What was your first coin that started this hobby/profession?
Insider2
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What was the first coin you found or were given that turned your interest to numismatics. How old were you?
My "special" coin was a Sesqui $21/2 handed down to me as a child (7 or 8) that my grandfather bought at the fair for my father. Soon after I was given a small Chinese puzzle box filled with a few foreign coins. I still have the 1770 8 Rls that was part of the group. I had to slide panels in the box to find the key and then slide more to find the key hole. I have that box too.
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1927 Standing Liberty Quarter that I bought from Wolco Department Store when I was about 8 years old. I still have it (somewhere) and it is pretty hideous looking after I cleaned it with baking soda 40-something years ago to make it look better.
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I was filling up a partially filled Franklin album I bought off ebay. I had been buying silver bullion for a while and after a friend suggested I look to 90% silver I kinda got hooked after finding this 55 proof set at a local shop. I had to have it.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
I wish I had a picture. Might take one. Still have it. Kinda sad story though.
In Miss Norton’s third grade class at Woodrow Wilson Grammar School in Stockton (probably 1947 or 48) there were a pair of twin girls, Saundra and Sharon Harrison. One of them sat next to me. She brought this coin to class and either gave it to me or we traded something.
One of the twins committed suicide when we were in high school. Neither of the Harrison twins deserved that. I will always remember both of them every time I look at this coin.
It is a Japanese copper coin that is far too worn to attribute. It was my first coin.
I'd also like to have the 1870 Seated Dollar that hooked me on a Dansco type set.
Worn, polished, pitted but shiny.
I still look for it from time to time.
WWII GI's returning home, gifted foreign coins...Sixth-grade school teacher saw them being displayed and told the story about the 1883 N/C & W/C Liberty nickel. Still have that 1883 N/C that she gifted in 1949.
I don't remember my first coin since I was a young kid but I was filling a cent folder at the time. My first serious coin was a Ch BU 1927 Saint Gaudens $20 that I bought from an ad in Coin World in 1965 for $47. I remember saving many weeks for it.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
1900 MS63 Morgan Dollar with rainbow toning (RAW)
1964 Kennedy half when I was 6 years old in 1964.
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Don
1882 CC GSA Morgan from my dad.
He also gave me a ton of raw, circulated silver...including Walkers!!
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Honestly I can't remember the first coin, but I had junk silver, a 1/10 gold eagle (first year) and a Johnson Matthey 10oz struck bar. They are all nostalgic to me these days...
My YouTube Channel
A partially complete Buff nickel album from my grandpa after he passed
Latin American Collection
I received an Oregon Commem as a tip for my paper route (yes, newspapers were delivered by kids, right to your front door).
My father took me back to the house as he thought that the tip was too large....fortunately the guy said to my Dad, "the kid can keep it, best paperboy I've ever had".....I smiled all the way home.
Don't have it anymore but cherish the memory of my start!
bob
I guess it didn't leave as much of an impression as "other first" since I can't remember the first coin that I collected. But it was almost surely a wheat cent and I "may" still have it in my jar of mixed old coins that I have "somewhere". Other first would be a bit to far off topic.
It wasn't a coin for me. My mother worked for a Richard Nachbar, and in December of 1999 had a stroke. While I was visiting her at the hospital, Richard told me that he couldn't keep his business afloat without someone he could trust at the office. He offered me a fair salary and then offered to pay my mother's full salary while she recovered if I took the job. Obviously, the only answer to that was an immediate YES.
It took her over a year to return to work, and Richard kept his word. So for me, it wasn't a coin, it was a coin dealer.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Regulated, are you from WNY? I've sold a couple of things to Richard, always fair and friendly.
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'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
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Don
I moved to Buffalo during the Blizzard of '77 (I was 4) and lived there until I took the job at Kagin's in 2003. I was with Richard from January 2nd, 2000 - July, 2003.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Nachbar -- did he advertise a lot in Coin World? I recall the name somewhere in the distant past. As a kid, I poured over the extensive ads, mainly looking up Lincoln cents to fill my Whitman album.
My first coins were wheaties sorted from change and rolls my grandfather would get for me. But the one coin that I memorably recall was a 1882-S Morgan that was my grandmothers. She gave it to me and it was the BOMB. Still have it.
He was a big advertiser in Coin World for years.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Don't remember, exactly, but I do recall my dad taking my brother and I down to Long Beach (from Paramount), and having some Asian merchant seamen tossing a few coins to us from the deck of a freighter, this was about 1958 - 1960. A bit later, perhaps 1961 or so, my Aunt got an 1860O dime while working at a coffee shop at a golf course in Monterey Park, i believe, and gave it to me. I think that's when I got my first Redbook, and the coin was listed at $60, in what may have been xf condition. This was subsequently stolen a couple years later. I remember daydreaming through that Redbook for many hours.
