Do you remember the moment when you were "Hooked" and became a collector?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by jhinton, Aug 11, 2011.

  1. jhinton

    jhinton Well-Known Member

    Just a few minutes ago I responded to a post regarding a suggestion for a first coin purchase. http://www.cointalk.com/t190152/ When I was typing my response I realized that that was the moment that I was “hooked”! That was the day that I became a coin collector! (I curse that day…. J) I hoarded “pennies” ( I didn’t know they were cents at the time) when I was a kid and filled a Whitman blue book with all the dates from 1959 to I don’t remember. I also had a couple of buffalo nickels. I thought it was fun but once the book was full, that was kind of the end for me. Fast forward 10 years, I was 22, stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina and a SPC in the 82 Airborne Division! There was an awesome Chinese restaurant located on Yadkin road right outside the gate. Well I got off early one day and stopped there to eat lunch/dinner. When I was walking inside I noticed a Coin/Card & Comic store in the same shopping center. I decided to stop in there when I left as I had never seen a coin shop before. Well.. needless to say when I went in I was a bit overwhelmed! I talked to the dealer, he was retired air force and a little strange (I have since learned that all coin dealers and most collectors are a little… eccentric). Well I explained to him I was just looking and I liked the items more for their history than to really collect them. Immediately upon me saying that he showed me a genuine “piece of eight” (his term not mine). It even had chop marks! Which he told me was “very rare”. Well I purchased that coin for the small price of $200! I now know that he saw me coming from a mile away and will never have my business again. It was only worth about $45.00 but I didn’t find that out until years later. I ended up buying some silver eagles, a few silver bars and a few other coins from that dealer. I still remember taking that coin to everyone in my unit who would listen and telling them all about it. I would get the same deer in a headlights look that we all get but I was so excited I didn’t care. That day, that’s the day that I became a coin collector. Can any of you remember when you got the coin bug? If so, I would love to hear about it!

    I would also like to add a funny note about my Whitman coin album. When I was a kid, I didn’t have a coin book and had basically no knowledge about any of the cents I was putting into the book. When I got to the part for the 1982 cents and saw how many different one’s there were, I had no idea why. Everyone I asked told me they didn’t know either so I just filled it up with any 1982 cents I could find matching the mint mark. I figured if I couldn’t tell then no-one else could eitherJ. I remember the day I was reading my first coin book and learned why we had so many different cents in 1982. I just smiled to myself and vowed that I would put the correct one’s in the holes one day. It was almost 3 years later before that came true.
     
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  3. collectingkid

    collectingkid Copper Collector

    I was at Barnes and Nobels my mom dropped me off in there to look for a book, however I went to the watch section (my dad got a new watch) and there was the coin folders, I just looked at them thought it would be cool to collect, but I didnt want to because I knew I would enjoy it a lot. So spent 30 minuets looking through coin books and decided to get the state quarter album because it was my dream to collect them back in 2005. So I got that folder and a 1988-1998 quarter book. A week later I got the lincoln cents 1930-1958 book and a 1958-1998. I searched lots of websites for cool coins and found lots of facts about them and won an ebay auction of 3 Indian Head Cents. Thats when I began the hobby seriously. I went to a coin store and got my last 10 years completed a week from that 20 years completed and after that I knew lots about coins and I began my 1857-1909 collection of FEC and IHC! Also I got coins that I thought were a good deal. Now Im starting a Mercury Dime collection and finishing my IHC collection. I am proud to collect because its fun and gives me knowledge about the history of US coins, I sat and told my mom one day everything I knew about the history and Im sure she is happy that Im a coin collector. Thanks:)
     
  4. bonbonbelly

    bonbonbelly Feel MS68 Look AG3

    Hello j,
    Back in 1973, at the ripe old age of 15, I cashed in the savings from my paper route (remember those?) and bought a metal detector. My first find in the field was a 1953 D Washington quarter. I don't know who was more excited, me or my dad, who had to drive me over to where I was hunting. Within a few days I had found some Mercury dimes, V nickles and Indian Head cents. I was hooked! Turns out Dad was hooked too, he bought himself a detector. Together we found over 10,000 coins, dating back to an 1818 Large Cent. I had a lot of fun searching and just kept learning more about the hobby and expanding my interests. I still have that 1953 D, to me still the most valuable of all my coins.
     
