When year did you start collecting?

SanctionII · April 30, 2009 12:34PM

And how long have you collected.

I started in 1963 at age 7. I collected from age 7-18 (and a little bit in college) and started again 10+ years ago. So I have collected for 21 to 22 years. I am sure others here have collected longer and in some cases started long before 1963.

Robb · April 30, 2009 12:36PM

For some reason I thought you were 30ish.

I started collecting on a regular basis maybe two years ago, tops.

MidLifeCrisis · April 30, 2009 12:37PM

I started around age 10, which would have been 1977. I collected for 4 or 5 years then stopped. I started again in 2001...so 12-13 years or so total.

InternetJunky · April 30, 2009 12:40PM

I did when I was about 10, but you can only look at the same 4 morgan/peace dollars, roll of 57-D Lincolns, couple Ikes, and 87 proof set for so long. Not having any money to invest didn't help either, couldn't even get supplies like flips (parents didn't have that kind of extra cash). I lost interest up until about December '08. I lurked here for a little bit then joined in Feb. I believe. Now I've got the itch again and am completely hooked again. It helps when you have some money to use towards the hobby.

As for a total time frame probably about a year, I'm 22 now.

stinkinlincoln · April 30, 2009 12:40PM

Within the last 5 years. Although my dad and grandfather tried along time ago. But I must say with all the books Ive read and posts here, I feel like Ive collected coins for 10+ years...

lkeigwin · April 30, 2009 12:41PM

1959, when I was eight. I knew more then.
Lance.

ArizonaJack · April 30, 2009 12:42PM

1968.....age 7 in Detroit. I remember the riots the year before, the coin shop was boarded up for months.

cladking · April 30, 2009 12:52PM

I was little in 1957 and collecting buffalo nickels from pocket change.

eCoinquest · April 30, 2009 12:53PM

2004

BECOKA · April 30, 2009 12:55PM

I was going to ask which time but you clarified in your response.

I am similar, I collected mostly proof sets and world coins from 8-15 and about 5 years ago I started up again with Indian gold and am now heavily into classic head gold.

DennisH · April 30, 2009 12:56PM

I started as a kid in the 1960s, stopped in high school, and then started up again much more seriously in 1994.

AUandAG · April 30, 2009 12:56PM

I'm thinking 1955. Age 9.

bob

tjkillian · April 30, 2009 12:57PM

1971 at the age of 9.

DoctorPaper · April 30, 2009 12:59PM

1954 at age 10. Still have some of the coins from back then.

garsmith · April 30, 2009 1:03PM

I started in early May, 1999 at age 37. Been at it for almost 10 years, couple more weeks to go.

JCMhouston · April 30, 2009 1:04PM

I started in the early 60's as a kid, took a break for a 12 years in the Navy and college and a couple of babies, started up again in 85, took another break in the mid 90's until about 2005.

Broadstruck · April 30, 2009 1:05PM

I was about 6 and started with darkside.

I can't exactly recall how old I was when I switch to US, but remember riding home from the coin shop with a 1918 UNC Merc on my banana seat bike.

lasvegasteddy · April 30, 2009 1:06PM

1968 when i was about 6

nankraut · April 30, 2009 1:08PM

1955 @ age 17, hence my avatar

tradedollarnut · April 30, 2009 1:09PM

<< <i>And how long have you collected.

I started in 1963 at age 7. I collected from age 7-18 (and a little bit in college) and started again 10+ years ago. So I have collected for 21 to 22 years. I am sure others here have collected longer and in some cases started long before 1963. >>

I'm eerily similar! I started in 1969 at the age of 8. Collected from age 8-22 (through college and a bit in the Navy) and then got back into it heavily at age 35 in 1996. So that's 26 total years.

diamondman · April 30, 2009 1:16PM

started around 1966 looking through bags of lincoln pennies, then started collecting US type, started and stopped a few times in between.
so put me down for 30-43 years heh heh

speety · April 30, 2009 1:18PM

Umm since about 2003ish, making me 13 at the time.

touche · April 30, 2009 1:29PM

<< <i>1954 at age 10. Still have some of the coins from back then. >>

Same year, same age. We're to old to even be 'baby boomers'. Paper route change, and then exchange rolls at the bank. Just gave my penny collection to the next door neighbor kid, hopefully he gets the bug.

