How did you get started collecting coins?

Let's hear some stories!

For me it was 1967, I was 10 years old, and I stumbled across the blue whitman folders in a drug store. I remember buying the two lincoln cents folders and I began attempting to fill them by getting rolls of pennies at a local bank. I was able to fill most of the slots later than 1934 or so. (The S mintmarks were always a tough find as I lived on the east coast)

I later bought my first Redbook in the same drug store and was fascinated by the information and pictures.

A few months later I began hunting through rolls of dimes, quarters, and halfs looking for pre-1965 silver coins. I ended up pulling about $100 worth (face value) of silver coins out of rolls over the next couple of years -- including some very worn standing liberty quarters, mercury dimes, and walkers. So collecting lincoln cents was my initial foray into coins -- and pulling silver coins out of circulation was the secondary hook.

 

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My grandma and grandpa started me off when I was really little. They would give me Kennedy halves, Ike, and SBA dollars. This was when I was really too young to appreciate them. They also gave me some foreign stuff too. Then I inherited most of my grandpa's collection, and my mom and my grandma gave me hers. So now I'm back into the accumulation stages

 

My parents bought me a proof set when I was around 6 years old.

 

I started twice.... When I was seven my grandfather gave me a couple of large cents (Canadian). I collected for a few years and then ran away from home and tried to use the nicely buffed and polished collection to finance my trip to Toronto.

The second venture into collecting began 2-3 years ago when I purchased a metal detector. I found quite a few old coins during the season but when winter arrived, I couldn't detect so I began coin-roll hunting. I joined some forums and now I have several collections, paper, coins, ephemera on the go.

 

When i was a kid ('80's & early '90's) I would take any coins that looked different and toss them in a jar. This included wheats, bi-centennials, halves, dollar coins, & foreign coins. I don't know what silver coins were at the time, but mercury dimes and anything else with a different design would be included in that. I didn't look into them at all, or try to find out anything about them. I just saved them because they were different.

As a teenager, I regrettably spent them all for face value. Don't know what happened to the foreign coins.

Then I met my wife, and her father was interested in old coins and bills. I learned about what he was saving and buying. Saving any state quarters he could get out of circulation, & buying any Morgans he could get for under $20 (not for collector value necessarily, but for silver content). He would also save anything old or different he came across. And that sparked my interest again.

Along with my father in laws influence, I have a pretty serious collector/archivist mentality. I decided that rather than splitting my time, money, energy, & focus on random interests that may or may not pay off if I decide to sell, I would focus on something that has some real value. That sound like I'm interested more for investor reasons, but I'm not. That's just a realistic bonus. I couldn't stay interested in coins unless I really liked them.

 

I started seriously collecting '70's silver art bars in August 2008 when I went to a coin show in Georgia and saw and purchased a 1-oz 1972 Madison Mint "The General" silver art bar and two other 1-oz silver art bars. Since that time, I got addicted to '70's silver art bars.

 

My dad gave me a blue Whitman folder for Lincoln Cents. It started in 1959, the first year of the "Lincoln Memorial." I was about 8 years old in the early '80s when I started in very much the same way as the OP, and didn't finish filling that book until 2008. Of course, I had long since transferred them to one of the nice Dansco albums.

This particular folder had all the large and small date varieties, and I had no idea how hard it was to find the 1970 S varieties. I eventually bought them PCGS certified, because very few people can correctly attribute the small date of that year. I've seen a ton of large dates being sold as small dates (I paid $5 for the large date in MS65, and $80 for the small date in MS65, both PCGS certified).

In the meantime I had branched out in a lot of directions. I currently boast complete date / mint mark sets of Franklin Halves, "Mercury" Dimes, Jefferson Nickels, Roosevelt Dimes, Eisenhower Dollars, Kennedy Halves, Statehood Quarters, SBA Dollars, and a few others that are slipping my mind at the moment.

I'm working on date / mint mark sets of Washington Quarters (I'm about 90% there!), and "Buffalo" Indian Head Nickels.

