I started when my father gave me his cent collection during my parent’s nasty divorce at age 6. I still have the collection and plan to pass down to my daughters.
My dad gave me an 1882 CC GSA Morgan, when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He also gave me a lot of his accumulated silver coins, which included Walkers, Franklins, Washingtons, Roosevelts and others along with blue Whitman folders and a lot of really nice foreign coins.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My interest in coin collecting began in grammar school on my newspaper route.
I began collecting the weekly 35 cents from the folks on my route every Thursday and on Saturday morning rode my bike into town to square up with my manager.
On the way I'd stop at a fiends house who also had a route and we'd go through our change (including Walkers, Frankies, SLQs, Mercs, Buffaloes, steel cents, war nickels..) looking for 55 double dies, S VDBs and 16-Ds.
Fun.
I’m not sure what prompted me to roll search in the late 60’s, but I sure did enjoy it. I would exchange my paper route money at the bank for rolls. I still have those coins today. Someone gave me a cigar box so I would just toss them in there.
Two events occurred for me:
First, I received a Lincoln Cent album as a gift. I tried to fill the holes, but never finished it.
Then, a few years later, I received a Barber quarter on my paper route.
I thought it was a foreign coin, until I flipped it over, and saw United States on the reverse.
I remember looking back at the house and the woman who paid me was standing in the door watching me.
I still wonder if she deliberately gave it to me to try to spark an interest in collecting.
@OneOfEverything said:
My first post on the forum after lurking for quite a while!
I got started back when I was about 9 years old. My uncle gave me a Silver Eagle from his visit to the mint, as well as a really worn out Mercury Dime. Well, my little mind went into overdrive when he told me they were silver! I thought that meant they were treasure! (Of course, they ARE treasure....to me ) And ever since, I have just been picking up bits and pieces. My current goal is to fill a 7070!
Welcome
Enthusiastic collector of British pre-decimal and Canadian decimal circulation coins.
When I was a kid my dad bought a junk ice cream truck and scrapped it. We found a lot of change lost in the carriage for decades. Mostly old wheat and Indian head cents--although I think there was some silver but being fiscally challenged, I believe it was spent instead of letting the kids look through the dates. I got a couple of whitman lincoln cent folders and filled them about half full, no key dates.
Decades later I'm in a coin store buying some bullion for a friend. Had never heard of PCGS of coin grading services. Bought my first graded coin that day--a 1794 Cent in PCGS VF-25, an OGH which is all there was at the time. Still one of my favorite coins.
I started collecting when I received a Columbian half dollar on my paper route. Sure, I had put away a couple of IHC's prior to that - they would show up every couple of weeks. But the Columbian half was unique and hooked me. That was a lot of money then, so I had to do some financial manipulation to keep it.... Mercs, SLQ's and WLH's were common then, so only unique coins were retained - i.e. Busties, V nickels, Barber dimes. I did not have albums, so they initially went into an old cowboy hat that hung on the wall in a spare room. Later they migrated into a cigar box. I still have a couple of those coins, but most disappeared when I joined the Navy - between my kid brother and my Mother cleaning things out. However, the coin bug had bitten me hard, and I continued to save coins through my travels (both Navy and later my job).... As disposable income increased, so did my collection. Cheers, RickO
As an a kid in the mid 80's I frequently got Kennedy Half dollars through my dad's business. I could always tell when he had a half dollar in his pocket with the distinct clang it make against the other change. I liked the large size of the half dollar and JFK was my favorite president so I could never bring myself to spend them. One day I was at the local book store and discovered coin folders so I got one for Kennedy's and started to fill it. The rest is history.
I started collecting wheaties when I was a kid. I’d pull them from the change generated from my paper route, and from circulation. I always was fascinated with money! Ha! Still am. And wheaties!
my uncle got me started when he was in the service. he liked canadian which i did as well. that got me started and then branched off to the us side as well. thank uncle perry
In 1986 when the gold and silver eagles first started being minted, my Dad got me a 1986 1/10 gold eagle for Christmas. I was 10 years old I've pretty much collected coins ever since (with a few breaks here and there)
My grandfather gave us Morgan's on our birthdays back in the '60s. My uncle was a collector and I always enjoyed his coins so I started collecting. Stopped in 1968 due to school and raising a family years later. Started again in 1999 when the new quarters sparked an old interest. Had my first coin graded by PCGS in 2006, a 2006-W Proof Buffalo, came back PR70DCAM. They had me, hook, line and sinker.
In 1964, my Uncle Art gave me a new Kennedy Half Dollar. Uncle Art was a coin collector who pulled a 1909-S VDB out of circulation while being stationed stateside during WWII. He always said the most difficult Lincoln cent for him to find was the 1914-D because that was the only one he didn't find.
