63 years in Numismatics.
golden
Posts: 9,195 ✭✭✭✭✭
When I was a kid, my grandparents lived next door to us. Our parents worked, so if my sister or I were sick our grandparents kept us for the day. One day in February 1961 I got sick, so I had to stay home from school and stay with my grandparents. My mother was a schoolteacher and she felt guilty having to go to school and leaving me. On the way home she stopped at a store (probably Woolworths) and bought me a 35 cent blue Whitman Lincoln Cent folder. I was immediately hooked.
I have traveled all over the lower 48 states attending coin shows. I have been to dozens of National Parks, Battlefields, Historic Monuments and other scenic sites. I probably would not have been to a lot of these places if it were not for that blue Whitman folder. I have greatly enjoyed the ride.
Post your favorite coin.
Comments
Cool story. This coin is my favorite today
Mr_Spud
When I was about 5 years old, my Dad gave me a1912-D Lincoln cent that his mother had in her possession. That was 1961. Still have it today. That, along with my sister, dad, and myself sitting around the kitchen table filling in our blue Whitman folders of Lincoln cents. What fun in discovering so many “pennies” to fill the folders. That set me on a lifetime of coin collecting and enjoyment. And along with that cent, I still have those folders today.
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
This was from MY grammaw. Had no idea it was special til I read in an old Readers Digest that it was.
1908-s
Cleaned REPEATEDLY with ....dry.... baking soda.
Years later I submitted to ANACS and got AU53.
I can't think of a favorite coin, so here's my first coin. It was a family tradition to give a gold coin to the new members. So, I received this as a birth gift from my grandparents.
Collector of Liberty Seated Half Dimes, including die pairs and die states
Wow really nice coins. The Dream Team for sure. Really like the 1907 $2.50 gold coin.
PCGS AU58 CAC
Thank you for your story!
@Golden, Thanks for sharing your personal story.
I’ve also been collecting coins for more than 55 years. — Here’s one of my favorites…
1799 AU Draped Bust Dollar (B-10, BB-163) - Blue Peripheral Target Toning
Stuart
Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal
"Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
Nice story, thanks for sharing.
I collected Mercury dimes out of circulation 60 years ago in a Whitman folder, which I still have. My first Redbook was at age 7, I always admired the draped bust dimes and wondered how any survived circulation, never saw any at the local shops.
I don't have a favorite coin, but this is a recent purchase that I like:
My PCGS Set Registry Profile
Christmas 2024 will be my 60th year collecting. My brother gave me one of those blue "penny" folders for Christmas and it started from there!
Fall National Battlefield Coin Show is September 5-7, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. Thanksgiving Battlefield Coin Show is November 29-30, 2024. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
Successful BST transactions with: Namvet Justindan Mattniss RWW olah_in_MA
Thanks for sharing @golden Please post your favorite too, if you can.
Christmas 1974 - and it started with a present consisting of a checkbook box with a couple dozen coins from my Uncle Tony - and while the passion has ebbed and flowed, Numismatics has weaved a thread through my life, and I am grateful for that.
This coin is one of my all-time favorites (even though I haven't had it long)
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
Been collecting off and on since 1957 when my history teacher gave me a 1935 buffalo nickel that had a date.
Thanks for the cool story @golden I suspect that is how many of us older collectors got started. For myself it was an IHC folder with a few well circulated starters.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
No pictures but same start 3 years behind you. For my 8th birthday ( May of 64 ) my late father bought me the Blue Whitman folder 41-64 which I still have. Priceless.
It's now 65 years for me as a collect. This was my first "old coin," an 1838 half dime. I wrecked it by cleaning it when I didn't know any better. Fortunately it was only in Good condition.
Nice trip down memory lane. I'm close to 50 years. Stopped collecting coins and then started up again 10 years ago.
Hard to pick a favorite but this dated coin I picked up last year takes me back to the start of collecting; Lincoln's
USAF (Ret.) 1985 - 2005. E-4B Aircraft Maintenance Crew Chief and Contracting Officer.
My current Registry sets:
✓ Everyman Mint State Carson City Morgan Dollars (1878 – 1893)
✓ Everyman Mint State Lincoln Cents (1909 – 1958)
✓ Morgan Dollar GSA Hoard (1878 – 1891)
Great life story @golden and what a great thread...a gallery of super hits!!!! One question for > @FrankH said:
How do you clean with dry baking soda?? What does that do to the surface??? I've never heard of this method...
People used to take some baking soda and add a little water to create a paste. They would then rub that paste on the surface of a coin with their thumb in a circular motion. The coin would get a bright shiny burnished look that would be considered as being harshly cleaned. Try it with some pocket change that has no numismatic value.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
70 years here. I think I ruined everything in my Whitman folders and spent everything when I wised up. Still, I wish I had kept those folders. I've sold my collections each time I needed money, the fist time to buy a car, the second time to pay off the IRS, the last time to take the family to Hawaii for our 50th anniversary. Once again I'm collecting in earnest, but likely my kids will make the final sale. I do wish I had kept most of the coins I sold, but no regrets really. Wonderful hobby of a lifetime.
@golden Like your post and your sharing of fond memories. Would love to see some of your 58+ coins you've been seeking or a "best of Golden collection" thread!
So hard to pick just one collection favorite. So, just for kicks, how about a blue proof Kennedy
The same Readers Digest said to use the baking soda.
So for years..... I did.
Whenever it would turn green in the glass chicken official coin storage container
I'd just take it out and rub the dry baking soda into it. HARD !!!
That's why the 53 grade surprised (and delighted) me.
I still wonder how nice it would have been without the abuse.
It's been 50 years for me. My journey began in 1974, when my dad gave me a huge plastic bank full of silver that he had pulled from circulation, since before I was born. It contained Roosevelts, Washingtons, Walkers, Franklins and Kennedys. He gave me Whitman folders to put them in. He also bought both he and I a GSA 1882 CC Morgan that same year. They cost a whopping $15 each, back then!!
I sold the silver, in 2011, when it hit $50/ounce, but I will ALWAYS keep the GSA. He and I still attend shows together and talk about coins from time to time. I owe it all to my Dad for encouraging me and igniting my PASSION!
“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/
I got a hornes jewelry box with an XF 1809 half cent in it and a blue Whitman 19th century type album for Christmas in ‘94
Man I wish I still had that 1809!!!
BHNC #248 … 121 and counting.
On my 8th birthday my aunt let me pick out a coin from her pull string bag of coins. Pulled out a indian head penny.
67 years later still going
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
Great stories everyone, keep it up.
Type collector, mainly into Seated. Young Numismatist. Good BST transactions with: mirabela, OKCC, MICHAELDIXON