How Did You Start Collecting Coins/Banknotes?

I always blame Showbiz pizza place tokens from when I was a kid.

My great-grandmother was a waitress for 40 years at a diner a couple towns over from where I live. She would occasionally receive foreign coins or silver dollars etc as tips and she kept them in a velvet bag. She gave me the bag full of coins on my ninth birthday (24 now) and they fascinated me. Also, on the other side of the family, my grandfather has a box full of old coins that have been in the family for many many years. He showed them too me shortly after he learned that I had gotten into coin collecting and gave me a few of them, so I can thank both sides of my family for this obsession.

I blame (thank) my mother. She was an immigrant to England after the second world war so she was always fascinated by coins from other countries. Her 'collection' consisted of throwing any foreign coins into a tin. As a kid I used to spend hours with her going through them every now and again. I started the same when we (my then wife and I) had a small local store. When my mother passed away I inherited her collection and that was when I really got serious. The banknotes just came along in natural progression.
This, more than any other hobby, has given me so much pleasure over the ensuing years that I still thank her whenever I think of her.
God bless you mum.

It was my dad that got me started. He had collected coins as a kid. By the time I was born, he wasn't collecting in the sense of going to coin shops or shows, but he still made a point of going through his change. Well, from when he started, he could still find walkers, mercs, IHPs, buffaloes, etc. And when I was young, those were all way cooler than the current batch of coins that all had presidents on them (my attitude in that regard hasn't changed in the least). So I was hooked. I started going through all my change. And even then you could find cool stuff - wheats, of course, but also the occasional IHP and buffalo.

In the 60s everyone in my neighborhood seemed to collect, so I did too. When I lost interest, my Dad took over my collection and it stayed that way for decades. Now I am interested again and my Dad is losing interest so he gives me lots of cool stuff and I show him some of the things I currently collect. We are having a great time. Other than sports my Dad is VERY quiet, so the coins serve well as conversation starters.

When I was 12ish, my grandmother gave me many coins she had saved, to give me when she thought I was of a responsible age (mistake!). Of those, I recall a beautiful BU Standing Liberty quarter, can't remember the year - I traded that to a another carrier friend for 50 of his customers (Quincy Patriot Ledger). I also recall a cool blue 1893 Columbian Exposition half dollar, that I had to spend on the Boston subway to get home - toll guy was very happy to take it! Also, in the late 50's, early 60's, the Boston Jordan Marsh store had a very large coin section on the 1st floor, lots of display cases in an open floor setting - I would go in there and buy those beauties whenever I could scrape up a few dollars, but being bad with money, I didn't keep them long, and then when I was old enough to own a car, everything was gone. Started up again in the early 90's, a little bit of everything U.S. After working for 50+ years, I finally have a few dollars to spend, so I can buy, and not sell! Plus the occasional gift from family...

Uh, the Klingons are a civilization in this galaxy. Their Empire stretches from... wait... wrong forum.

I worked as a cashier in my family's grocery business at age 12. It was interesting because I would come across Indian Head pennies, Buffalo nickels, even a 1939 dime in VG! Even today I still look through all the change to see what I can find. In some ways my family says I'm crazy for wanting to look through so much change.