DPOTD-3 'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
I started collecting when I was 8 years old, My mom had 2 5 ruble gold czar Nickolas II from 1898. I was fascinated by these coins, my grapfather noticed I was interested in coins and bought me a bag of world coins. Over they years I learned about coins and when doing community service for school at a collectibles shop, I chose to focused the majority of my collection on U.S. coins. I eventually learned to dig deep in research about coins I want to by leading me to get more rare and valueble coins.
Once upon a time before video games my parents got me interested in coins and stamps so I wouldn't burn the house down. I was a 6 year old latchkey kid and my only hobby at the time was making my own lead soldiers. My dad collected both and with the help of family friends I was well on my way. We lived in Germany then and I would find coins while outside playing in abandoned houses, barns, and even graveyards. I still own all of my early childhood coins and stamps along with the 4 gold pieces I bought with money received for my holy communion. Below is the earliest collector photo of me with my stamp collection, battery lighted magnifier, with a price guide behind me.
I bought these when I was 7 years old so please excuse any rim issues & scratches
To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
Thanks for the chance! Just to let you know, I will not hold it against you if I win and you change the prize out for the 40 million graded coins you mentioned!
I started collecting coins as a young kid in grade school. I got some coin folders in the scholastic book orders or something similar to that. Then I had to fill in all those empty holes. My grandfather had an accumulation of circulation pulled coins that helped me out. I have added to my accumulation of coins ever since!
My grandfather worked in a bank in northeastern Pennsylvania for most of his life. When I was about 8 years old, which would have been in the early 1980s, the he started bringing home $20 worth of pennies from the bank every week. I would go through them after lunch on Sunday, picking out the wheat cents and any oddities. He would replace the pennies with new memorial cents. I ended up with over 3,000 wheat cents, but I never found much better than a 1912-P in Good. I remember one week when I found 126 wheats that had been rolled up and sent off to the bank by someone. What a thrill! The Sunday wheat cent search was the highlight of my week, and I'm still collecting in 2018.
My Dad and I were shopping and they had one of those displays where you pressed the button and the trays would rotate. It was at a Woolworth's of all places. Anyway I became fascinated with the Steel Cent so my Dad explained the story behind them and ended up getting me that coin. We came back a week later for an Indian Head Cent I saw in the same display. The rest is history as I've been collecting ever since...40 or so years.
Even now when I see a circulated coin like a Franklin, Barber Half, Indian or whatever I sometimes get that funny feeling and it sometimes takes me back to when I was a kid seeing those coins for the first time. I hope I never stop getting that feeling.
My grandmother and uncle got me started. I do remember my uncle getting me a subscription to Numismatic News and buying me a proof and mint set directly from the mint and had them sent to my house. My grandmother gave me all her indian head and lincoln cent books. Amazingly, my grandmother gave me a small glass olive jar filled with wheat cents and there was a 1922 no D lincoln cent in there that ended up being graded as VF 20. She also gave me a Maris 25-S New Jersey Copper which is super rare. Our family lived in New Jersey and the surrounding area for generations. She didn't even realize she had 2 rare coins when she gave them to me as a little kid. She was alive when I found the 1922 cent but I didn't attribute the New Jersey Copper until after she had passed away. I wish she could have enjoyed that find with me. I also have to say my dad used to drive me and my neighbor friend around to coin shops and coin shows as a kid.
Congratulations to PCGS on the incredible achievement! 40 million of ANYTHING is a VERY BIG number
I was started on my collecting journey 40+ years ago by a loving Grandma who gave me a few coins from pocket change. It changed my life and numismatics have been a passion for me ever since.
I "caught" the collecting bug twice. Both times, my grandmother had something to do it, and the 2nd time, that combined with my newborn son.
First time, I was in elementary school. Grandma collected coins, primarily Mercury dimes. I grew up part of my younger life living with my mom, my brother, and her siblings in my grandparents house (we were crowded) and often went "to work" with Grandma...she worked retail. She would exchange change if something interesting came in.
So, I decided to spend some of my allowance on wheat cents (I could more afford those) and Mercury dimes. Problem was, my allowance wasn't much and this was during the silver run-up back going into 1980. The other problem was the local coin shop took advantage of me and it turned me off for awhile.
Fast forward through high school, the army, college, and then settling down, and I had a son, let's call him "Bochiman Jr", in 2002. Grandma sent him a few items and I started to get interested again and decided to add to that with a "mix bag" from ebay (yeah, I know, I could have gotten better, for less, but I hadn't "done coins" in a few decades). Got him a morgan that, as an infant, was big enough not to really worry about with him playing with it (he liked to play with it) and it was big and heavy for him.
