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 Replies: 30 / Views: 3,844 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
Coin collecting...what a hobby. Sometimes it is the thrill of the hunt. Sometimes it is the historical significance. Sometimes it is the capture of your quarry. Sometimes it is.... My coin collecting started about the time I was 5 or 6. Both of my oldest brothers collected coins because of Boy Scouts. Our mom also worked at the credit union, so I spent quite a bit of time there counting coins at the end of the day. Of course, pennies were what I collected. What else is a 6 year old going to collect on the birthday budget? I can distinctly remember a couple of the proof sets that my brothers had. Believe they were their birth years. The white lucite holders with the plastic screws that held them together were rather cool....even today. Of course, kids being kids, we also played a couple of pinball machines at the local cafe. Name of the cafe was "Tip Top Cafe". Their burgers and fries were awesome. The deco of the restaurant was truly 1950's - plain green naughahyde stools bolted to the floor at the counter, chrome trim on the edge of the counter tops, juke box that only played 45's, and two of the sweetest pin ball machines you ever played. Spent many a coin in them. 10 cents per game or three games for a quarter. We ALWAYS checked the dimes and quarters for dates/mintmarks before they were plugged into those pinball machines. Remember my brothers and I going to the laundry mat with a couple of bucks in change so that they could cycle quarters in the change machine to receive dimes. I don't know what particular Mercury dime my oldest brother received in change on one of those trips, but he was VERY excited. I have always wondered if a 16 D was the result. My grandmother had a dislike to Eisenhower (I did not understand politics at the age of 6/7/8...or cared about it)...but she ALWAYS gave me her "bad" dollars upon arrival when visiting from Ohio. I developed a serious liking for Eisenhower dollars, as two or three of these would supply gasoline, cold bottles of Coca Cola, and 2-3 hundred 22 rimfire shells for gopher hunting trips for the three of us in my mom's 1965 Valiant 4 door (THE ultimate gopher hunting rig!). My oldest brother passed away 10 years ago prematurely and I do not know where his coins are...probably sold for pennies on the dollar. Fast forward to 40 days ago. There is a 10 year age gap between him and I, so, we are close, but I was off tearing up the world, meeting my future wife, and going to college about the time we normally would have been spending time together in his teens. We do share a couple material appreciations in life...specifically Chevrolet muscle cars. Impalas to Corvettes....the faster the better. He loved to have me give him a ride to school in my Monte Carlo, as that car sounded like it was always going fast because of the mufflers. He hated my Impala, because if I got the jump on him and his Camaro, it would be neck and neck at finish line. For his birthday this year, Halloween, I purchased a bullion version America The Beautiful 5 oz Glacier for him. Upon opening the package, he was ecstatic. The puck is proudly displayed at his office, drumming up quite a bit of questions from clients and coworkers alike. Glacier was our "playground" as we lived about 75 miles from the eastern boundary. When we went to play, regardless of the season, Glacier was it. As I am closing in on finishing my Wheat cent collection, my list is down to less than 40 coins. Grades range from MS63BN to MS67Red. The quest continues. Imagine what I might have snagged from circulation in the early 70's? ARGH! :) Regardless of what you collect, please plant the seed by giving the gift of collectible coins for special occasions....you just never know what may happen. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Coin collecting has lasted for a long, long time now. So many other hobbies have gone down the tubes lately. And mostly due to over kill by manufacturers trying to make one last lump sum of money. Beanie Babies sure did that. Hot Wheel/Matchbox cars too went down the tubes due to massive quantites being produced. Sports cards died as manufacturers bombarded the market with billions of them. and we all should remember the Postage Stamp collecting.
After possibly close to a thousand years of coin collecting, I'm afraid the US Mint is also on the brink of over kill on coin items and at the rate they are producing so many types, this hobby too may finally falter.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3540 Posts |
JustCarl - for the modern stuff, I believe you are correct. I HOPE not, but lets be realistic.
One nice thing about coin collecting, an individual can collect by coin, subject, material, person, era, error, or whatever trips their trigger. There is so many possibilities....it is truly endless in subject. BUT, there are only so many out there.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
524 Posts |
Great post acloco. I don't really have a good story. My father left me some silver coins when he passed away. I was fifteen. That sparked my interest and my Great Grandmother helped me get started on many sets a few years later. No one else I knew collected so I was on my own for twenty years until I found a guy at work that collected. I wish I had joined a coin club or had CCF then. I would probably have alot more than I do. It's hard to get motivated when no one else seems to care to see any of it.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
Blueszone...your quandry is double sided. In todays times...on one hand it would be great to share...on the other...it screams "steal or rob me".
