When Did You Start The Hobby?

i am just starting out in the hobby, but spent many years as a kid behind my father's tables at coin shows. the hobby never appealed to me then, but now that I have a 5 year old son I'm much more interested. I wasn't much older than him when I first started "helping" dad, so it's nice that he wants to help his grand dad.

i have been taking my son to the larger shows for the past few years. we make a day of it - ride the train to the city, get lunch, walk the floor looking at all the cool coins, stop off at a few tables of family friends, and finally stop off at my father's table and spend a hour or 2 with him then get the train back home.

this past show, my son wanted to head over to the kid's corner. he received a State Quarter, 20 Lincoln wheat cents in 2x2 holders, and a bag of goodies. he has been "collecting" the State Quarters for a few years, but that's more of a reward for him doing well in school or being well behaved. during the train ride home, he informed me that he wanted to start collecting pennies.

when we got home, we emptied several piggy banks and were able to build up 3 sets of Lincoln Cent collections with a representative coin from each year of the Memorial series (many in both P and D mintings). with the 20 wheat cents my son was given, plus those in the piggy banks, he was able to build a nice collection from 1928 to 1958 (he needs 18 or so more). my father supplied him with folders and we spent an afternoon filling them. I picked up a Dansco album for my set. my son asked that we put together a 3rd set - we are expecting our 2nd child this fall and he wanted to make sure the baby had a penny collection.

i have picked up a few books and am learning to grade. I have started 2 more collections; Roosevelt dimes and Jefferson nickels. my next collection will be a type set of nickels in AU50 or better. my son's next collection will most likely be a Canadian cent collection since my father deals with mostly Canadian coins and can get him started in that direction.

i can't tell you how exciting it is to sit down with my son and sort through a pile of pennies and then get a big hung when I find something interesting. if my son didn't express an interest, I doubt I would have jumped into the hobby. my son has really changed my life in so many meaningful ways. I now feel closer to my father as a result of my son. what a great hobby this is.

-Steve

I started in 1990 (age 5) and my collection has been growing slowly and steadily since. It gives me something to take my mind off of those Wisconsin winters!

I started when I was about 9 or 10. My mother and father had 5 coffee cans full of pennies and she told me she'd split the money with me if I rolled them all for her. I think she was mostly trying to keep me out of her hair on a rainy day but I dug in seeing big dollar signs in my head hehe. Well sometime through the first can I found my first steel Wheat cent and had no idea what it was. Long story short I got hooked, I collected for a few years but never really had the money to spend being 12 for a lot of the coins I wanted.

Well now about 15 years later I took a few books out I happened to see in the library last year and I'm more interested than I was before. I've become more interested in foreign coins as well due to the fact that I love old coins and I know I can come across a lot more nicer grade examples of coins for a lot less money when I don't have more to spend. But I my US type set is still my biggest target.

1972 (a good double die year) I like collecting because you can use your knowledge as "inside information" and make a quick, massive profit. A cent from change worth $100? An instant 1,000,000% on your investment! Martha Stewart would be proud!

I started collecting coins when I was seven, building up a pretty good collection by putting virtually ALL of my spare cash into it. Buying my house in 2003 wiped out most of my collection. Two $500 bills, gold, a 1799 cent, 1889-CC Morgan...ouch! I tried to get back into it right away, building a complete date set of Capped Bust dimes in 04-05. Sadly, I couldn't afford to keep them and sold almost everything again in 2005. After being out of it for the past two years, I am finally getting back into collecting, and should be in a better position to do it now. Now, if I sell, it will only be to upgrade! ~Jim

Was working in the US and found a Buffalo nickel and half dollars and the State Quarters had been around for a year or so, then moved to spain, they had the peseta and moved onto the euro, so I ended up with loads of coins from different places and just seem to get more and more as I travel

Wow, it's nice to see so many responses!

I collected coins for my brother (in China) first and he collected stamps for me. I am in the process to complete State Quarters for him. About one years ago, my kids got interested in collecting the State Quarters and westward nickles. In order for me to get three sets of these, I went through break room coin machine every week and always have a pocket load of coins. Then I got interested in the silver and gold coins and my budget problem started.