Do You Still Have The First Coin You Got As A Collector?

My Dad handed me a brand new penny in 1943 and it was like a strange coin since it was sort of white. Still have it.

my first coin was a full set 1988 proof olympic games coin set. I still have the set and if I'm not mistaken its worth around 380 but its not for sale.

No, I started collecting when I was about 6 or 7, but had the entire collection stolen in a break in about 20 years later. Now, I use a bank box, which makes appreciating the beauty of the coins difficult. I got back into collecting when I bought silver in the late 70s, and had the dealer talk me into uncirculated pieces as better than low grade coins, and just a little more in cost. Everyone should run into such a dealer, they are great for the hobby.

My first collected coin was an 1883 V nickel,w/o cents, and yes I still have it.

The first I ever paid for...

Yes...I have mine but it took almost 50 years to bring it back to my collection!

Back in the early 1960's my Uncle and I used to go through bags of nickels on Friday evenings. We pulled out the war nicks, buffalos and key date Jeffersons. One nickel that caught my eye was an AU pinkish toned 1939-D Jefferson. I moved it to the "keeper" pile and almost forgot about it.

My Uncle is well into his nineties now and several years ago we were visiting and I asked him if he remembered it. He said "Remember it? I've still got it!"

My heart jumped when he told me he'd dig it out and give it to me since I was the one that found it. About 6 months later he called and told me to come and pick it up. It has toned a little bit more than I remembered it but it is still a pretty coin. I had it framed, along with it's written history, and it is now mounted on my wall above my desk.

It is not worth much but the story behind it is a treasure I'll never let go.

That is a great story Westernsky and a great way to display and remember it!

It wasn't the first coin, but fairly early...

In 1958 my Dad asked if I wanted to search his pocket change. I had a paper route and was already well into a penny collection, but I had just started nickels. I was thrilled to find a 1950-D in only about VF condition, and it was the eighth nickel added to my Whitman folder.

I've always wondered if Dad picked it up at the local coin shop and salted it into his change.

Also about that time there were rumors that many of the 1950-D nickels in high grade were counterfeits, and the value of them dropped from about $12 to $7, so it was nice to have a well worn circulated example, more likely to be genuine.

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Also about that time a buddy and I talked a third friend into joining us to pick up a few rolls of nickels from the bank to search, and he found a nearly uncirculated 1914-D or 1914-S Buffalo, his first "keeper".

-Duncan