New Contest with some really good prizes

I started seriously collecting about 3 years ago when my aunt gave me a couple of Morgan Dollars and a few other odds and ends. My great grandfather was actually a bank guard back in the 50's. He brought home all kinds of interesting coins. I'm lucky enough to have a few.

Thanks For the Contest!
Mark

 

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I began to collect coins about 2 years ago, I received some coins fom my great-grandfather, ever-since then I've been hooked! One of the first things he gave me were Barber half-dollars, and I thought that half-dollars were very interesting because of their size, and a denomination not commonly used anymore. I currently am learning as much as I can about Half-dollars and am trying to broaden my focus to dimes or nickels, Thanks!!!

 

I have always had coins from my grandmother, but I was to young to care about them.
And I just recently started collecting, my great-granfather passed at 93 yrsold and I inherited some Polish and American coins.
and I am now collecting errors and other types I inherited.

 

I remember that my grandfather had a tin of world coins that he collected. It was common modern stuff but I was intrigued at all the different coin designs from around the world. My collection really started in Christmas 2008 when I got a set of Canadian 25-cent commemorative coins for the Vancouver olympics. From then on, I went online and started looking and researching different coins. After discovering cointalk, I was hooked on US coins. Right now Im working on the 7070 dansco type set album and a 20th MS type set (slabbed by ngc or pcgs). There aren't many coin shops here in Canada that sell alot of US coins, but when I do find any coins, they can be had for a bargain compared to prices on eBay and shops in the US. Some nice finds are: 1813 cent in G condition for $12, BU Morgans at spot, and pre-1933 gold 1.5% above spot!

 

Like many others, my father passed on his collection to me. He is still alive, but simply thought it was time to pass everything to me in hopes that I would decide to collect. I have always liked coins but just never actually collected any. The day that he gave me his collection, he shared his stories for each and every piece and it helped me see another side to him that I had never known. His passion transferred over to me more and more with each piece he handed me.
I now enjoy coin collecting and spend hours on the phone with my father discussing random coins. We only live 2hrs away from each other, so I make it out to my parent's at least once a month. Most of that time is spent talking about, and looking at, old coins and coin books. I am very lucky to have him as a mentor, fellow collector, and friend.

This is definitely something that I will pass down to my son in the same way that my father passed it on to me.

 

My story also starts with my parents...

Long before my dad and mom reached their relatively lofty positions within their respective companies, they were quite blue-collar individuals. My mom, before I was born, managed a Roy Rogers. Anytime someone paid with silver coinage (This was circa 1982-1986) she would buy it out of the till and put it aside. My dad would keep his wheat cents, but didn't look for much else. Once I turned 5 or so, my mothers grandfather passed away and left a house full of random stuff, including a nice coin collection. Most of the collection was sold and distributed to family members, but I got to keep quite a few things, with the hope that I'd take on the mantle of being a collector someday. My inheritance from that estate was a couple rolls of silver quarters, about 20 IHC's, 10 large cents dating from 1830something to the 1850's, and some other interesting odds and ends. As a kid, I had no clue what to do with all this.

Enter the Red Book. Mom brought one home for me, and I stayed up way past my bedtime in my room reading it. I was fascinated by the PanPac slugs and how awesome they looked, by the Lafeyette Dollar, and the 1909-S VDB. That's all it took to get me hooked. My inheritance went into 2x2's and a binder that was lost somewhere along the road (I really want to find that.) and probably won't be found until my parents die or move.

During my pre-teen and teenage years, I spent my spare money on... other things. Everything from baseball cards to gas for my car. Fast forward to about 2 years ago (22 years old), I have a job managing a retail store... My interest in coins is piqued when I break open a roll of dimes and out spill a couple Mercury dimes and silver Roosie's. I thought about it for a second... silver coins, for face value, from the rolls... Hmm. Went back to the bank, bought the remainder of the box, pulled 8 more silver dimes. Today, I roll search over $1k in dimes every week, $100+ in cents, $200+ in nickels, and average, about $1.5k in halves. I also have a small set of Morgans I'm slowly building on, but that may be set aside so that I can focus on building a wheat cent set due to high silver prices.

It's been an interesting trip, and it's one I look forward to pursuing through the rest of my life.

 

My coin collecting hobby began with the death of my mother's paternal grandfather - a coin collector. When he passed, he split his collection between my mom and her siblings. My mom knew there was some value to the items, and passed it to my sister and I. Thus began my adventure cataloging the coins, researching, etc. Then, a few years ago, my mother's maternal grandfather passed and what do you know, he was also a coin collector. Death is an unfortunate part of life, but I've been blessed with great gifts from my family, and it's a fun way to remember them.

My personal favorite coin in the collection is a Columbian Exposition half. It's not terribly valuable, but every time I look at it I can picture my great granddad buying it at the actual Exposition. (I'm not sure if he was actually alive at the time of the exposition, but that's what I see in my mind! ha)

I hope to be able to pass the collection on to my own great-grandkids some day!

 

i know im outside of the us and probably wont be counted but i like telling stories so i will tell it anyway.
are you sitting comfortably? then i will begin
A long long time ago when i was 9 (actually it was only 12 years ago but it seems like much longer to me) in a far away land (well in a park near my house in cumbria) i was playing with some friends. while we where playing some evil monsters (older boys who could beat us up) came and we had a choice. stay an fight like men or run away like cowards. i ran away and hid in a hedge. a cowards choice in may have been but while cowering in said hegde i discoverd the greatest treasure ever discoverd in the history of the human race ( well it was a 1912 george 5th penny but to me it was amazing) and ever since that fatefull day i have been fascinated by coins of all kinds.

now whenever i go to a park or the beach or some where like that i take a couple of old pennies and leave them in places for people to find so that hopefully the same spark that was ignited in me will be lit in them.

