A classic question...what was the first coin you paid more than face value for.--or what coin got yo
Billet7
Posts: 4,923 ✭✭✭
For me it was a very original 1936-S walker. I think I paid $5 for it back in the early 90's. It's still with me today.
My brother and I went to Rust Rare Coins in Salt Lake City, in search of Buffalo Nickles and Indian Heand Cents. Our plan was to put holes in them and use them for buttons on a Native American/Mountain-Man style shoulder-bag (I can't remember exactly why we were doing this...but we were.) While we were there we looked at a few of the coins they had, this particular one caught my eye...so I bought it. My mother always had a jar of old, funny looking coins, and I remember thinking that she didn't have one of those in her jar, so it must be special! I still have the shoulder bag that we made. It's leather with beadwork and fringe...and a holed XF 1938-D buffalo nickle right smack in the middle!!!
My brother and I went to Rust Rare Coins in Salt Lake City, in search of Buffalo Nickles and Indian Heand Cents. Our plan was to put holes in them and use them for buttons on a Native American/Mountain-Man style shoulder-bag (I can't remember exactly why we were doing this...but we were.) While we were there we looked at a few of the coins they had, this particular one caught my eye...so I bought it. My mother always had a jar of old, funny looking coins, and I remember thinking that she didn't have one of those in her jar, so it must be special! I still have the shoulder bag that we made. It's leather with beadwork and fringe...and a holed XF 1938-D buffalo nickle right smack in the middle!!!
0
Comments
And, I still have my 1917-S Lincoln!
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
===
Do you remember the first rare coin you ever laid eyes on? I remember mine---an old “nickel” that was special for two reasons: because it was so strange and exotic looking, and also (this was more of a feeling than a conscious thought) because it was a gift from my oldest brother. Mike was (and is) 13 years older than me, so when I was a tyke going into kindergarten, he was leaving home to join the U.S. Marine Corps---definitely someone to look up to!
One day, home on leave, Mike gave me a coin from the steamer trunk that held his collection. We sat down and he showed me a copy of the Red Book. Together we looked up this unusual coin, and compared its physical traits to the grading standards listed. I was excited to learn that it was in Very Good condition—that sounded promising! He patiently explained that Very Good was better than Good (which made intuitive sense), but not as good as Fine. Okay; I obviously had a lot to learn, but with the Red Book I had the right resources, and thanks to that “rare coin”---actually, a super-common 1937 Buffalo nickel, worth all of $0.30 at the time---I was hooked on this great hobby. I read the book from cover to cover, absorbing its arcane and wondrous knowledge.
I’ve enjoyed numismatics since then, from United States types to world coins (and most recently focusing on European medals and tokens). Now, years later, I’m living a collector’s dream: actually working as a member of the Red Book’s publishing team. A career in communications and publications has led me to Whitman Publishing, the maker of the famous scarlet tome. I count among my co-workers Kenneth Bressett and Q. David Bowers---how much more fortunate can a collector get? Ken’s Guide Book of English Coins was the first world coin book I ever bought, back when I started to branch into British and European material. And of course there was many a Bowers title on my numismatic bookshelf.
Working for Whitman, I feel a sense of history and a connection to other coin collectors. I can’t help thinking of the thousands---millions---who have been introduced to the hobby by Whitman coin folders, and sustained and nurtured through their learning process by Whitman books.
I still have that 1937 Buffalo nickel, and the first Red Book I purchased on my own. I wouldn’t trade either one for an 1804 dollar. I hope your journey through the hobby is equally enjoyable.
The earliest coin I remember buying for more than face was a VF 1911-D Lincoln cent. It was purchased from W.H. Foster in early 1962. I sold it many years ago.
I don't really consider myself a collector however until last year, when I found my late father's stash hidden behind the heater in the basement. I've been collecting ever since and the first coins I purchased after becoming a real collector were a 1832 half dime and a 1852 large cent, both for $5 each, and both are damaged. I don't care, I treasure them.
NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
RIP "BEAR"
.....1967.....my aunt (who collected coins), sat me down and sold me (at face value!!!), any silver dimes and quarters I could find out of her collectoin that were duplicates for her.....I filled alot of my Whitman folders that day!.......now that was 'treasure hunting'!
......I collect old stuff......
