I've always been a collector of coins, stamps etc since I was a little kid but there has always been something tangible about coins that I always kept that going.
Got an Isle of Man 50p (1997 TT Motorbike) in my change in Woolworths in the late 90s, early 2000s. Well, my mum did but she showed it to me & I asked to keep it. I'd have been less than 10 years so exact date is a bit iffy. Obviously 1997 or later, and definitely no later than 2002, as I can distinctly remember watching the TV as the French Francs became euros (and how disappointing I thought it was to have a universal currency).
The 50p I thought it was cool, even though I wasn't a motorbike or car kind of kid, and then started grabbing anything that was a circulating commemorate coin. And basically stuck with it ever since, eventually taking low denomination notes and finally some higher value notes once I was working.
I think my mum encouraged it because it was a good way of saving money, and gave me an appreciation of the value of money. Like to earn this coin, you need to (e.g.) cut the grass. But also it encouraged me to read & learn about the things on our coins. Like how revolutionary the NHS is, or the Gunpowder Plot, and lots of interesting bits of history we sometimes don't learn about.
My father wanted to make a gift to a friend in Germany, who he knew was a coin collector. So he bought some nice silver Soles (0.9 silver) in Lima before taking the plane Lima-Frankfurt.
But he forgot to put the little package in his luggage !!!!
And after coming back from Germany, those “forgotten” Soles were the beginning of our collection …… that happened in 1974.
My grandfather was a lumber buyer in the 1950-60er years, in Mostly Eastern Europe, yup, Finland Russia, Hungary, Sweden,norway, but also France, Portugal. I know which countries because he had a drawer full of old change and matchbooks etc from those trips, and Ektachrome slides ! god bless me where are those now. That’s all I got when my grandma died in 1973. i have loved coins since then.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
I found a 1981-D Double Die coin when I was 8 in 1989 and thought the words looked wierd and I asked my grandfather what it was. Then he elaborated on the double die classes and my father and him both kinda groomed throughout life on how to handle the coins, and what I was looking for. My grandfather had completed the entire U.S. mint set and had another halfway completed when he passed in 2009, just two months after losing my mom. Then two years ago skin cancer got my father after about a 2 year fight, come to find out after he died he was one of the largest coin collectors in the area, I never knew my dad had grown so big in it lol. Anyway out of three rather extensive collections I barely managed to recover some of his pennies…only 5 of my grandfather's coin slips and the rest was stolen. We're talking a gun safe plumb full of coins!! Boxes of pennies stacked waist high, all stolen!!! Funny thing out of all the coins, almost all the pennies were recovered LMFAO!!!
I started collecting when I found a Scottish £10 from it’s royal bank when I was 6, I was surprised I even knew what a £10 note looked like back then 💀. Ever since I have been searching savings jars, tills and travel agencies for notes and coins.
My grandmother collected a few coins when she passed she left them to my mum who then added a few. When my mum passed she left them to me. I have been adding a few. None of us collectors just certain things sparked the “ooo that's pretty or its unusual” 🤨 I'm still not a collector although I keep adding to the pile…. Perhaps I am just in denial!
Joined here to finally sort out this box of amassed coins out as don't even know how to grade let alone know what's been gathered thus far, some I am just learning from which countries they are from. Need to do something as am getting older but don't have anybody to leave them to need to tidy loose ends up. So if you don't hear from me again its because I am reading your site and trying to learn and am buried up to my eyeballs in information.
New Year best wishes to you all even if you are now cringing at the thought of a pile of unknown coins in a box doing nothing but getting dusty in the hands of an unknown would-be-kleptomaniac 😁
Welcome to the hobby, it's never too late to join and it's very interesting. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them following the forum policy of course.
When I was a kid, I started pulling interesting coins I found in my change, mostly commemorative quarters, of which there’s no shortage of here in Canada. Relatives also gave me foreign coins from their travels, USA, UK, Mexico, Cuba, France, Germany, Austria. When I was 13, I found a coin store for the first time, and from there I started to really get into it and turn my little collection into a real hobby. 13 years and 6,000 coins later, still going strong.
