What Started Your Love Of Coins?

For me, it was my maternal grandmother, who I used to spend hours with poring over Lincoln cents. Later, I received a portion of Morgan and Peace dollars that were retrieved from my paternal grandmother's house afte she passed. Between the two of them, they have ensured that I will collect coins for my entire life, and will pass then down to my children.

 

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About eight years ago I started throwing wheat cents and all of the Canadian stuff I'd find into a jar. Six years ago I was working the register at a pizza place and got burned on two quarter rolls-- full of Mexican pesos, all '84 or '85. Into the jar they went. It never seemed like a hobby, just something that was kind of neat. In February 2004 I found two silver Washington quarters within a week. I didn't know they were silver at the time, just that they were different somehow, and the ensuing research got me hooked. I collect mostly from circulation, although I've started buying and now I can't seem to stop...

 

And now its a year and a half (almost) later!

My interest started in jr high school when I noticed the kids who took note of the coins they received in change at lunch time. Coin collectors! So I had to find out what that was all about...

My collection began with a box of coins from my grandmother, who had them from her mother, who had a dry goods store in the Canton area of Baltimore around the turn of the last century (1900).

It wasn't a huge group of coins, but interesting nonetheless. The oldest was a well worn half cent of 1804. There were several battered large cents, some Indian cents, a civil war era "love token" which was actually a seated liberty quarter with one side planed off, then mongrammed with someone's initials in fancy script. There was also a brown leather case that contained a large silver medal (probably 3 or 4 oz), awarded to my great great grandfather by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad "for adherence to Duty in May 1857". There was an 1877-S silver dollar that I later learned is a Trade Dollar. Last but definitely not least was a small black silk envelope or wallet-like object with two pockets. The first pocket contained a really nice one dollar gold coin of 1884 -- the other pocket held a somewhat worn three dollar gold coin of 1857.

That was when I was twleve years old. So now I'm 60. I still collect, but mostly write into my new website about coins (see my profile for the URL). Adding to the site is almost as fun as collecting the coins!

 

Mine started at my Grandmother's yard sale in 1986, when I was rolling up the change from the sale I noticed a dime that was considerably bigger in diameter than the rest so I threw it in a jar and just kept throwing odd coins in with it, then I got on the net and joined Coin Chat and asked what was wrong with the dime and was told that it was a broadstrike error.

 

Like most I started young. I started when I was a paperboy in the late sixties and early seventies. I would collect on saturdays. I would always get alot of change. I remember one gentleman would give me silver dollars once in awhile. I started sifting through the money before I would turn it in, replacing what I wanted to keep. I recieved many nice wheats, quarters and halves. I still have many today. I usually buy at least one coin a week, I have been hooked for 37 years .Still enjoying every coin I run across

 

In 1965 I went to work in a bank.(19 yrs old) My first job was counting coins from coke,candy and cigarette machines. I became facinated with the Mercury dime. I made the down payment on a new 1965 Doge Dart GT by selling 2 Mercury sets(less16D) to dealers for $200.00 each.Today I have three sets. Still no 16D, lol. I think it is the most beautiful coin made, but, of course, i am prejudiced.

 

The 20 Franc Head of the Republic/Rooster Marianne gold coin. Have some silver american and zuid afrik coins as well but it is the french gold coins and ancients that grab me. I must add thru since I throw my love for the gold around on this coin site that I am an avid yet minor collector and I am sure that most here have silver coins worth more then my gold ones.

 

My love of coins started when I was around 5 or 6. I was playing in the back yard of the place I lived as a child and unearthed a dark brown dirty 3 legged Buffalo Nickel. At the time I knew nothing but ones my mother said that's worth money I felt like e little treasure hunter and from there of a started looking at every bit of money that came into my hands. I still have a few of those first coin and paper moneys I got. By age 10 I was buying gijoes and coins. lol I would do anything to make money. In spring and summer time I would go to the local teenage drinking spots and clean up all there cans and bottles, as well my step dad was a drunk so id work him for a buck ever time he asked me to go grab him a beer. I would walk all around my town collecting cans and bottles to get the funding I needed to make my first investments. In the winter I would shovel out cars in the parking lot of my building and drive ways around where I lived. I actually did very well for my self. I recall that I saved just over 600 bucks between cans and snow shoveling around age 12. I also recall thinking then that this is a lot of money but its not going to really be worth anything if I didn't do something with it. So the guys at my local coin shop knew me well. It was Named crystal coin. I remember looking in there cases at the gold coins all certified by ANA I believe ad thinking geesh I will never have even one of those. Today I have more then a hundred gold pieces in my collection but it did take me many many years to get here. I guess coin collecting made sense to me because I was so poor growing up that saving every penny really ment saving every penny. Coin collecting to me has always ment more to then just investing in my future. But I honestly remember that my future was one of the main reasons I started.

