What got you Interested in Coins ??

Hey everyone !! Every once in awhile I have to remind myself what got me here concerning Coin collecting . I've been collecting for 40 + years since I was 10 .
I had an Uncle that never married or had kids because he was Jaded by a women when he was young . He was a WW2 Vet (Medic in the Army) , born 1922 which explains his explains his hard life . He lost his leg over there doing this . Had a nice collection of coins and got me very interested . I would do odd jobs for him because of his leg which included doing his garden . I did it for the kindness he gave me and no more . You see, he would bring me to various places such as to my baseball games , Coffee shop for Donuts and the Penny candy store . Since my Dad was busy working all the time, he acted as a "second father".
When I was about 12 , he started paying me with Coins which got me very excited and interested.
The best part of this story is how he gave me his Pennies . I would dig and turn over the soil every season removing the worms for fishing and the grubs for extermination . As I would do this , I would occasionally find a wheatback penny . Wow , I thought . How lucky I was to find these little gems ? He would explain that they were probably from the previous owner and I excepted this until I started Metal Detecting in 2001 . You see , I came to realize that the Pennies were in decent condition . The one's I dug Metal Detecting were green and in usually in bad shape . That's when it hit me . You guessed it . He was planting these coins in the Garden .
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my story . So, who or what got you interested ?
Here are some of the many coins he gave me :

 

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That's a nice story.

I got interested in coins a while back when my grandpa would give me and siblings family Whitman coin albums for Christmas each year. They were partially filled and I would try to fill the rest of them up as much as I can. (I still am working on them lol) Ever since then, coin collecting has been a big hobby of mine.

 

Great story, Sal.......

I was given Mint Sets and coin rolls in the 1970's for birthday and Christmas presents. When I overpaid one year's college tuition a decade or so later, I had a refund and used it to buy a 1/10th oz. Krugerrand (still got it) a few years after the 1980 gold bubble burst. That got me and kept me interested in gold ever since (should have bought copper, would be much less expensive.).

I have been on-and-off with coin collecting ever since. Unfortunately, it seems like when I have the time....I don't have the $$$. When I have the $$$....I don't have the time.

Anyway, I not only enjoy collecting and buying, but participating in the forums which is good because the stuff I like to buy -- Saints, Morgans, bullion, modern commemoratives -- is usually anywhere from $100 - $2,500 or so, which means purchases are few and far between (esp. now job searching or working PT).

But that lets me do research, improve my grading skills, and ask the vets here questions which they graciously will answer....and re-answer....and re-answer.

I've gone to local 1-day coin shows (10-40 dealers) for about 10 years now. Went to my 1st big show last January, FUN 2020 (good thing, Covid hit 2 months later and nothing since). Looking forward to hitting my LCS soon....checking out the local shows.....Whitman Baltimore in November...and FUN 2022 next January.

In the words of Dennis Miller....that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

 

This little lady right here. My brother found it on the floor of the bank next to the coin machine. He lost it somewhere in the house in 2015 and a year later I found it. Became obsessed with it's age and design so I looked deeper on the internet.

Eventually I learned about the different designs coins have had historically which amazed me deeply. Kinda funny how the butterfly effect works.

 

Simple, my dad and his coins.

 

About 1950 my maternal grandfather would give us children two cents for every "lead" Penny we gave him. I later inherited those coins, but that's what started me looking at coins and saving the interesting ones.

 

About 1963 my uncle came to stay with us. He put me to work sorting Lincoln cents. We had a great time and I was hooked on the hobby.

 

When I was 5 my aunt gave me an 1883 and an 1885 V Nickel. When I looked at the history and value I was hooked.

 

My mother (born in 1945) had a quart jar of silver coins and buffalo nickels she had pulled from circulation. As a kid she let me pour them out and examine them. I was quite interested.
In my teens I frequented an antique store in a nearby town, and I remember some smallish boxes of mercury dimes, listed for 30 cents each. I never bought any though. Had more wants than cash back then.
Then in my twenties for some reason I answered an ad for a peace dollar, and got a nice 1922. My interest rekindled and here I am today.