InternetJunky · April 30, 2009 1:39PM

Reading these posts kind of makes you wonder how many hundreds, if not thousands of years of coin collecting expierence this board has. Which, IMO, is why this is such a great place for knowledge. I have yet to see a question that cannot be answered in these forums.

bigmansam88 · April 30, 2009 1:43PM

Way back in the summer of '05 when I was 13.

Seems like it was only yesterday...

KlectorKid · April 30, 2009 1:50PM

Started in 2000 with a 3 year break from the hobby, so 6 years total and I'm 20 years old. Started just by looking through the coins I inherited from my grandfather.

mozin · April 30, 2009 2:02PM

I started collecting pennies in 1949.

Gemini · April 30, 2009 2:03PM

Was the early 60's I got the bug and started looking for the 1955/1955 but never found one after searching many, many wheaties. I broke down a couple years later and bought one in xf/au. It was really fun back then when you could find Morgan and Peace Dollars Walkers and Franklins Merc dimes and more still in circulation. These were really the good old days.

Swampboy · April 30, 2009 2:27PM

1960 when I was 12.

I still have some Whitman's of mercs and lincolns from then.

Long, long, long hiatus. 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

MFH · April 30, 2009 2:52PM

1961 - in the 8th grade - thru college and stopped in 1973.

Started up again in 1993 - still going strong.

garsmith · April 30, 2009 2:55PM

1962 thru 1970 nothing
1970 thru 1982 stamps
1982 thru 1999 casino dollars
1999 thru ,,,,,, coins and coin sets

LincolnsRule · April 30, 2009 3:10PM

1985 (age 8) to 1990 and then 2001 to now.

DieClash · April 30, 2009 3:39PM

1971 - 1st coin I ever collected was a 1938 Jefferson Nickel I got in change at the local gas station/candy store. This was well before the concept of the "Quicki-Mart"

. Took me 20 years to complete the set. But what a joy for a kid. I was 8 yoa when I started.

droopyd · April 30, 2009 4:56PM

1963, started with the Whitman penny books.

rodzm · April 30, 2009 6:17PM

Well I started collecting in the late 80's up until about 1993 then quit for many years and started collecting again last year. I dont collect anything specific, just what catches my eye and I hoard PM's. I particularly like rainboew toned coins and saving up for some Battle Creek Morgans

I recently submitted my very first coin, a Ultra High Relief which came back as a MS70.

Dropdaflag · April 30, 2009 9:46PM

I started in 2001 after getting a book of Lincolns my grandmother left for me and my brother. Took a forced Katrina break in late 2005 (my wife forced me to sale most of my coins in summer 2005, so I had no coin losses from the storm) and came back in late 2008.

UtahCoin · April 30, 2009 9:57PM

I started in 1961 at age 9. At that time it was not unusual to find Steel Cents, Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes, SL Quarters & WL Half Dollars, and an occasional Barber coin.

OKbustchaser · April 30, 2009 10:06PM

1963...I was 12. I found a 1917 type 1 Standing Liberty quarter while playing in a neighborhood park. WOO-HOO, NAKED BOOB!!! I was forever hooked. I never took the break that so many do so I will have been collecting 46 years this June.

Aberlight · April 30, 2009 10:10PM

Around 7. Bicentennial quarter found amazed me because it was so different and then my mother picked up a half dollar from the bank. Around same time I received an Ike Dollar at school and was floored at how big it was.

