How Long Have You Been Coin Collecting?

I started roll searching in 1969. I still have my used 1963 RedBook, the 1973 RedBook I bought new and all my Whitman coin folders. I even belonged to the Rochester Junior Numismatic Association for about 4 years.Other than trading a few coins I still have everything.

I started 3 weeks ago, when I recently found a 1962 proof set, that I had bought years ago and was looking for information about it and found this site!

Man, I've got to think about this. Something like twelve or thirteen years collecting, which is currently more than half my life.

I think my first interest developed when I was around eight years old and I noticed the bicentennial quarters in my change. My grandmother had been a casual collector and had left my dad a bunch of stuff when she died -- mostly wheats, some Franklins, some mercs, and nearly all the Whitman folders I have now. Some of the Whitman folders I have are ancient.

Around age eleven we moved (army brat here) and the flea market where we lived was just an amazing hotspot for getting coins for beginning collectors. I remember my dad getting a tube of 2002 ASE on the cheap because he got managed to bring the guy down. Something like $75 for the tube. My mother thought it was a waste of money. I got my first Morgan dollar at that flea market, an 1878-S, for about $10. I still have it in the flip it came in. My dad and I got to work on finishing the Franklin set and I'm at work on completing the second Franklin set (my dad has the other one, complete).

I also started collecting world coins, anything and everything I could get. I chatted up strangers at Disney World from other countries and asked them about the money where they're from and got pocket change as a reply. Still have an Epcot "Coins of the World" thing which is pretty neat, too. My dad's friends would give me coin and notes from various countries whenever they came back from overseas, my cousin saved me a bit of Croatian money from when he went there, and my uncle nabbed me about forty Euros on his way back from Iraq.

We moved to Wisconsin and I went dormant on purchases for about seven years (finishing high school, going to college, very time consuming). I met my fiancee and reignited my passion for coins when we searched her room for anything interesting and found a still-sealed Cheerios Sac in a box. She'd put it in there and left it for eleven years. I hit a coin show about fifty miles away just three weeks ago and picked up some new things (my first three-cent piece, my first new Franklin in seven years, 1980 and '81 U.S. proof sets, a 1988 UK proof set, and a 1917 George V threepence). I also bit the bullet and got on ebay - I've gotten a few 1970s UK proof sets and a 1999 SBA proof.

Now I'm getting ready to move down to Iowa and start my PhD, which means money will be tight, but I think I can budget my collecting in so I don't have a seven year dry spell again. Even if I can't be as active, I can roll hunt and see what turns up there.

So that's my story.

I always liked coins from when I was a kid, but I only really started collecting for about 4 months now. First coin I bought was the Canadian 20 for 20 polar bear when it was released, and I mainly collect Canadian coinage that I find interesting. Can't really afford the best possible coins so I work through circulation. Found a lot of cool stuff that way. Lots of fun, and very addicting.

I started in December 2010. I bought a $20 Double eagle at an auction. Resold it the next day for a $75 profit. Was hooked to say the least. I bought an sold for about 1 month before I started collecting. buying anything I could with the profits of reselling. I backed off about 6 months ago due to buying property but I will be back in the swing of things within a month or two.

Cool story, Terry-T

Congratulations!

Ah, but you collect what you like!