What shaped you into the collector you are?

I figured this might be a fun subject. There are so many realms of collecting, I want to know what influenced you to make the choices in your collecting habits come about.

I personally, started collecting about 2 years ago. It started with me finding a funky looking dime in my change jar. I did a little research on it and realized it was silver. I was always aware of wheat cents, but they really never pulled me in. Once I found my first silver coin I was hooked. I realized that there could be silver coins still in change. I decided to start collecting silver Kennedy coins. They were pretty easy to find in my area just from asking cashiers for 50C pieces. My best haul was 19 40%'s at one gas station. That led me a bit further into coin collecting and older series and the history of the mint and so forth. I decided to start a type set. I had a lot of fun finding different types of coins, and I found that circulated coins are what I loved the most. I liked MS coins, but circ coins had a story. I didn't know what it was, but the mystery of it was pretty cool. I acquired a 1907D 50C in PCGS in VF25 in May of last year, and immediately I was hooked on Barber coins. I have since narrowed it down to Barber 50c and now Seated 50c coins too. There is a lot of history in those coins and especially circulated.

So what is a synopsis of where you evolved from?

 

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Well I was always a bit of a history buff, so my world coin collection was shaped along those lines. Probably the reason I only collect coins from the 1950's and earlier. =)


Oddly enough, I've noticed some folks' collecting habits were shaped by heartbreak or loss. Kinda like Sylvester Stallone in that movie where he makes birdhouses to keep distracted from a long-ago rejected love.

 

I am 36 and had collected some when I was a kid but nothing special. My brother (who is 11 yrs older) was given some silver mint sets from the 60's and he had a few other coins along with those sets thrown into a small box. He moved overseas after college and I found the coins one day. He had no interest in them and they became mine. That got me started. However, my recent boom of collecting began when I decided to try to collect coins from the year my mother (1940) and my father (1933) were born. I thought the walking liberty halves looked awesome and started collecting the ASE's. Then when searching for coins, I came across some Morgan's silver dollars at reasonable prices. I thought they we're beautiful bought a couple and became hooked. Now I collect almost any silver quarter, half, and dollar I can get my hands on as well as silver mint sets. Have just recently started broadening my horizons to world coins. So pretty much, all of this starting when I picked up a 1933 walker which made me think fondly of my father.

 

I think that's what makes me so interested in the 19th and early 20th Century coins. I really like history, and I can sort of "put the times with the coin" so to speak.

 

I started collecting when I was about 13. I had to get tutored at home for a little while and the tutor happened to be a big collector. He gave me a couple of issues of coinworld and I got hooked. I lost interest during high school and college but recently started again. Im a history buff so I collect mostly older coins. I also prefer circulated coins since they have use and history behind them. If a coin is 200 years old and has mint luster and no scratches that means its been locked away in a box/vault somewhere and really has no history. If you have a 1860's coin in AG/G/VG it could have been in a civil war soldiers pocket during battle.

 

Oh man! Do I gotta tell you guys? I am kinda ashamed of how I started , but you'll figure it out eventually.

How I got interested was on a bad basis. My Grandmother has a silver stash I dipped my sticky fingers in 4 years ago, and I took all the walking liberty halves (6) and the franklins (5 out of 300 in there) and a few mercury dimes and washington quarters and ikes.
I went with my childhood raccoon instinct and hid the shinnies somewhere nobody would find them. It definitely worked because I forgot where I put them. 2 years later, my mom found them, found out it was me and I had no recollection of where I got them for 2 days until I had a flashback-dream of me stealing them, so the next day I grabbed them from my mom and walked to my grandmothers house with the coins. She, to my surprise, was not at all angry with me, just sighed and started talking to me. She said that I am not the only one, but I am the only one who didn't spend them. She told me a lot about the history of those specific coins and how she had them since 1966 and collected them from her years of being a bank teller. I soon saw that each and every coin has a history behind them, and decided I like them.
Ever since I started collecting, I have done a little research on the newest coin series in my collection, right now I am learning about seated dimes. But the greatest part about this collecting hobby I have is that I am getting better grades in my history class :thumb:.

Just as a disclamer, I have kept any and all records of my coin purchases I have made since. And I am being honest as physically possible even when it is not coin related. This hobby/obsession has really helped me develop to become a gentleman at the age of 16 but I have heard some people say I sound like I am in my late 60s :yes: True story. But I tell them I am raised well by my momma. But I have found the group of nice respectful people who will help me become a better person who is focused on morals rather than quick prosperity.

~Cannyn

 

Part of my collection came from my parents which mostly consisted of world coins. I still remember getting the coins when I was very young and to tell the truth, I wasn't very interested in them. I stuffed them in a ziploc bag and put it away.
Fast forward about 10 years or so which is November of last year and I had dug out the coins. This time however I was interested and decided to pick up the hobby. I guess thats part of the reason I enjoy collecting world coins, but I also collect U.S. coins.

