What Got You Started In Coins?

At first I was just looking for some silver coins to get partly an investment partly as a just in case. During my search I came across some US commemorative coins and slowly got into those. Those led to ASEs and classic commems and now onto Buffalo nickles and needless to say have been hooked ever since

I was 11 years old and I loved to collect many things. I collected just about every comic book and baseball cards that was available and within my budget. At the time baseball cards were quite popular and there weren't too many companies that produced them.

One day I was at my grandparents house and everyone was sitting in the kitchen while my grandfather was viewing his collection. I was amazed, I have seen wheats before, but he had so many more. Coins that haven't been seen in circulation for decades were in front of me. I never saw coins that were so beautiful. I remember thinking that I would love to have a collection just like his.

My grandparents must have seen the look in my face and decided to give me a few coins to start my collection. They handed me a 1900 O Morgan dollar and a 1909 VDB. The VDB was an F-12 and the Morgan was a solid G-4 (it looked like it was run over by a few trucks). I didn't care about the condition, I was fascinated by the design and the history behind them. I was now holding in my hands, coins that were minted almost 80 years ago.

I immediately began checking my own change for any treasures. When I ran out of my own available change, I started roll searching. I filled up a few Lincoln Cent Whitman folders with my circulation finds.

Within a year, I had abandoned my comic books and baseball cards, neither held my attention anymore. I was now collecting something that had much more history behind it. Over the years I would attend coin shows and eventually discover online stores and auctions.

I still remember my first exposure to Numismatics. The few coins that got me started, still have a very special place in my collection. The 1900 O Morgan, 1909 VDB, and a few others have become priceless. Even though, the value is very low for my first couple of coins, I could never part with them, they now hold a much greater history.

My grandpa got me started in coin collecting when I was very young. When we went to visit him he would always give us kids a roll of pennies. Eventually he gave us each and Indian Head cent and a few other miscellaneous coins. I was always semi interested in it from that time. My father used to travel a lot for work and would bring home different coins from around the world. I really enjoyed the coins with wildlife on them. I have since had all types of collections but ended up selling most of them and focusing on something else. Even with that, I have enjoyed learning about the coins of various nations and the history behind some of them. Although my interest wains from time to time, I will probably always have an interest in coins.

Must have been about 1981. A guy I knew lifted his Dad's roll of bicentennial quarters and spent it. His Dad made him replace it out of circulation. He told me it was really hard. I didn't believe him, and started setting them aside myself. One thing led to another.

I definitely am as well. Maybe Ill slow down a bit as my sets get more complete but right now theres just so much to get I spend a good amount of time hunting

Not hard to stay in it until you are my age. I'm only 23

When I was young I accumulated foreign coins from family members and other people who went overseas. It wasnt very serious, but rather something that I just did for the sake of it. I really started seriously collecting when I was 12, when my mum found some ancient Roman coins down at a local antique store. Because I have a passion for history, I jumped at the chance to buy an ancient coin for $70. From then on I went through pocket change taking out all the commemoratives. When I was done with that I hit the coin stores for some small stuff and gradually I started moving into bigger ticket items. 8 years later and I still cant believe how much stuff I added and how much it has grown.

Im a little bit ashamed that my original motive for coin collecting was profit. I started roll hunting and selling my finds on ebay.

As I learnt more my interest grew from making money from money to spending money on money. The collecting bug quickly overtook the excitement of making a quick buck.

I discovered Australian predecimal coins and fell in love with them and the history associated with them. More recently foreign coins are taking my fancy so that seems like it could be a side chapter.

I try to continue selling roll hunting finds to offset what I spend on 'keepers' but its a struggle seeing as my collecting eyes and addiction are way too big for my wallet now.