This is a very neat thread...It makes me think back to years that have gone by and that will never be again. For me it all started in 1985 when I walked into a coin shop in Mobile Alabama and meet two brothers Judge and Frank! Wonderful people and successful as well! I became hooked instantly and began collecting Cameo Proof coins in 1 cent, 5 cent 10 cent 25 cent and 50 cent denoms.....it then took me to CC Morgans and Silver Eagles in 1986....then the gold came out...man was I hooked on Gold! I once owned almost every denom of American Gold Eagles, and select Platinum Eagles (still have the entire set of 1/10 oz APE) tucked away.... Then 2 years ago I discovered Paper Money and the thrill of the hunt was on again!! My collecting base has changed completly...I have met some great folks here with ton's more knowledge than I and have made strong relationships with very prominent dealears through out the Counrty!!It has been a rewarding time, filled with History, new friends and fellow collectors! It has changed my views on our Counrty and other Countries as well. It has opened my eyes to things I have never known before. It has given me the desire to build it into my son's future, may he carry on the tradition and the collecting of fine New York Bank Notes, AGE, APE ASE and many other fine gold and silver coins from our Great Country!! RickieB
I began collecting coins as a kid. While the other kids were spending their money on baseball cards and the like, I would spend mine on circulated Mercury Dimes and Buffalo Nickels. When I became a teenager and discovered girls, I forgot all about coins. After I graduated from college, I found myself unhappily married and very bored with my life in general. I decided to rekindle my interest in US coins. The first graded coin I purchased was a 1930-D NGC MS66 Standing Liberty Quarter for almost $1,000 in 1998. My wife was not happy with the purchase to say the least. My response was basically, "you can spend a $1,000, but you can't spend this." Needless to say, that was the beginning of the end of my marriage. Once single again, I found my budget for coins increased dramatically. I then turned back to my childhood favorite, the Mercury Dime. I collected the moderns (1934-1945) in MS67FB and almost completed the short set when I found the coin that would change my collecting interests forever. In 1998 my father passed away suddenly. When I saw this coin for the first time in 2001 in a Heritage auction, I just had to have it. You see, Ira Allen is the spitting image of my late father. This is the first rainbow toned coin I ever purchased. I was hooked on rainbow toned coins and would forever become a toning freak. I started to assemble a rainbow toned early commem set but quickly realized that my budget would not support such a venture. From there, I quickly turned to Morgan Dollars. My first two Morgans were purcahsed at the same time. I still own both and will never sell them unless I am forced to by financial crisis. From 2001 until 2006, my collecting was a very unfocused frenzy of every rainbow toned coin I could find regardless of denomination or issue. In late 2006, I discovered the NGC Registry. The registry quickly helped me focus my collecting habits and set goals for myself. I currently have two complete signature sets, two top 10 20th Century type sets (rainbow toned), a top 20 rainbow toned Jefferson War Nickel set, and a top 30 rainbow toned Jefferson Nickel date set. I have displayed the nickels on this forum and the other collections are going to be topics of my future threads. BTW, this is a fun post and I hope I didn't bore you guys with my very long evolution.
I'm just going to say that I think this is a great thread and I want to keep it current on the list....I'll post my story at a later time.
RickieB and Lehigh96 - It was interesting to read how your collections evolved over time - you both have impressive collections - thanks for sharing your stories and special pieces with us at CT! For some of us - it is possibly as close as we can get to some of these pieces. :bow:
Great thread 900fine! For me, I started back when I was a kid, collecting mostly foreign coins that my parents or others had brought from various places and putting them into a little box. I also had a couple of extremely low grade US coins that I bought from the baseball card shop (you know, back when those were actually around). I restarted the hobby in 2005 after receiving a 1/10 oz platinum eagle from my wife. I started by collecting US coins here and there with no particular pattern. I quickly advanced in the hobby though and very shortly was collecting nicer slabbed coins. I stuck with US coins mostly for a while. One day, when I went into a new store I hadn't been in before, looking for some US coins, I discovered what he mostly had was ancients. I knew nothing about them, but was hooked. So, for the past year, I have focused mainly on ancients with particular emphasis focused on the early Roman Empire from Augustus to Commodus. Currently, I'm not buying anything. I get into lulls where I'm into one hobby hardcore for a while (coins in this case), then I jump to one of my other hobbies for a while, then back to coins. I actually am not focused on any hobbies at the moment, which is quite a strange place for me.
Evolution-any process of formation or growth; development. As a young boy I used to collect just about anything out of the change, cents, nickels ,dimes, quarters and halfs. Back then you could still find a lot of good stuff....buffalos, standing liberty quarters, walking liberty halfs, all well worn and nothing in mint state but hey, I'm just a young collector and having fun to boot. War years silver nickels were one of my favorites and I saved a ton of them. I still have all of the coins that I picked up back then; they are my roots, my foundation. Gradually, as I grew older, and went on to college and career, I stopped looking for coins in my change and concentrated on mint and proof sets. I was more focused on these and for a time they were the only thing I collected. Then came marriage and kids and for a time I dropped out of the hobby. There were long lapses in proof and mint collections and every once in a while I'd peek back into the hobby and try to pick up where I left off but not with much enthusiasm and no direction at all. The State Quarters program began back in '99 but I didn't notice much...too busy with my work. When retirement came in 2000 I found I had a lot of extra time, and an internet connection, and on a whim visited the US mint web site. That set the hook....I was back in the hobby if only in a limited way. You see I really didn't have much experiance in collecting anything other than proof and mint sets. I didn't have any friends who were interested in the hobby so I really was rather isolated and in my own world. I guess you could say my evolution began when I found this web site a little over a year ago....It, and all of you folks here, have really broadened my out look on collecting. So many of you have given warm and helpful advice and it has changed my whole outlook on the hobby. I probably should have put this last paragraph first and spared you all my running off of the keyboard (LOL).
I am more picky with my coins, avoiding problem coins even if they are a little cheaper (with the exception of really expensive keys like the 1856 FE and 1893-S Morgan). I have also stopped buying raw key dates from Ebay after being burned twice in a row.
I've read all the responses, and it brings to mind one more recent change : enjoyment : I used to stash my coins to the point they were invisible. All the valuable ones in a safe deposit box, the rest in a safe. I still do that for the most part, with one major change. This is gonna sound crazy, but here goes... Coin easels. That's right - coin easels ! I take a few pieces out of solitary confinement and put them on coin easels on my bedside table. Now when I sit and read (or watch the ballgame), I've always got some beauties returning my stare. And yet, at any given time, 99% of my bling is still safely stashed so I'm never at much risk. I've got enough easels to have a theme - modern proofs, proof 5c type set, 1899 year set, whatevah. Sometimes I'll take two specimens of same type and show obverse and reverse - particulary hip with DCAM ASEs. This has greatly increased my enjoyment.
