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Message:: [QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 2552979, member: 72790"]I started collecting in the mid 1950's. Lots of Buffalo nickels and the still occasional Barber quarter, that sort of thing. You could have a great hobby just from some grandparent's change jar. The coin dealers were selling coins graded just VG or XF, even the old Redbooks often gave just those two grades. When I started teaching high school in the 1960's every junior and senior high school had a coin club. What changed? I must admit I became annoyed at the change from collecting interesting numismatic material when collecting coins went from a hobby to a major investment field. The minutest differences in grading changed a $20 coin to a $90 coin and darned if I could or was interested in telling one from the other. The rapid rise in prices drove the kids right out of the market. Once coins went from interesting hobby to smart investment (and for many it became neither) I backed off and though I collected historical coins for my history classes, numismatics receded into the background as other less competitive hobbies kicked in. In other words, when collecting coins went from an interesting hobby to an investing business it lost me, and I suspect a lot of others. PS. What kept me in the hobby at all was going into Ancients where interest seemed to trump profiting.[/QUOTE]