Decided to do the Statehood Quarters as well....bought the "map" for the quarters to be popped into, got a few items around the SHQs, and found PCGS (morgans and SHQs).
Then, decided to not only keep getting him some items, but I got interested for myself as well. Learned a lot by being on these boards, met some folks from the boards and have really enjoyed that portion...count some of them as really good friends, and have grown from SHQs to half cents.
I still like SAEs, particularly NT ones, and toned copper (proof IHCs in particular), along with morgans and half cents and my son and I both enjoy toned Roosevelt dimes (thanks to getting introduced to them by another member here when my son was sick).
As for Mercury dimes and Grandma? When she passed away, my uncle got her coins. His eyesight started going about 10 years ago. He gave us Grandma's old blue Whitman folder of them (obviously no keys....Grandma never got those and didn't know about PCGS or slabbing). That folder is put away....not for value, as they are all XF or below and no keys....but for sentimental reasons.
I started in Christmas of 2011 when my Aunt got me a Littleton folder and some quarters for America the beautiful quarters ever since then I got into silver, pennies, nickels, and just recently I got my first gold coin.
Back in 1973 I was with my Dad taking the trash to the dump and there was this old wallet laying on top of the trash pile. I think someone had already gone through it anyway I picked it up and on the way home inside the lining I found an 1851 & 1855 one-dollar gold coins, I was hooked.
I got into coin collecting because of my grandparents. They were not collectors, but they would travel a lot and any time they would come back they would gift me any extra foreign change they had. I would dump the coins in a jar. One day, I got tired of having them in the jar and started looking at the coins. It all took off from there.
YN Member of the ANA, ANS, NBS, EAC, C4, MCA, PNNA, CSNS, ILNA, TEC, and more!
Always buying numismatic literature and sample slabs.
As a kid in the early 60's I would frequently visit my Grandparents. My Grandfather had 3 Morgans and I would always bug him to let me see them. On one visit he said take them, you seem to enjoy them more than me. That started me on the path of try to fill Whitman folders with the coins of circulation of the times.
Positive transactions with Cladiator, Meltdown, ajbauman, LeeG, route66,DennisH,Hmann,FilamCoins,mgoodm3,terburn88,MrOrganic, weg,dcarr,guitarwes,Zubie,Barndog,wondercoin,braddick,etc...
I recall from my yout that my dad spent time will all four of us talking about coins; I was the only one who didn't fall asleep, sneak out to play, or feign illness.
He had a couple of gallon paint buckets of IHC's and a couple small boxes of IHC and Liberty nickel rolls, maybe 100 or so... by the time I was 10 we had looked through pretty much all of it and I got into trading and buying (with my lunch money) coins from the kids at school.
Never really have had any desire to shake the addiction since then, and I still have a few mementos of those early days. Nothing valuable per se, but all priceless.
I started when I was 10 ( 55 years ago ) my mom worked at a credit union. She brought me home some mercury dimes and I was hooked, I now do pennies, thru dollars, proof and mint sets and started a type set a year ago. I still enjoy the hobby as much as when I started.
I watched my Dad and Grandfather going thru coins that they were collecting back in the early '60's. They took the time to share their knowledge about the coins they had and even share a few coins. They're both gone now but I have a small portion of each of their collections to remember them and the joy of collecting they instilled me. I am now doing for my children and grandchildren what they did for me.
Mine is pretty simple. I moved to FL after my kids graduated to start anew. I was blessed to find work in the business and it just came as a natural fit. I read everything I can get my hands on, and love the community. Collecting is just a way of life for me now.
I was given a 21 Morgan when I was a teen. My father had saved coins from his change for as long as I could remember, but this was the first "old coin" that was truly mine. I kind of dabbled in coins for several years, then received a 59 Indian Head cent in change and that spurred the rest. I started attending small shows and everyone I knew would give me miscellaneous world coinage when they found it. Joined here in 2001, got into slabs and grades and eventually found my way back to my beloved 7070. I still check every coin I get my hands on and still get a thrill out of looking through a bag of saved "interesting coins" that relatives give me from time to time.
When I was very young my grandfather gave me a Silver Dollar from his birth year. I thought it was the best thing ever made, worn common date and all. From there I got the set that is my avitar and was hooked. Thanks for the contest.