  5. Get Some

    Get Some New Member

    Well back right before obama was elected and there was a lot of worry in the financial markets, I was working as a driver where I spent a lot of time on the road. I would listen to talk radio like Glenn Beck to pass the time. They always had goldline commercials where he always sponsered them and a lot of talk about how gold was set to rise rapidly. I had got a sum of cash around $7000 and I wanted to invest it in something. I didn't understand stock markets and I wanted something physical that I could own. Gold seemed like a really cool thing to own, I like fancy things like diamonds and jewelry and I just imagined me swimming in money like scrooge mcduck or something. I started buying gold from ebay and would even go out of my way to go to coinshops around and see what kind of gold they had. That was the first time I was really exposed to the collector's stuff when I saw a penny they were asking like $1000 for. Who would pay that for a penny I thought.

    Not long after that, I decided to buy a little silver too. As soon as my first roll of silver dimes came I was mesmorized by them. They were so heavy, they had that cool sound to them and I started buying more silver dimes. So I bought a lot of silver dimes and I was filling albums with the best coins I could find for the year and I came across one that seemed pretty bad. It was dark and probably been passed on numerous times as an unwanted coin. When I took a closer look at it to make sure it wasn't a 1916 d or something I noticed something very peculiar about this coin. It seemed to be in much better shape than all the other coins I had gotten. What from a distance looked ugly on closer inspection was dark toning with green and orange colors. It seemed that this outer layer that covered the coin not only gave it a unique colorful appearance, but kind of protected it from damage that other coins had. That was the day I really started collecting coins instead of investing in bullion. It's funny how this one unwanted coin inspired such a love for collecting in me and I have been a big fan of toned coins ever since even though my silver and gold bullion are long gone.
     
  6. swhuck

    swhuck Junior Member

    When my great aunt broke out her bags of silver coins. I was 7 and this was 1969, so they weren't in change any more. I knew what a Mercury dime looked like, but these new/old coins like walking liberty halves were cool! And then she found a Barber half...

    Hooked!
     
  7. Kanderus

    Kanderus Active Member

    Well my story starts a long time ago, for me at least. I was maybe 9 or so (25 now.) and my I heard my dad yelling a screaming that he had his coins stolen (It was my older step brother who did it.) I asked him what was wrong and told him I would try to help him get them back. Little did I know that he had Double Eagles and the like in there and it was virtually impossible for me to do anything about recovering them. Well, he showed me what he had left, as apparently my step brother was taking a little at a time here and there. I saw some Morgan and Peace dollars, Liberty Walking halves, etc etc and I just remembered thinking those look nothing like what I had in my change bank, though I did not know what they were per say.

    Flash forward to a few years ago. I had a small collection...nothing major but I had to be sold to buy food and what not when this economy really took a dive and I got laid off. At the time they were just money in the bank for me. Nothing more.

    Flash forward a couple years after that, and few months ago...maybe 9 - 10 months. I have a wife and a good job that pays the bills. I had been watching silver for few months at this point and it was rising in value. First $10, then $15, etc etc. I ask to buy a roll of quarters for laundry. I only had $5 on me, so I got half the roll. In my half was a 1961D Washington. *Nibbling*. Then a few weeks later I buy another roll of quarters, this time a full roll and once again for laundry. 1964D Washington. *HOOKED*. Christmas comes and I got from my father in law a 3pc set of steel cents, a 1938D Buffalo, a silver Roosevelt and Winged Liberty dime, a 1942 Washington Quarter, and a 1964 Kennedy Half. *Getting reeled in*. Then I start finding other silver coins, mostly quarters oddly enough, and some 40% Kennedy halves at bank and in laundry rolls. I eventually bought a 1901-O Morgan off of a friend who needed gas money for $20, melt was $22 at the time. My grandma comes up to visit me, and it is a few months away from my birthday, but she lives 600 miles away, so she brought me a present since she was in the Sacramento area for the National Money Show. She gives me my first Red Book 2011, an 1863 IHC, 1975-S Lincoln Cent proof, a 1953 Roosevelt dime, a 1957-S Washington Quarter that it my fair opinion is roughly MS62, a 1963 Franklin half, and an 1890 Morgan. *In the boat!*. My appreciation of the coins are amplified when I found out that they were coins from my Great Grandma (my Grandma provided the Morgan.), and the IHC, proof Lincoln, and the quarter all had my Great Grandfather's hand writing on them, someone who I never had the privledge to meet.