It came full circle to me about 8 years ago when he passed his collection on to me. I was amazed at what he had. For a cop raising 8 kids, he was able to build a nice collection. There are no great rarities inj his collection as virtually all of it was simply pulled from circulation.
He did spark the interest however and I began to collect. I bought my first 2 coins in the government GSA auction of Carson City Morgans. I bought an 82 & 83 and have them still. I llok back now and wish I'd bought more of them.
Good thread, thanks
Many successful BST transactions with dozens of board members, references on request.
Lafayette Grading Set
And yes, I still have the 1801 cent.
1937walker
1957 Ben
all circ'd and givin to me by my dad.........one of the
few nice things he did for me
then it was sat walks to the coin store with friends......
Hoard the keys.
Ron
Before then, everything I collected came out of circulation.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
A 1979 U.S. Mint Set on a family vacation in Denver. We toured the mint and I bought it for a couple bucks after the tour. 15 years old at the time.
I was actually collecting stamps at the time and bought the coin just because I thought it was neat. I asked my dad if I could start collecting coins instead of stamps, and I remember his answer, "No way, it's too expensive". Years later, in my mid-twenties and really short on cash, I sold my entire stamp collection for $60.00. Makes me feel kinda sick whenever I think about it.
If I had bought coins with all the money I spent at that store, instead of stamps, I would have been much better off, instead of falling into the financial black hole of stamp collecting.
I still remember my dad's advice, and just how bad it was. Funny, just about all of his other advice has served me well!
I still have that 1893 cent.
Indeed.
(I'll just copy and paste the story from an earlier telling).
Sit back- you're in for a long, saccharine trip down Memory Lane.
The scene opens in Grandmother Dobbs' big old house on Lenox Road in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a busy road but the house sat back from it a ways, and there were woods all behind it, with paths and a small brook running behind the property, I think. We kids loved to explore back there. Today I am told that the woods are gone, and the house no longer exists. I heard it is all paved over as a parking lot for a restaurant. In 1976 it was still a quiet residential area, except for traffic on Lenox Road, which was fairly heavy even then.
I was ten and a half years old. Mom and all the aunts and uncles were milling around, waiting for turkey and a shot at Grandmomma's incredible scratch biscuits. Things were just starting to smell good. I guess I got underfoot in the kitchen, because I was told to go upstairs for an hour and take a nap. I said I wasn't sleepy. Mom said I had to go upstairs and sit or lie quietly in the bedroom, anyway-she didn't care if I slept or not. Not relishing the boring thought of an hour alone upstairs, I scanned the shelves for a book to take with me. It was a copy of the 1971 "Black Book" of US coins, which had apparently belonged to an uncle. I spent my hour with it and came downstairs to eat. Things were really smellin' good now. Grandmomma asked if I would be a dear and set the table. She pointed to the sideboard and told me the silverware was in the top drawer, and gave me the placemats and napkins. I opened the drawer. In there sat the silverware, but since it was a really wide old piece of Victorian furniture, there was lots of space in the drawer. It was filled with papers, keys, odds and ends- you know- the usual bric-a-brac. And... some coins.
Before my nap, and prior to my reading the Blackbook, I had assumed that United States coins had featured Lincoln cents and Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters since the dawn of time- heck, there were never even any silver coins around in my life, since I had been born in 1965. Imagine my surprise when, at the bottom of the sideboard drawer, I found... (*gasp*)
a 1936 Mercury dime in Very Good condition!
Just like the picture in the book! My gosh...that thing was really OLD...forty years!!
I still have that coin, El Numero Uno, the very first one, and I cherish it today. Also in the drawer were a 1943 steel cent and some other Wheaties (you can bet that steel cent knocked me out- WOW!). Grandmomma let me keep 'em all, of course. Except the 1948-D Franklin half. That had a bullet hole through it, and had been shot by one of the uncles when he was a boy.
On a future visit, Grandmomma gave me a 1951-D quarter that she had picked up in the flower bed. There is no telling what else that was in the yard of that magical old house. It's all a memory now, lost beneath the urban sprawl, but...
Somewhere, deep beneath the asphalt of a restaurant parking lot in Atlanta, there are silver coins sleeping, and the fond memories of my childhood sleep with them, amongst the roots and stones and the ghosts of trees that are no longer there.