 

That is quite a nice story.
I met this older guy, always grumpy, at a flea market. He had a Lithuanian coin and as I was in like 4th grade, anything besides Canadian and US coins (which circulate here) was odd to me.

The guy died a few years back now.

Wish my story was a little nicer.

Before that though, me and my mom did the states. One of each, I didn't understand the concept of mintmarks. In fact, that that time must have been 2006 or so, so not even all of them were out yet.

either way, im here now. For the long haul I hope

 

My pops! http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins.html

 

very very cool site

 

I needed a hobby since I was unable to travel during COVID-19 so I thought why not travel through coins and paper currency. I am hooked. I totally love it. I have some very interesting pieces and they all tell a story.

 

I first became interested in coins when I was about 5 years old. My grandfather gave me a 1941-1974 Lincoln Cent Whitman album and some rolls to look through, and I've been hooked ever since.

 

My wife and I were grocery shopping at a Wal-Mart. I got annoyed by all the people so I went outside and took off walking down the shopping strip. I stumbled in a coin shop. I remember the smell. All the coins behind glass ect... turns out it was a pretty good shop I now know. But I walked out with a bag of bulk world coins. Like 10 lbs or something. Spent weeks looking up and analyzing each. Started putting some in flips ect... they were junk I know now.

Now I collect World and U.S.. i spend 90% of my free time looking at and buying coins. I was 40 when i walked in that shop,and had never ever even considered coin collecting. Besides work....its my entire life today.

 

My grandfather began giving me a silver dollar wrapped in foil on occasion and I kept them until he passed away at the age of 58. He had amassed quite a collection by then and my grandmother slowly sold the coins to his best friend who was also a collector. I gave the coins to my grandmother because times were tough for her in the early 50's. I remember sitting on his lap examining some of the special coins he had. My current interest in coins began in the middle 60's when I found an IHC on a beach in Massachusetts. Me thinks....1882.

 

It was my father who got me started. When I came of age (12 or 13) he gave me proof sets between 1954-1963. After that, it was up to me........I've never quit.

 

In the mid 60's, my folks had HUGE Dewar's scotch bottle (may have been a store display piece) that that they would put any pennies from their pockets that day into. When it was full (about every 3 years), we as a family would roll the pennies, and then use that money to take a family weekend vacation. At some point I noticed the wheaties, and it got me curious, and with Dad's permission, I could keep them as needed. Got me a Whitman, and did what i could to fill it.

That's the copper collecting.

Folks had 2 other banks that would get silver that they got in circulation, one for my brother, one for me. My brother got the half dollars being older, and I got quarters and dimes. We both cashed all of it in during the Hunt brothers' run on silver. I was 13 years old, and had a big wad of cash from that.

At the age of 20-something, I sold all remaining coins and stamps (turned out to be a great time to sell the stamps) to finance a car and a coming-of-age move across the country, and that was pretty much the end.

Fast forward about 30 years, and I picked up metal detecting, and that got me back into it, and here we are.

 

When I was 13, my grandfather put all of his coins in a big pile, and his 5 grandchildren took turns picking. Afterwards, we did some horse trading. A few months later he died from lung cancer, so in retrospect the timing was such that he could enjoy seeing us getting them. Somehow I ended up with a Canada 1948 $1 among other uncirculated George VI silver, and finding out how much it was worth hooked me on coin collecting.

The more interesting story is how he got his coins. He was the head librarian at the Chicago Tribune. His predecessor had connections all over the world who mailed him coins, and when this man died, the coins kept arriving. I suspect some came from foreign correspondents as well. I have coins from several dozen countries from him, mostly late 1940s (and mostly not a lot of value).

He also socialized with Colonel McCormick, Tribune publisher and Chicago "aristocrat". I suspect that my grandfather may have contributed some rocks/artifacts from the western US to the ones that line the facade of the Tribune building (https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2013/03/05/pictures-of-all-149-rocks-stuck-on-the-tribune-tower/), as the places I know he went on his trips "out west" with my grandmother correspond with many of them, as well as the time frame. I have a box of similar objects from him. Grandpa was a Lincoln expert. He was also a trumpet player who performed in speakeasies during the Roaring Twenties, and carried a revolver in his trumpet case.

 

Your grandpa sounds like he was a well rounded man.