Barberman55 · April 30, 2009 10:22PM

I started about 1962, at age 7, with Lincoln cents.....I really enjoyed the challenge of filling the Whitman folders. As a kid, I also collected "foreign" coins, now called "world" coins, but decided to concentrate on U.S. coins. The hobby started to wane in my junior high school years and didn't resume again until around 1997.

mozeppa · April 30, 2009 10:29PM

my dad gave me my first walker half when i was 5.

i was spending wheat pennies every day at the neighborhood candy store.

many times there were steel cents in my candy allowance...granny loved me!

TwoSides2aCoin · April 30, 2009 10:32PM

I have a lot more friends who think coin people are geeks than I did before I started collecting.

wikyva · April 30, 2009 10:40PM

I started collecting in August of 2006. I started because I thought it would be a good way to have a hobby that my son and I could enjoy. He is only 5 now but at least one of us really enjoys the hobby!

Cameonut · April 30, 2009 10:51PM

1960 at the age of six. I got my first proof set that year as a birthday present - housed in a blue Capital plastic holder. (No cameos, no varieties). But I couldn't afford proof collecting at that young age, so I collected cents and nickels from circulation. My neighbor had a way to get bags of cents from the local parking meters and we would spend hours searching the bags to fill holes in our Whitman folders which were made at Western Publishing a few miles away. I even remember getting a blue folder as a Halloween treat instead of the typical candy bar!

But by high school, I got interested in other things and didn't return until I was about 30. Stayed interested in proofs - especially cameos and varieties. So overall about 38 years of collecting.

CarlWohlforth · April 30, 2009 11:04PM

<<<< And how long have you collected.

I started in 1963 at age 7. I collected from age 7-18 (and a little bit in college) and started again 10+ years ago. So I have collected for 21 to 22 years. I am sure others here have collected longer and in some cases started long before 1963. >>

I'm eerily similar! I started in 1969 at the age of 8. Collected from age 8-22 (through college and a bit in the Navy) and then got back into it heavily at age 35 in 1996. So that's 26 total years.>>

Gee, my experience is almost exactly the same. The 1963 part is the same, I quit earlier when I was about 13 and got back into it in the '90s. I started collecting from change, mostly Lincolns. I did get a few type coins as presents.

ProofArtworkonCircs · April 30, 2009 11:04PM

It was about 1939 plus or minus 1 year or about the age of 4 when my aunt (b. 1858) gave me a silver dateless three cent piece. I still have it. My collection grew very slowly after that. My next item was an Indian Head Cent.

Unfortunately I acquired another 3 cents in similiar condition over the years and now I don't know which is which.

For many years I thought the design was Roman Numeral III inside a fancy bracelet.

JJM · April 30, 2009 11:39PM

1968-1975

then stopped and started back up from

2004-present

Wiscane · April 30, 2009 11:52PM

1957

NightHawk · May 1, 2009 12:32AM

I started in the late 70's as a kid, stopped collecting through high school when girls and music became more important.

Once I graduated, had my own job and a way to get to the nearest coin store I picked up the hobby again. I've been collecting off and on since then.

bonkrood · May 1, 2009 12:38AM

Coins early 1960s when I had a paper route, Currency about 40 years later.

ziggy29 · May 1, 2009 12:42AM

I couldn't say exactly when, but I'd guess around 1973 or 1974. I would have been about 8 years old. Basically I was intrigued by my dad's coin collection, most of which (at that time) came from circulation when he was an Air Force pilot stationed in Puerto Rico in the early 1960s. They circulated almost everything there -- there were still plenty of Walkers, Mercs and Buffs in circulation, and a decent amount of Barber coinage, V nickels, IHCs and a few Morgan and Peace dollars. There didn't seem to be much attention paid to key dates as Dad was able to get 1921 Walkers from all three mints out of circulation there. He bought a bunch of the cheap Whitman albums and saved all the obsolete designs he came across.

It was looking through his collections as a wee lad that got me interested and eventually hooked.

When year did you start collecting?

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