How And Why You Collect

Chalk up another for hobby...and education. As I am expanding my Major U.S. Type Collection into varieties, I am constantly learning about little differences in the coinage that I current posses and additional varieties that I want. The guys at work get a kick out of "show and tell" as well.

My grandfather got me into coin collecting way back. All I know is I was very young. I would go over on Fridays after school and spend the night and go through coins with him and then Saturday morning we would hit the local flea market and coin shop. Lots of good memories with that. I got away from coin collecting after I got older, but I've now gotten back into it more than I ever thought I would and I'm glad I have.

This is a great topic! It shows that there is a wide variety of collecting styles from the MS 70 graded collector to someone who enjoys collecting from circulation! My son and I started haphazardly collecting Commerative circulation coins with the 2008 poppy quarter, then a little more seriously when the Commemerative Vancouver Olympic coins came out. We'd look through our change and occasionally do some roll hunting. My son was 8 at the time. Then July of 2012 I had just finished paying my mortgage, I was watching the shopping channel, and picked up some Canadian proof sets, and a Commerative silver set, all at issue. So this was the earnest start to coin & currency collecting. I've always collected something books/ fine art/ horse mags/ and now coins and currency.

When I was 18 in 1980 I would collect anything I found interesting, and my family would always put away a few examples of the ending currency types. My mom at 82 still does this and keeps any Commemerative coins she finds. So I'm collecting from circulation current to way back and also Nclt I find interesting. After being reading the forum for a yr I've learned a tremendous lot of info. I have a huge collection that has become a problem to store. Keep posting, I enjoy reading what people collect. I especially enjoy the posts of people collecting from circulation finds.

I sometimes get overwhelmed thinking the only worthy coins to collect are MS. It helps me get in touch with reality. I have Rolls Royce tastes on a beer budget, and sometimes spend way too much on coins! I first started thinking the silver content would be an investment, at the time I didn't know the difference between bullion and Nclt coins. I guess in the end I hope that my collection will have some value, if an emergency ever arises. I'm much more realistic about my collection, than when I started thanks to this forum. I must say I have the urge to collect something monthly. I'm hooked on coin collecting. Where it ends up down the road I have no idea. I think of it, as money better spent, then on consumables like junk food!!

I love your humour Just Carl, I wonder if anyone ever started collecting that way. Sometimes in youth people might of stole a few items. It gave me my laugh of the day. I always enjoy your posts, I've learned plenty from them.

I have basically been collecting coins since I can remember and started out with wheat pennies which are probably still my favorite since they're relatively easy to find in circulation and through coin roll hunting which I seem to be doing more and more of lately. I lost my collection of wheat pennies I had accumulated somewhere about a year and a half ago when I moved out of my mothers house. She said she put them in one of my boxes but till this day still no luck finding them. The worst part about those missing coins is I know I had a 1909 wheaties and had no clue about mint marks and the vdb on those 1909's and have been going crazy thinking I might have had one or still have it hidden somewhere in some box or bag in my house. Anyways though I started getting back into collecting about 3 months ago and found this forum shortly thereafter and it has helped me in so many ways. I never even thought about buying rolls of coins to search through and now I pick them up all the time as I leave work. My coin collecting bug got reignited when my mom had someone come into her work and pay for gas using a whole bunch of silver half dollars. There was probably about 8 franklins and 12 90% Kennedy's that she came home with. I tried my best to buy them from her but she sold them to a local pawn shop the next day after I told her I would buy them for whatever they said they would pay. That sparked my interest in silver coinage and the rest is history. Over the past three months I have accumulated a pretty decent collection and I'm always looking to add to it whenever possible through coin roll searching (mostly pennies and nickels) as well as purchasing from pawn shops and coin stores. My mother who feels bad about selling coins always let's me search her coin box every time I stop by and brings home anything silver she finds in her register at work. I work at a grocery store and have the office people looking for silver/old coins for me as well which is nice because I get them at face value. They also give me, for free I might add, any foreign coins that they come across, since they are unable to deposit them in the bank. My workplace also allows me to buy up to $5 in pennies whenever my heart desires to search though and then sell them back to the store to save me from that evil coin star machine and it's fees. I'm happy I've started to get back into collecting because it gives me a hobby that I enjoy and is also a fun way to save money and maybe one day make some money. I look forward to sharing more of my finds with all members on here as well as reading about your finds and purchases.

hyhis is pr istarted because I have multiple sclerosis and am limited to activities , I have found it great a little overwhelming but I am learning fast my favorite so far is a Canadian one cent that appears to have several obverses, I count 6 with 4 different dates seen

My parents were both amateur coin collectors and had wheat cents and such, my father has a silver ingot set of all the flags in the world (at the time) so that got me thinking when I was younger. Then I got into the vending business and started finding silver quarters. My second side business now has me handling coin of all types so that really got me going into coin collecting.

I am doing this because I am already handling thousands of coins every week, I may as well make the job of sorting and depositing at the bank a little more fun by looking for something more valuable in the mix. I also think of it as a treasure hunter or conservator of coins that need to come out of circulation before they are destroyed! :) lol

I love wheat cents because of the quantity you can find quick (900 since August 1).
Silver US coins are great too because of future investment value. Older coins just seem to have more character.
I also started collecting Canadian money since the bank doesn't take it, I will use it to take my new wife on vacation for free and impress her with my fat wallet of foreign currency! LOL And if I happen across a valuable Canadian coin, thats just a bonus.

I too arrived in Perth in 1969 and I think the hostel was called "Noalimba" from memory.
There was a soak nearby that had turtles in it and I was fascinated by them as I had never seen one before.