What it was like collecting coins when I was a kid

hchcoin · September 15, 2014 9:29AM

I don't know what got me thinking about this today but the memory seems like it was yesterday. When I was a kid, my family knew I loved collecting all kinds of stuff but my favorite was always coins. There was another kid on my block who also collected and we spent many days trading back and forth. One day it would be baseball cards, the next day coins, then it would be football cards, rocks, marbles, jack knives, and anything else of value to us. One year for my birthday or Christmas, my uncle bought me a subscription to Numismatic News. This began my true fascination with buying and selling coins. I no longer had to find my coins in circulation or get them as gifts from relatives. I now had the ability to order coins through the mail, sight unseen. I would spend hours, days, weeks and months looking at the ads in the paper. As a young boy, I would dream of the endless possibilities of what I could buy with the small amount of money I had earned from odd jobs. Finally, one day, I saved up enough hard earned change to order an uncirculated 1942-D mercury dime. I asked my mother for an envelope and a stamp. I sat down and wrote the dealer a letter explaining what I was ordering and my return address. Of course, my letter explained all about my collection and how I got started in collecting and how old I was. I actually sent the money in the envelope with the letter, change and all. The envelope was hand scribbled but legible. Off to the mail box I went and I patiently waited for the mailman to take it away. I still remember waiting day after day after day for the coin to arrive. It seemed like months went by. Every day I would be waiting at the mail box when the mail man would come and every day he would just smile and say, "no, it hasn't come yet". Then one day, he came down the street holding the package in his hand with a big smile on his face. I opened the letter right there in front of him and we both examined the nice shiny 1942 D mercury dime. It was one of my prize possessions as a kid and I gave it to one of my boys when they started collecting dimes about 10 years ago.

My how things have changed.........................

sparky64 · September 15, 2014 9:37AM

What a nice story. That's what it's all about when you get down to it.

AUandAG · September 15, 2014 9:59AM

Great story....I think we all have a "great story" when we look back at it. Buddy, Father, Aunt or Uncle and in my case parish Priest.

bob

SanctionII · September 15, 2014 10:12AM

I started collecting at 7 years of age in 1963. I remember going through my parents pocket change regularly and find Franklins, Walkers, silver Washington quarters and heavily circulated SLQs, silver Roosevelts and Mercury dimes, silver War Nickels with mint marks above the dome of Monticello, Buffalo nickels and on rare occasions a Liberty nickel or two that were almost worn smooth, wheat cents going back to the teens, heavily circulated Indian Head cents and on a rare occasion my parents would have (usually via pick up from the bank) Morgan or Peace dollars.

My parents let me fill wholes in Whitman Albums with pocket change if they had a date I needed (but usually they only let me take cents, nickles or dimes from their change because quarters, halves and dollars were big money back then and they needed them for household expenses). As time went on I would find loose change (even some Franklins) on the street or in parking lots that I would keep. I would also get money for birthdays, etc. and for neighborhood chores [i.e. snow shoveling or lawn mowing]. As I built up my own stash of money, my collecting interests would change from one series to another.

On one occasion I found that I had accumulated a large number of Walkers (maybe $8.00 -$10.00 worth). I do not remember the dates or the condition of the coins, other than they were circulated. I liked them but I really wanted to get a large amount of nickels to look through. So I put my Walkers in my pocket and headed down the the local Dairy Queen that was a few blocks from my parents home. I went to the customer window, ordered a Dilly Bar (I still love those

) and asked the teenaged boy working the counter if I could swap my Walkers for rolls of nickels that I saw sitting in the cash register. He thought I was some sort of weirdo, but I explained to him I was collecting nickels from change and wanted to get a bunch of rolls to look through. He said ok and we made the trade. I gave him my Walkers and I got 3 or 4 rolls of nickels. I took the rolls home and tore through them. Did not find anything worthwhile at all.

What a waste. When I finished looking through the rolls of nickels I regretted making the trade and wished I still had my Walkers.

Did this multiple times and really enjoyed obtaining new supplies of coins to look through from a bank or business simply by asking to trade dollar for dollar. Many times I found coins that way which filled holes in albums, which turned out to be nice coins and which I still have today.

Tibor · September 15, 2014 10:15AM

When I started collecting in the early 60's the only coin shop was 15 miles
away.My mother would patiently take me about every 2-3 months. The shop
also sold slot cars,Estes rockets, models and Matchbox cars. The lady that owned
the shop was always in a bad mood. I'd go in and buy a couple of cents for my
Book 1 Lincoln cent folder. The folder was eventually completed with my fathers
help when he went on business trips. Of course we did not buy the "big 6"
until much later. I still have the book with the 09-s, 09s VDB., 14-d, and
31-s certified by our host. Those were good carefree times and great memories.