    Since then I have done some roll searching with not too much luck, but I have made a few (minor is most collector's eyes.) numismatic purchases. A 1929 SLQ in about G-VG, a 1944 Liberty Walking half dollar in about AU-55 - 58 (this may just be my all time favorite.), a Barber dime, and a 40% silver bicentennial Kennedy half and Washington quarter.

    I know this was long winded, but coin collecting is now a true passion of mine that will never leave me. Even though I have a few silver coins that most would consider 'junk' I just can't see my self selling them. Most people use 40% Kennedy's, silver dimes and quarters with no major numismatic value and what not as fuel for the next purchase of a rare or collectible coin...but I just can't do that...at least not yet. I found these things, rescued them from being spent on soup, toilet paper, dinner out, clothes...god knows what else. Every time I find a silver coin, or anything else rare or uncommon I hear the Indiana Jones theme play in my head. I know that part of the reason that I can't bring myself to spend them is because they are silver and it is an investment for my future and the price could rise etc etc, but also I just like knowing that they are in appreciative hands... To some people, these coins are just dates and metal, precious or otherwise. Not for me, not for us.

    I could go on forever, I am just going to post this and then check on the Padres...maybe watch some TV with my wife.
     
  8. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    I wish I could match some of these cool stories, but the fact is, I don't remember the first moment I was hooked -- I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 when my mom's parents started showing old coins to the grandkids. This was the late '60's, and it was definitely still possible to find silver in circulation -- but it was pretty unusual to see the Mercuries and Walking Liberties that they had in such great numbers.
     
  9. Lawtoad

    Lawtoad Well-Known Member

    I was nine (1972). Lost one of my last "baby teeth", and the tooth fairy left a 50 cent piece under my pillow. It was a Franklin Half. It was when I got really interested in the coin that morning that my father ("tooth fairy") noticed it was a Franklin and traded me a Kennedy Half for it (he apparently had not looked at the coin prior). It was after this that I started looking more closely at my allowance and reading books about coins. About a year later I started putting coins aside for my collection.
     
  10. AdamL

    AdamL Well-Known Member

    My dad gave me two 1983 proof sets for my birthday, because 1983 was the year I was born. I think it was my 9th birthday, so that would have been 1991. This got me interested in coins a little, so I started asking my dad alot of questions. If I remember correctly he also gave me a Redbook which I found fascinating. So a short time later (Maybe a month or 2) he gave me an uncirculated 1899-O Morgan silver dollar, and I was hooked on coins.
    Fastforward a bit. I kind of got out of coins in my late teens. I would still admire my collection occasionally, but I was interested in other things. Shortly after turnings 22 I was desperate for money. So I got out the old coin collection and started going through it, trying to figure out how much I could sell it for. Well, that reminded me how much I loved coins, so I kept my collection and sold my car instead. I've basically been addicted ever since, and going strong for 5+ years since getting back into the hobby. Money, and time, are still short sometimes. But the time I do get to spend on my hobby is great and very relaxing :)
     
  11. DaveMN

    DaveMN Coin collector-Minnesota

    I got re-hooked after buying a metal detector last year. I had a Sears detector when I was a kid living in Massachusetts. I found an 1838 seated half-dime (still got it), countless wheat pennies and some other foreign silver coins that summer. Unfortunately the Sears model did'nt last a year because it was basically a plastic toy. So now I am back to detecting and coin collecting, although I am not a high-end collector. More of a hoarder at this point ... ;o9
     
  12. phdunay

    phdunay Member

    A year or two ago, I got a Roosevelt dime folder on eBay, I already had an almost filled 50 state quarter album, but only because my dad kept giving me the quarters to put in it. He did not collect coin in any way. Once I went through all my pocket change, taking out all the dimes and putting them in the folder, then I searched my dads car and his change. Once I was out of dimes to put in the folder, I went and bought more folders, and I also bought coins on eBay that I could resell for profit and also mixed random lots as fun gambles. Now I collect sets and have Danscos for the folders I once had.
     
