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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 3697958, member: 72790&quot;]I think one of the reasons for an apparent declining interest in coin collecting is that at one time one could build up an interesting, and sometimes valuable,&nbsp; collection and did not have to buy the coins one collected. One could find them in circulation. As I have written here several times, I started collecting when I was fourteen in high school, in 1957. There were any number of full date buffalo nickels to be had just by watching your change, even the occasional Indian head cent and Barber silver. My corner grocer knew I collected coins and kept anything odd coming into the till for me which I could have for face value. My father made it a deliberate practice to spend paper and keep the change in a leather purse which he would allow me to go through every Saturday. I once found a 1942 over 41 dime in that purse. My older sister worked at the Philly Federal Reserve Bank and would bring home silver dollars as part of her weekly pay. In 1960 she came home with a seated dollar amongst the Morgans. The only two coins I remember purchasing while I was in high school was a nickel three cent piece dated 1865 and a silver denarius of Nerva. Later on I discovered banks would give one rolls of coins at face value and I made a perfect pest of myself&nbsp; obtaining and then going through rolls. I found two double die 1972 cents that way. I still do this and just recently got five 40% silver Kennedy half dollars in one of those rolls. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sure I can and do buy coins at shows and shops but it is the discovery, the searching, that adds immeasurably to the hobby.What I am driving at is that being a coin collector circa 1960 meant looking, finding and trading, not so much purchasing one&#039;s collection. Perhaps I am factually incorrect about this but there does not seem to be so much exciting material in circulation for youngsters with limited financial resources to obtain just by looking for them. Is this anybody&#039;s fault? No, it is just not worth it for kids to collect if they cannot assemble a worthwhile collection from circulation and if their peers and parents, and teachers don&#039;t seem to value their collecting, why should they?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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