After seeing so many post on this forum it seems fairly obvious that most of us were collecting coins as a kid and the retsarted later in life, like me. I am wondering and would like to hear about people staring this hobby later in life for the first time and why they got the bug. For example maybe they inherited a collection or something like that. Also I left the hobby when I hit the teen age years and the started up again years later. Is that the norm or have some of you been doing this since the early years?
Have to say it was the "old man" who got me started. He gave me some proof sets that he'd been saving for us kids and I guess the old bug of coin collecting bit me. That was back in the sixties. At that time it was mainly proof and mint sets that I collected (liberally peppered with pocket change that I came across running my paper route). Still have those pocket change finds. I've just recently swapped them out of the old brown paper holders into 2x2's.....
Same here. I started early in life, took a break, and got back into the hobby as an adult. My father started me collecting coins. I remember standing in his bedroom as a child, and he was showing me a coin in his dresser. It was a Mercury dime. I was somewhat of a bright child (what happened to me?) and I remember being very scared to touch the coin, as I knew mercury was poisonous!!! Naturally, I later figured out that the Winged Liberty depiction on the obverse was analagous to the Roman messenger god.
Yes that is the norm, People like myself who start young and never take a break are unusual. People who never collected coins when they were young and then started for the first time when they were older are also unusual but most of them did collect something when they were young.
I'm still young (18) but I got started 6 years ago with a 1956 Wheat Cent. I still have it in a folder. Found it in my dads change. Now that i've started i don't plan on leaving the hobby ever.
I collected stamps as a kid, but never coins. I've always been interested in history and read historical novels avidly. A couple of years ago, I read a series of novels about the adventures of some Roman legionaries and co-incidentally saw a few Roman coins on eBay. This made me think "why not collect a few"? After a few purchases of very dirty coins and some relatively unsuccessful attempts at cleaning, I came to the conclusion that Roman coins were (a) too expensive and (b) too hard to clean. At the age of 67, my patience was limited. When at school, we were never taught anything about China, so I decided to look into Chinese history and Chinese coins. this was fatal! I'm now addicted to both. I have several history books and a collection approaching 1000 coins ranging from cowries through Ban Liang, Wu Zhu, Kai Yuan Tong Bao to a wide range of N & S Song, Ming and Qing issues. My wife, who is Chinese, thinks I'm quite mad. Sometimes I agree, but every time I gloat over a new coin, I know I've done the right thing. Let's see more Chinese coins on CoinTalk. :thumb:
I started in the year 2000 with the State Quarters. My wife and I started to collect these for the kids who were age 1 and 3 at the time, a 3rd came along. We did finish those three sets, but have come a very long way since. I really enjoy a lot of different aspects of this hobby.
I got interested when I got a passed down collection from my grandpa. I added to it by collecting state quarters when I was in elementary/middle school. I was current on most state quarters, and then I went to a local coin shop that my father and I saw one day and we meet a guy selling NGC graded morgans, we bought one and I have been buying coins ever since. Although I realized the state quarters I pulled from circulation were not worth anything so I spent them. But thats ok because I have all of them now in my Silver Proof Sets. LouieLot
I pretty much started two years ago. I have always liked antique shops, pawn shops and second hand stores and I was in an antique shop near my home when I decided to buy a Morgan Dollar, because I wanted a coin minted exactly 100 years before I was born. Took it home and shined it right up with some toothpaste (wish I knew then, what I know now), thank god it wasn't a key date! But this didn't actually get me started, a few weeks later I was in another antique shop and they have a wooden box on the counter by the register that says World coins 10 cents each or 11 for a Buck. I picked out 11 coins thinking what the heck and went home and learned what I could about them. I would say that the Italian 20 centesimi "Flying Liberty" was probably the coin that really got me started... I have just enjoyed so much seeking out foreign unique coins and studying them and adding to my collection since then.
I was not ever really interested in coins in my younger days, I have become interested in them after my father passed on, I think it is a way I feel connected to him. I do enjoy the art, the history, and many of the people in the hobby.
