Essay time!

[Immy]

Relax, no one's being graded here. The amount of traffic on the CRH board has grown exponentially since last year, and the silver totals reflect it. To a lot of you this is a new hobby/obsession. I'd just like some of our board members to share, in a few sentences, how CRH has affected your life. Has your everyday routine changed dramatically? How much time do you focus on it?

For me this has simply been a new extension of an old hobby (coin collecting) I've been doing since I was twelve. I've always hunted casinos since moving to Vegas but only started halves about two years ago when silver started rising nicely. Now I've also incorporated banks for the first time and it's a welcome change from the smokey casinos. It's a hobby that could easily take up too much of my free time, and it did for awhile, but I've learned to apportion it better with my others interests.

[red]Edit:[/red] I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how great TNet and you folks on the CRH board have been. No joke, for years I thought I was the only one doing this! This is just about the most positive place I visit on the web. No matter how bad anyone's recent batch of coins has been, this is the place to turn for encouragement and reassurance. Many thanks everyone!

 

[Silver Stripe]

Well I went from having NO bank acct to having 3. Now I generally have at least $1000 in ME pocket- before was spend it on whatever, I'll get more. It is taking alot of my time but I am enjoying the time alot more than if I was watching TV. So for me- this has been a good addition. However I don't have anybody else vieing for my time either and I do have an addictive personallity which could rear its ugly head, so in the long run only time will tell. HH Mark

 

[LJ]

My oh my....where do I start.......Good thread Immy!!

I started in late January this year. My first silver half was a 69.

I had been reading this forum for a few weeks trying to understand what everyone was doing....buying...dumping....boxes...skunks....Walkers....rejects....what the hell I read post about people buying thousands of dollars in coins and thought.....all this money!! Geezem peeks!!

My husband & I were in his truck on the way to go MD'ing on a Saturday morning. I saw a bank open & asked him to stop at this bank. I went in and asked this young teller if she had any half dollars which she pointed to her tray...she had about six or so halves. I bought them all & one was a 1969....my first silver half. I stared at it a minute then put it in my pocket proudly knowing if I didn't pull a silver coin from mother earth MD'ing....I had one in my pocket!! The silver bug bit me right then.

Fast forward to today.....my lunch hours (plus some) are consumed with dumping & buying.....buying and dumping. I spent alot of time learning the banks....coordinating the branches of my buy and dumps close together to save time Monday - Friday. I have even learned to search rolls while driving....I don't recommend this...ha!

Sorry Dave, I know you said a few sentences...I am almost done here....lol.

My evening meals are more baked stuff now....I can search coins while baking....my husband says he has lost some weight since I started this hobby.....lol. Alot of my evenings are taken up partially as well.....posting....rolling the silver...labeling rolls....boxing the silver.....labeling the boxes...taking these boxes to be stored in a safety deposit box at the bank every so often.

Is this a hobby for me.....yes....I love the hobby....a great one too. Obsession.....no. I have always been a person that if I am going to do something I am going to do it with a 100% effort...no less. My husband says I am often stubborn....nah....lol.

I have learned more about coins this way than I did while MD'ing...and I still have a ton to learn....just scratching the surface here. I listen to the more experienced people like Immy, Wayne, GMan, CC & many more that have alot of experience in the knowledge of coins.

Thanks to all of you for the contributions to this forum......you guys/gals make it a great one in my book!

Good luck out there.

 

[TxTim]

Pretty much what LJ said- she is my original inspiration but my cooking is pretty much limited to the BBQ grill or smoker. For me it is a mild obsession...
It sure has made me aware of banks that I never knew existed. I also found more silver in my first week than all my years of dirt fishing!
It also educated me on the fact that silver is either totally looked over or not appreciated by the the general public to some degree - it still blows my mind that it can be found in circulation!!!!
it also got me into coin collecting on a much more serious level.
The best part is that it is a hobby that my wife also shares with equal zest and can share together !

 

[GMan00001]

[red]Edit:[/red] I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how great TNet and you folks on the CRH board have been. No joke, for years I thought I was the only one doing this! This is just about the most positive place I visit on the web. No matter how bad anyone's recent batch of coins has been, this is the place to turn for encouragement and reassurance. Many thanks everyone!

