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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 1327577, member: 27832"]I got started when my brother (six years older than me) did, probably with coins from our grandparents. I couldn't have been more than five or six, so I don't remember what the first one was, but I do remember getting wheat cents and Mercury dimes from them -- probably Buffalo nickels, too. I remember two more clearly. The first is an 1892-o dime that I got out of a vending machine at the beach -- there was a machine that took coins (probably quarters), and gave out plastic bubbles with coins inside. The dime is damaged, and only a cull, but I felt like I'd made the score of a lifetime. I still have it, and I hope I always will. The second is an 1881-S Morgan, probably MS62. My grandfather gave a Morgan to each of the grandkids one Christmas. At that point I knew what "uncirculated" meant, but I wasn't sure this one was, because I'd never encountered an uncirculated coin with heavy bag marks. (The 70-point scale hadn't caught on at that point; the Red Book just listed "AU" and "BU".) Fortunately, I also knew enough to take care of it. It's still in the same condition, with the tiniest bit of toning now along one edge (it was blast-white when I got it).[/QUOTE]