I was just wondering. How long was it after you first became interested in coins or currency before you made your first purchase? Was it an educated purchase or an impulse "have to have it" uneducated purchase? Just asking because I've yet to purchase anything. Everything I have is from circulation. Not that impressive a collection I have to admit but I LOVE IT! I'm sure that eventually I will purchase something just haven't yet. Also I enjoy knowing what the value of something I've found is because in my opinion that makes it even more special when you realize that you've found something that you enjoy at face value and then realize that it's worth more than you paid for it. I'm not sure though that I'd ever be able to sell anything I've collected. I'm sure though that that too will someday change. Right now though I have a kind of sick weird attachment to each coin and bill! LOL
It was probably a year or two after I started collecting coins before I bought a coin from a dealer. Up until then I got all my coins from circulation. I used to find Wheat Cents back to the Teens, a few Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes, well-worn Standing Lib Quarters, Walkers and Franklins. Of course, that was back in the '60s. I started collecting coins in 1964 when I was 9. So I was about 10 or 11 when I bought my first coin. It was a Bust Half Dollar. (I thought the edge lettering was WAY cool.)
You know, I can't really remember. My grandfather brought for us all GSA Morgans when we were young and I sold them as a teen ager. Then my collecting went dormant for decades until I got from circulation some nice Franklins and my Columbian Commem. That lit a fire under me and I started replacing my morgans, then got distracted by some Ikes. Finally I discovered a coin dealer in Brooklyn where I picked up a great Buffalo Nickel type I and a couple of Mercs. Then the flood gates opened and I started getting a variety of ASE's and AGE's and now I collect just about anything. What helped me along was that I have a deep passion for art and the workmanship on the coins artistically i believe is extraordinary. And I still collect coins like I do paintings and Vases. Ruben
That's a tough question. For many, it probably was finding a rare coin or note in circulation that triggered the interest. Was sort of that in my case. My mom was into coin collecting and found a 1928D $5 bill in circulation which she then gave to me because I thought it looked really cool. I remember getting a few $1 silver certificates shortly after that which my aunt had saved. Sort of got hooked, but didn't start buying notes until about a year later.
hmm. i dont know i definitely bought a proof set when was 11 (still have it ) and i know i was really interested in coins when i was 6 but i cant remember if i bought some coins before i was 11 might have been some pieces but hard to tell
long, long ago, when i was six or so years of age coming back on a family trip from california to el paso we stopped at a cafÉ to eat. In this cafÉ were slot machines along the wall and being a kid my brother and i pulled on the slot handles until our mother told us not to do so. Later i saw a nickel on the floor next to the table we were sitting at , i got up and bent over to pick it up when an old mans foot stepped on my hand and said “that’s my nickel”. Scared me, i didn’t argue, i gave him the nickel. He then said kindly, “here you can have it”, he still scared me. My older brother convinced me without any effort to put the nickel into one of the slot machines since he saw the nickel before i did. Mom was not in site and dad was at the car so we proceeded. I stood on the stool and put the nickel in the slot and my brother and i wrestled to pull the arm down and doing so the arm came down and hit me in the lip and i fell back hitting my head on the edge of the table where the old man was sitting. The slot machine started to make loud ringing and clinking noises. I realized my head and lip were bleeding, im yelling, the old man stood up yelling something, my mom comes over and is yelling to me “i told you not to play with the machines” as she’s scooping handfuls of nickels into her purse. She did tend to my wounds. It seemed like everybody in the cafÉ was looking and yelling at me. Miles later down the road, before we got home we stopped at the gas station and mom gave all of us nickels for the soda machine, i was the last to put my nickel in and the machine kept returning it. Dad was yelling “lets go” i ran to mom in a crying panic for another nickel when she noticed it was an indian nickel (buffalo) i paid no mind at first and got another nickel. It was after that mom picked out 15 or so buffalo nickels that i (and my brother) won from the slot machine. When i was eight or so a friend said he has some old coins. I thought they were neat so i traded a case (24) of empty soda bottles (5 cents each deposit) for 11 v nickels and 1 shield nickel. 2 for 1. It took me a week or so to collect all those bottles. My other friends didn’t think it was a good deal. This was my first trade/purchase of coins. I have been collecting ever since. I still have the buffalo nickels my mother gave me. Also the v nickels and the shield nickel i acquired then. My mother still tells the story of the nickels.
