Numismatic mistakes you made when starting out (funny or serious)

What numismatic mistakes did you make during your first year if collecting?
These can be funny or serious. Up to you

 

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I was so proud of myself for using my Mom's silver jewelry cleaner (with accompanying bristle brush) to turn my dirty, crusty Walking Liberty Half Dollar into a bright, shiny "like-new" coin.



Luckily, my coin dealer set me straight when I showed off my work.

 

I went to my very first coin show, and I was so proud that I had gotten this $30 coin for $15.... I didn't realize until later that it had a big staple scratch all the way down the center of the obverse. You can faintly see the scratch in this image, but in hand it was blatant.

 

Not so much a Newb thing, but when I got back into the hobby (after an hiatus of 'life') I bought some ASE's from Bob Chambers on his internet show at that time (2005?). I was 'skunked for double the value...........lesson learned.

 

Boy, can I relate! I learned how rubbing toothpaste on a coin between your thumb and forefinger would really polish it up nice! Fortunately only a few common circulation finds suffered this fate.

 

^ Same. I started collecting with common date circulated morgans and other US silver and polished them all with toothpaste. Not much damage financially, but I cringe to think about it now.

 

The 'old man' cleaned an Oregon Trail with Tarnex back in the sixties........Bright, shinny. and what the devil did I know?

 

I'm still in my first year so the mistakes are ongoing. My latest, was meeting a guy off Craigslist to trade coins. He was a legit honest guy, but I miscalculated basic math... badly. Not only did I add up his coins for more than they were worth, but I added mine wrong too and undervalued them. The trade went WAY in his favor as a result... because I didn't bother using a calculator.

At the coin club meeting I bought coins at auction for more than what the dealers at the back would've sold them to me for direct. Took me a while to figure out the game there and how to best focus my purchases.

 

^ BIG POINTS FOR THE RANDY NEWMAN REFERENCE!!!

I found out much later that when I started out I had bought more than a few cleaned coins. Some looked fine in hand but a magnifying glass showed off all the little evil scrub marks. When I buy raw coins now, I always first look at them through a lit loupe that will clearly show any past "improvements." As I learned more over the years, it was heartbreaking to realize that what I thought were AU and XF Barber Quarters and Halves in my collection were apparently old scratching posts that would definitely receive "details" grades. I got over it eventually.

 

I put a boat load of Mercury dimes, and wheat pennies in arcade machines back in the early 60's,
Sigh!

 

I had no focus. just bought a little bit of everything. now 20 years later I am much more focused on which coins to buy and how much I want to pay for them. bought some cleaned coins not knowing better. not buying better grade coins always upgrading.

 

Me too.

 

The dumbest thing I did was to quit collecting for close to 45 years. I try not to think of those double eagles when gold was $200 an ounce.

 

I was maybe 10 or 11 when I became consumed with coins. Every coin was a treasure. I found that rubbing a cent with a pencil eraser made it shine like new money. No telling how many cents I ruined back then.

Then I found a Spanish cobb copy on the school playground. No matter how many tried to gently convince me it was a toy, I knew I had the treasure of a lifetime... Well, because everyone knows that pirates frequented school playgrounds. And yes, I do still have it.

 

I bought too many problem coins early in my collecting life without thinking. At least I have a bunch of type coins now and didn't spend too much on them.

Now I only buy coins that are profitable or truly interesting to me. All my cherrypicks are in a separate box.

 

At a young age, I thought quantity was cool. Wish I had used that same money to buy quality.

 

I bought the Westward Series collection on HSN.

 

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR