July 12, 2012 1:59PM

In the late 50s my Dad had part time job of delivering fuel oil when he wasn't a city police officer
and he would come home at night and show the silver dollars he got that day. I woild put them
on the floor in the livingroom and not really play with them but look at them and once and awhile
he would let me keep one or two. About that same time when me and him would go to Alabama
to visit his family in them red clay hills I had an Uncle James that was a real what you would call
multitasker these days. His family had a farm where they raised chickens, grew corn and had a garden
and grew hogs, just like real life back then. He was also a pulpwooder, ya know cut down trees and
use a mule to get them to the clay road and put on a truck. He was a trapper of all kinds of animals
and while he was setting is traps he would pan for gold which he kept in Alka-Seltzer bottles. When we
stayed at their house he would all ways bring out those bottles and show me the gold he had found
but I remember one time he had a box with a bunch of gold coins not big ones but smaller ones
which really made me think about where they came from and how cool gold coins where since I had
never seen any until a few years latter when I went to a coin show. Man o Man life was something
else back then don't ya know.

Billet7 · July 12, 2012 2:19PM

When I was very young I used to paw through my mom's jar of wheat cents. I always thought the steel ones were really cool! One day she showed me her coin books (old whitman folders) full of wheaties. She had multiple books, none of which had a 1909-S, 1909-S VDB, 1914-D and a few others. I dreamed of one day doing a whole set...I did.

frnklnlvr · July 12, 2012 9:35PM

I remember when I was about 5 or 6 looking through my dad's Whitman albums and him telling me about the 1955 DDO.

jmski52 · July 12, 2012 10:34PM

1960, I believe it was a Federated Department Store in Mason City, I bought a 1909 vdb in Good for $0.25.

Not long after that, my friend Billy showed me a Large Cent and I remember thinking "Who would want one of those? They aren't even money."

Rollerman · July 13, 2012 3:14AM

When Iwas a kid and started losing my teeth and anticipated an overnight visit from the tooth fairy. Mom and Dad would put a Morgan dollar and later a Peace dollar under my pillow! I thought they were neat, and as a kid, I thought the likeness on the coin was, in fact, the tooth fairy! Mom and Dad said they put the money in the bank for me and tried to expalin earning interest etc.

Years later, when it was obvious I was a serious coin collector, Mom and Dad turned over a small group of silver dollars, several of which I still have. They saved the silver dollars and put paper money in my account instead. When I was working and still living at home, they asked for rent. I was kind of insultedin a way, but did pay up as it was my new responsibilty. When we got married, they turned over the account as a wedding present, not quite $3,000! That was a nice chunk of money in the late 60's.

I've told the story before that in 1959 (I was 14) Dad gave me a pouch of coins in a leather bag (old Lincolns, IHC's, Mercury dimes, and the oldest a 1837 large cent in Fine condition) since he saw I was collecting the new Memorial cents and hoarding wheat backs as well.
Pete

chumley · July 13, 2012 3:32AM

I was around 7 when my father started letting me help him with his lincoln cent books....he only used coins he found in circulation......50 years later,I still have those books.....thx dad

droopyd · July 13, 2012 5:09AM

Too long ago and at too early an age to remember the details.

BobSav · July 13, 2012 5:53AM

Going to " Stones " in downtown Boston on Washington street and buying coins from the "misc bin" on the counter.
That was the early 60's,
I would go by Bromfield coin on the way home and look in the window cause they wouldn't let kids in the store.

renomedphys · July 13, 2012 6:02AM

I think it was watching Ricky's dad on Silver Spoons show his son a 3-legged buffalo nickel worth a whopping $150, along with a proof coin that had "never been touched by human hands".

I'm pretty sure the boys got into some trouble and stole the nickel, propelling the story into a morality play.

Not long after that I was in a toy store buying a yo-yo. The cashier handed me four wheat cents in change, including a G-4 1915-d that I still own. I cleared out his drawer and started a set. In fact, I think I still have that whole set.

Later that year one of my friend's parents found out that I collected coins and showed me their old cigar box full of mostly junk. Not all of it was junk. There was a holed 1839-O half that I decided I had to have, as well as a 1931-s cent in fine. I ended up doing some work for them to earn those two coins. Wish I could get THOSE hours back, as I soon found out that it was a pretty uneven exchange. Anyways, that '39-O got me started on a 7070 set. Still have that one, the set, not the coin, and it is still unfinished to this day. The coin, along with several others went to a dealer in Atlanta back in the '90's to buy school books and tuition. I sold a nice camera then too. Got $600 for the camera, and about $250 for the coins.

123cents · July 13, 2012 6:08AM

My uncle giving me a shiny Walking Liberty Half Dollar. I was about 7 years old.

BillyKingsley · July 13, 2012 11:22AM

It was 1995. We had seen an article, or maybe a news report, about the new 1995 cent with the error (doubling). I distinctly remember sitting in the middle of my living room looking through cents with my dad.