I collected some stamps, coins and baseball cards as a kid. Sold the stamps and baseball cards at just the right time but kept the few coins I had collected. My son was born right in the middle of the state quarter era, and we have been collecting together for the past couple of years now. Collecting coins gives us a lot of quality face time together. It also gives me a chance to talk with him about history, geography, social studies, banking, etc. He also knows that all the coins we collect will be his alone someday. TC
We used to rob stores all the time and since we were just little kids with guns we liked all those shinning coins instead of all those ugly paper things grown ups used. Soon myself and friends found it was harder to buy guns and ammo with coins, so we started saving them instead. By the time we needed a car for a get away from those robberies, paying for a car with coins just didn't make it so continued saving them. Eventually I found many of them were worth money, so started to rob for coins again. Now sitting here in jail I wonder what went wrong.:whistle: Actually my Dad gave me those shinning, Silvery looking new PENNIES that just came out in 1943 and that made a Numismatist of me.
I started when i was 11 got back into it after i saw a commercial for our local shop and have picked back up 16
Started with coin,s in my teens through "Littleton" Not the best place to start!! From there moved in to currency, I just loved the art work then moved to Mpc (Military payment Certificates) There so cool
I was tired of being a bore on the first dates and also my lack of dates. I decided to became a numismatic to add to my sexual appeal as any woman able to resist the charm of numismatics must be all kinds of demonry. I even babeafied my focus with a wicked awesome ANA bumper sticker sure to be a insta babe magnet. The piece of resistance is my 1889CC in AU55 wich hangs on my bed mantle , a sure way to close the deal.
I started at 39 Years old.. Never even thought about coins. Always collected stuff..Scooters.. Guitars.. But never coins.. I started getting ASE for silver only.. then some junk coins.. Then someone gave me a whole box of coins.. ( Oh God I don't want to say this ) in The box he wanted me to sell for him were several full sets.. PLEASE NOTE.. I didn't know much at the time.. BUT SOLD A 1909sVDB, 1914D, And a Complete set of Washington quarters.. I made him all the money he wanted so he said I could keep the rest.. And I was off... Now I have several complete sets .. BUT NOT THAT 1909sVDB.. I Kick myself all the time for selling it and not buying it myself.. he would have given it to me for 100.00.. I DIDN'T KNOW!! AAAGGGGEEEE!! It started me off so I shouldn't complain.. But geeezzzee The stupid things we do when we first start out.. I know we all do them but boy I did a whopper as my first mistake.. I love the coins now.. So much that I am thinking of selling the ASE's I have just to get the Vintage Coins I want.. Its not about the silver..now it ALL about the Coins. History.. Art. AND those dang holes in my collection that now haunt me.
My start came very slowly over the years. It began with a set of 1923 peace dollars my father inherited when I was six or so; they were framed, and once he received them, they hung in our hallway, and naturally I began to ask questions. At that point, I was directed to my uncle, who had a collection of his own. He showed me coins he knew I would find interesting, including a 1943 steel cent, which would continue to fascinate me over the years. My childhood curiosity naturally moved on to other things, but my father began to collect state quarter proof sets, one each for my siblings and I, when the program started. I was eleven at the time. I continued to see interesting coins, as the county fair often featured various 4-H contests, and coin collections were featured as a category to be judged many years, but I never took the time to learn more about how or where to start collecting. I finally started collecting in November 2009, at the age of 22. My girlfriend talked me into going to the antique mall in our little, college town. I didn't see much that piqued my interest, but I was surprised to see coins there. I spent an hour or two browsing through them, and found several steel cents, long the object of my fascination. I bought two in extremely good condition, one for me and one for my girlfriend, and ever since, I have been visiting them every week or two, and making acquisitions, as well as searching rolls. It's only been a few months, but the fever of collecting has firmly taken hold in me
I was always fascinated at my dad's coin collection when I was in grade school. On my tenth birthday, I recieved a proof set of my birth year: 1975. I decided to try to find coins that shiny in circulation. In the process I realized it couldn't be done, but found a lot of pre- 1960 nickels in the process. That sparked my interest in coins, and my collection now makes dad's look pretty insignificant.
