New Member From The Hudson Valley

Hi everyone.

So here's a brief numismatic bio:

I started collecting coins c. 1975 when I was c. 10 years old. My best friend was collecting, I thought it was cool, and tagged along. No one's pocket change went without scrutiny, and hours were spent going through rolls of pennies and nickels from the bank.

Both of our fathers worked for the same company (Texaco), and they had a coin club for employees and their families. Once a year they'd have an auction. That was my first encounter with real "rare" coins.

Through my early teens I worked on a complete Lincoln Cent set, and became enamored with the Barber series. Barber coins got those nice dark fields and burnished stars and bust, and they just had (and have!), that great "Old Coin Look."

I drifted away from collecting in my later teens, but picked it up again, for a while, in my 20s. Having a job meant money for nicer coins.

Then I finally completed a full regular issue Lincoln Cent date & mintmark set in VF or better. There was no trumpet fanfare, the angels did not sing. Other interests drew me away...

In 1990 I sold my 1909-S VDB and my 1914-D for a down payment on an engagement ring. I'm still not even close to regretting it!

I picked up collecting again briefly in the late 90s, buying and selling a bit on ebay. But, I was still in my old "date and mintmark set" state of mind, and between the expense, the trips to the post office, and time spent following auctions, I ran out of steam. My box of coins got tucked away in the closet for another day.

Fast forward to the Covid pandemic. I was watching the price of silver creep up and started wondering how much some low grade Morgans would bring nowadays. Out came the ole box of coins.

As I've gone through my collection for the last few weeks, I realized a few things:
-I still find coins fascinating.
-It's been so long since I've looked at this stuff that I'd forgotten about at least half of it!
-I could sell at least 200 pieces of it at graysheet prices, have my roof fixed, pay a good chunk on my credit card, and still have a pretty nifty type set left over.

So, towards that end, I've been going over my grading, and nailing down varieties.

It was this that brought me to the Coin Community. I joined and posted some questions about an 1803 large cent that were quickly and thoroughly answered here.

At this point, I'll probably pursue type coin collecting, and the occasional cool looking commemorative.

I've also run across a lot of unidentified foreign coins, a few oddities and curios in my collection, (such as a 1901-O Morgan dollar with what I think is a dent from a bullet!). So I'll probably be posting questions about those soon.