I was also a paperboy; in mid 1960's rural Indiana. I had 30 customers and I collected $.50 for delivering the Lafayette Journal Courier 6 days a week to each house. Not surprisingly, many customers gave me half dollars. Rarely did I get a Kennedy - they were hoarded. Just the ubiquitous Franklins, Walkers and an occasional Barber. Couldn't keep much as I has to pay for the papers each week. Soon began filling my Whitman folders - still have the Lincoln cent books but the silver denomination ones are long gone.
Fast forward to 2000 and I'm working in center city Philadelphia. A friend said, there's something called the World's Fair of Money going on at the convention center a few blocks away. We thought it would be a good way to spend our lunch hour.
We never made it back to work that day.
The Philadelphia Mint: making coins since 1792. We make money by making money. Now in our 225th year thanks to no competition.
I started collecting in 1968. I had a part-time job in a bank while attending school. The first day I was told "pull all the silver". I had no idea what they meant, and learned that the Mint had stopped producing silver dimes and quarters in 1965. This aroused my curiosity. I went to the local coin shop in Silver Springs, MD., and met Al Bonan who owned Bonanza Coins back then. I bought my first Red Book from him, fell in love with the classic commemoratives, and was hooked.
Back in the 60's, my father gave me his Whitman albums and was good about ordering any unusual mint products. Still have the 3 piece silver Bi-Centennial set he ordered, though the cloth hinges are torn from viewing it all those years.
I was born with collecting in my DNA. Before coins it was bottle caps, stamps, post cards, shells, you name it haha. When I was 11 or 12 (40+ years ago) my grandfather had a big bowl where he would put his wheat pennies he got in change and I would always look through them. One day he let me pick through them to fill a Whitman album. A few years later, when I was in high school, my father opened and ran a B&M coin shop for awhile and he let me work there and help him on the local coin show circuit. I’ve been hooked ever since!
I'm addicted to exonumia ... it is numismatic crack!
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
At an early age my older brother and I used to collect pennies in the old blue tri fold holders. I don't think we ever completely filled any of the albums but it didn't matter, it gave us something to do. When I think back, maybe it was a good thing that we never completed one, might have taken the desire away.
My grandmother passed away in 1986 when I was 15. When her kitchen was being cleaned out, we found one of her prescription medicine bottles with my name which she had written on it. Inside were a few Franklin halves and some other silver coins. I still have those and I've been collecting ever since then. I remember going to her house where she kept an empty paint can full of rolled coins. I would take them out and put them back in just to handle them.
I started recently with the help of an excellent grandfather. My wife's grandfather was in the business for 30+ years and I inherited many rare and unique coins from him. This sparked an interest and a new hobby for me. Now I have a son on the way and will pass the collection (and hopefully an interest) on to him.
In 2002 I got the below coin in change. After that I did the research and started collecting. I went from US coins to world coins to ancients and back again to each as time went on.
My father introduced me to coins and I have been hopelessly in love with the hobby ever since. Coin collecting is the intersection of economics, politics and history.
One day my father in law shared with me his coin collection that he put together as a kid. He had two old blue Whitman coin folders, one with buffalo nickels & the other was a type set.
After that I bought a couple of books and was hooked.
My son found a cool coin from Japan in the parking lot of a laundry mat and gave it to me, I didn't know then were it was from and then I got a triangle coin from a friend turned out to be from Iraq and my boyfriend gave me a peso and euro coin. After that I had a few more friends give me coins and even got a couple of coins at work people mistook as a buckle of quarter cause they didnt pay attention. When I started to Google what coins I had I started finding out more about coins and how interesting the are. I have all diffrent types of coins from around the world and plan to make collection bigger.
As a child of the 90’s, there wasn’t much left in circulation, but that’s still how I got my start. I had begun separating cool finds like wheat cents and bicentennial quarters from change and then the state quarter program began and I remember filling a coin board slowly from change.
An elderly couple in the neighborhood let us set up our lemonade stand in front of their house. They owned a metal detector and over the summer showed us how to find treasure in their yard. They treated us little rascals like their own grandkids. With their metal detector, we dug up clusters of coins, never realizing that they were buried just for us to find. Maybe it was that time in the early 70’s when I found a 1919 wheatback and was amazed it was so old. That got me started filling a Whitman folder. The bicentennials a few years later ramped up my interest, and I started browsing the rotating shelves in the glass cabinet of a coin shop a mile away from home. Fun times for a city boy in Kansas!
Thirty years later a big Bicentennial Ike from the bank led me back to that same coin shop and a Silver Eagle, which led me to the US Mint website and the new 2006 Gold Buffalo. That brought me to the CU forums, whose members here shared their passion and expertise, their humor and lessons learned - and their awesome photos.
Comments
I started when my father gave me his cent collection during my parent’s nasty divorce at age 6. I still have the collection and plan to pass down to my daughters.