 

It all started for me back in a college math class. I was sitting next to this guy who worked in a coin shop. We would play cribbage in the morning before class and became pretty good buds. He started talking about his collection of coins and one day he gave me a handful of Indian Head cents. The next day I went into his shop and purchased some books to put my new coins in and the next thing I knew I wanted to get more and more and more....

 

I am that way now. I collect coins to force myself to learn about their history. I started, though, with an old WL half in my mom's little plastic safe I used to stare at. I couldn't believe coins used to be so beautiful. So I started in US coins, bought and memorized a Red book, and collected US coins for 20 years. I started to get burned out, and stopped for a while. Then this new fangled internet thing showed me ancient coins..... I never thought it was possible to own something like that. That was about 15 years. So, I really went from US coins and junk silver, to better US coins, to ancients, then to some world coins. For world coins I find myself attracted to things like 18th century Russian copper, 19th century Mexican, and stuff like that.

 

I can't even imagine that many posts. I don't have 5k yet, and sometimes feels like my fingers are falling off from posting too much.

 

I began collecting by roll searching to fill the Whitman folders that my dad bought me. I found a cud error while roll searching & then began collecting error coins. As years passed, error coins began to get expensive so I branched out into other world coins (the US is part of the world).

 

Well, I remember going over to Grandma's and Grandpa's. Grandpa would usually end his day with roll searching. He sort of taught me to be his second pair of eyes with me and Grandma's fried chicken and cookies at his side. After a year or so I asked why he only did pennies and he said it was because he really liked the smell and feel of them and that he can find almost anything with a dollar or two to the bank. I was fascinated and started my own set...though quickly quit as spending 2-3 dollars of my 5 dollar allowance wasn't cutting it. A couple years later Grandpa is still roll searching for those delicate few left in his album and I bring up the subject about starting a dime set. I think part of him died that day he bought me a dime folder. I think another part of him died when I asked to go to a coin shop to fill in the missing holes. Then I decided to upgrade to MS Roosies and that was my first set. One day I'll trade up to all FTs but it still has the nostalgic value of being the "first complete set." After that I wanted something with a little more wear on it so I went for circulated Mercs, upgrading along the way. Then I got a little burnt out on small coins and decided to go big...Frankies. Finally, I thought it would be a nice tribute to my grandfather to do as much of a Lincoln set as possible in MS 64 or better so whenever I get sick of seeing silver, I jut over to the dark chocolate and red coppers for a bit. That's me in a nutshell.

 

I've always loved history and was a history major in college. I see coins as a little tangible bit of history that I can own, and that's what makes it exciting and is also why I'm not as obsessed with the coin's condition as many collectors are. When I see a date, I think about what was going on in the world at that time: 1865 - Civil War; 1898 - Spanish-American War; 1939 - World War II; and so on. I know a lot about history, but my coin collection has taught me more. I never knew there was such a place as Sarawak until I saw a coin from there, and I have learned a lot about the cultures and colonial histories of many nations just from things like seeing that their coins are written in French, therefore they were probably a French colony. So the coin collecting really fuels my desire to learn more about the world.

 

I owe my interest in colorfully toned coins (that developed in the Spring of 2011) to Shane of KryptoniteComics who always listed very cool looking coins on ebay. This was the coin that started it off for me ... PCGS MS65 bought in March of 2011 for $57.

 

Eating too much and not exercising shaped me like this.

 

I started collecting as a kid back in the 1950s with Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels.
In those days you could put together a pretty extensive set from circulation.
Gave up collecting for a while until I was in my early 20s when I started collecting Canadian coins.
The Canadian interest started because of my frequent trips to our northern neighbor (I'm from NY).
40 years ago Canadian coins were real bargains, not being as extensively collected as they are today.

 

I remember getting mercury dimes and buffalo nickels in change when I was a kid. I think if I hadn't collected baseball cards back then I would have collected those coins. What started my collecting later on was a nickel I got in change at a bank. It had a large P over monticello on the back and I knew it was unusual. I looked it up and found it had silver in it from ww2, that's where it started. My dad gave me his fathers small collection when he found out I was collecting. I got silver in change and saved it. I bought a metal detector and dug silver, even a peace dollar. With all the clad money I dug with the detector would be saved and cashed in for old silver coins. At one time I had planned to own one of every us coin, but later realized I couldn't afford it and just bought silver and some gold. I did buy a lot of US coins before I decided I couldn't get one of all. I have a great collection and it's still growing.

 

You know the storry what happened a few months ago , since I have to start over I am focusing on what appeals to me ,
& not buying for a webstore to resale just for something to do. Right now it is washington quarters , learned the hard way
a person can have to many things going on.

Sandy