We never found one of them, and I still don't have one, maybe someday I will.

Eventually I lost interest- I may have been discouraged at not finding one of the errors, but I don't know for sure- I was only 10 or 11, depending on when in the year it was. I don't know how long we looked for them, but at the same time I saved some examples of newer issues and even what I thought was pretty darn old at the time- some 1966 and 67 quarters.

I also colored a few with white-out, both cents and one quarter.

Added a few world coins then too.

They sat untouched on my book case until 2008...lost my dad to cancer in 2002, and we found his stash of stuff- mostly Bicentennial quarters and wheat cents- in early 2008. Upon seeing what he had there, I was hooked back in. I pulled out the small binder of 2x2s, amazingly actually where I thought it was, and looked at the collection I made back in 1995, and have been collecting ever since, on an on-and-off basis.

I also remember being excited when the State Quarters came out...I collected them when they were issued. I don't really consider myself much of a collector at the time, though....I didn't even learn what mint marks were until I joined this board. The State Quarter series is the only series I've completed...although I still have not come across all the D mint issues of the 2009 quarters, which I consider an offshoot of that set.

I also remember doing a "magic trick" by making a cent dissapear...by hiding it under my tongue. I remember it was dark brown but I don't know what year it was. My mom was not particularly happy when I did that, but neither was I, as it didn't taste very good.

Shamika · July 13, 2012 12:05PM

When I was 7 years old my maternal grandparents gave me a jar filled with wheaties as well as two blue Whitman folders for Lincoln Cents. I was hooked immediately. Prior to this I had never even thought of coins as a collectable.

Walkerfan · July 13, 2012 12:09PM

My Dad gave me a blue Whitman folder and some mid to late date VG-VF Walkers to put in it. He also gave me a 1882 CC MS GSA Morgan that he paid 15 bucks for back in the mid seventies. He bought one for me and one for himself.

RichR · July 13, 2012 1:38PM

At 6 or 7 years old, my parents surprised me when they brought home a gift from Gimbels: a clear lucite paperweight cube with a 1964 silver mint set sealed inside.

That was the beginning of the continuing mental illness!

krueger · July 13, 2012 5:30PM

When I was around 5 years old My great Grandfather gave me a 1893 Columbian Expo half dollar.

He was at the 1893 Chicago fair, and road the famous giant Ferris Wheel.

That coin started my coin collecting now 60 years long!!

Krueger

ambro51 · July 13, 2012 10:42PM

There are early memories of reaching WAY up to the ledge of the kitchen sink and cleaning coins with a steel wool pad

Julian · July 14, 2012 2:26AM

I have many, but one that sticks out is in late December, 1958, a friend, neighbor and collector showed me the 1959 Lincoln cent with the new Memorial reverse.

ArizonaJack · July 14, 2012 2:46AM

Late 60's....my Uncle Skip showed me how to tell a silver dime from clad by looking at the edge.

MrEureka · July 14, 2012 2:50AM

I remember searching rolls of pennies in my parents' bedroom. I was probably 5 at the time. The most memorable part about it was that my new hobby very quickly forced me to stop sucking my thumb - something I had been unsuccessfully trying to do for quite some time, obviously - because it tasted really, really bad after handling thousands of pennies, even after washing my hands. In retrospect, choosing numismatics over my thumb has proved a good decision.

ziggy29 · July 14, 2012 2:55AM

Mine was going through all my dad's Whitman albums when I was maybe 4-5 years old. My dad was in the Air Force for a while and was stationed in Puerto Rico from 1961 to 1963. At that time they still widely circulated long-obsolete designs to a significant degree (more than Dad ever saw before that on the mainland). It got him to take an interest in collecting that lasted until his passing. He had books with IHCs, early Lincolns, Liberty and Buffalo nickels, Mercs, SLQs, Walkers, Morgans and Barbers of all denominations, with dates going back to the 1880s. All of these were fairly common in circulation then. I think his "greatest achievement" in collecting from circulation in those days was putting together a full run of 1921-PDS Walkers.

mingot · July 14, 2012 3:08AM

Hrm, probably about 10 years old.

My dad sold jewelry/diamonds for a small family place and the owner was a coin collector. He started sending some things home with my dad to give me and the one thing that really sticks out was a penny album and small butter container filled with wheats to get me started on filling the album. It's funny, 28 years later and I still have that butter container.

CheckersFred · July 14, 2012 3:45AM

for me it's being offered 25 cents for a SLQ from some guy in a brick and mortar when i was in high school (mid 60s).

Lucanus · July 14, 2012 4:14AM

I was in bed with scarlet fever, probably 1962 or 1963, and my dad gave me a Fanklin half to cheer me up.

Doug

What's your earliest numismatic memory?

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