What Gave You The Bug?

It was an ad found in a lot of comic books during the mid-late 1960s: "The 1804 dollar: 19,500 minted, only 12 known--where are the rest?" And then it gave the value--in many dollars.

So when my parents showed me a box of old coins, I was positive I'd find one in there and be able to use the money to buy G.I. Joe toys. Well, I didn't find any 1804 dollars. But they also had a Red Book, and the idea of the pennies I used to buy candy with having a value of more than one cent fascinated me. I pored through that book and delighted in seeing photographs of coins in the book that were the same as my pocket change.

Then one week in 1972 I was sick from school and I used that time to really get to know the Red Book. And that was the real beginning.

My story starts as a pre-teen. My first passion was stamps when I was but 8 years old. Then as an 11 year old I visited India and wow I could collect foreign coins without having to "buy" them. Although my stamps were always the number one thing in my life it was exciting after that to get a few foreign coins from my grandparents as they travelled to many different countries. Many years later the State Quarters were a challenge I couldn't turn down. A trip to Honduras and collecting more foreign coins from the wild helped. Then I went to China and my stamp collecting has almost come to a complete stop. With the need to collect something, anything I have become more serious about coins. Now I look for Chinese coins and currency. I also ask many of the other foreigners I meet for coins and currency from their countries. I know modern world coins aren't worth much to many collectors but they are valuable to me 'cause thats what I like.

Had a customer pay in coins ... checked values ... hooked!

being a cashier in h.s and seeing wheats pass by I started saving them. then the start of the State Quarters, I would pull new ones out of rolls when I would cashier. but what really got me into it was the ATB's after ten years of going dormat.

This coin started it for me. The 1919 Lincoln Wheat cent. I was about 8-9 years old and in my grandmother's kitchen. She used to go to Las Vegas several times a year and always kept a cup of change to take with her for playing slots when she'd go. In one such cup, I found a bunch of wheat cents. I looked through them out of curiosity. When I found this 1919, I just KNEW it had to be the oldest thing ever made. I kept it, and decided to try to get one of each year (not worried about the mint marks back then). I made a date set of wheats, mixed mints, from 1940-1958. I have since upgraded my set to BU, but this one will always have a special place in my collection.

I had collected sporadically since the age of nine-I collected the 50 State Quarters, found a Wheat cent in circulation, my mother gave me an Ike, a silver quarter, and I found a 1942 Merc on the cafeteria floor in middle school (covered in ketchup, no less). What really set me off was a dateless Buffalo I received in change in 2010. It was the shot in the arm that opened my eyes to the world of collecting and I spent the next three years assembling sets of circulation strikes for my favorite series. Some of the sets are partial because I decided to focus on say, the 1930's instead of the whole series of Mercs and Walkers, but that nickel has led to an adventure for me.

The first hand full of Morgans did it for me.