MrHalfDime · September 15, 2014 11:08AM

As AUandAG stated, we all have many stories of how we began collecting coins, but in reading some of these, one story came to mind above all of the others. I began collecting coins when I was ten years old, in 1959, looking through the proceeds from my newspaper route. I had purchased the familiar Whitman blue folders at the local J. J. Newberry '5 and dime', and enjoyed filling holes in my quest for completion of at least one set. I remember well one day when I accompanied my mother to a local corner store to pick up a quart of milk or a loaf of bread. This store was typical of many old country dry goods stores throughout New England, housed in an old multistory wood framed building, replete with squeaky floor boards, glass display cases with penny candy, and a butcher block next to the meat case. The elderly gentleman who owned the store waited on each customer personally, and over many years had developed close relationships with all of the locals. On this particular trip to his store, while my mother was paying for her purchases, I looked over the storekeeper's shoulder and spotted a large #10 glass jar sitting on the shelf behind him, filled to the top with pennies. My eyes apparently revealed my passion for the coins, prompting the storekeeper to ask if I collected coins. I, of course, replied in the affirmative, and he asked if I would like to take the jar home with me to look for examples for my collection. I was completely speechless, and amazed that this man would trust me enough to let me take his jar of cents home to search. He said that there would be just one condition: for each cent that I removed from the jar I must replace it with another, no matter the date. I recall emptying the jar on my living room floor, spreading the coins out, and studying each and every one for examples that I needed. There were even some Indian Cents in the jar at the bottom, indicating how long he had accumulated them. The kindness exhibited by this old man to a young and eager collector obviously left a lasting impression, as I am relating it to you fully 55 years later. He was an inspiration to me, and set an example that I have tried to emulate.

Sonorandesertrat · September 15, 2014 11:27AM

Like some other Forum members, I was collecting coins starting in the mid-1960s. Somewhat carefree times, since I occasionally found obsolete coins in change (e.g., Standing Liberty quarters). There were several coin shops in the Miami suburbs that my parents or paternal grandmother (a coin collector) would take me to visit. When my grandparents came to visit, I would get an armful of Coin World issues and issues of the Rare Coin Review (in the 1970's)---wonderful reading. Coins could also be purchased at local swap meets (held in a drive-in movie theater not far from our house) and there was a coin counter in the local Woolworth's. People did not want toned coins back then, so what one saw was typically white, or even dipped while you waited. Dealers would routinely clean coins when they weren't waiting on customers.

There was much less information typically available to collectors (few were interested in die varieties, because few knew much about them, for example). The pricing in the Redbook had much more relevance than today. The availability of information today (particularly including what is on the internet) has had a leveling effect. Collectors can routinely find current marketplace values and engage in transactions on a more equal basis with dealers. Fifty years ago, few collectors could do this.

There were fewer grades to concern ones self with as well. Grades like 53, 58, 66, etc., didn't exist. The flow of increasing amounts of money---particularly from investors---has changed the hobby, making grading a more serious issue.

But....an awful lot of messed-with coins were floating around: whizzed, polished, tooled, artificially colored red (coppers), etc. Just as problematic was the blatant overgrading. Many dealers made a good living selling at one grade while buying at a grade increment lower. The TPGs have made playing these games much more difficult.

ms70 · September 15, 2014 11:34AM

I remember at about 7 years old becoming interested in Wheat Cents because they stopped making them about a decade earlier. So in my 7 year old mind they were "rare" coins.
I kept them in two little glass jars which I kept in a small green metal box with a tiny padlock on it. LOL.... At one point not too much later in time I somehow discovered there were
coin shops. Probably from looking in the newspaper. I remember my mom driving me to a coin shop in Montclair, NJ which was about 10 miles away. Still very much a child and novice,
I still had the "older is rarer" school of thought. The oldest coin I could afford (with a little help from mom) was an 1843 Braided Hair Cent. I still can picture the man behind the counter
with a white shirt, black vest, and one of those headband magnifying glasses thingys. I remember he was kind & patient. I have that coin today and keep it not so much as a tribute to
my childhood coin collecting, but more as a very early remembrance of my mom. I looked at it the other day, still in the condition I bought it. I'd say it's environmentally damaged with
pitting and some verdigris, probably FR details. Now that PCGS will slab stuff like that as "Genuine" I was considering doing it just to protect & preserve it. But something inside me
strongly tells me no, keep it in the 2x2.