  13. Lawtoad

    Lawtoad Well-Known Member

    I had one of those Sears metal detectors as a kid. Mine did not last that long either. It did work great for pull tabs, tin foil, nails, and bottle caps. Never did find one coin with that thing.

    Gene
     
  14. DaveMN

    DaveMN Coin collector-Minnesota

    Gene, I am absolutely sure that in my case it was nothing but luck. Those machines did'nt have any concept of what they were seeing in the ground. I just dug every signal I hit. It helped that my hometown was incorporated in 1700, so there is lots of history and centuries of occupation.
     
  15. Lawtoad

    Lawtoad Well-Known Member

    LOL...every time mine made that squealing sound I had visions of lost Spanish gold or some other treasure trove. I am glad someone had luck with one of those units.
     
  16. Honolulu Dick

    Honolulu Dick Junior Member

    To begin, Collector Jhinton, is to be lauded for his service to our grateful Nation. Also, that he served with the proud and fearless 82nd Airborne Division ... the All American. Jumping out of the safety of perfectly flying aircraft, into the dangers of the unknown, is the job of heroes. Good on you!!!

    Becoming hooked wasn't exactly a moment in time. It was a series of closely related events. During the mid-portion of the last century, myself and two others took a camping trip around the US of A. We visited 22-states, covered 9700-miles and burned 623-gallons of gasoline. Once a day, we would stop for a cooked meal. Otherwise, it was sandwiches or out-of-the-can cold. While traveling through WY, MT and ID, we were given our change in silver dollars. One was a '21 Peace and another was an early Morgan CC. This was the start of my enduring romance with Big Silver.

    About that tip ... Where have all the good times gone?

    XXX XXX XXX

    One flag, one language and one nation under God.

    XXX XXX XXX
     
  17. Kanderus

    Kanderus Active Member

    That is a mighty political statement, lets try and keep that out of these forums.
     
  18. Fire Lad

    Fire Lad New Member

    For me it was around the age of 5 when I found the box of Vietnamese/ South Pacific coins and bills my mom had in the basement from one of my brothers Navy Time. I immediately thought I was rich and headed for the ice-cream truck- no kidding 1972, the Good Humor man got some humor that day as my mom quickly realized I had darted out the door for the truck and she was in pursuit ( boy did I get it). All kidding aside, not long after, about the age of 7/8 my Dad was a merchant seaman and he started coming home with pockets of coins and bills for me and I caught the itch. Unfortunately, I gave it all to one of my nephews when I went into the service and never saw it again. I picked it up again by accident when a friend needed some cash about 3 years ago and sold me his Dansco album of Eisenhower Dollars complete with proofs for $100. Since then I have been working on a complete set of Franklins. I only need 3 proofs to complete the set 51, 52 & 53. I also continue to pick up every coin I can afford that appeals to me. I have put together a complete set of Kennedy’s including a Matte 98, along with a set of Memorials, seemed fitting since they ended. Not worth a whole lot but something to hand down to my 6 year old one day. I try to stick with uncirculated unless it is unaffordable. I have started a set of walking liberty’s with the short set of the 1940’s. Once the Franklins are done I plan one concentrating on them. That will be a costly set if I am able to acquire all uncirculated coins but in the end it will be an accomplishment.
     
  19. Honolulu Dick

    Honolulu Dick Junior Member

    A political statement? A MIGHTY political statement? You have got to be kidding.

    Patriotic, absolutely! Political, not hardly.

    Just reread your mood: Clueless.

    Note to self:
    [1] Do not hijack the thread.
    [2] Do not feed the trolls.
     
  20. Kanderus

    Kanderus Active Member

    You know what, I have some many different things I could say about that post you made and how you are now attacking me for just trying to keep that kind of talk out of the coin forums but I am going to be the bigger man and not say it. Just do me a small favor. Look at a penny, or a quarter. See that phrase "E Pluribus Unum." Take that saying to heart the next time you want to say "One language" so forth.
     
  21. brightspirit1

    brightspirit1 Member

    I agree with Kanderus. I also find the "one language" statement offensive. It has no place in this forum. We are all children of immigrants in the US.
     
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