There is another thread started by a fellow CCF member about this exact subject. "Do you share your collection with others?" I am VERY selective.
Besides Max the Wonder Dog (mutt - black lab/husky mix), colt, smith-n-wesson, ruger, DPMS, Savage, a couple of safes, and a louisville slugger...they might have a problem. But, in all honesty...they can have it all. We moved twice in the last year. When I made a "bucket list" of stuff that was important to me, the pictures and my grandfather's hunting licenses were the only things that REALLY meant something to me.
Just leave me the pictures of my family, the ceramic vase my grandmother made, my grandfather's hunting licenses, and the engine for my 65 442. Everything else can be replaced....except Max.
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Valued Member
United States
297 Posts |
I first started collecting coins when I was around ten years old. I used to take my allowance down to the local 7-11 and spend it on arcade games or baseball cards. One day while walking the 3 blocks, I noticed a new store in the mini strip mall that I had to pass. It turned out to be a coin store and after going in there and talking with the very friendly gentleman, I started to get hooked. I bought many Whitman albums there and had a riot going through my parents pocket change trying to fill holes in my collection. I also remember the coin store having a bowl of IHC and a bowl of Buffalo nickels that I would pawn through every few weeks. I don't remember what he sold his Buffalo's for, but I do remember that the IHC jar was 7 cents a piece. Ahh, the good old days. That shop owner was always so nice to me, even as a kid on such a small budget. He even took the time to go through all of my 1982 pennies until I had a full set of them from circulation. I also remember that in my teenage years I would constantly raid my Whitman quarter folders for spending cash. Thankfully, I never robbed the pre 1965 folder. Edited by Granite
12/09/2011 8:59 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12819 Posts |
Nice post; good memories. Thanks for sharing! My parents didn't really collect anything so I didn't get my hobby on account of them, but it's in the fiber of my being. In the 90's I got word of the US Mint site when it was brand new and started to collect many annual issues from that source and still do to this day (mint sets, Eagles, first day covers, etc.). I didn't specifically collect circulation coins in earnest until about a year ago, but I always kept what I thought were the nice/cool/rare coins tucked away in a mason jar. My grandfather may have collected coins, because when I was young I did get a little Ball jar with a few silver slicks, some Buffalo nickels, a Morgan or two, and foreign coins. I still have the jar and most of the coins (although I think I traded a few of the buffaloes for something when I was a kid). It's a good memory so that little jar will be a part of my collection as long as I have it. The rest has been my own doing, as collections generally are given the somewhat personal nature of them. I'm pretty much focused on modern American coins at this time. Working on complete collections (or as much as possible) from circulation of all modern coins. Also will be putting together UNC/proof albums of lincoln cents and nickels. Clearly this is a lifetime hobby! Stamps and baseball cards are still fun to collect even if there is no market for them. Perhaps that's good because you can build an impressive collection for cheap! With all but two baseball card companies gone that are licensed to produce cards for MLB, there is a lot less product out there these days. The late 90's were insane for baseball collectors. I wish I had invested all the money I spent on baseball cards in coins instead! |
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Moderator
 United States
188213 Posts |
Quote:
My grandmother had a dislike to Eisenhower ...  Quote:
...but she ALWAYS gave me her "bad" dollars upon arrival when visiting from Ohio.  Quote:I developed a serious liking for Eisenhower dollars...  A great story! Some may know, some may not, but my coin collecting interest began with two Eisenhower dollars my father gave to me in 1978. My parents encouraged me with books and magazines. They also allowed me to sift through their change to fill the holes. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1406 Posts |
I can remember (I was about six or seven) looking through my grandfathers penny album. I came to a page that only had one opening and there wasn't a coin in the hole. I asked what that coin was supposed to be and he explained that is was a rare 1955 penny. About five years ago I got really excited to learn that my uncle had found my grandfathers coin collection and was going to give it to me! I was thrilled! Unfortunately the penny album was not with the collection. Apparently the bulk of the collection had been stolen at some point and I think my thrifty grandfather unloaded most of the silver in the 1980's. That being said, I was given this https://goccf.com/t/61344#61344Still, it was an awesome start and I have been building onto the sets until today. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
captainkurt - awesome thread. Posted before I joined, so I missed it. THANK YOU for sharing.
jbuck - with two older brothers buying the gas, 3 cokes, and the ammo....I also LEARNED math rather quickly. I would hand my oldest borther 4 of those bad dollars. He would return after putting 5 gallons of fuel in the baby blue Valiant (27 cents per gallon), three cokes (15 cents each), and three boxes of ammo (50 cents per)...and he did not give me change! 1.35 + .45 + 1.50 = $3.30.
