How Did You Get Started?

First of all,

I got started when I was about 7 years old collecting pennies. Wheats were plentiful then so you could fill in a lot of spaces! That lasted about 3 years, then I quit. Stamp collecting was the dark path I traveled. In 1999, when the mint started issuing the State Quarters, I bought the mint and proof sets from the govt and bought them every year. When my father died in 2005, he left a nickle collection that was complete through 1961 with only one or two missing. That sat in a closet until recently. Four months ago I snagged a few key stamps and now I'm left with only 3 that I need. They trade rarely, so I decided to finally get serious about coins again. Part of my searching led me here three months ago. You've come to a great place to learn more!

Welcome!

I had always flirted with coin collecting. When I was a little kid, my allowance always came in coins for some reason, and while I didn't have a mature enough mind to appreciate the coins from a collector's point of view, I liked looking at them, and finding the older coins.

I've also always tucked away change. I've never been one who can just let change slip away. I've always had a bucket or water jug to dump change into, I would tuck away any halves or dollar coins that would be given to me as change, and so forth.

Lastly, I also was given the cigar box of granddad's change from his travels around the world, and that has always floated along with me in my travels. Nothing rare or expensive, just something I personally found nifty.

The bug finally got me one bored Tuesday afternoon at the apartment when Netflix had once again failed to suggest anything interesting to watch, and I decided to make a run to our local used CD/DVD store (Dimple) to buy some DVDs and grab some fast food. I picked out some DVDs, paid in cash, and when the change came out to a little over a buck, the clerk said he was low on change but had this large coin. Turns out it was an Eisenhower. It was the little push I needed to say "I really should start looking into coins." I went home, and the rest of the night I spent pouring over the change in my change jug, and looking at websites online for information.

A week later I bought my first Dansco album, and I've been hooked ever sense.

And as Sap mentioned, you can find many posts about that subject here.

I got started from older relatives giving me wheat cents. I still have quite a few of those. Know how I can tell them form the others? They are all cleaned and polished!

I started when I was 8 and my dad brought home some silver coins he fond in a box in a fireplace in a burned down home in a part of a forest they were thinning that day. He split them between me and my brother, but I bought his when we were in our teens, and I've been hooked ever sense. I see coins as a valuable footprint left by man old and new.

I started relatively recently by discovering THE JFK half dollar hunting thread. From then on, I became obsessed with all things numismatics!