How did you get started collecting coins?

I thought this was interesting. Its how David Hall got started.

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I started collecting after reading an article on the web about a 1969s DDO cent about a year ago. It intringued the heck out of me that someone would be willing to pay 6 figures for a cent, so nothing would do but for me to try and find one of my own(as the article stated these coins could likely be found in change lol). I searched through all my coin boxes/jars at home, and discovered some wheaties i didnt know i had. After reading the interesting stories behind the wheats(the VDB initials in '09, the steel cents, ect), i became hooked. Now its not so much about me finding that '69 ddo, but about completing as many sets as i can, key/semi dates included in as fine a condition as i can come by...and all for the most part through roll searching.

 

I enjoy ancient history. I learned that I could own coins from specific civilizations in time. From there I began studying the early US type coins..and now, all mainly US coins. Still enjoy ancients and will pick up good deals on foreign coins also.

 

Started when I was 11. I frequented a stationary store and in the back he ran a small coin shop.I did odd jobs after school.The Large cents caught my eye! At the time they were going for $7 - $9 bucks a piece in good condition.Some times he paid me in cash and other times with a Large cent.That was around '68 -'69. I've been hooked since : )

 

i got started because my dad collected as a kid and i wanted some quality father/son time with my dad when i was a teen. he got me a whitman folder (lincoln cents) and taught me what he knew about coins. i never really got the quality time with my dad, but i did get a hobby that i love!!

 

I went metal detecting with my dad, and when he dug up a buffalo nickel I knew what my favorite passtime would be (besides football)...

 

Thanks for posting. It's nice to hear where everyones interest started.

 

In 1957, when I was 10, I was gambling at the local poolroom with a 16-year old named Joe Clement. When we finished, he owed me $5 and he paid me with four dollar bills and a silver dollar. I had never seen a silver dollar before and I later found out that it was a Morgan. I went to the bank where I had my savings account and got four more silver dollars, and every time I won money playing pool (I rarely lost) I'd go to the bank and get more Morgans.


Chris

 

Good story Chris, I too started at the age of 10, and in 1957. My older (by 3 years) brother started collecting Lincolns, seemed like it was interesting so I started as well. There was always a battle to see who got first shot at our Dad's change. A lot in interesting coins in change in those days. Some years later my brother moved on to other things, but I kept with it.

Went through some lean years raising a family, etc. but always kept at it on some level. The last 10 years have been the best for me in collecting. Got to upgrade lincolns and IHC's. Finished a large cent year set and moved into two cent pieces.

Still working on the two centers.

 

I was always collecting one thing after another when I was a kid, some traditional collectibles like baseball cards and some things only I was interested in, like bottle caps, used shotgun shells, rocks with fossils in them, and more. Any time I found a coin that was different than the usual, like a wheat penny, I saved it. That's why wheat pennies still kind of thrill me when I find them even if they're nothing special value-wise. At some point my dad gave me the coins he had brought back from his army days serving in Europe and my grandmother gave me the coins she had saved. My grandparents owned a bar and gathered various coins over the years, and I think they had some from my grandfather's brother's service in WWII. Unfortunately my grandmother had had a lot of silver coins but she sold them all when silver prices were high in the 80s.

Anyway, when I got older and had a job and started to get ahead of my bills, I decided to start getting more serious into coin collecting and doing more than just searching my change. So I started buying on eBay and going to coin shops.

 

When I was in the Boy Scouts camping out we found coins in a creek. One was a 1875 S, twenty cents piece, Several Stone Mountain halfs, other halfs and Flying Eagle and Indian cents, and others. My first set to work on were cents. Still working on them, but mostly the Indians. This was in 1954. Could not give it up. -O)

 

I just wrote down my personal history of coin collecting and when I went to post it the infamous 'diagnostic problem' pge from IE popped up and erased it all. O, well...I'll try again later.

 

It all began when my mother gave me a 1964 Kennedy half that she waited in line for at the bank on the day they were released. Still have it, always will. TC

 

I started when i went to wendys at 15 ( i know lol) and well i got a 1917 wheat penny and i got amazed then i just left it in my desk 2 days later i was looking tru my coin bucket maybe i would get something old and it started from there...and now im 16 still collecting i collect mostly circulating coins though not much of old as there to expensive for me and theres not really a coin shop where i live , but maybe later i will buy some or when i get the chance