 

I had a huge story typed here, aceddentally pressed wrong button, it all got erased I'll retype later. If I don't I'm a YN for the people who wanted their prize to go to one.

 

I saw that Kennedy Half and said to my self "ENTER! You need that for your collection!"

Well I've been collecting for about a year now. What got me into collecting was when I was watching Dear John with my girlfriend and it showed the scene where John found that mule that had the front of a nickel and the back of the penny. I thought that was pretty awesome and so I started collecting. I started off just looking for errors but then I decided to collect the state quarters. From there I started the Presidential dollars (still working on) and right now have folders that I'm trying to fill for Lincoln cents, Kennedy halves, Franklin halves, Jefferson Nickels, State Quarters, National Park Quarters, and a few others. Every time I get change I make sure to look at the dates on coins. I'd like to find older coins but there are just not many in circulation.

EDIT: Misspelled words

 

Well I started when I was ten, I went to a flea market. I saw the coin booth and remembered my late grandpa collected coins, so I decided to buy the biggest one. ( of course because I was ten and I thought the bigger the better ) That coin ended up being a silver dollar for 5 bucks. I liked it, so i kept collecting. I started with wheats, then silver, Then everything else! Thanks for the contest

 

On another note: Being 13 years old and having a tight budget, seeing you give a way DCams and proofs graded and everything is crazy! I do not own any slabbed or proof coins!

 

Well, first off let me say thanks for this contest! Now on to my story!

When I was a kid my dad and I filled up a whitman 1 cent album, that had me hooked. On and off I would collect various coins that I found in circulation, that was my only source of collecting for the longest time. Then my grandpa started sending coins to my brother and I every year for Christmas. Mainly proofs, uncirculated sets and ASE's. I ended up having to sell most of what I had to pay bills and haven't been able to get back into it until recently. Which is when I found these forums, and I have learned so much more than I knew about growing up! I actually bought my first morgan dollar a few weeks ago and found a 1999 wide am in a box of pennies!

 

Unlike many people, my collecting didn't start with mom and dad

One day two years ago, I decided that I should collect the state quarters; as they were different than the rest, and they looked really cool to me. I hoarded all of my change (about $75 worth), and I searched for them. The first ones were New York, Washington state, Virginia, and Alaska. The last ones were California, and Puerto Rico. I cleared off a shelf, and stored them one by one on there, starting with Delaware D and P, and ending with Hawaii D and P. It was lots of fun collecting them. Fast forward to this January. I have now started to collect older coins, and search rolls, as I learned from the internet. But while on the net, by mistake, I found Cointalk. I didn't become a member until a month later. Cointalk was the best thing that happened to my numismatic life. Actually, studying about coins is fun, but the opportunity to have coins is a lot better. I've learned about Wide AMs and Close AMs, Morgans, there was silver in money, and all sorts of stuff. If I get it, I'll keep it to help my fledgling collection (with nearly nothing of value in it, only old change), but I would then pass it down to other YNs like me, because they should experience the joy of coins


Thanks for the opportunity!

 

I found a 1998 $5 gold eagle with the dimes in my cash drawer at work one night. started doing research on it and found how cool coins are.

 

For me, it has come in two stages. When I was younger, my father collected coins and I remember looking through change with him and going through some of his collection that he would let us play around with. I never carried through with any of it though until about 2 years ago. My son started learning about money in 1st grade and that started it off. He liked learning about money and we took a trip to the local store and that was it. He was hooked and in turn - I was hooked. The tooth fairy brought him some morgans for his first few teeth and we're always looking at coins together. It's been a great hobby for my kids and I because it only costs as much as you want to spend.

 

Tried to post again, my internet cut out. I'll try one more time later. Cant believe my luck

 

I was in sixth grade when I found a wheat penny in my dads change. I found it interesting and the library at school just happened to have a Redbook (from 1996 I believe) that the librarians coin-collecting husband had donated. I got that thing and looked at it cover to cover and that got me started. For the next four years I just pulled what I could from change. Bought my first coin in Gatlinburg an unremembered number of years later for 20 bucks. Its an 1889-O with a bad word carved in the front although I thought it was just random scratches to begin with. My sophomore year a coin dealer moved into a flea market and from then on it was gung-ho for me. Bought stuff as soon as I could afford it with my loose change. Unfortunately this dealer recently moved and I haven't seen or spoken to him since last August. However he was probably the best thing that ever happened for me b/c of his knowledge and just the fact I could buy coins somewhere close to home. Thats how I got started lol.

 

Some really interesting stories on how everyone got started collecting. I got everyone's name so far that has entered. Drawing tomorrow night at 7PM Central so still time to get in. Best of luck and keep the stories coming.

 

I got into collecting through my father's aunt. She used to cut my hair as a child, so after my hair appointments, she'd take out her crowns and US coins. If I behaved (which was VERY rarely the case -- really hated getting my hair cut), I'd get to pick one of the US coins. Invariably, I'd pick the quarters. I'm sure it had a lot to do with video games. When she passed away, collecting took a back seat to school, but during high school, I bought silver when I could, and would pull silver quarters and dimes from the till at the bowling center that I frequented. The desk clerk would let me go through the cash on the premise that I replaced whatever I took. This worked out better for both of us, as often times (through some strange form of providence), the coins I took would be the "extras" (those that weren't rolled), which made cashing-out easier at the end of the evening.