Your Motivation For Coin Collecting

well I was walking to my freinds house and I found a 1846 holed large cent and I was hooked!!

My grandpa has collected coins since before I was born. He would always show me pieces when I came over or read me things out of the RedBook and explain why such and such coin was interesting or valuable. I liked that a lot of the things he had collected I had never seen before.

Now that I'm collecting for myself I love sorting through coin boxes and watching my pocket change to see what I'll find. It's my own personal treasure hunt.

I have always had the collector bug. When I was a kid I collected baseball cards. In 1999 when the State Quarters program started I thought it was interesting and had always liked finding a Bicentennial quarter now and then. It was not until late 1999 when I saw those quarter maps for sale at the store and decided to fill one for my son that I really started. After about a year of filling the map with the first few quarters I was growing impatient and went to the U.S. Mint's website. I discovered mint sets and proof sets and silver eagles. I started buying those and putting them in stacks on shelves. Then my OCD took over and I had to learn about collecting, grades, safe handling, coin flips, etc. I started with the less expensive coins and quickly had filled several albums of Kennedy's, Roosevelt's, Lincoln's, Ike's, and had started folders for Merc's. Now I needed to fill the holes where the more expensive coins went. For me, with a mortgage, wife and a child, this meant anything in the $10+ range... I continued to crazily collect for the next few years and started to slow as there were not any affordable coins left in the series I had started. At this point I usually buy a few coins a month of higher grade/expense and my collection actually has some substance now!

Jim

my dad is definitely the reason I collect, however my 2 year old daughter is my new inspiration. she already steals some of my clad canadian and regular change out of my jars in my room (which I should probably hide), and runs out yelling "coins!" so I collect now with hopes she will have something to be proud of later on in life.

My mother collected coins, because her dad did. That got me started as a kid. In my 20s I kinda lost interest, but in my 40s it was rekindled. I'm now semi-obsessed. Luckily, I have determined a modest coin budget I can live with and stick to it. I've been trying to get my kids interested, with minimal success; maybe they'll pick it up in their 40s.

My motivation is a fascination with history. I prefer old circulated coins (or maybe all I can afford are circulated coins, if they are old). A coin that was minted in the 1800s, and was used by actual people in daily commerce interests me more than a coin that sat in a box since it was minted. If I have $50 to spend, and the choice is between a Seated Half in F12/15 or a Kennedy half in MS66/67 ... well, the choice is already made.

I got the coin bug in my early adult life. I came across some silver coins that my great Grandmother left my Mother. I got into them and researched the value. One was a CC Morgan dollar! From then on I have collected just about all size and shape of United States coinage. I have yet to complete a full set but I am o.k. with that. At this point I just grab up whatever I like, but mostly 3 cent pcs. (silver or nickel).

Coin collecting beginning is the very next post you entered. Are you thinking people will have different stories if you ask the same question but use different wording? Actually that may happen.