My oldest memory of coin collecting was at age 5 or 6 when there was a contest in the phone book for a handful of free world coins, I told my mother what to write and to send the slip in the mail. I then remember an envelope of world coins showing up in the mail some time later. I also remember a teacher telling me about silver coins at age 7 or so, and how any quarter before 1965 and with a solid silver edge would be silver. After that I remember checking every quarter my parents got in change. Around that same time I remember that I tried to fill up a penny board with wheat cents. Then at around age 10 I remember buying my first coins at the coin shop down the street. How did you start collecting?
I was about 7 and my dad took me to the local coin shop . I first purchase was a 1917 Mercury Dime . Coin shop still there, but some fool broke in the house and stole all the coins .....
Playing 9-ball for money at the local poolroom in 1957, and part of my winnings was a silver dollar. Chris
Collecting with my father as a kid. A relative swiped the collection after he died. Restarted as something to do in retirement and haven't looked back. Relative not welcome in my house, by the way.
You and my son would get along great on the pool table . He shoots pool at Wayne state, no teams there, all in fun ...
I was introduced to collecting by the Vietnam Veteran who lived in the apartment next door. He had only daughters with no interest in coins, and introduced my brother and I to the bid board at a local coin shop, with my mother's blessing. From that point on I was hooked.
Thats what worries me . I told my dad the other day to be careful with his collection and not just to steal them, someone would swipe at your high graded ones with lower graded one . Estate has a reasonable amount of time to full fill the trust . Which if you know anything about a trusts, when the person dies, you have to put their will in it first and that could take sometime to find for some people . Thank god I know where my mother and father wills are located and its in Probate . One in northern Michigan and the other one is in Alabama ..
What I found out is this: You can have good home security, centralized alarm answering post and strong doors with double dead bolts and that won't keep out relatives with larceny in mind. They show their real colors when somebody dies. Sad, but true.
I don't know what worse, my father collection is in 4 safety deposit boxes and the last time he had them at the house was about 6 yrs ago . I know he puts coins in it all the time .
When I was little my grandmother let me go through this old trunk she hadn't gone through in decades. Inside I found an old novelty pirate bank with a pair of SLQs inside. That got me hooked.
After 55 years of play, I had to give up the game in 2011 because I developed an intention tremor in my stroke hand. No regrets though! My favorite games were One Pocket and 3-Cushion Billiards. What does your son usually play? 8-Ball? 9-Ball? Chris
I remember as a youngster maybe 5-6 years old my mother had a couple of quart jars half full of coins that she had pulled from circulation. Once in a while she would let me play with them. I would dump them out on my bedspread and sort them, intrigued by the different designs. There were buffalo nickels, mercs, walkers, and at least one 1921 Morgan. I didn't know anything about collecting as a hobby, I just thought they were neat. A few years later I somehow got a Littleton advertisement and ordered an uncirculated Peace Dollar. They sent a very nice coin, common date but light gold toning with excellent luster. I thought it was great. I was hooked. Soon I was buying as many dates of circulated Morgans as I could afford. I didn't know much at first, but fortunately I bought many of my coins from a mail-order dealer who sent correctly graded coins and was up front about describing problems in his list. I read everything I could find about coins and was soon working on a type set. Also as a young man I remember being at a gun/coin show with very limited funds in my pocket but looking to buy a few low value vintage coins to scratch my collecting itch when I saw a very impressive French 1868 5 francs coin. I thought it was a striking design, it was the most I had ever spent on a coin and it about cleaned me out but I bought it. So older world silver has also been of interest to me...
I was around 6 or so when I started. My mom took me to a doctor appointment, and in the waiting room they had one of those coin donation containers. I asked for some change to put in, and when she gave me some, I noticed a very odd straw-colored penny from 1941. Since this was the first pre-1958 cent I'd ever seen, I was surprised to see the wheat ears on the back. Being a 6 year old, I was pretty excited by this find and was still excited once we got in the exam room and the doctor came in. I told her about my find, and to my surprise she said that a member of her family collected coins and she told me about 1943 cents and why they're steel. She even said she'd mail one to me once she got home! About a week later, the 1943 came in the mail. These two wheat cents are the first two in my collection and currently reside in my Dansco album. The 1941 is also my avatar picture, by the way. I guess you could say that wheat pennies are gateway drugs that ushered me into the world of coin collecting.
Same for me, the wheat pennies that I filled my penny board with were probably one of the biggest things to get me into coin collecting.