My dad gave me an 1882 CC GSA Morgan, when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He also gave me a lot of his accumulated silver coins, which included Walkers, Franklins, Washingtons, Roosevelts and others along with blue Whitman folders and a lot of really nice foreign coins.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
My interest in coin collecting began in grammar school on my newspaper route.
I began collecting the weekly 35 cents from the folks on my route every Thursday and on Saturday morning rode my bike into town to square up with my manager.
On the way I'd stop at a fiends house who also had a route and we'd go through our change (including Walkers, Frankies, SLQs, Mercs, Buffaloes, steel cents, war nickels..) looking for 55 double dies, S VDBs and 16-Ds.
Fun.
And the fun continues.
Thanks for the chance PCGS
I’m not sure what prompted me to roll search in the late 60’s, but I sure did enjoy it. I would exchange my paper route money at the bank for rolls. I still have those coins today. Someone gave me a cigar box so I would just toss them in there.
My mom and I started collecting penny's and nickels when I was a young boy. We filled our Whitman folders with our small treasures.
Two events occurred for me:
First, I received a Lincoln Cent album as a gift. I tried to fill the holes, but never finished it.
Then, a few years later, I received a Barber quarter on my paper route.
I thought it was a foreign coin, until I flipped it over, and saw United States on the reverse.
I remember looking back at the house and the woman who paid me was standing in the door watching me.
I still wonder if she deliberately gave it to me to try to spark an interest in collecting.
That was about 100 years ago.
Thanks for the contest.
BHNC #203
Welcome
When I was a kid my dad bought a junk ice cream truck and scrapped it. We found a lot of change lost in the carriage for decades. Mostly old wheat and Indian head cents--although I think there was some silver but being fiscally challenged, I believe it was spent instead of letting the kids look through the dates. I got a couple of whitman lincoln cent folders and filled them about half full, no key dates.
Decades later I'm in a coin store buying some bullion for a friend. Had never heard of PCGS of coin grading services. Bought my first graded coin that day--a 1794 Cent in PCGS VF-25, an OGH which is all there was at the time. Still one of my favorite coins.
I started collecting when I received a Columbian half dollar on my paper route. Sure, I had put away a couple of IHC's prior to that - they would show up every couple of weeks. But the Columbian half was unique and hooked me. That was a lot of money then, so I had to do some financial manipulation to keep it.... Mercs, SLQ's and WLH's were common then, so only unique coins were retained - i.e. Busties, V nickels, Barber dimes. I did not have albums, so they initially went into an old cowboy hat that hung on the wall in a spare room. Later they migrated into a cigar box. I still have a couple of those coins, but most disappeared when I joined the Navy - between my kid brother and my Mother cleaning things out. However, the coin bug had bitten me hard, and I continued to save coins through my travels (both Navy and later my job).... As disposable income increased, so did my collection.
Cheers, RickO
As an a kid in the mid 80's I frequently got Kennedy Half dollars through my dad's business. I could always tell when he had a half dollar in his pocket with the distinct clang it make against the other change. I liked the large size of the half dollar and JFK was my favorite president so I could never bring myself to spend them. One day I was at the local book store and discovered coin folders so I got one for Kennedy's and started to fill it. The rest is history.
I started collecting wheaties when I was a kid. I’d pull them from the change generated from my paper route, and from circulation. I always was fascinated with money! Ha! Still am. And wheaties!
my uncle got me started when he was in the service. he liked canadian which i did as well. that got me started and then branched off to the us side as well. thank uncle perry
In 1986 when the gold and silver eagles first started being minted, my Dad got me a 1986 1/10 gold eagle for Christmas. I was 10 years old I've pretty much collected coins ever since (with a few breaks here and there)
My YouTube Channel
My grandfather gave us Morgan's on our birthdays back in the '60s. My uncle was a collector and I always enjoyed his coins so I started collecting. Stopped in 1968 due to school and raising a family years later. Started again in 1999 when the new quarters sparked an old interest. Had my first coin graded by PCGS in 2006, a 2006-W Proof Buffalo, came back PR70DCAM. They had me, hook, line and sinker.
In 1964, my Uncle Art gave me a new Kennedy Half Dollar. Uncle Art was a coin collector who pulled a 1909-S VDB out of circulation while being stationed stateside during WWII. He always said the most difficult Lincoln cent for him to find was the 1914-D because that was the only one he didn't find.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
I started collecting when I was 8 years old, My mom had 2 5 ruble gold czar Nickolas II from 1898. I was fascinated by these coins, my grapfather noticed I was interested in coins and bought me a bag of world coins. Over they years I learned about coins and when doing community service for school at a collectibles shop, I chose to focused the majority of my collection on U.S. coins. I eventually learned to dig deep in research about coins I want to by leading me to get more rare and valueble coins.