My sister-in-law bought me a Lincoln penny folder, and a half dozen penny rolls. I was probably around 11 or 12 years old. Until that time I was completely unaware that coins even had dates, let alone mint marks. She showed me how to search through the rolls, and fill the book --- I was hooked from that point on. I blame her!
Dave
1738 half real from Mexico. Got it in 1960 from my uncle Pat who was an avid collector of US coins. I was six at the time and imagined it was pirate treasure. (Several years later he showed me his impressive commem collection. I barely knew what they were but he had a Dansco type album that had BU coins in every slot.)
The next year I started searching bags of cents from the parking meters in Racine, Wisconsin, filling Whitman Indian and Lincoln folders. Later that year I got my first proof set - 1961. Still have that somewhere.
Here is a carpy cell phone photo of the first coin, as received in its original 1960 flip.
“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!
I keep it in my desk-a darkly toned 1869 PCGS PR65 Half Dime .
The really scary part, I bought it 40 years ago raw. I paid $750.00. How did I do over that time with the value here??? Yikes!
My first was an 1881 P Morgan that belonged to my grandfather. It was kept in a box with his cuff links on his dresser and I was fascinated with it in the 60s and early 70s. When he passed in 1979 I got it. That started me on my collection and I still have it. It is worn and probably was cleaned and would grade out about F to VF and is my most prized coin among the hundreds of Morgan and Peace VAMs I have accumulated over the years.
Why and where did you buy it?
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Did you send it to CAC?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
My first memories of coins was the Mercury dime. I was a preschooler and my folks would give me a dime for doing a chore.
)
I was told to save them for the annual celebration when the carnival came to town - rides were 10 cents each. This was pre '64 and the dimes were a mix of Mercurys and Roosevelts. I was fascinated by the image on the Mercury and called it the "fairy" dime (the Tooth Fairy also gave me some
It was a few years later when my dad taught me about coin collecting with a folder. I started folder collecting first with Lincolns, but it was the Mercury that first captured my attention and admiration for the coin itself.
My strategy is about collecting what I intend to keep, not investing in what I plan to sell.
Early 60's everything we collected we got out of change. I was around 10 years old. That meant cents and an occasional Buffalo nickel is all the money I could get from my mom. Grandpa died and I got a few coins he pulled from change decades earlier. Most memorable a 1872 2c, my sister still has it. I have a Columbian 50c I got from him. Probably 15 years later I came to the realization you can actually buy coins. First coin I ever bought was a 1912-S 5c followed buy a 1938-D 50c. Both well circulated. Haven't turned back since.
A 1922 Peace dollar from my Aunt on my 5th birthday!
My grand father was a coin accumulator. He got some of his pay in silver dollars when he deposited the check. Every visit the first thing I wanted to do was see his coins. He had three gold coins that he never turned in to the government and a bunch of Morgan dollars. I got one as a gift every Christmas. After I became a collector, I checked his dollars and found 3 circulated CC's (dates escape me). I had him wrap them separately. He promised me all the coins would be mine one day. When he went into the hospital with a serious condition, I grabbed everything. When he got better (thankfully), he was no longer an accumulator as I
had taken everything. Funny that the CC's were gone. I suspected Grandma.
Roosevelt dimes pulled from my parents pocket change in 1963 to fill a Whitman dime album my dad gave me as a present. Still have the album and it contains the coins I pulled from pocket change to fill every opening in the album.
1887-O Morgan dollar in G-VG. I still have it almost 50 years later.
Not sure.
Some Lincoln Cent 1940-1958. Got the Whitman folder before any coins. The exact date escapes me as it was almost 58 years ago.
The first actual purchase for me besides just saving stuff from circulation was a Winston Churchill commemorative that I got from a coin dealer/ barber that worked out of the Pathfinder Hotel in Fremont NE. Not sure what I paid for it- but I'm sure it never increased in value since then. A few of us boys went for a short walk about during our 8th grade science fair that was held just a block or two away in the city auditorium, the same building in which the Fremont annual coin show is held.
Hobby/Profession?
I'd keep the ...ession, only I'd call it obsession.
U.S. Type Set
55 years ago. My 4th-grade teacher gave me a Whitman folder for Lincoln Cents, with a 1941 cent already in the folder. Hard to believe that 22-year old coin is now 77 years old. She also taught me a few basic lessons on coin collecting.
A family friend gave my brother and myself each a peace $ when we were kids that I still have. I didn't get really into collecting until the Buffalo commemorative came out and I evolved my interests from then on.
The year was 1967.
