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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ozleck77, post: 1372898, member: 32322&quot;]This is my entry in WingedLiberty&#039;s contest before (edited). It&#039;s ok if i&#039;ll be excluded in this contest koen. I just want to share how I started collecting. And I already won this beauty:</p><p>[ATTACH]162091.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH]162093.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Not that I&#039;m comparing the prize with yours. I love coins no matter what. But if you think it&#039;s ok, then count me in. :smile</p><p><br /></p><p>*My entry*</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve been collecting coins back when i was in grade school.&nbsp; We used to&nbsp; have a store (we call it a &quot;sari-sari store&quot; here in&nbsp; Philippines). I&nbsp; help out with my mom after school and mostly spend my&nbsp; summer looking&nbsp; after it. It&#039;s a small shop where one can buy various&nbsp; merchandise like&nbsp; rice, sugar, cigarettes, can goods etc. (just google&nbsp; &quot;sari-sari store&quot;.&nbsp; I have to point this out so that the reader would&nbsp; understand how i&nbsp; came up with my collection). The thing is, there&#039;s this&nbsp; foreign or old&nbsp; coin every now and then showing up in our &quot; kaha&quot; or&nbsp; cash register. I&nbsp; used to just set it aside and put it in a drinking&nbsp; glass beside our&nbsp; kaha.&nbsp; It wasn&#039;t actually a collection then. People in&nbsp; our neighborhood&nbsp; have this habit of tricking us, mixing same sizes of&nbsp; foreign/unwanted&nbsp; coins in real ones when they purchase something. It was&nbsp; mostly coins of&nbsp; different countries and old coins from my country. And I&nbsp; really dont&nbsp; have any clue yet about rare coins and stuff. I even got an&nbsp; Alfonso XII&nbsp; mixed in that drinking glass. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Years passed, that&nbsp; drinking glass wouldnt hold more of its content so I&nbsp; transferred the&nbsp; coins in a big container (A can of NIDO). Having them&nbsp; around is actually&nbsp; fun. I even started accepting coins that I obviously&nbsp; noticed mixed when&nbsp; a neighbor bought something from us. I just&nbsp; pretended I didn&#039;t notice. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>And&nbsp; that started my interest in coins. Well, I don&#039;t consider it a&nbsp;&nbsp; collection anyways, coz after our store closed and i went to Manila for&nbsp;&nbsp; college, i hide it in my closet. Honestly, I lost interest in it and&nbsp;&nbsp; left it there &#039;til our house burned which was accidentally started by a&nbsp;&nbsp; nearby neighbor. Our house didn&#039;t totally burned down, and the can of&nbsp;&nbsp; nido survived.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Years passed, and less interested about coins I&nbsp; transferred to this&nbsp; school (Universidad de Zamboanga).&nbsp; This school is somehow not a common school, though it&nbsp; is a university&nbsp; now. It is not a usual school where one have waiting&nbsp; sheds, trees, etc&nbsp; in its campus since it is a building, a school that is&nbsp; located in the&nbsp; heart of our city. Below our school (the same building)&nbsp; are business&nbsp; establishments. Fast food stores, bazaars, etc. while&nbsp; surrounding its&nbsp; sidewalks are vendors. People who put stalls and sell&nbsp; their trades&nbsp; (mostly stolen cellphones), some are money changers and&nbsp; others buy&nbsp; gold/silver.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I use to just go straight home after&nbsp; class and don&#039;t really mind what&nbsp; these sidewalk vendors are selling. But&nbsp; this last semester, I have this&nbsp; screwed up class schedule. Having 1 to 2&nbsp; hours vacant every subject.&nbsp; So after class, and while still with an&nbsp; hour or two vacant hours for my&nbsp; next subject, I would go around town.&nbsp; (&#039;usually spent it in malls and&nbsp; internet shops). But just this recently,&nbsp; I came across this guy who buy&nbsp; and sell coins. It is his trade among&nbsp; all the cellphone seller and&nbsp; moneychangers that crowds around our&nbsp; campus. It is because of this guy&nbsp; that i really started collecting&nbsp; coins. Actually, it was becoz of this&nbsp; certain coin displayed in his&nbsp; stall that rekindled the fire that i have&nbsp; in coins.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So I bought&nbsp; this coin, believing it to be a great find. Then I started&nbsp; researching&nbsp; about this coin. Gradually learning stuff about other coins&nbsp; too. Then i&nbsp; came up with this site when i googled my coin. I learned&nbsp; then that it&nbsp; was a fake. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&#039;was too excited with my find, I didn&#039;t even bother introducing and even hijacked a thread. :smile</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t41811-4/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t41811-4/">http://www.cointalk.com/t41811-4/</a>&nbsp; (Page 4 of 4)</p><p><br /></p><p>It&nbsp; has been months now since i started collecting coins. My first&nbsp; purchase&nbsp; was a fake. An 1817 Ferdin VII 8 Reales coin. I posted it here&nbsp; to check&nbsp; its authenticity and found out to be a replica coin. But&nbsp; since then,&nbsp; being a member here, I&#039;ve learned lots about coins. Saw the&nbsp; beauty in&nbsp; them here (my favorite: Italian L500 coin), and acquired&nbsp; knowledge in&nbsp; this site (not that much yet). </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Now, though he sold me a fake, I&#039;m in good terms with this guy. my&nbsp; vacant hours are spent with him now&nbsp; and those others with the same&nbsp; trade. I even took a picture and posted&nbsp; some of their wares to check if&nbsp; it&#039;s genuine.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t193415/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t193415/">what its worth? (if authentic)</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>CT has a big part on how I really got into coin collecting. &#039;made me look back how I use to love coins. Brought back&nbsp; good&nbsp; memories when I was still little. And made me find a good&nbsp; container to&nbsp; transfer my old coins from that can of Nido. Thanks to CT now im&nbsp; acquiring coin knowledge too. </p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s how I started my&nbsp; coin collection.</p><p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #000000">*</span></p> <p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #000000">oh btw, I didn&#039;t win the contest. The prize is a consolation prize, more like a 2nd place. yet still this beauty is the BEST!</span></p> <p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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