You As A Young Numismatist (Yn)

I was something like 5 or 6 when I started (I'm now 22); my dad had a bunch of coins and introduced me to it. I'm not sure exactly how, but I found the random really old coins really interesting (when I saw a beat up draped bust large cent in the store, it piqued my interest a lot). My dad had this XF flying eagle that he bought back in the 60s or 70s for $30 that I coveted when I was a kid. I also collected a lot of random world coins and would get them in batches from people, as well as in the 25c bin in the shop.

I've been a 'coin dealer' even since I was a little kid. I remember cherry picking stuff out of there and trying to sell it for $2 all the way up to even $10 (I found an XF-AU Indian cent in there one time), and often I was successful despite seeming 'weird' to a lot of kids. I would try to sell all kinds of stuff to the other kids in the neighborhood...whether it be popcorn, coins (they didnt have much interest in those), lemonade, even plants for gardening, etc. We never had money problems but dad was really frugal with us (but not himself) and always tried to encourage me do all these (sometimes bizarre) things to earn money. Some of his encouragement in these areas put me in socially awkward positions because most kids didn't do a lot of this stuff, at least not in my neighborhood in the late 90s.

I remember reading the Red Book at a very young age (the first 'wave' lasted until I was about 13-14) and being completely awed by the early draped bust and capped bust coins, as well as seated liberty. Ironically, back then I never was interested much in the barber series (and its more or less my favorite now). I bought a Saint Gaudens double eagle for $600 (slightly discounted by the dealer because I was still a kid) when I was 13 years old. Around that time, I would also go through price guides and try to (or at least plan to) 'invest' in coins by calculating differences in price and trends between red books five years apart. Around this time I was planning to shell out a few thousand dollars (though I didn't have it yet) on a variety of classic coins, and I wish I had but I never got around to it. That ended the first wave, and I pretty much put coins down until I was 18-19. I kind of rediscovered it by accident.

Over time I had a bad relationship with Dad (and honestly, still do)...but one thing all this stuff did was make me into a very 'business' oriented/independent person since I often had to work for myself even when I was a kid. And obviously, the 'independent' streak carries a number of other benefits as well. It is ingrained in me despite my focus on coins now as a hobby I cannot stop myself from wanting to make a business out of it (and I think I do a fairly good job)...and honestly it seems more appealing to me than working in an office. I find myself hunting for deals on ebay calculating profit margins even if I just want the coin because I like it, how much I can make off this, how much should I discount it to get a quick sale, how much savings can I pass on, what would I personally pay for it if I wanted it for my collection, etc. This combined with a very strong need to 'collect' things I've had forever has resulted in me amassing a huge collection, since I'm often kind of de-motiavated and buying is more fun than selling : (

Once I hit 20 years old, my goal was to amass 300K by the time I hit 24 or 25 and then stash it away as financial insurance for later in life (I'm a little under half way). Since me and my long term girlfriend are going to use this as a major income source now (and I didn't think of it before), I'm not sure how much I will be able to 'amass' (as I will be constantly selling) but I still hope to meet the goal eventually. Anyway, that's the story of how I became a coin collector. I collected tons of stuff growing up; pokemon cards, hermit crabs, matchbox cars, even cacti and plants (I had like 20 of them on my window sill when I was 10)....but I stuck with coins in the end.

man hard to follow shadows story haha....VERY intersting read though you should probably write a book I know id read it!......
-this coming from another 22 year old haha......i started back around 13-14 when me and another boy in a program called TSA (technology student association)....we were at state finals for problem solving when we found a SWEET arcade room....one game had an interesting revolving tower that was lined with different prizes....all you had to do was hit the button when the lights were lined up with the prize line and you won what was on the tower at that line.....without hesitation we tag teamed the machine and timed the game perfectly so that with $4 we were able to each walk away with 4 walking liberty's, and 3 Franklin halves.....also got 2 dvd's before the arcade manager politely escorted us out of the arcade.....the walkers are now my favorite coin and are one of my favorite to find/collect....lost that "spark" until last year when my grandfather passed and left me a 15 pound bag of coins that he kept in his safe that contained many silvers and other great coins.....i now am on a silver "hoarding" frenzy of 90% walkers and franklins as well as SLQ's.......started buying graded MS and AU Standing Liberty quarters and slowly made the Standing Liberty quarters my new venture.......i now have approx. $50 face 90% coinage and 20 -1oz ASE's, koalas, wolves, grizzlies, etc.....also just found a 1989 proof panda in box with c.o.a. in a VERY inexpensive auction lot.........im hooked more and more every day hoping to have a nice collection and stash by the time I'm ready to retire and able to really enjoy it all

Good stories, keep them coming, people. It's heartening to know that there are YOUNG people collecting even though they are not exposed to as many different kind of coins like youngsters of 30 & 40 years ago. Whether it's as a hobby or for future investment, it is mesmerizing the sheer amount of choices, from collecting randomly, one of each or complete sets, the possibilities are endless. There is a lot of coulda, shoulda, woulda's in this endeavor, its what makes the hobby fascinating, the people aspect of it. Someone mentioned collecting waves, I'm in my third one as a middle-ager, so this one should last 'till death do us part. Rather than chasing the elusive 'holy grail' of numismatics, I buy things that appeal to my sense of history and beauty.