Once upon a time before video games my parents got me interested in coins and stamps so I wouldn't burn the house down. I was a 6 year old latchkey kid and my only hobby at the time was making my own lead soldiers. My dad collected both and with the help of family friends I was well on my way. We lived in Germany then and I would find coins while outside playing in abandoned houses, barns, and even graveyards. I still own all of my early childhood coins and stamps along with the 4 gold pieces I bought with money received for my holy communion. Below is the earliest collector photo of me with my stamp collection, battery lighted magnifier, with a price guide behind me.
I bought these when I was 7 years old so please excuse any rim issues & scratches
Thanks for the chance! Just to let you know, I will not hold it against you if I win and you change the prize out for the 40 million graded coins you mentioned!
I started collecting coins as a young kid in grade school. I got some coin folders in the scholastic book orders or something similar to that. Then I had to fill in all those empty holes. My grandfather had an accumulation of circulation pulled coins that helped me out. I have added to my accumulation of coins ever since!
My grandfather worked in a bank in northeastern Pennsylvania for most of his life. When I was about 8 years old, which would have been in the early 1980s, the he started bringing home $20 worth of pennies from the bank every week. I would go through them after lunch on Sunday, picking out the wheat cents and any oddities. He would replace the pennies with new memorial cents. I ended up with over 3,000 wheat cents, but I never found much better than a 1912-P in Good. I remember one week when I found 126 wheats that had been rolled up and sent off to the bank by someone. What a thrill! The Sunday wheat cent search was the highlight of my week, and I'm still collecting in 2018.
My Dad and I were shopping and they had one of those displays where you pressed the button and the trays would rotate. It was at a Woolworth's of all places. Anyway I became fascinated with the Steel Cent so my Dad explained the story behind them and ended up getting me that coin. We came back a week later for an Indian Head Cent I saw in the same display. The rest is history as I've been collecting ever since...40 or so years.
Even now when I see a circulated coin like a Franklin, Barber Half, Indian or whatever I sometimes get that funny feeling and it sometimes takes me back to when I was a kid seeing those coins for the first time. I hope I never stop getting that feeling.
My grandmother and uncle got me started. I do remember my uncle getting me a subscription to Numismatic News and buying me a proof and mint set directly from the mint and had them sent to my house. My grandmother gave me all her indian head and lincoln cent books. Amazingly, my grandmother gave me a small glass olive jar filled with wheat cents and there was a 1922 no D lincoln cent in there that ended up being graded as VF 20. She also gave me a Maris 25-S New Jersey Copper which is super rare. Our family lived in New Jersey and the surrounding area for generations. She didn't even realize she had 2 rare coins when she gave them to me as a little kid. She was alive when I found the 1922 cent but I didn't attribute the New Jersey Copper until after she had passed away. I wish she could have enjoyed that find with me. I also have to say my dad used to drive me and my neighbor friend around to coin shops and coin shows as a kid.
Congratulations to PCGS on the incredible achievement! 40 million of ANYTHING is a VERY BIG number
I was started on my collecting journey 40+ years ago by a loving Grandma who gave me a few coins from pocket change. It changed my life and numismatics have been a passion for me ever since.
My dad bought me a couple Whitman penny boards in the early 1970's. I still have them despite no collecting from 1979 to 2007.
I "caught" the collecting bug twice. Both times, my grandmother had something to do it, and the 2nd time, that combined with my newborn son.
First time, I was in elementary school. Grandma collected coins, primarily Mercury dimes. I grew up part of my younger life living with my mom, my brother, and her siblings in my grandparents house (we were crowded) and often went "to work" with Grandma...she worked retail. She would exchange change if something interesting came in.
So, I decided to spend some of my allowance on wheat cents (I could more afford those) and Mercury dimes. Problem was, my allowance wasn't much and this was during the silver run-up back going into 1980. The other problem was the local coin shop took advantage of me and it turned me off for awhile.
Fast forward through high school, the army, college, and then settling down, and I had a son, let's call him "Bochiman Jr", in 2002. Grandma sent him a few items and I started to get interested again and decided to add to that with a "mix bag" from ebay (yeah, I know, I could have gotten better, for less, but I hadn't "done coins" in a few decades). Got him a morgan that, as an infant, was big enough not to really worry about with him playing with it (he liked to play with it) and it was big and heavy for him.
