How Did You Get Started Collecting Coins?

[AU24K]

I was about 8 years old and had read a book on the Secret Service and about counterfeit coins. I got a war nickel and when I dropped it, it sounded funny. I KNEW I had a counterfeit nickel! I made my Mom take me to the police station so I could turn it in. The cop I showed it to told me it was a genuine coin and about how it had silver in it and was worth about 50 cents. I thought Wow, 50 cents for a nickel!! I was hooked from then on.
Scott

 

[RON (PA)]

I got interested in coins because I figured if I was going dig them up, I should know something about coins in general...My idea became another obsession/addiction....Good addiction though.

 

[stefen]

Inherited a collection that belonged to my grandfather, uncle and father...now trying to fill in the blanks...

 

[treasurefiend]

I was 13 or 14 when my grandpa first showed me his coin collection, ever since then I was hooked!!!! He started me off with some Wheatiesand a few silver Rosie's, then I started saving up my allowance money to buy coins. Then I got my first job just so I could fund my growing collection. By 17 I bought my first gold coin, it was a $20 Double Eagle. Like a dummy though I sold it so I could get my first car. But since then I have bought a lot more coins and even branched out to paper currency and never looked back!!!!

 

[LadyDigger]

I have always had an interest in coins, not so much collecting them though!

My mother was a member of the B.I.E. Guild and the Cape Fear Coin Club back in the 60's - 70's. I remember many a night, she would sit at the table and draw on this paper, the pennies she collected....looking back at it now, they were error coins, or what could be error coins. Watching her draw (she was a good artist).... I watched how she drew the 'mistakes' on the coins onto the paper. It was something that the B.I.E. Guild did. I tried to do a search on the B.I.E. Guild and come up empty! ... but I only remember my mother collecting pennies...I don't remember any silver or other coins, not to say she didn't have any. And the pennies she had then...ALL WHEATIES!!!

My father collected stamps and he, like my mother, sat at his table just about every night, going through his stamps, putting them in books, looking at them through magnifer glasses....I have saved a few stamps, but I just have no interest in them. Sorry Dad!

I use to have some Merc's, lots of wheaties and 2 Silver Certificates, but my LITTLE BROTHER, when he came to visit me one Summer, found them and SPENT THEM!!! I was so MAD!!!

So, only when I found something in my change, I saved it....then my hubby and I got into metal detecting and the rest is history! Our collection has grown. Infact, after hubby got off work last night, he went detecting and came home with a 1906 DIME!!! No mint mark. Since Oct 2008...he's found 2 LARGE CENTS (one in Surry Co, VA and one here in Chesapeake, VA and the 1906 Dime was in Va Beach last night!!!....GO RON!!! LOL)

I am trying to get my boys interested in coin collecting.....but if coin collecting is NOT connected to the computer, I might as well forget it!!! But I'm a very stubborn MOM....I shall prevail!!!

Coin collecting is so much fun and it teaches you alot, if you sit back and reflect on the historical aspect of the coins...it is a great teaching tool for the kids....they learn about money, the value of it, understanding the designs of the coins, and a history of the coin and the people who designed it....

Here's a pic of my siblings and I with our Dad. He was working on his stamp collection. That storage thing it the background, that is where Mom did her coin collecting. I'm standing behind my Dad on the far left...

Happy Collecting,
Annmarie
PS: I wish I still had my glass piggy bank full of quarters, dimes and nickels I got from allowances and tooth fairy drop offs.....they were ALL SILVER!!!! Hindsight! CLAD was not on the market when I received allowances or tooth fairy drop offs!