I always had a great curiousity for all things manufactured (that's why I became an engineer). I was constantly rebuilding things considered garbage and making them work, I learned electronics from library books and could fix any tv or radio and so on. I was always handling the coins in Mom's egg and milk money jar (fresh milk and eggs for sale) and noting the differences, wondering how in heck these changes all came about. My parents indulged me to a point, money was tight. I would visit with my great, great grandfather from the age of about 8 and we'd spend hours looking at the old coins in his collection, the last of the Stuart lines and the beginning of the new house. In detail he'd tell me how they were made, what the laws were governing coinage in that era and so on.

I was 14 when that aged gentleman passed away and left me what would be considered by my parents as "too much" - A nearly complete 18th century collection of Britain and Hibernia coins and a lot of very old pristine Canadian banknotes. We were dairy farmers, the collection at that time was valued more than the entire operation, herd and equipment combined including the milk quota. Initially they were reluctant to have it in the house at all but as I got older they'd let me bring the stone cases home from the bank one at a time(that's what he stored them in and later I would learn they provided the most neutral environment available before modern materials).

Anyhow, as I got older and made my own money logging on the weekends with my horse team, raising a few pigs on feed I hustled on my own and so on, I'd go to the bank on my lunch hour from high school in town and get rolls of coins to pick through. They'd save the large coppers for me that came in and all the US coins that people brought to exchange. By the time I went to university I had a remarkable collection, including all the silver dollars minted to that date, keys and all.

It just snowballed exponentially later when I graduated and was making decent cash.

coinguybrian, you and I sound very similar!




While, I do have a great interest in coins, I always collected cents, never really organized them or was serious about collecting them until my father gave to me his entire collection that I had no idea he had (he had been a collector since he was about 8) Over the past few months, I have really organized, dedicated and expanded upon my collection a great deal. Specifically my Lincoln Collection.

With that being said, ever since I could remember, I have ALWAYS had that entrepreneurial spirit, and could never do anything in moderation. If the kid next door set up a lemonaid stand, I was making my parents drive me to home depot to buy supplies to build a lemonaid castle and put my neighbor out of business LOL

I have always had an interest in plant and botany as well. About a year ago, I converted a bedroom in my apartment into a fully functional indoor working greenhouse, and I began selling my plants.

I am 28, over the years I've had countless "collections" LOL... Here are some photos of my greenhouse.

I think that I should first say that at my current age of 20 I would probably still be considered YN. Though with my very prominent beard I don't quite look anything near 20
With that in mind, I'd proceed to the questions...




Maybe 8 or 9 years old. But it wasn't as serious back then, and the coins went all over my house; I didn't buy my first coin (not for anything more than face at least) until I was 18

More specifically:
I did try to collect more seriously since 2005 (when I was 13), but even then it mostly amounted to pulling as many different date-mintmark combinations from circulation as possible.
My "serious" collecting started in October 2009, when I've heard that new 10-rouble coins were being made for circulation. So for the entirety of October I went to any shops, stores and other selling places I could and asked whether they had any 10-rouble coins (which most were happy to sell me for face value). By the end of October, I've managed to get exactly 4 of the "new" 2009 10-rubles and around 40 of the earlier bimetallic 10-ruble commemoratives (which was so much that despite on-and-off asking for them to this day I still hadn't managed to even double that amount).
Then in September 2010, I met a guy on the street who was selling coins, and bought two or three from him (as it later turned out, I paid exactly the catalog price for one of them (a Soviet proof commemorative), and seriously overpaid for all of the others). The rest is, as they say, is history



Most of the first coins I "collected" were either common circulation pieces or even more common obsolete pieces. No idea where they are now.
However, I did keep one of them - if maybe only because nobody else wanted it (it was a very corroded 1932 20 copeck).



I don't think I ever really stopped collecting coins. It was just a very slow start



No, I spent most of my allowance on food but pretty much all I didn't spend on food went to coins; and there was also a separate yearly allowance (around $500 in your money, I think) that was supposed to go to coins in the first place. My parents are considering, though, to diminish any sort of my allowance significantly, so it remains to be seen whether I'll be able to seriously buy coins in the future

As to an allowance. My Dad gave my allowance all in Silver Dollars. Knowing I collect coins he probably thought I'd just keep them all. HOWEVER, although I did collect coins, Silver Dollars were just to common and I thought they'ld always be around. When I was a kid Silver Dollars, Standing Liberty Halves, etc. were just common coinage. There was this big amusement park not to far from me so almost all my Silver Dollars for an allowance were spent there.
Sounds horrible but way, way back many coins thought of today as difficult to find and/or are valuable were just coins when I was a kid.

Started last year age (12) and have spent a lot of money on my collection. I've spent close to $2000 dollars in under a year but most of it is bullion and some mint sets and Canadian and american silver dollars. My first coin was a 2000 P Canadian nickel that my uncle told me to search for. I think I still have it