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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;stldanceartist, post: 1177857, member: 13307&quot;]Thanks for a contest - here&#039;s my story:</p><p><br /></p><p>My interest in coins began when my mother used to take me to my grandmother&#039;s house.&nbsp; She had one of those large glass water jugs filled with Lincoln Cents.&nbsp; They&#039;d pour out a handful or two on the carpet in the living room and tell me to sort them all by year.&nbsp; After I&#039;d sort them, my grandma would pull out a Whitman folder and have me put the best ones in the book.&nbsp; As I got a little older, I got to search through more and more of the jug - I remember getting really excited every time I&#039;d find a wheatie...</p><p><br /></p><p>I also remember wondering for YEARS why some of the holes in the book were filled in - I thought, &quot;What happens when I find one?&nbsp; Do I have to scratch the cardboard out to put the coin in?&nbsp; Why would they DO that?&quot;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Every once in a while, once I got old enough to ask if she had any other coins, my grandma would pull out something different from her collection: mercury dimes, jefferson nickels, kennedy halves.&nbsp; It&#039;s funny - I collect ALL of these now and never gave it a thought until now.&nbsp; I&#039;d help my grandparents with their booths at the flea market and spend my money on cheap coins - a proof clad roosevelt dime here, a mint token there, even a damaged bust half dime!&nbsp; Sadly, once I got into junior high school I shifted focus to basketball cards...just as they were printing out eighteen billion cards and four hundred sets a year.&nbsp; All that money spent...and absolutely nothing to show for it.&nbsp; If only I&#039;d spent it on coins!</p><p><br /></p><p>I stopped collecting anything when I joined the Navy.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t have much room to carry stuff around (living on a ship) and I was a bit disillusioned from basketball cards not being quite as successful as I had been led to believe.&nbsp; It was only when I came home from the Navy and started college that I started going over to my grandparents&#039; house again - and talking about coins with my grandmother.</p><p><br /></p><p>I still go over when I get new coins.&nbsp; I still go over every time I go to flea market (she doesn&#039;t go anymore) and I show her the odd stuff I&#039;m able to pick out...silver foreign coins for a quarter, 1914 Lincoln cent in AU for a dollar, 4 silver war nickels and a worn but legible 1888 Liberty nickel in a bag for $3.&nbsp; Every birthday of hers (or Christmas) I have been giving her a coin from her birth year (1927) in the best condition I can afford.&nbsp; I thought, &quot;Eventually she&#039;ll have a complete set, and then what will I give her for presents?&nbsp; This is so easy!&quot; But then I looked into it and, yeah, I&#039;ll never quite be able to afford that 1927D Double Eagle...especially as a college professor.&nbsp; UNLESS I HIT THE LOTTERY!&nbsp; Ha ha ha...</p><p><br /></p><p>So, that&#039;s how I got into coins, how I got out, and how time spent with my grandmother has pulled me back in for good.&nbsp; I do more than just separate the dates now - and I love reading about the history behind each coin design - but in the long run, I&#039;ll always remember sorting through that handful of Lincolns in my grandmother&#039;s living room.&nbsp; And I&#039;ve started filling up a water jug of my own (with coppers and common wheaties), just in case my niece or nephew comes over and needs something to do while I talk with my sister.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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