Decided to do the Statehood Quarters as well....bought the "map" for the quarters to be popped into, got a few items around the SHQs, and found PCGS (morgans and SHQs).
Then, decided to not only keep getting him some items, but I got interested for myself as well. Learned a lot by being on these boards, met some folks from the boards and have really enjoyed that portion...count some of them as really good friends, and have grown from SHQs to half cents.
I still like SAEs, particularly NT ones, and toned copper (proof IHCs in particular), along with morgans and half cents and my son and I both enjoy toned Roosevelt dimes (thanks to getting introduced to them by another member here when my son was sick).
As for Mercury dimes and Grandma? When she passed away, my uncle got her coins. His eyesight started going about 10 years ago. He gave us Grandma's old blue Whitman folder of them (obviously no keys....Grandma never got those and didn't know about PCGS or slabbing). That folder is put away....not for value, as they are all XF or below and no keys....but for sentimental reasons.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
I started in Christmas of 2011 when my Aunt got me a Littleton folder and some quarters for America the beautiful quarters ever since then I got into silver, pennies, nickels, and just recently I got my first gold coin.
My parents got me a one-a-year Lincoln cent folder because I needed to make a collection of something when I was in Cub Scouts.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
Back in 1973 I was with my Dad taking the trash to the dump and there was this old wallet laying on top of the trash pile. I think someone had already gone through it anyway I picked it up and on the way home inside the lining I found an 1851 & 1855 one-dollar gold coins, I was hooked.
I got into coin collecting because of my grandparents. They were not collectors, but they would travel a lot and any time they would come back they would gift me any extra foreign change they had. I would dump the coins in a jar. One day, I got tired of having them in the jar and started looking at the coins. It all took off from there.
YN Member of the ANA, ANS, NBS, EAC, C4, MCA, PNNA, CSNS, ILNA, TEC, and more!
Always buying numismatic literature and sample slabs.
As a kid in the early 60's I would frequently visit my Grandparents. My Grandfather had 3 Morgans and I would always bug him to let me see them. On one visit he said take them, you seem to enjoy them more than me. That started me on the path of try to fill Whitman folders with the coins of circulation of the times.
I recall from my yout that my dad spent time will all four of us talking about coins; I was the only one who didn't fall asleep, sneak out to play, or feign illness.
He had a couple of gallon paint buckets of IHC's and a couple small boxes of IHC and Liberty nickel rolls, maybe 100 or so... by the time I was 10 we had looked through pretty much all of it and I got into trading and buying (with my lunch money) coins from the kids at school.
Never really have had any desire to shake the addiction since then, and I still have a few mementos of those early days. Nothing valuable per se, but all priceless.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
I started when I was 10 ( 55 years ago ) my mom worked at a credit union. She brought me home some mercury dimes and I was hooked, I now do pennies, thru dollars, proof and mint sets and started a type set a year ago. I still enjoy the hobby as much as when I started.
I watched my Dad and Grandfather going thru coins that they were collecting back in the early '60's. They took the time to share their knowledge about the coins they had and even share a few coins. They're both gone now but I have a small portion of each of their collections to remember them and the joy of collecting they instilled me. I am now doing for my children and grandchildren what they did for me.
Mine is pretty simple. I moved to FL after my kids graduated to start anew. I was blessed to find work in the business and it just came as a natural fit. I read everything I can get my hands on, and love the community. Collecting is just a way of life for me now.
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
I was given a 21 Morgan when I was a teen. My father had saved coins from his change for as long as I could remember, but this was the first "old coin" that was truly mine. I kind of dabbled in coins for several years, then received a 59 Indian Head cent in change and that spurred the rest. I started attending small shows and everyone I knew would give me miscellaneous world coinage when they found it. Joined here in 2001, got into slabs and grades and eventually found my way back to my beloved 7070. I still check every coin I get my hands on and still get a thrill out of looking through a bag of saved "interesting coins" that relatives give me from time to time.
Thank you for a very generous giveaway.
When I was very young my grandfather gave me a Silver Dollar from his birth year. I thought it was the best thing ever made, worn common date and all. From there I got the set that is my avitar and was hooked. Thanks for the contest.
I was also a paperboy; in mid 1960's rural Indiana. I had 30 customers and I collected $.50 for delivering the Lafayette Journal Courier 6 days a week to each house. Not surprisingly, many customers gave me half dollars. Rarely did I get a Kennedy - they were hoarded. Just the ubiquitous Franklins, Walkers and an occasional Barber. Couldn't keep much as I has to pay for the papers each week. Soon began filling my Whitman folders - still have the Lincoln cent books but the silver denomination ones are long gone.
