What Got You Inspired To Collect?

I inherited a tin box from my grandma
it was full of coins. I also love the history
involved. I got serious after I was asked
to join a club ,that is when it
really took off

I had a couple of coins from family already, just random ones. Then I was given an old 3d coin in my change, it must of been used by someone as a 20p :). This gained my interest more, then I ended up with an odd token/medal that I couldn't identify. I found this site, and received a very knowledgeable answer solving the identity problem. At this point I was already into bullion and other items of pm content. I then saw pm's in coinage, and started buying them. It wasn't long after that, that I started collecting all varieties of coins. The more I learnt, the less I was bothered about my prior engagements with gaining pm's in coins. I started loving the history of the coins,the learning aspect and IDing elements. From then on my foundations were cemented, and I've been involved with coins for just under 2 months 'properly'.

To surmise it was a gradual progression through the last few months with the help of Coin Community, and I love it :).

when I was a kid I got a 1970 bermuda penny in change, it was also 1970 my birth year I thought it was so cool with the boar on it! then shortly after I was at the bowling alley and received a 1967 canadian quarter with the bobcat on it! well I was hooked from then on!

found this off metal error in change from a 7-11. I researched it here at CCF & eventually sold it for $750. the funds financed my start in to collecting.

pretty sure it was the community here more than the $750 that truly got me started - although the cash didn't exactly hurt

Collecting for ME is a three fold venture:

1) I have an incredible love for History, especially Canadian History
and Canadian coins give that insight and challenge when collecting the older Vicky/Eddy material.

2) The challenge of collecting the finest that you can afford or acquire is exciting and fun to look forward to. Building a Collection valued beyond what you can comprehend is mind boggling and that's putting it mildly.

3) Protection when marriage goes BAD. With an ever increasing divorce rate (70%), and if your reading this you probably are a casualty! Collecting coins, as long as your spouse does not know the value of your Collection, gives you protection when Divorce is on the horizon.
R.R.S.P's, household assets, homes and cars can be legally divided, however, a Collection of ANY SORT, that is of value and concealed from a spouse can be great protection when divorce becomes inevitable!

Glenn

My recent interest was sparked by RCM's sale of the Bank of Canada Gold Hoard 1912-1914 $5's and $10's. I saw an article about it and just had to own a little piece of Canada's history. That got me hooked.

However, I did briefly collect as a teenager in the late 1970's. Back in the 70's you could find plenty of silver coins in your loose change. I remember often finding coins from the 1940's. When silver prices soared in 1980, everyone was looking through their change. If I recall, it was a bit of a craze back then, as a simple quarter soared in a year or two to being worth five or more dollars. Unfortunately my early coin hobby was abruptly halted when my small silver coin accumulation/collection was stolen during a break-in in 1980.

Lesson learned and nowadays my valuable coins are in a bank safety deposit box. I now mostly collect silver coins.

I guess it's just that I like old or interesting things from the start. But I guess the coinage in Indonesia is my biggest inspiration.

I was born and raised in Jakarta, and Indonesian coinage is a little strange at best. Circulating coins are practically worthless (except for Rp 500 pieces) and they come in two metals, aluminium (white) and aluminium bronze (yellow) with different designs. Also note that Indonesia started minting coins in 1971, so none of them are too old. Some are in extremely bad condition though, people don't care much about collecting them as I see. Yellow coins are older and much heavier, and people tend to not like to bring them around. I've mentioned this before in another thread but I'll say it again. A joke in Indonesia is getting a hole in your pocket/wallet/purse because of the weight of these things and the fact that you don't use them.

I tend to keep all the yellow coins I get because I feel that they are rare (except for the Rp 500 yellow 2nd version, which is still normal to find shiny ones) because they are harder to find and they are also mostly older than I am (pre-1997). I also keep denominations I totally can't use like Rp. 50 or Rp. 25 since they have too small of a value. I don't spend ones I don't find circulating anymore either. Some of them will be very shortly be no longer be legal tender anymore.
I don't remember much that I have anymore, but if anyone is curious I'll try looking up pictures of old Indonesian coins and see if I can remember. They're all sitting in a can for putting money in (what do you call that in English?) in Jakarta.

I also recently received a small plastic bag of coins sellotaped together and put into camera film rolls as a gift from my grandma. It's now locked up back in Jakarta, so it's not with me now. And I didn't have time to look at them yet, but I remember there being some small denomination Dutch colonisation era coins, some Rp. 5 coins, and a couple of "smelly money" ("uang busuk", what Indonesians call very worn, crumpled, starting-to-smell-funny paper money) condition banknotes.

I had gotten a few RCM coins when I was a child/early teenager.

But during my first of university, I was eating at a Chinese restaurant and got a 1920 penny in my change. That's when I decided to start collecting Canadian circulation coins.