All that & I couldn't tell you what my wife said 5 minutes ago.....

crispy · September 15, 2014 11:41AM

Great story HCH. Coin collecting was an integral part of my growing up. Once I discovered girls, all was lost.

bronco2078 · September 15, 2014 11:45AM

<< When I started collecting in the early 60's the only coin shop was 15 miles
away.My mother would patiently take me about every 2-3 months. The shop
also sold slot cars,Estes rockets, models and Matchbox cars. The lady that owned
the shop was always in a bad mood. I'd go in and buy a couple of cents for my
Book 1 Lincoln cent folder. The folder was eventually completed with my fathers
help when he went on business trips. Of course we did not buy the "big 6"
until much later. I still have the book with the 09-s, 09s VDB., 14-d, and
31-s certified by our host. Those were good carefree times and great memories. >>

Wow until this post I had forgotten about model rockets . I spent almost all my money on rockets when I was a kid

golden · September 16, 2014 12:57AM

Great story.

TwoSides2aCoin · September 16, 2014 1:02AM

There were a lot of old men collecting when I was a kid. Now that I'm an old man, I see a lot of old men collecting. That's about it.

BlindedByEgo · September 16, 2014 4:13AM

<< There were a lot of old men collecting when I was a kid. Now that I'm an old man, I see a lot of old men collecting. That's about it. >>

Ain't it da truth

Cameonut · September 16, 2014 6:01AM

Great story.

I remember looking thru bags of coins with one of my neighbors in the early '60's. We were filling the blue tri-fold cent and nickel Whitman folders and doing quite well at filling all the holes.

These bags of coins were from the local parking meters so we often got the occasional Indian cent and often Buffalo nickels. Lots of fun - and cheap.

I only wish I knew more about varieties back then, it would have given us something else to look for besides the 1955 double die cent.

crispy · September 16, 2014 7:10AM

<< There were a lot of old men collecting when I was a kid. Now that I'm an old man, I see a lot of old men collecting. That's about it. >>

This would be funny if it wasn't so true.

crazyhounddog · September 16, 2014 7:18AM

I too have fond memories of collection with my father. We would go to several coins shops in Palo Alto where I grew up. Back in the 50's & 60's there wasn't an "AU" grade coins were either XF or BU. Cleaning was not an issue back in those days either

Elcontador · September 16, 2014 7:53AM

<< 
But....an awful lot of messed-with coins were floating around: whizzed, polished, tooled, artificially colored red (coppers), etc. Just as problematic was the blatant overgrading. Many dealers made a good living selling at one grade while buying at a grade increment lower. The TPGs have made playing these games much more difficult. >>

This. The BU coin you bought from a dealer was typically an Unc. when you wanted to sell it back to him. Your best bets for finding coins were in change, or for the older / more rare material, bid boards, other collectors, or auctions.

The best places to find a bit of everything were the George Bennett Auctions at the Masonic Hall, in Van Nuys (CA). I paid something like $18 for an Unc. set of complete silver Roosevelt Dimes because it was at the end of the auction, they only accepted floor bids and hardly anyone else was there.

But as SDR mentioned, everything was raw and there were many problem coins mixed in with nice ones. Sometimes I found a good one, sometimes I missed a scratch and paid for it when I resold the coin. You were taking major chances buying an 09 S VDB Lincoln or a 16 D Dime due to all of the fakes out and about.

coinkat · September 16, 2014 10:03AM

I have some great memories- I remember going to Winchell's Donuts and asked for some cent rolls and the 4 rolls were bank wrapped 1972-s Lincolns

garrynot · September 16, 2014 10:39AM

I was born in 1954 so I have similar memories. I found well worn war nickels and early date wheat cents iN my dad's change dish and found many dateless Buffs and SLQs in change. My dad took me to my uncles house one Sunday and he had 8 worn common dat Morgans he offered to sell me at a dollar each. My dad bought four of them, it's so funny now.

My mom would take my brother and I shopping in downtown Chicago in 1964-66 and we would walk up the stairs from the subway and Leonard Stark's coin shop was right there next to a donut shop. After donuts I dragged my mom in there and he had a large poster with a 1955 doubled die on it and I would think how wonderful it would be to find one of those. I've owned two of them since. It's things like that, that make you realize how your life has gone full circle.