 

My grandfather gave us GSA CC Morgans which I stupidly sold.

Ruben

 

Many eons ago I had a paper route, I was always fascinated by the older coins. When I think about all the walkers, SLQ, Mercury dimes, Buffalo nickels, not to mention franklin's that went through my hands, it takes my breath away. Oh and all those coins were fairly available well into the mid to late 60's. Of course back then that was spending money. I did manage to save some money and started a saving account. In goes silver coins and out come green dollars. I really hate to think about it now.

 

bama_guy, when did you denominations go out of circulation? Many of those coins had been gone for decades by the 1950's.

Ruben

 

my fathers coin collecting interests. I became involved at age 7.

 

When I was about 6, my Grandmother gave me about 60 wheat pennies. Nothing too special. What was special was the steel '43 cent in with the mix. I have gone through phases in which I lose the collecting bug, but I always return to my collecting habits.

 

I found Doug and Cointalk really inflamed my interest which had been at a low boil for many years.

Ruben

 

when i was little, my father had some old coins...he eventually passed a few on to me. every once in a while when i saw a 'rare' coin, that is a coin that was not commonly in circulation such as a wheat penny or kennedy half dollar, i'd pull it aside and keep. then about 10 years ago, the us mint decided to do the quarter thing...and everyone once in a while i'd keep a wheat penny or whatever...and now the quarters are coming to an end and then i decided to organize my wheats and other coins...and i found out about other old and rare coins and now i'm just plained addicted. can't wait to buy my next dollar.

 

I have to say it was "the old man" who got my interest peaked in collecting. He gave me a grouping of proof sets which he had bought for me starting back in '54 up to and including 1960. I took it from there.....

 

My grandmother got me started back in the mid-'60s. That was at the time when silver coinage was being replaced with clad, and she wanted me to understand the value of old coins. I think the first coins she gave me were some silver dimes, and she also gave me a booklet put out by Stack's that listed their buy prices at the time. She took me to the local department store and got me a Whitman Jefferson nickel folder for my birthday. For Christmas 1966, she gave me "Let's Collect Coins" by Ken Bresset (which I still have, by the way) and a 1967 Redbook. I also got a 1964 "Last Year of Silver Coinage" set from someone else. What a great Christmas that was!

Later, Grandma took me to the house of a coin collector friend of hers, and he gave me a bunch of wheat pennies (which unfortunately disappeared, and I still don't know what happened to them). Around the same time, Grandma gave me a VDB, and a couple of Seated dimes (1840 and 1853-Arrows), as well as a couple of foreign coins (including a 1948 Swedish 10 ore, which is still in the original 2X2 cardboard holder I put it in back in 1967). There was also a guy in my neighborhood who was a coin collector, and he took me to my first coin show (where I bought a silver 3-cent piece with a hole in it for 50 cents. The 40% silver Kennedy half I used to buy the piece is probably worth more now than the 3-cent piece ever will be--LOL). I also received an occasional coin magazine (sometimes Coins, sometimes CoinAGE), and I hooked up with a gold coin dealer who had advertised in one of those publications. I was able to buy a sovereign from him for $12, just before sovereigns started taking off (rising to $20 or so by 1969).

 

Great story guys!

Mine was just a simple visit to wendy's last year i bought a burger got my change and was checking my change when i found a wheat penny which i've never seen before. After getting home i left the wheat aside from my desk and didn't put much of attention till 2 weeks after researching about the coin i just couldn't help it and started my wheat penny collection. Ever since then i collect from pennys - dollar coins and boy i am so addicted to it.

Besides collecting you really learn tons of new stuff and i know this because i got a 97 average in my history class ever since then lol.

 

I also got an added boost from coin collecting in history class by associating coins in my collection with dates of historical events

 

For me it was my grandpathers chest of old coins. Started collection at the age of 13