A Contest for New Collectors!

Being only 18 (almost 19) I have a great respect for all the old timers here. But without newcomers, who will be the next oldtimers?
This is a contest for people of any age that are just getting a start into Coin collecting!

The rules are simple
1) You must be a YN ( young numismitist) Or a newcomer into the hobby
2) You must post a story of what got you into coins and must share your favorite coin that you have ( pics are welcome!)
3) Only one entry per person.
4) this contest will end on March 10th! (my birthday)
5) I will put all the entries into a hat and pick one out!

The Prize!A 1941 Walking Liberty!

This is my favorite coin type. Its what got me so hooked. I am in this for the hobby. Not the money. I enjoy giving whenever i can to keep this hobby going!
Enjoy!

 

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My great grandmother knowingly gave me my first coin when I was only four years old, it is a 1901 half crown, pictured below. My grandfather started to collect coins following the depression, first because he wanted to keep money, and he grew to love coins. In 1965, he started to hoard silver too, and got me into Lincoln cents and silver coins. He has been getting me proof sets every year since my birth year (1994), and I always keep him posted on my activities in the coin world. Thank you so much for the contest!

 

Nice looking walker! Love the look of a nicely circulated original Walker. Wish I could join in, but cannot. Good luck to the people that enter!

 

Capital gesture and endeavor Cman. Only 18? And here, with that avatar, I thought you were happily married for thirty years or more.....

 

I get that a lot. That is my wonderful girlfriend of 3 years. That pic was taken when i was 17

 

Marvelous.......

Best of luck to all you new collectors.

 

Great idea for a contest good luck to the whippersnappers

 

She's only 3????
Lol. I'll be entering soon.... My bday is only 8 days after yours.

 

Thanks for this contest! I posted a similar story on a contest before, but I am re-writing it

I'm 19 and my coin collection started when my Grandma and Grandpa gave me a State Quarter map probably 10 years ago. I knew pretty much nothing about coin collecting, except that it was fun to search my change and my family's change for the next State Quarter to add to the map. Over the years, my Grandparents occasionally gave me a few more random coins to add to my "collection." I believe I didn't really gain true interest in coin collecting because I neither had any really rare coins nor the money to buy more coins. I also didn't know that good coins could still be found in circulation.

Anyway, my Great Aunt passed away a couple months ago, and upon searching her condo, I came across her husband's (my Great Uncle) old coin collection. It contained quite a variety of coins, from probably around 15-20 different countries, mostly the U.S (other countries were like 1-2 coins a piece). I went home and started researching the coins and how much they were worth and became quite interested in them. I told my dad about their silver content and he wanted to sell them. Fortunately I managed to convince him to let me keep them

Since then, I've been researching more into the coins, putting them in flips with information about them, and putting the flips into a binder album. I've also bought a few more coins since then that have interested me.

It's really hard to pick a favorite coin, so I have to pick 2

The first one is an 1879-CC Morgan Dollar that I found in my Great Uncle's collection. It's probably my single most valuable coin and one of my rarest. It's not in the greatest condition, but it could be worse!





The second one is a token rather than a coin. I purchased it after seeing one in Cheetah Cat's collection here on CoinTalk. It's an 1863 Civil War token which reads (Obverse) "The Flag of Our Union" and (Reverse) "If anybody attempts to tear it down, shoot him on the spot"

When I saw this coin, I could not help but think that if this doesn't represent civil-war era patriotism, then I don't know what does!



The only thing I wish as a coin collector is that I knew other coin collectors in person (Other than my Grandpa ). So far I haven't discovered any :O

Thank you and I look forward to reading other people's posts.

 

HAHAHA!!! No. 20 we have been together for 3 years... But for some reason i think you knew that.....

 

I watched a lot of antique shows. That got me into wanting to colllect antiques. While looking at different antiques, I've found my love. It was coins, and antiques were way past my mind. I got addicted to reading articles, then after a while I went to my first coin shop. My dad bought me a Morgan dollar and a blank nickel. Still have those coins to this day!

One of my favorites was also one of my first. It is a high grade Morgan dollar worth $50. It is very special to mebecause my dad bought it for me.

Thanks for the contest!

 

I just started collection again. I think I have been at it for about a month or two now. I use to keep wheat pennies and anything that I thought looked "cool" as a child, but I must have turned them all into the bank because I haven't been able to find hardly any of them.

