How Long Have You Been Collecting?

I started with moderns and ancients back in the mid-eighties, stopped and sold almost all and reentered about December 2014 to present

 

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Well, with you young whippersnappers, I dont know what "OP" actually means (I have asked dozens of times, nobody every ever said what it means. Must be a damnable facebook thing. Who the heck knows if nobody ever says....) BBS is Bulletin Board Service (or system). Basically the old fashioned method.............I grow tired. I dont wish to educate. Honestly people should know these things. If you are under 100 you ought to know. Alas, with the young these days knowledge extends in hours rather than years. I guess I really am that old!

 

OP = Opening Post

EDIT: I'll go with ORIGINAL LOL

 

Original Post, but I'm no youngster

 

OP = original post, Ken, the one you started this thread with.
I voted 20 years. I bought my first ancient in 1986 and started dealing about two years later. I collected and was a dealer until 2005, but didn't sell my last 19 ancients until 2007. Then I got money and started again 2-1/2 years ago.

 

Started?...collecting?.....or.......dealing?

 

Only collecting...I'm too old to travel to shows all year long...

 

i started with ancients 5 years ago this fall.

 

Started collecting in April

 

Just over 10 years. I started with ancients, never collecting US or world.

 

Holy shitsnacks! Just a couple seconds ago I bought my first song! Might tell you how behind I am but learning!

 

I started collecting US in 1999 and followed into ancient/medieval about the same time. While I have showed my first purchases before, and some of the earlier ones I'm proud of, I have a nice hoard of Roman Broze from an uncleaned lot that has been soaked and poorly attributed (not as many internet resources back then... Although the ANA library was nearby, but heaven forbid Teenage Fitz would crack a book...).

As for my suppliers, the medieval coins all came from eBay or the ANA summer show, and the ancients from eBay or my local dealer. I do recall getting a catalogue from one auction company (probably Spink...), but the prices were too far out of my range at the time.

I then want into my dark ages around 2004 as I was finishing college then getting my post-grad degrees. Came out of my dark ages in the tail end of 2014! To make this legit, here's an early purchase I haven't posted before:

Latin Greece - Epirus
John II Orsini, r. 1323-1335 (1325)
Arta Mint, AE Denier, 18.53mm x 1 grams
Obv.: +IOhS DESPOTVS, cross within inner circle
Rev.: (+D)E ART(A C)ASTRV, around temple tournois

I've been doing some more research into French feudal coins lately, and this old purchase has found a new interest to me. The temple on the reverse represents the Abby of Tours, which minted such a consistent standard that the 'Livre Tournois' would become the standard coinage for all of France. The French influence of the Latin crusaders who took over the Byzantines in 1204 is then evident with the device for Tours appearing on some of their coins.

 

I started in the mid 1970s. But mostly just pocket change type collecting. I would take all the change from my parents and separate them into decades and put them in rolls or 1970's International Coffee cans / metal chewing tobacco tins. I still have all that stuff ... I've never gone through it either.

Then college, jobs, etc. Started again in the late 80s and bought from some websites from small coin shops for a few years. Then started up again a couple years ago. So technically over 40 years but not really.

 

Well, I thought I was posting that to Facebook (I was on my phone and was pleased I was able to buy a song), but it may be relevant considering my previous ignorance of the OP abbreviation (does is count as an acronym if its only two letters?).

 

LOL! that's awsome! i was trying to figure out that post.

hey, at least you didn't post some racy pictures of yourself by mistake!

 

Facebook? What's Facebook? @Ken Dorney you're not the only social media challenged person on CT. Of course I know about FB, but I can't for the life of me figure out why I need it. Or Snapchat, Twitter, etc. I don't even like to text messages. What's wrong with talking to people?

 

I think I am around 5 years now. Of course at this point I am more of a 'gaze lovingly at auction listings dreaming of the day' collector than a 'purchasing' collector.

 

I started 30 years ago. I was searching through some Wheat Cents my dad brung home from work and found woodies, BIE Die Chips and some neat laminations. I didn't know the correct terminology back then but knew there was something different and special about them. That's when I started my error coin adventure!

 

Like many folks I started by filling holes in Whitman folders. My dad promptly got me a Dansco 7070 and I took-off on US type coin collecting.

I found this cud error while searching cents in 1969. The local coin shop offered me $8 (which I didn't accept) and so began my error coin collection. I wish I had my original 2x2 flip for that coin. I had misspelled the word Eror on the holder. Over the years I've acquired 9 or 10 examples of this cud error.

I continued collecting errors & high grade type material until prices went up to the point where I could no longer afford what I collected. I then assembled a set of MS liberty nickels and proof liberty nickels because IMHO they were still affordable. Here is a better-date mint state V-nickel:

I befriended an older collector of World coins. We would travel to shows together & I ended up addicted to collecting high grade type coins of the World. Most of the World coins were 18th, 19th, & 20th Century and were milled like this one:

Isn't this pretty? It is a 500 Lire from 1958 depicting a young woman in medieval dress.

The World and ancient collectors at CT had to share the same forum. As a result, I would lurk & read all the ancient coin posts at CT. Then it happened. I started collecting ancient coins pretty much exclusively in 2013.

 

Great story of growing through the Hobby! LOL on "Eror".