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
Quote:
...and he did not give me change! 1.35 + .45 + 1.50 = $3.30. Those dirty rotten scoundrels!  Quote:
That being said, I was given this I remember that thread, it was a good one; still is. |
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Valued Member
United States
230 Posts |
i found a wheat on the floor while taking mass transit. When I got to work I did a google on cent, and that brought me here.
I believe that might have been the only wheat I have seen in the wild since.
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New Member
United States
31 Posts |
Started collecting coins 4 months ago at the age of 30. My wife and I had been looking into preparing for economic collapse in our country. We saw silver as a hard asset and and inflation hedge. We studied silver for about 6 months before we bought our first Morgan dollar at a pawn shop. We overpaid a little for the coin, but we were proud. We bought 15 Morgans from a local dealer about a week later, and then we bought 'junk' silver and so on and so on. I am not sure when it happened, but I 'got bit by the bug' somewhere along the way and started buying all kinds of coins. Currently I am super interested in Mexican 8 Reales and various Prussian, German, and Bavarian Thalers! I especially love the 8 Reales with chopmarks due to the history of the coin, and GEM BU Morgan dollars. I am so happy to have found a hobby that is informative, fun, and provides a great investment platform for my wife and I to one day leave a legacy behind for our children. It has also been a great experience for our 11 year old daughter and our 5 year old son along with being able to give historical artifacts to other various kisd in our family. I am thankful also for some of the great mentors I am learning from and this forum. That is just the beginning of my story... Purchased a 1638 silver Polish 1/24 Thaler today. Life is great! |
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Valued Member
Canada
316 Posts |
well, I'm just starting at 32. never knew my father collected coins. He used to work at the RCM back in the early 80's. about 2 months ago, My son was playing in my dad office, and came out with one of his gold coin. It kind of picked my curiosity. started looking into it, just bought 2 silver coins and a specimen set. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
With this "hobby", there are so many different facets that entertain, enlighten, and encourage. Whatever your "nitch" is, please spread the wealth of knowledge and FUN!
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Valued Member
United States
197 Posts |
As a kid, back in the 1970's, I briefly flirted with collecting, working on a folder of Lincoln cents that I don't think I ever completed. I recall having a 1919 cent that I was very proud of, but I don't remember much else about the set. I also got involved in doing magic, and I accumulated a number of Kennedy halves and Eisenhowers, which I wish I'd kept. (I'm sure a lot of silver passed through my hands in those years.) Four years ago I bought a number of one-ounce gold and silver eagles as an investment and inflation hedge, and because no other investments looked good. I'd spent several years swing-trading stocks and ended up only treading water, profit-wise. Things like money market accounts and CD's and U.S. Treasuries weren't offering any kind of yield worth considering, and still aren't, in my opinion, so I jumped aboard the gold and silver bull market. My curiosity about numismatic coins has grown in recent years, especially as I have come to understand the enhanced value a numismatic coin might offer over a newer bullion coin whose value is tied to the spot price. With gold and silver going into major corrections this year, now seemed a good time to take the long view and consider coins whose value isn't whipsawed by daily and weekly gyrations in spot prices. Several weeks ago I bought four Morgan dollars and ten Walking Liberty halves from a dealer. I instantly fell in love with the Walking Liberty half. Since then I have done some bidding on ebay and have picked up another Walker, a pair of 66 Kennedys, and a 64 Kennedy. Today I won a bid for another 66 Kennedy for $5.65, a price I'm pleased with. I seem to favor Walkers and Kennedys. I like the Walker because it is my favorite coin, aesthetically. I like the Kennedy because there still seem to be a few in the wild, and because decent specimens may be had for not a lot above melt. I also like them for the pragmatic reason that I can justify paying to have them mailed to me. I'm not inclined to spend a couple of bucks on a Mercury dime on ebay and then spend another two bucks to have it mailed to me. |
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Replies: 30 / Views: 3,844 |
Posted 12/09/2011 12:11 pm
