How Long Have You Collected?

I began asking for interesting coins for a birthday present from 9 years old.
I was very lucky; I had a job with good pay from about 12 years old, despite the fact that I continued my education every year, in Australia and the U.K., until my first child came along at 32 years old.

I bought my first gold coin when I was 16. That was 52 years ago.
I bought my first ancient coin, a denarius, when I was 18 years old.

What a bunch of great stories. The only way I can match anyone in years is to tell it backwards..haha
I started not collecting in 1954 and continued to not collect for 59 years till April 2013 at which time I had it up to my ears with not collecting and decided to start my collection.
Gotta love this forum..lol

Like Pennyman I was a late bloomer, I've always been interested in coins but never found the time to sit down and start a collection.

My first Grand Daughter was born last May and knowing that all her needs would already be met by her Parents their friends and other Grand Parents I was at a loss as to what to get for her. While on the CP website I found the 2013 Baby Gift Set, great keepsake. I then spotted the $20 for $20 coins and thought what a great idea. That was it bought the first 2 from 2013 subscribed at the Mint for the other 2 then went on the hunt for the remaining 6 from 2011 and 2012. Went on from there to the O'Canada series and the 98-09 Lunar series, bought up all the double dollar sets from 1971-2005. So by now I'm obsessed,and want to collect the whole 20th century.

So here we are 10 months and many $$$ later I've pretty much accumulated the whole 20th century except for a few of the rarer big dollar coins everything from 1960 and up is PL or better - Do I have any regrets - well yes and no - I probably should have slowed down and purchased better quality coins for my Vickys, Edwards and George Vs but I guess once I get everything cataloged properly I can concentrate on improving the coins that I have.

When I first started my mindset was to stick with NCLTs but they get expensive really quick and it's just much more fun hunting for individual coins and notes. I sure do wish I had started this back in the late 60's and 70's when I was in my teens...

I collected coins as a kid until 1986, at which time I was keeping anything 10 years old or more. Then came high school, cars, jobs, etc., so it went on hold until about 10 months ago. My 8 year old son was learning about money at school so I showed him my coins. The penny had stopped circulating by then, so we decided that we had better start looking before they are extinct. Now he wants to ring every coin he sees to test for silver.

About a year.

I started in 1955 when my uncle gave me a bunch of (near) empty Whitman folders, and so I just jumped in. LWCs interested me the most because they were inexpensive to keep and you could get 10-20 rolls at the bank easily every few days with your dad's backing. By 1957 I was branching out and collecting most of the popular series back then (no one gave Two Cents about Roosevelts or Franklins, and any Washington after 1940 was quickly passed over).

At that time, with diligence sorting at our local bank on Saturday mornings (this was a very small town!), it was possible to put together the entire Walker set in 2-3 months, albeit with the early keys unsually in lower grades, and I did this several times. Problem was, the face value was so high that I couldn't afford to keep the set, so I (duh) just turned them back in and started over. All of the Mercs could be found except the 16-D. With dad's help, I eventually advertised in local papers and the two of us bought and sold many local collections during my high school years.

Picked it up again after the college/grad school years, and continue to buy and sell today with great enthusiasm.

Great thread, and thanks.

Since last December.

My first coin was an Aussie 2015 Kookaburra because I thought it had an awesome design, along with having the same surfaces as a proof ASE, while being 1/3 of the price

My dad collected foreign coins while serving in WW2, then later began collecting Canadian coins back to the year 1900. As a small child I remember travelling to the city to visit the coin shop and I recall him explaining some of the varieties - the 1947 maple leaf for example. In the 70s I was a bank teller and I was able to buy certain coins that I knew he'd be interested in. Then life quickly moved forward and in the early 90s one day he delivered his entire collection to me "here, you can have it". I was too polite to admit that coin collecting was the furthest thing from my mind - I had no interest whatsoever.

But I kept the collection and my dad passed away about 5 years later. Because I knew it was his passion I didn't feel right by selling it so another 20 years passed by. It wasn't until just before this past Christmas on a cold winters day that I decided to buy a new Charlton Price Guide and update the values in preparation of determining the best manner of finally liquidating it.

Oddly, as I was doing so, old memories came flooding back. How we looked and looked for the 1973 large bust 25c and never found one, the old paper sketch that the coin shop owner had drawn to demonstrate the difference between a curved and straight "7" of a 1947 50c, the 1936 25c with some toning but was that a dot or not? I knew some of the rarer years were missing and I started searching on ebay, curious how easy or difficult to find them 50 years later. Low and behold soon with a click here and there, using some money I had saved for nothing in particular, I was on my way to filling gaps and then onto upgrading. In the beginning I felt as though finishing this collection was a tribute to him. But whatever "bug" then took over, I couldn't have imagined that coin collecting is such an enjoyable pursuit! Even a year ago, if I could have gazed into the future I wouldn't have believed it.