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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gsimonel, post: 2765117, member: 82549&quot;]I started collecting US coins back in the 1960s. I was probably 8 or 9 when my grandfather gave me my first Indian Head penny. I started filling those blue Whitman albums--first with pennies, and then with other coins--that I pulled from circulation. Back then you could still get a Mercury dime or Liberty Standing quarter, even an occasional Indian Head penny in your change. Sometimes I would go to the local bank and buy a roll or pennies or nickels, pull out a few keepers, replace them and then swap the old rolls for new ones. Anybody remember those days?</p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually I got into high school and rock and roll (and booze and pot) and lost interest. Life staggered on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fast forward 30 years to the early 1990s: my mother is cleaning out closets and getting ready to sell the old home, so she sent me a box containing my old Whitman albums, most of them still containing a few old coins. One of my kids who was around 9 or 10 at the time and latched on to them. We started going to the local coin collectors&#039; group to swap coins, filling the holes in my old albums--as a teenager I would frequently raid the quarters and halves albums for spending money--and even starting new collections. I was a graduate student with three kids at the time. We didn&#039;t have much money, but back then you could buy a common Mercury dime in worn condition for $.50 and a Liberty Walking half for $2. We also discovered eBay, which was still in its infancy, and we would occasionally buy coins via the internet.</p><p><br /></p><p>The problem with collecting US coins on a tight budget is that you quickly fill up every slot in the albums except for one or two key coins, which cost hundreds of dollars. Within a couple of years we had arrived at that point. We&#039;d go to coin conventions and gawk and droll but leave empty-handed. (I remember one time I broke down and bought a worn, beat-up US penny from the 1790s for $30. What a HUGE splurge that seemed at the time.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Then one night I discovered ancient coins on eBay. I&#039;d always been fascinated by ancient Rome. I saw a coin of the emperor Constantine, an XF campgate. On a lark I bid $8 on it, and I won it. Hmmm: $8 for a 1,600-year-old Roman coin, or $700 for an 85-year-old US penny? To me, there seemed to be no comparison. I was hooked, and I&#039;ve been collecting ancients ever since. (My son still has our US collections. I don&#039;t know if he still actively collects or not, but I haven&#039;t been able to interest him in ancients.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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