What Got You Started In Coins?

Thank you 1inamillion15.

I think most members on this site have similar collecting roots. For some of us it was a relative who collected, others it may have been an inheritance. A number of people collected State Quarters and when that series ended, they already expanded to other series. It is great to hear stories of how each of us got into collecting or back into collecting from an absence. Its all these stories that make our collections unique. We have the stories to go along with it.

I was about 7, and went through my dad's glove box and I found a Franklin half dollar and thought that it has quite a weird color to it compared to other half dollars, I also noticed a "weird" clinking sound too. Till this day, I have no clue what happened to it, I'm thinking that it fell somewhere in the white Toyota and followed the owner when my dad sold the car lol. Anyways, now that I'm 17, I've been quite a darn avid collector of Franklin halves.

As part of their work, my parents travelled a lot when I was a kid (age 7+), and when they asked me what I wanted from where they were going, if I didn't really know anything about the place, I asked that if they saw any coins lying around on the street when they walked around, that they'd pick them up and keep them for me (probably not the best way to get VF or XF coins...it didn't occur to me to ask for some of the coins they may have obtained while buying stuff ). My collection started that way.

I couple years ago, I was cleaning up some of their stuff, when I found a huge stash of coins that they had left over from change. My father was a bit hesitant, saying that "If I go back to that place, I might need those coins to spend!", but I nabbed most of them, telling him that half of them are no use to him anymore, because those countries switched to the euros. He was still confused with what I planned to do with hundreds of coins, but I still got them.
I've now got over 250 unique coins (not counting the same coin from a different year) from 37 different countries, and it will only keep becoming more!

While robbing stores and banks, I noticed many of the coins we stole were odd looking. Inspecting them later in our hideout, I found many were Silver and some Gold. I put them aside and hid them from the rest of the gang. Much later after getting out of prison, I went back and retrived them, sorted them out, put most in Albums. And POOF, I realized I became a coin collector.
OR, when I was a kid my Dad gave me coins that I kept.

When I was 5 Santa Claus gave me Whitman folders for pennies, nickels, and quarters. I collected as a kid for about 7 years before I lost interest.

Then about 10 years ago I watched the movie The Italian Job and I thought it would cool to own a gold bar like in the movie. After I found out how much that would cost (even back then) I decided I would get silver instead. So I bought some ASEs and from there slowly got back into collecting other modern and classic coins.

Haha the italian job,im sure we all have that wish. ounce again nice beginning stories.

I was in the UK on vacation at 5 years old when I was given some (I think) United Arab Emigrates coins from a pair of soldiers returning to Canada from active duty. These coins started my interest in coins. A year after, my grandfather gave me a State Quarter folder and a bunch of old Canadian coins and I have been hooked ever since.

When I was younger, my mother worked Saturdays at a beauty salon. So, my father and I would take drives around Michigan and look for new adventures. I remember going to the Thumb of Michigan to an antique festival or something. We looked at all sorts of coins and things. I got hooked! We started looking for coin and collectible shows around the state. As I grew out of my young childhood and into my early adolescence, my father and I grew apart as friends became "more important". later in my teen years, my father and I began hanging out more and became closer. Recently, now that I am in my mid 20s, he gave me his coin collection. It was not much more than a water jug full of mostly american coins such as wheat, silver, early dates...etc. I caught the bug. It has brought us closer ever sense. We have all kinds of discussions on coins and our collection. Great times and great memories.