Post you 1st coin...the one that got you started.

1812 cap bust Half I was 7 years old 1961

 

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I bought these two beauties at the ANA, August, 2001. Glenn Schinke
sold them to me. They are two of my treasures.

 

That was too many years ago to remember.

 

Birthday present from my Father in Law after I had enthused over his collection the first time I saw it. 8 months later he passed unexpectedly and I inherited his collection with the blessing of his two daughters.

 

I sold it.

 

I bought a 1963 proof Franklin half dollar at my local coin dealer in 1979 or 80 for $8 bucks. I'd post a photo but I don't have it anymore

 

My first coin was a 1000 Réis coin from the 100th anniversary of the Independence of Brazil (1822-1922) that I got from my grandmother when I was 6 years old and I kept it for many years, thinking it was made of gold. I don't know what I did with that coin. I just remember that I lost interest in it after discovering it was made of bronze and not gold. I remember polishing the coin almost every day to see its golden glow.
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/brazil-1000-reis-km-522.1-1922-cuid-1037837-duid-1277372
But the first coin that made me start a collection was a 1990 Lincoln Cent. After I saw the news that an American penny had sold for a lot of money, I looked for the coins that my wife had saved from our trips to Orlando/FL in 1997 and 2010 to go to Disney.
At that time (2018) when I started collecting I knew absolutely nothing about coins. My first visit to CT was to say that I had found a 1990 S not S coin, because I knew that the coin was shining beautifully and that it was exactly the one that should have the S but didn't, so it was worth a lot. It took me a long time to understand that Cent coins that should have the S but didn't would NEVER be in circulation, because they were specially made to be part of exclusive SETs for collection.
I got hit a lot because of my unfounded questions. I ended up learning more and today I'm here as a modest collector, who still needs to learn a lot to reach the feet of the less knowledgeable among you. I don't even dream of being among the best in CT.

 

Crazy to think, that coin, which was minted before the abdication of Napoleon or British torching of Washington DC, has spent nearly 1/3 of it's existence sitting in your coin collection!

 

After spending 50 years as my pocket piece this is what the coin that started everything off for me after I found it at age 11 looks like. Whoo-whoo, naked boobs!! I was forever hooked.

 

1787 New Jersey copper that I received from my grandfather. He also had an 1803 large cent among other coins and a horseblanket. But it was the New Jersey copper that intrigued me and sparked my interest. Wish I could have asked him how he came across them.

 

I do remember as a kid that sometime in 1965 when silver was taken out of circulation and clad coinage started. I was only 11 years old and I walked from my house about 9 or 10 blocks to get to the local coin store. Never really wide anything but I wanted to see the store and what was happening with silver disappearing from circulation.

I remember looking at his inventory and I was amazed that a silver dollar, like a Morgan or a Peace dollar, was for sale. After all Morgan and Peace dollars circulated. Even at that young age I was given silver dollars. I handled them at least once a week. And this guy had them for sale. The highest price I remember on one was $3.85. I couldn’t believe that anyone would pay 385 for something that was only a dollar. Now I understand and I wish they were $3.85 so I can buy as many as I want.

 

when I was 11 or 12 my Dad took me to a coin show at the local Holiday Inn. I knew nothing about coins, but I was drawn to an 1835 half dime, of all things. I still have it in the 2x2; I like to think it showed good taste that I gravitated instinctively to capped bust coinage!

 

This coin is the first one that started my obsession.

 

Slovakia 2001 beetle cross

 

I don't recall my first coin; probably due to the heavy drinking.

 

I got mine graded this year

It was my pocket coin. Perhaps my first pocket coin.
Who knows what it's been through, I genuinely have no idea but it wouldn't surprise me if I may have dipped it in my Mama's nail polish at one point lol.

It was sometime around 1978, I was 9. I carried it everywhere for a couple years. I remember taking it to Show and Tell at school a couple times at least. Somehow I never lost it.
Until that time I lost it for over 30 years.

Showed up in an old cardboard Whitman box for those old thick plastic 2x2s after I moved a few years ago.
I remembered it immediately.
It's pink lol.

1861 1C Genuine - G Details - Environmental Damage

 

I started with Wheat Cents almost 60 years ago. Can't really pin it down to one coin but still have the collection.

 

Congratulations on your sobriety....coming from an Irish background I totally understand as I had a grandfather that I never got to know.... but most of all my admiration for owning it. to many times in life we choose to white wash the truth....instead of facing it..... and owing it.

 

odd thing is what got me into collecting wasn't a coin it was a banknote

 

You showed good tastes in wanting that coin. Nice to hear you still have it.