Begining Coin Collecting

I was just wondering what it is that makes people collect coins. Is there a particular event that takes place in your life that leads you to coin collecting?

 

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my grandma gave me a 1943-p wlh for my 10th birthday. it blew me away. then she gave me an 1888-p morgan and my sister a 1923-p peace dollar for christmas that year. lisa wasn't impressed but i was hooked. couple that with finding a small box of international coins that my dad had...well...you know the rest of the story. i got a few sets and odd coins over the yrs, but it was pretty much off and on (mostly off due to money doody) until the state quarters got me back into it. gosh darn those state quarters!

anyhoo...lisa has probably forgotten about her peace dollar, but it's here if she wants it. i'm just not gonna remind her of it .

i collect them because they are pretty and a piece of history. i like wondering where a circulated coin has been and who used it, esp my medieval english and imperial russian coins.

 

That's a very interesting beginning, and back in because of the state quarters, cool. Do you collect any other types of coins?

 

i love morgans. i collect mint and proof sets, and i'm trying to fill in 19th-20th century and 20th century sets. i like to get 1 or 2 coins of each issue just to see how they've changed. other than that, i buy coins that are pretty or otherwise catch my eye.

what got you into collecting?

btw...welcome to the forum

 

Im sure that this type of question will get a myriad of different reasons on beginnings, which is one of the cool things about coins,

as for me when I was pretty young I think about nine, my interest was brought to light by an uncle , who not only collected coins ,but about 20 other things, Im afraid that Ive kinda followed that very closely, just look in my collection of the week closet, but thats another story,
Ive collected almost every denomination of US coin at one time or another , but my main interest has settled on to the winged liberty dimes ,and small cents ,

anyway this uncle gave me a mercury dime that he had coated with ,, what else mercury I still have it ,,it has turned black or grey but it still carries the same fascination as the day I got it.

so welcome to the hobby, sometimes sport of coin collecting.as well as the forum !!!

Rick

 

Because that's the particular path my obsessive-compulsive nature happened to find.

 

It is human nature we collect something. From teapots to fishing lures, most people like to collect something.

As for coins, I started around 9 or 10 when my grandfather gave me two large cents from the 1850's and some flying Eagles.

My other grandmother (not to be out done) gave me some Morgans and a whole mason jar off "wheaties" which she told me they will be worth money since they were not made anymore.

I received a Whitman Folder and the I started filling slots. Since then I have collected on and off for the last 30 years or so.

One quick point, I remember also getting a Red Book when I was young. I remember looking at the value of a 1909S-VDB penny in Uncirculated condition priced around $500 and at that time, it could have been $1 million dollars...but as time evolved, I remember the day I got one of those.

To this day, I have always collected pennies and selected dollars. Hopefully, my kids or their kids will get hooked like I did. BTW, I still have those first coins!

 

I couldn't have said it better myself.

When I was younger, I used to ask people traveling to pick me up some coins from whatever country they would be visiting... Then I started picking up pieces, here and there, that had collector value.

Slightly after that, I became consumed.

 

My interest started in '89/90 when my father was having a clear out and he handed me an old tin full of coins and his stamp albums.

So i was sat with both thinking wow! As time progressed i quickly realised that stamps was not for me, but coins, well now coins were.

Tons of foreign ones French, Spanish, Dutch, Irish etc. Then there were two US coins that caught my eye a 1953 Franklin and a 1944 Washer (i still like Washers all these years on).

Then of course there were the ubiquitous British 1807 penny, the 1887 shilling and threepence. All common as muck, but i loved my Vicky coins and a coin as old as 1807 was unbelievable to me at that tender age of 5.

Then came the coinbook the 1985 coin catalogue (i'm guessing my father had only become disillusioned with coins merely 4 or so years earlier)... naturally i took over.

The Early Milled sixpences got me there and then. It took me 13 years to actually get one though.

I drifted in and out of collecting throughout the 90s and i pick up a loada junk rubbish along the way.

Gold coins always fascinated me, i mean really fascinated me right from the start... gold was like the Holy Grail to me. I knew my collection would go that way one day, i willed it to be so, so much.

So idreamed of gold and thought of little else, a year or two ago i bought quite a bit but i fought it and fought it trying not to give in (knowing that gold is addictive), well i decided to fight it no longer and now i'm moving into gold.

I loved hammered coins dearly, so i though what better solution hammered gold? So i'm biting the bullet now and it tastes good. If i can now only afford to get 3 coins or even 2 or just 1 coin a year so be it, the reward is worth the wait.

 

Thank you, i'm gald to be part of the forum. I am literally just starting to collect and the reason is purely for interest sake. I like the idea of exploring history and coins have been around long enough to dig far back.

Can you please explain to me what a proof set is?

 

Hi Rick
Thanks for the welcome note. So do you collect only circulation coins or do you also collect numesmatic coins?

Rob

 

That's a great story Ed. I have a question for you. Do you think that there's something inside of you (something speical or unique) that has lead you to coins, rather than teapots or fishing lures?

Rob

 

Hi Rick

So would say that there isn't one specific moment in time that lead you to become a collector?

Rob

 

Hey man, I noticed you were from Ottawa, as am I. Very cool.

I started collecting coins when I recieved a couple of franklins from my aunt.

You can guess what happens next.

 

Ed Zak replied: "It is human nature we collect something. From teapots to fishing lures, most people like to collect something."

That is not true. Clifford Mishler has called collecting "a gene you do not inherit." There is some indefinable difference between collectors and non-collectors. You got replies already from people who were introduced to it by family members (uncle; father), but collecting does not necessarily run in families.

According to Mishler's Thesis (as I call it; he does not call it that), people who collect one thing tend to collect other things. Both his company, Krause, and their competitors at Amos (Coin World, etc.) profit from that observation. Fishing lures are not my thing. I do have some meteorites, stamps, fountain pens, watches,..., and lots of books.
I have found some nice first editions. I have histories by William Graham Sumner and James Ford Rhodes.

For all of that, there are many kinds of collectors and I am not one who needs one of everything. I am not fixed on one collectible.

Also, to make the point, although my wife is also an accumulator, our daughter is not. The garbage can is her favorite household appliance.

As for why I collect coins, I guess it all began with Ayn Rand, but really, I never actually got interested in numismatics per se until about 10 years ago and I am almost 55 now. So, for me, childhood did not have coins in it. Of course I had baseball cards. My brother and I tried stamps, but they were not interesting.

 

Welcome aboard rcalder.

Proof coins are minted with extra care on specially polished and prepared planchets. Frequently they are struck twice, and they are generally handled with care at the mint before they are sold to collectors and dealers. Often they have mirror-like fields and frosty devices; occasionally they are made with a satiny or matte finish.

Many national mints (including ours) gather some or all of the year's proof coins into sets, which are sold at a sometimes hefty premium over their face value.

Currently the U.S. Mint only produces proofs at San Francisco, using silver for proofs of the coins which were traditionally minted in silver (10¢, 25¢ and 50¢). At current prices that means they are worth roughly 4 times face value. Although the older large $1 coins were traditionally made from silver, the smaller current Sac dollar is not, so its proof, like that of the 1¢ and 5¢ coins, is minted with the same composition as the circulation/business strikes.

 

Here is the honest truth about a part of how and why I started collecting coins. First, I started out with wheat pennies, now I collect every type of U.S. coin except morgan dollars, and standing liberty quarters. I got into coin collecting because it helped me keep my mind off drugs, it's been a year since I have done anything to that nature, which of course my wife also helped me, but, coins keep me occupied, it has also given me a new buisness venture, as well as a hobby I enjoy. Now coins are.... Sort of like my drug, if I haven't purchased a nice MS barber coin within 4 months, I start to foam at the mouth ( starts clicking the bid now button on e-bay as he writes this).
But, yeah, that's about it.

 

I've been a collector as long as I can remember. It's a part of my personality. When I was a kid I collected Canadian Coins. When I wanted to collect stamps, I started with Ghana, a country that had achieved Independence in 1958. So it was possible to reasonably have a full set.

I like things in sets. I also like accumulations that have only broad connections. I have bags of coins from all over the world. Some from my travels, some gifts, some trades or purchases. I used to collect banks, had a great collection. Postcards when I was young - before stamps. Cameras....books, photographs, rocks, ....

I enjoy collecting.

 

I think Pennycase has the right idea.

More coins less drugs.

I'm sure its much more rewarding, plus you have something to show for it.

Anyways, good to hear when people come clean, good on ya pennycase.

 

I am a history buff and when it comes to coins, I look at them as a measurement of time. Where has it been? Who handled it? If this coin could talk, what would be its history?

I look at a 1914 coin and figure...that was the start of World War I. I look at CC Morgans as coins of the old West and so forth.

Another reason why I got hooked was the equation that a penny was worth dollars and some dollar coins were worth hundreds. There is nothing like a hobby that you enjoy that appreciates in value both financially and personally.