Future plans include date / mint mark sets of Standing Liberty Quarters, Indian Head Cents, Peace Dollars, and Lincoln "Wheat" Cents. I also dabble in ancients, but I only buy things that catch my eye. I don't think one could assemble a date / mint mark set of ancients!

Wow, OP, I'm glad you posted this. I just spent the past 10 minutes looking back at 25 years of collecting, and it was fun

 

Grandpa got me into it

 

I started when I first found wheat cents in my change jar (rather, my parents change jar).

 

O boy... I started at like 2 when i wld just grab stuff that interested me. Living in many different countries helped that route a lot. For a while i was a foreign coin and bill collector but i have moved solely into US coins and bills. My first Whitman was Jeffersons. Thats kinda where ive stuck to now. Im doing an UNC.and Proof Jeff set now. Another thing that got me into coins was challenge coins. I have like 100 of tham. From EVERYWHERE. Hahaha im 17 and still collecting coins eventhough i have yet to find a friend who does the same.

 

What's a challenge coin? Is that like an "I bet you can't find this" kinda thing?

 

Too tired to explain, but here's a link. :thumb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin

Garrett

 

Hahahaha! Well a challenge coin is a medal or token style coin that certain places make for a souvenir or a collectable piece. They are big in police and military. heres a link
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=challenge%20coin&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=416

 

when i was young probably around 5, i got my first coin. i just barely remember it, i was with my sisters dad(was pretty much my dad, RIP) and his dad. we went to some indoor flee market and they were looking at gold and silver bars. i wondered around and loved the buffalo nickel because of the Indian on it. they ended up getting me a few and i kept them close to me for a long time. sadly they got lost on one of the many moves, i have had.

this was in the summer time and the first year i started football. i never got to go back and get more. after that, football took over my life all the way through high school.

now just over 6 months ago, my girls mother gave me a box of coins she found in her attic. they belonged to her ex(girls step dad), and he didn't want them anymore. his family is really big into coins and antiques. they own antique shops and travel all over for that kinda thing. he mostly collects revo and civil war items, with a little bit of coins. anyway she gave me the coins to sell and help raise money for some computer tools i needed. after researching them, i fell in love again. since then i have visited and talked to her step dad and his dad, looked at their shop collection and personal collection. they give me more coins whenever i see them and my best ones came from them(S-VDB, 1901-S $5 $10 & $20 golds). the grand father said he is going to give me the majority of his coins, shop and personal, when he passes. he likes the fact he is getting someone who is somewhat younger(22) into coin collecting and he fears his time is coming(hope i never does).

 

I just got started in this hobby, but have always enjoyed challenges and/or "treasure hunting". I used to collect baseball cards and have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 cards. But, I grew tired of it as the card makers started putting out ridiculous numbers of cards and as cards began to lose value due to a decline in popularity. A couple of months ago my wife found an 1809 Capped Bust Half in an old purse she bought at an estate sale. I found this site when trying to figure both what the coin was worth as well as what the counterstamps on it were. I've been hooked ever cents .

 

My grandfather collected coins. He had proof sets from 1958 -1977 and left them to me. We would go through rolls together looking for older dates, varities, and errors. I was 8 years old when he got me started.

 

My parents bought me a kit with a few folders when I was 7 for getting good grades. I still have the folders.

 

My late grandfather got me into coins when I was about 6. Got the usual wheat pennys in the whitman book and a few worn down mercury dimes. He would tell me what the mint marks meant and one thing led to another and now 31 I still love coins.

Ive gotten rid of all my starter coins since and even ones he gave me but I was able to put them towards other purchases I needed for my collection. I still have other items for emotional value though.

Wish he was here to see how much is grown and how many odd ball coins we both never saw in person when I was young like a AU .20c piece and some others I got.

 

Ah, I know what those are now. Just didn't know what they were called. Thanks for shedding some light!

 

Not a problem! Glad i could educate