Fast forward to 2000 and I'm working in center city Philadelphia. A friend said, there's something called the World's Fair of Money going on at the convention center a few blocks away. We thought it would be a good way to spend our lunch hour.
We never made it back to work that day.
I started collecting in 1968. I had a part-time job in a bank while attending school. The first day I was told "pull all the silver". I had no idea what they meant, and learned that the Mint had stopped producing silver dimes and quarters in 1965. This aroused my curiosity. I went to the local coin shop in Silver Springs, MD., and met Al Bonan who owned Bonanza Coins back then. I bought my first Red Book from him, fell in love with the classic commemoratives, and was hooked.
carolinacollectorcoins.com
Back in the 60's, my father gave me his Whitman albums and was good about ordering any unusual mint products. Still have the 3 piece silver Bi-Centennial set he ordered, though the cloth hinges are torn from viewing it all those years.
My grandmother gave me a 1921 Morgan when I was around 10-11 years old. I am 39 now.
Naturally, I didn't think much of it then, but the collecting bug bit me momentarily in my early 20s, and permanently in my early 30s.
This coin is still in my collection, residing in a Dansco with my Peace Dollars. It's XF-AU, and worth melt, but priceless to me.
Thanks for the giveaway!
I was born with collecting in my DNA. Before coins it was bottle caps, stamps, post cards, shells, you name it haha. When I was 11 or 12 (40+ years ago) my grandfather had a big bowl where he would put his wheat pennies he got in change and I would always look through them. One day he let me pick through them to fill a Whitman album. A few years later, when I was in high school, my father opened and ran a B&M coin shop for awhile and he let me work there and help him on the local coin show circuit. I’ve been hooked ever since!
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
At an early age my older brother and I used to collect pennies in the old blue tri fold holders. I don't think we ever completely filled any of the albums but it didn't matter, it gave us something to do. When I think back, maybe it was a good thing that we never completed one, might have taken the desire away.
My grandmother passed away in 1986 when I was 15. When her kitchen was being cleaned out, we found one of her prescription medicine bottles with my name which she had written on it. Inside were a few Franklin halves and some other silver coins. I still have those and I've been collecting ever since then. I remember going to her house where she kept an empty paint can full of rolled coins. I would take them out and put them back in just to handle them.
I started recently with the help of an excellent grandfather. My wife's grandfather was in the business for 30+ years and I inherited many rare and unique coins from him. This sparked an interest and a new hobby for me. Now I have a son on the way and will pass the collection (and hopefully an interest) on to him.
In 2002 I got the below coin in change. After that I did the research and started collecting. I went from US coins to world coins to ancients and back again to each as time went on.
My father introduced me to coins and I have been hopelessly in love with the hobby ever since. Coin collecting is the intersection of economics, politics and history.
One day my father in law shared with me his coin collection that he put together as a kid. He had two old blue Whitman coin folders, one with buffalo nickels & the other was a type set.
After that I bought a couple of books and was hooked.
My son found a cool coin from Japan in the parking lot of a laundry mat and gave it to me, I didn't know then were it was from and then I got a triangle coin from a friend turned out to be from Iraq and my boyfriend gave me a peso and euro coin. After that I had a few more friends give me coins and even got a couple of coins at work people mistook as a buckle of quarter cause they didnt pay attention. When I started to Google what coins I had I started finding out more about coins and how interesting the are. I have all diffrent types of coins from around the world and plan to make collection bigger.
As a child of the 90’s, there wasn’t much left in circulation, but that’s still how I got my start. I had begun separating cool finds like wheat cents and bicentennial quarters from change and then the state quarter program began and I remember filling a coin board slowly from change.
CN eBay
All of my collection is in a safe deposit box!
In 2004 my son was born and I was given a Silver Eagle. I still have that coin and will never give it up.
BTW congrats
An elderly couple in the neighborhood let us set up our lemonade stand in front of their house. They owned a metal detector and over the summer showed us how to find treasure in their yard. They treated us little rascals like their own grandkids. With their metal detector, we dug up clusters of coins, never realizing that they were buried just for us to find. Maybe it was that time in the early 70’s when I found a 1919 wheatback and was amazed it was so old. That got me started filling a Whitman folder. The bicentennials a few years later ramped up my interest, and I started browsing the rotating shelves in the glass cabinet of a coin shop a mile away from home. Fun times for a city boy in Kansas!
Thirty years later a big Bicentennial Ike from the bank led me back to that same coin shop and a Silver Eagle, which led me to the US Mint website and the new 2006 Gold Buffalo. That brought me to the CU forums, whose members here shared their passion and expertise, their humor and lessons learned - and their awesome photos.
Thanks PCGS!