Technically I started what I am doing today, my "roll collection", dating back to around 1983 or 1984 with pennies from my parents change jar. Then, occasionally, I started asking my mom to pick up $10 of pennies from the bank for me to look through. Although I also searched other denominations in my change and my parents change, I only ever asked for rolls of pennies growing up, mainly due to the number I would be able to look through for the price. Back then, I spent most of my time and energy on my sports card collection, which I still have but no longer spend time on. My coin collection was more of a once in awhile thing as was my stamp collection which has always been #3 on the list.

My last couple of years of high school through my first few years of college I did very little searching (1990-1994). Around the mid 1990's I started to frequent one of the local casinos and occasionally I would search through the nickels. Found my first buffalo (a four holed 1920) as well as my first 1938 and my first War Nickel at the casino. In around late 1997 to early 1998, I decided I was going to expand my "roll collection" to include all denominations of US coins and not just pennies, so when I could afford it I would buy a few rolls here and there of various coins (still largely pennies though due to budgetary constraints). In 1998-1999 I moved closer to one of the local casinos and would go occasionally and always bring back a bucket of nickels ($40). But in mid 1999 I moved back to the other side of the Twin cities and from then until I most recently moved in 2004 I would only occasionally search misc denominations as I slowly filled my rolls.

But starting in Jan 2005, I really started getting more serious about my searches. Mainly concentrating on casino nickels and pennies from the bank.

Then in mid to late 2006, after 6 months of searching for other people who did this, I found TNet. Prior to finding TNet I had been searching pennies and nickels fairly hardcore, but not to the levels I do today which I attribute to the techniques I figured out as a result of TNet. These techniques have increased my ability to search larger volumes. Also since I had never found a silver dime, quarter, or half in circulation in my life until about 2 years ago I thought they had all been long gone from circulation so I rarely searched them, just a few rolls here and there to slowly fill my clad rolls. Now I search whatever I can afford to search.

How have things changed? Back a year or so ago, I was stopping almost daily at banks, trying to get off work before closing time to buy boxes, cash in, etc. But now, I have a reached a happy medium where I only pick up coins usually only 1 day a week and cash in 1 or 2 days a week where it easily fits my schedule. I do most of my searching between when the kids go to bed and when I go to bed. Since I am a night owl by nature, I usually have around 4 hours a night after the kids are in bed in which I can search. Occasionally I search during the day on weekends or if the kids are busy I will search in the evenings (they occasionally help out, but they seem somewhat bored with it at this point).

One thing I have noticed recently is that since I found my most comfortable/efficient searching combination is in a room with no TV but good light, I watch very little TV anymore and listen to the radio a lot more. (I used to always watch TV while searching, but the lighting in that room was bad so it was hard on my eyes.)

Since I have been essentially doing this for 24 years on and off, how has my life been affected.... hmmm, I can't remember a time when I didn't do it some and usually the only reason I did it less was one of two reasons. Monetary or I was concentrating on my sports card collection. The biggest difference in collecting is you can't return your rejects. Otherwise it fulfills a lot of the same role for me. I always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt with never knowing what you will find.

 

[kestrelia]

Great topic idea. I enjoyed reading about other's history. My story is -

In the early 80's I collected coins, mainly pennies. I searched a few relatives change jars to find them, but my collection maxed out rather quickly, I never searched enough volume.

Recently, however, I began to wonder what sort of collection I could make from circulation and then I found TNet. So I got a bunch of Dansco albums and decided to try my best to complete them without paying more than face value.

After four months I've gone through over 500,000 coins. I have now settled into a nice routine of picking up boxes of coins on Monday and Thursday, then dumping them on Saturday. The tellers I now know save hand rolled coins for me and the occasional silver coin. My albums are more complete than I thought possible, just three elusive Jefferson nickels and 11 silver Rosies to find! I can't believe that I've found so many Buffaloes and Mercury dimes, let alone finding the other cool stuff that has turned up.

It's a great forum here, I agree. Very positive and encouraging.