My family had just moved to a new city (Tustin, Ca.) from Santa Ana (not too far away, but far enough to know no one).
A new friend on the block asked me if I wanted to ride my bike over to the local coin store. I asked what the heck is a coin store? He explained and off we rode.
They had these little "gumball" machines that dropped out little plastic bubbles that contained a coin when you put a quarter in and turned the knob.
I got an 1885 IHC. It was probably a VG or F, but to me it was priceless and started a new hobby for me.
My dad looked at me like I had two heads when I showed him the "penny" that cost be 25 cents. He was a child of the depression, to him and my mom it was wasteful to do such a thing. As my hobby continued to grow, they embraced it and even bought me some pretty nice coins for a Dansco 7070 type set in years to come.
Eventually, my father caught that bug and owned a pretty impressive collection himself.
The first coin I 'kept' as a collectible was an IHC... quite worn...received on my paper route (papers were 8 cents each)...Still have it. After that I received SLQ's and Columbian commemoratives, as well as V nickels. dimes, quarters and halves were all silver then. Cheers, RickO
The coins that really hooked me were an 1846 large cent and an 1838 half dime that I bought from my mother's cleaning lady. They were only in Good condition, but that fact that they were over 100 years old in 1959 really fascinated me.
In the 2nd grade I moved next door to my Grandmother. She was a collector of sorts. That is how I got my start.
Thinking about an answer for this thread, I remembered the specific coin that got me interested. That same year my family took a trip to Virginia Beach and I bought a reproduction Virginia halfpenny at Colonial Williamsburg. I brought it home and shared it with my Grandmother in excitement, not quite understanding that it wasn't real. I remember she had a book of coin values and showed me the real one in there.
There were various levels of engagement and escalations over the years.
First, there was filling holes in Whitman albums with obsolete coins, pulled from circulation. I thought that smooth (G/VG) Barber dimes were the coolest things ever.
Then, by middle school, I had a hankering for early copper, and my 1803 VF half cent was "The Bomb". A few years later, an 1890 QE, a gift from my father.
Later yet, the 1801 "3 errors" LC. Then an 1878-CC $20. Etc.
Each coin was a gateway drug to the next level.
I was a kid in the early to mid 70's and my dad bought me a 1973-S Silver Ike in a brown box. Then the price shot up to $175. I sold it with his permission and took the money and bought other coins. My first flip I guess. Then 1976 happened with the bicentennial and the change of design. I was hooked. Got a roll of quarters and halfs. Dad helped me get the 3 piece proof set from relatives whom lived in Denver straight from the mint. The rest is history.
Later, Paul.
Circa 6th grade in 1993, walking back to the family car after having dinner at a Chinese restaurant, I picked up a lonely penny off the ground. Riding home in the car, I turned it over, and was surprised to see the giant words "ONE CENT" in place of the familiar "Trolley Car". Looking closer, I saw the date: 1953! It was the oldest coin I had ever seen! It was a 1953 S wheat cent, in at best AG-3 condition. My mom got we a Whitman folder, and a Red Book, and I went from there.
The origin of coin collecting in my family goes back to my mom's parents. Grandpa Reager worked as a waiter on a cruise ship touring the South Pacific during the 1930's. He brought back coins, mostly from Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, for my grandma, who got the collecting bug. She put together a modest grade, but reasonably complete US type set, from Seated coinage forward, and had partial sets of the 20th century types. She also collected world coins to supplement the South Pacific coins. My mom kept her collection, though her primary interest was Civil War tokens. Grandma's collection is now forms the core of my own.
At some point early on in my carrier I had focused enough to have some extra cash. I had a romantic idea to own an Oz of gold. In 1997 I picked up a Krueger Rand at my local coin store for 280 bucks or something. I was really please with it and set out to stash more.
Soon after, I was in Las Vegas on a business convention and wandered into a coin shop at the Riviera. The guy there and I were chatting and he said if I was just gonna buy bullion I mine as well go out in the lobby and pull slot levers. Started showing me classic coins and saying they don’t make more of these. I left that shop that day with a NGC no line fatty 1904-0 in 64 with crescent toning for 75 bucks. I started moving on from bullion at that point.
Still thinking.
Some of the true gems in our hobby aren’t the coins but the people you meet. Great story
I still have a few of the Indian Head Cents from my grandfather. He would get them from circulation in the 1930s and put them in a coffee can.
Years later he have me some Morgan Silver dollars... I still have a couple of those as well. One is actually in my type set.
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1854 large cent found cleaning out an old dresser after bringing it home from auction. Shortly after the 1995 DDO cents in circulation. Still have the old large cent and a few of the 95's from searching with my grampa.
I remember those ads. I never had enough to buy one.