As soon as I could - about ten minutes. As soon as I could - about ten minutes. Just like a little boy I had to have it NOW!
It took me a few years like you kdkenn. I pulled everything from circulation for years. it wasnt until i started to get back into the collecting aspect that i started buying from the mint, Ebay, Heritage, Teletrade ect.... i would have to guess it took maybe 15 years?! Thats not counting the bags and boxes of cents from the local bank of course
Wow I cant remember as my father started me off with US cents LOL many many years ago but my first purchase when I decided to get back into it was within moments of me seeing the coin I wanted LOL
Most of my first coins were not even purchases, but rather goodies my father brought back from his tour of duty in Asia. I still have them too. But my first purchase was probably an 1878-S silver dollar that I bought to replace one that was given to me by my father and subsequently lost by my careless self. I think I paid about $4.50 for it, a BU example still.
15 years? WOW! Yea I don't count buying rolls to search as purchasing cuz I'm still getting them at face. I don't know I guess right now I don't really want to buy anything. For a couple of reasons I think. One is because I don't know the value of anything yet. So if I just pay face for it I can't lose right? Also I think part of the thrill for me is the hunt and finding these things at face. I'm just enjoying it like this now!
You must find some very interesting notes working in a bank...seems like with the current economy, people might be spending notes that they would otherwise put aside or have previously put aside.
I live in a small town so not really that much traffic at my branch. I wish that I could say I find some interesting things. To me some of the things that I find are interesting but probably wouldn't be to the more serious collector. I've found a $1 with the front also on the back. Don't know what it's called. I've found a few old notes. I think my oldest was a 34 $20. I'm not even sure now. I've found a radar and a few low serial numbers and a couple low serial star notes. Coins I've found are lots of wheaties, 1 Indian head cent, a few war nickels, 1 buffalo nickel, several foreign coins, and several 40% silver Kennedys I think 1 90% silver Kennedy and what I think is a proof Kennedy. Like I said nothing special but makes me happy and that's what's important. I smile when I find something I like.
It took me like probably a year and a half to two years. I thought I could build a great collection of almost everything with just circulation finds...I finally realized that I had to start purchasing to keep my collection going.
I'm in the Air Force and we were flying medical evacuation missions during the war in Iraq in 2003-2005 and we landed in Baghdad, and a guy came on board and offered up a series of Iraqi notes. I bought several sets to give as souviners and never looked back. Now I have a collection of over 1,000 banknotes from around the world, a notebook full of U.S. Currency, and a coin collection made up of mostly uncirculated Morgan dollars.
I started gathering Walking Liberties from circulation while in college in the very early '50s. In the early '60s I started collecting other (mostly) U.S. stuff, still from circulation. Sometime around 1990+/- I bought a birth-year WL as a birthday gift for a friend hitting the big five-oh, and it was several years after that before my next purchase, which was the start of my ventures into the coin market, when I began seriously collecting Japanese moderns. They are, after all, few and far between in circulation here in the U.S.
Well I've only been collecting for a few years now, but when it comes to coins the first coins I purchased were from a 1970 mint set, just so I could have the Kennedy half. Now when it comes to paper, I just recently (within the last week) purchased my first two notes at the same time. I paid $6.50 for a 1950 $5 note in VG or so, and I paid $7 for a 1963 $5 note in Fine condition. Feel like I got an OK deal, but even if I didn't, oh well it wasn't a thousand dollar mistake or anything