My rambling recollection is a bittersweet one, but it has a silver lining. Do you think you could trade me a Mint State Saint-Gaudens double eagle for that one particular cheapo 1936 VG Mercury dime? Think again. That one is spoken for. It goes to my yet-unborn grandson (or -daughter), whichever one has the brightest eyes and the keenest interest.
God bless you, Grandmomma. I never got to say goodbye to you properly. The turmoil and disentegration of my first marriage and trying desperately to eke out a living at a series of dead-end jobs just got in the way, I guess.
Things are much better now, better even than they were in those distant, carefree days, when I was a little boy playing in the woods behind your old house. I hope one day I can hug you again, on the other side of those Pearly Gates. I sure hope they have a good big kitchen in Heaven. I promise not to get underfoot. To this day, I have never had a biscuit to match one of yours.
Edit to answer the other question posed by the title: what the first coin I paid more than face value for was. I don't really remember. I think it might have been a G-VG 1857 Seated dime. Suffice it to say I no longer have it. My entire collection has been sold off a time or two over the years. I always kept three coins, though:
1) The VG 1936 Merc dime that started it all.
2) An 1827 XF45 details Bust half that I got for my birthday in 1977, when it was 150 years old (an astounding gift to me at the time). I swore I would keep it until it turned 200, then pass it on. Hope I am still around in 2027. I still have it, of course.
3) An AU58 PL 1878-S Morgan dollar that came from my great-grandmother's desk. I kept that for more than 20 years, but passed it on to my sister to keep for my firstborn nephew, who came along in 1999.
So there are only two left from my early days as a collector, now, though the third remains in the family.
Yikes!!! OK...OK…Now tell us how you got your parents into those little blue albums? And --- how many parents did you have? There are a lot of holes in a coin album….
<< <i> As a kid I filled up whitman penny albums with my parents...
Yikes!!! OK...OK…Now tell us how you got your parents into those little blue albums? And --- how many parents did you have? There are a lot of holes in a coin album…. >>
Yes, but with a sharp knife one parent would fill a lot of holes.
It wasn't until after I was married to my wife Linda (in 1976) before I purchased my first coin. I bought a bunch or worn out Barber dimes at a swap meet (not a coin show). I no longer have a single one of them, but I do have the first coin gift my wife gave me in 1977; the three legged buffalo shown below.
This would have been the most valuable coin in my collection at the time, and no matter what the dollar or book value it will remain my most valuable as long as I breathe.
PCGS say vf30.
President, Racine Numismatic Society 2013-2014; Variety Resource Dimes; See 6/8/12 CDN for my article on Winged Liberty Dimes; Ebay
I still have both of those coins. The 1838 half dime especially thrilled me because it was dated FULL DECADE + a year from the date of my birth. WOW.
EDIT
Mistake noted ... It was a decade + a century + a year.
–John Adams, 1826
<< <i>For me it was a very original 1936-S walker. I think I paid $5 for it back in the early 90's. It's still with me today.
My brother and I went to Rust Rare Coins in Salt Lake City, in search of Buffalo Nickles and Indian Heand Cents. Our plan was to put holes in them and use them for buttons on a Native American/Mountain-Man style shoulder-bag (I can't remember exactly why we were doing this...but we were.) While we were there we looked at a few of the coins they had, this particular one caught my eye...so I bought it. My mother always had a jar of old, funny looking coins, and I remember thinking that she didn't have one of those in her jar, so it must be special! I still have the shoulder bag that we made. It's leather with beadwork and fringe...and a holed XF 1938-D buffalo nickle right smack in the middle!!! >>
HA ,HA, I totally remember that. I still have the indian head cent i drilled two holes in to make a button. I bought a franklin half dollar that day.
hooked I'd go to the bank and buy penny rolls for searching. Then in 1960 I went to
a coin shop and saw these and was "sold" a bill of goods for 25¢ a card. Bought all I
could afford, about 10. I've never been back to a retail coin shop since that day. These
are the only coins I've ever paid "retail" for in all those years.
I'm not saying that B & M stores are bad, it's just not my venue. I prefer to buy collections
from the collectors directly.
So, I still have a few of these left. Have given several out to young numismatists here on
this forum. They probably are worth the two bits now.
bob