For the last few years, since my parents moved to a new house, I have heard them complain about their Indian Head pennies that they use to have and can no longer find. Intrigued, I think this is what got me back into coins. I quickly found out that I also enjoy roll searching. I'm not sure what exactly it is about it, but I love it. I think it has to do with the idea of finding treasure, but I'm not really sure to be honest.

I haven't ventured to much farther out from pennies other than a few buffalo nickels, a few silver dollars, and some other random coins I was able to purchase rather cheap.

I think my favorite coin I currently have is also my oldest, and the one I've probably most overpaid for. It is a 1837 half dollar. I love that it has inscription around the rim and I really like the design too, but most of all I like thinking about what this coin could have seen. Its just amazing what things have happened in the years since it was struck.

 

What got me started into coin collecting was being allowed to get a pre-paid card (visa type) to spend online.
I was allowed to get this card on my birthday which by coincidence is March 10th!! (Happy birthday to you next month :hail
At first I spent it on rubbish I didn`t need then I seen a seller called beardsmen1945? I seen all his coins for sale and bought two, a 1910 V Nickel and 1904.
Not the best coins but they were good,to me back then

Only this January have I made a proper aim at collecting, so I`m now trying to get all modern Irish coins (1928-2000 punt) and some British.
I don`t really have a single coin that is my favourite, since I am young and have little money to spend on beautiful coins, but I am trying to get a Padraig Pearse 1966 10 shilling because I really like it or a 1690 Gunmoney coin because of its history.
This is my favourite set I completed the 1928 to 1968 Irish 1d (including 1940) in my album.
Thanks for the contest
-Owen

 

Ya sure? They went with a reeded edge in 1836.


[edit] I see the pic is of a '34........

 

When I was younger my dad used to go metal detecting all the time and i was his official digger, and I loved digging up his finds and seeing what it was. He was into coins also and used to buy me wheat pennies here and there but I ended up giving them back to him. Just a couple months ago I decided to see how long it would take to put the state quarters together.. It quickly evolved from there and now I am searching boxes of pennies for wheats. Don't have too much money still, but I have some decent coins. I'd say my favorite is a 1857 Flying Eagle cent, it is such a cool coin

 

I think they like to marry young in NW Illinois.

 

wheat cents got me into it, my father always picked them out of change and has a pretty good size collection of them, and now i am hooked on taking them out of change and picking up change on the street to find them.
But my favorite coin is the 1850-O seated liberty quarter that i won on a contest here, it is amazing to think of who held it before me

 

There were many ways before I started to collect coins that relatives tried to get me to collect coins. My Grandma let me have some of her world coin collection, but I didn’t take that too seriously. My parents once bought me a State Quarter album to complete, but that also didn’t spark my interest in collecting. What did make me catch the coin collecting bug was my friend. It started out at the 4-H county fair, at the collecting exhibit. We were planning to next year submit our collections in order to see whose was more interesting. I, having almost no numismatic knowledge, thought my petite collection of world coins could win a better prize than his monster collection. We both had our good points on why our collections were better than the others, but I eventually admitted that his collection was better once I saw it. The coins in his collections were mind-blowing beautiful. Since then, I have started collecting U.S coins and have gone to many coin shows.

 

How I got interested was on a bad basis. My Grandmother has a silver stash I dipped my sticky fingers in 4 years ago, and I took all the walking liberty halves (6) and the franklins (5 out of 300 in there) and a few mercury dimes and washington quarters and ikes.
I went with my childhood raccoon instinct and hid the shinnies somewhere nobody would find them. It definitely worked because I forgot where I put them. 2 years later, my mom found them, found out it was me and I had no recollection of where I got them for 2 days until I had a flashback-dream of me stealing them, so the next day I grabbed them from my mom and walked to my grandmothers house with the coins. She, to my surprise, was not at all angry with me, just sighed and started talking to me. She said that I am not the only one, but I am the only one who didn't spend them. She told me a lot about the history of those specific coins and how she had them since 1966 and collected them from her years of being a bank teller. I soon saw that each and every coin has a history behind them, and decided I like them.
Ever since I started collecting, I have done a little research on the newest coin series in my collection, right now I am learning about seated dimes. But the greatest part about this collecting hobby I have is that I am getting better grades in my history class ​

:thumb:

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My favorite coin(s) in my collection are the ones I get for free.
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I am now 18 and have been coin collecting now for about 8 years. My grandfather got me into it when he gave me some wheat pennies and some Ike Dollars on my tenth birthday. Then he got me a state quarter album, and then i got hooked. Now my collection is much bigger then his and cant thank him enough for getting me into this hobby!