Shamika · September 16, 2014 10:39AM

When I was in elementary school, the lunch lady would let me and a friend of mine who also collected coins go through the milk money at the end of lunch period and swap out any coins we wanted. At the time, a carton of milk was 5 cents so the vast majority of the coins were nickels. It was not uncommon for us to find Jefferson nickels from the 30's and the occasional silver dime. It was a lot of fun.

amwldcoin · September 16, 2014 11:10AM

My parents learned how serious I was about collecting when I think I was 11 or 12. I was laid up in the bed with Flu with 100+ temps. I begged and begged my Mom to take me to the bank to get some rolls of coins to search through. NOPE! Not Gonna Happen. So around 12-1 o'clock I fooled my mother into thinking was asleep. Out the window I went...Jumped on my bicycle and road 3-4 miles to the bank. Got back before my Mom knew I was gone but when she checked on me I was searching the rolls of coins I got from the bank! Busted but I didn't care!

Shamika · September 16, 2014 11:18AM

<< My parents learned how serious I was about collecting when I think I was 11 or 12. I was laid up in the bed with Flu with 100+ temps. I begged and begged my Mom to take me to the bank to get some rolls of coins to search through. NOPE! Not Gonna Happen. So around 12-1 o'clock I fooled my mother into thinking was asleep. Out the window I went...Jumped on my bicycle and road 3-4 miles to the bank. Got back before my Mom knew I was gone but when she checked on me I was searching the rolls of coins I got from the bank! Busted but I didn't care!

>>

100 degree temperature and you rode your bike 3-4 miles? That's passion.

amwldcoin · September 16, 2014 11:23AM

<< 

<< My parents learned how serious I was about collecting when I think I was 11 or 12. I was laid up in the bed with Flu with 100+ temps. I begged and begged my Mom to take me to the bank to get some rolls of coins to search through. NOPE! Not Gonna Happen. So around 12-1 o'clock I fooled my mother into thinking was asleep. Out the window I went...Jumped on my bicycle and road 3-4 miles to the bank. Got back before my Mom knew I was gone but when she checked on me I was searching the rolls of coins I got from the bank! Busted but I didn't care!

>>

100 degree temperature and you rode your bike 3-4 miles? That's passion. >>

I was a walking Redbook by the time I was 12. I passed my idle moments flipping through it when I had nothing else to do. I could probably quote you the mintage and relative values of about almost any coin listed.....wish I could do it now!

Shamika · September 16, 2014 11:25AM

<< I was a walking Redbook by the time I was 12. I passed my idle moments flipping through it when I had nothing else to do. I could probably quote you the mintage and relative values of about almost any coin listed.....wish I could do it now! >>

Me too. I read my first copy of the Redbook so often that the binding came loose.

air4mdc · September 16, 2014 11:47AM

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane! I remember how I used to take my paper route money and run to the bank and buy rolls to search. I still have those coins by the way. What great memories!! I was so lucky to be a kid in the 60's.... what great toys. We may have been poor, but we had the best time with what we had. Wouldn't trade a thing, and I will sure thank the good Lord someday for how blessed I am.

rhedden · September 16, 2014 12:06PM

My start in collecting happened around 1980, when I was about 6 years old. My grandfather, Carl Hofsommer, was an employee of a reasonably large bank in Scranton, PA at the time. He used to cherry-pick wheat cents out of the change drawer and replace them with common memorial cents, and give them to me at the end of the week. Each Sunday, I would gleefully wait for my trip to grandpa's house to pick up anywhere from two to twenty wheat cents, hoping for that 1909-S VDB. After a while, he started bringing $20 face of cents home every week, and I would search through them for wheat cents, replacing them with modern junk. I don't think I'm going to retire on the jar of cents I culled from circulation, the most valuable one being a 1912-P in Good. However, it was the start of a lifelong journey. I'm not sure how pleased my grandfather would be with the coin-monster he created, in retrospect, but I wouldn't be posting here without his inspiration. I think I'll post something from 1916, his birth year, in memory.

Neca63 · September 16, 2014 1:04PM

<< When I was in elementary school, the lunch lady would let me and a friend of mine who also collected coins go through the milk money at the end of lunch period and swap out any coins we wanted. At the time, a carton of milk was 5 cents so the vast majority of the coins were nickels. It was not uncommon for us to find Jefferson nickels from the 30's and the occasional silver dime. It was a lot of fun. >>

Back in 1964-65, the members of our coin club would put out a desk they had set up for me.
They would then dump their raw coin collections on the desk so that I could attribute double dies, and then they would walk away.
These days, can you imagine anyone dumping their raw coin collection on somebody elses desk?
We were a rather trusting lot.

What it was like collecting coins when I was a kid

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