What made you start collecting?

I started collecting at the age of about nine. I was introduced, like many modern collectors, by the state quarters. I also looked out for old coins in my coin jar and found a 1960-D cent. I had a desire to go older, went to a coin shop, and I was hooked. Six years later, I still am.

The varieties didn't start until about eight months ago. Since then, I've been C-B-D Junior with some ancient/medieval thrown in. I'm less focused on the tough Seated dates and getting a gold piece now, but I might pick up some of those early S mint coins sometime. The original goal of me cherrypicking varieties was to get an old dirty circulated quarter eagle from 1855-73 with an S mintmark, but I've pretty much forgotten about it.

 

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I was utterly fascinated with Mercury dimes starting when I was about 5 years old, when they were still circulating. A couple of years later, I think, Muriel Cigars had a TV commercial featuring Edie Adams singing "Hey Big Spender". As she sang "spend... a little dime with me," the scene showed someone flipping a "Mercury dime". Well, the obverse was a Mercury dime, but the reverse was a Roosevelt dime! I think the video is still available on YouTube.

Anyway, my grandmother noticed my interest in coins, and she got me started as a collector. My first coin book was Let's Collect Coins by Ken Bressett, which I got as a Christmas present from her in 1966. Later, she gave me a price guide from Stack's (coins were REALLY cheap back then!), and would give me a few wheat cents or other unusual coins about once a week. Some time after that I started buying Indian Head pennies from a guy on my paper route, and attended my first coin club meeting, where I was shocked to see someone selling gold coins! Everyone had told me that gold coins were illegal, but the guy from my paper route, who had taken me to the meeting, assured me that they were perfectly legal. So I decided to buy gold coins when I could afford them, which was the next year, 1968.

 

My dad collected and that helped. The tooth fairy left a silver quarter under my pillow (that's all that was in circulation), I parked cars for events at Memorial Stadium and was paid with silver certificates and silver dollars and they all had different dates. I even got a silver dollar for getting good grades.

 

My Dad got me and my oldest brother started in the early 1960's. I collected wheats and silver coins that were in my change since then. Then last year I started to buy coins for my albums and learn as much as I can.

 

was always interested growing up, did the normal hibernation up until my late twenties. Read someone online say "4 more coins to go for my morgan dollar set" or something similar to that. Got me curious so I googled "morgan dollar set". That got me even more curious so I went right to ebay and nervously bought a $20 raw morgan and got hooked in from that point on

 

Apparently mine is genetic. My mother passed in the 90s, which I didn’t know until 2012, because I hadn’t seen her since I was two years old, when she gave us kids up after our home (the car we’d been living in for months) burned down and we lost what little we had. When I finally met my long lost relatives in 2013, I found out she had a coin collection and I had the honor of organizing and encasing it (coins only had sentimental value, nothing of worth) and presenting it to our oldest brother, who remained with her when we separated.

Officially, a generous old man started a coin club at my middle school and taught us the basics of grading, storing coins, and even took us to our first coin show. Even though that collection was stolen, I never shook the collecting bug.

 

That's a wonderful story... I hope to be able to do something similar someday!

 

My dad gave me a 1616-D WLH to go and buy the Sunday newspaper and said keep the quarter in change...I kept the half and spent my pop bottle money on the paper...I was amazed that the coin was older than my dad, but still spent it on a movie anyway...it had a mint mark on the obv

 

1616 ?

 

That was a long, long, long time ago.

 

Oops..That was a Walker! A few years later I started collecting at about 12 Yrs. old. Back then Walkers were common in change, as were Mercury dimes...buffalos and SLQs usually were with no dates. Hardly ever an Indian cent, but lots of older Lincolns were common...Silver Dollars were in all the banks for face value. It was still very tough to keep anything other than pennies, as my allowance was only a quarter a week. My first red book was a 64, which really got me interested. Also there was a coin shop along my walk home from school.

 

I had the very same distraction. I worked from a very early age. Throwing papers at 13... Washing pizza dishes at 15.... But that little hole in the wall coin shop was always there. I can still see that man's face. I would stop in and listen to him talk about coins endlessly and walk out with my 25 cent worn smooth Indian cent or whatever always late for dinner. What a great memory.

 

Boy Scouts. I earned the Stamp collecting merit badge but missed the Coin collecting badge. I kept my coins and started again after I sold my stamp collection.

 

My uncle got me into collecting. Before hand I had some coins stashed away but they were just a handful and basically a novelty collection. However around Nov 2009, I was at my uncle's house for our annual Thanksgiving dinner when he brought out his coin folders. Right then, something just clicked with me. I think the fact I could collect something out of my pocket change really spoke to me. I eventually moved up to higher quality stuff and still collect to this day, though I do sort of drift in and out of the hobby at times (as I am sure we all do). This year I have been venturing more into ancients as I am a history buff and love the fact I can hold in my hand something that is 1000 or even 2000+ years old.

 

My late Mom started me with my first Whitman folder with Pennies but I had to update to album the book fell apart

 

My typing is so lousy today...that was a 1916-D on obv. walker!

 

I've always been interested in history and old things for as long as I can remember. Sometime around 1990 or 91 when I was 11 or 12 years old, I was with my mother at a flea market and this guy was selling some coins at a table. I took a look, and this 1900 Indian Head cent caught my interest for some reason. I think it was a dollar something, so I bought it. I think the year 1900 caught my attention because it was the year my grandfather was born (he passed before I was born). Anyway, I just remember thinking, "Who could have spent this? Where had this coin been? Could it have been in someone's pocket during some great historical event?" I knew that I would never know those answers, but it still intrigued me. For a kid with just allowance money, collecting coins became a good (and economical) way to connect with the past.

 

I was obviously laughing.

 

So, like me, your grandmother stimulated your interest in coins. Nice

By the way, the coin in my avatar is one that my grandmother gave me back in 1968. There is a special story behind that coin.