My collecting started with a tiny detail on a 1p coin I saw when i was quite young, as all 1p coins prior to 1982 said ‘New penny’ and after that just ‘One penny’, i had never noticed the difference but when i did it sent me down a rabbit hole of all the different variations of circulating currency, then i discovered pre-decimal which brought eventually to the greater coin world.
My grandmother collected a few coins when she passed she left them to my mum who then added a few. When my mum passed she left them to me. I have been adding a few. None of us collectors just certain things sparked the “ooo that's pretty or its unusual” 🤨 I'm still not a collector although I keep adding to the pile…. Perhaps I am just in denial!
Joined here to finally sort out this box of amassed coins out as don't even know how to grade let alone know what's been gathered thus far, some I am just learning from which countries they are from. Need to do something as am getting older but don't have anybody to leave them to need to tidy loose ends up. So if you don't hear from me again its because I am reading your site and trying to learn and am buried up to my eyeballs in information.
New Year best wishes to you all even if you are now cringing at the thought of a pile of unknown coins in a box doing nothing but getting dusty in the hands of an unknown would-be-kleptomaniac 😁
I pretty much did the same thing for 34 years. Ooo thats a dd, or that coloring is wierd. I recently weighed my 1982 pennies and I about ^$^#U a brick the size of Texas. Get a scale for sure!!! I have a nice size amount of 1982 bronze hehehehehe. LMFAO yeowwwwwwwww
I pretty much did the same thing for 34 years. Ooo thats a dd, or that coloring is wierd. I recently weighed my 1982 pennies and I about ^$^#U a brick the size of Texas. Get a scale for sure!!! I have a nice size amount of 1982 bronze hehehehehe. LMFAO yeowwwwwwwww
Seems I also need to buy a magnet 🤔 and also work out the hardness methods of testing metals so I can work out the metal composition and work out a proper method of cataloguing the actual coins either folders or something. Then make a decision either learn and do it properly this collecting thing or just keep randomly picking them up and throwing them in a plastic tub. It all seemed like a good idea to sort it all over this last Christmas holiday.
Gone past 1,600 coins listing on this site and still looking at two plastic cartons full of coins all needing going through and a tiny amount of coins that will probably never be sorted as can't figure out the denomination/country/year all got squiggly text. Am well aware of the serious collectors having nervous breakdowns reading this thinking OMG another numpty give me strength just the same as I do on my website when somebody joins saying I want a parrot that talks and I have a meltdown 😂 as they say now the shoe is on the other foot.
For none of us being collectors in my family we sure have collected a lot 🤪
Perhaps I should add a wheelbarrow in the future to the growing list of items needed to be purchased.
I pretty much did the same thing for 34 years. Ooo thats a dd, or that coloring is wierd. I recently weighed my 1982 pennies and I about ^$^#U a brick the size of Texas. Get a scale for sure!!! I have a nice size amount of 1982 bronze hehehehehe. LMFAO yeowwwwwwwww
Seems I also need to buy a magnet 🤔 and also work out the hardness methods of testing metals so I can work out the metal composition and work out a proper method of cataloguing the actual coins either folders or something. Then make a decision either learn and do it properly this collecting thing or just keep randomly picking them up and throwing them in a plastic tub. It all seemed like a good idea to sort it all over this last Christmas holiday.
Gone past 1,600 coins listing on this site and still looking at two plastic cartons full of coins all needing going through and a tiny amount of coins that will probably never be sorted as can't figure out the denomination/country/year all got squiggly text. Am well aware of the serious collectors having nervous breakdowns reading this thinking OMG another numpty give me strength just the same as I do on my website when somebody joins saying I want a parrot that talks and I have a meltdown 😂 as they say now the shoe is on the other foot.
For none of us being collectors in my family we sure have collected a lot 🤪
Perhaps I should add a wheelbarrow in the future to the growing list of items needed to be purchased.
LOL, nice one! Wheelbarrow LMAO!!! Really a microscope and scale are essential, I am still pinching pennies lol to buy a microscope…It may take a little time as I have a family of four and one on the way. Really any serious questions that you may come up with, everyone on here is very helpful and don't be afraid to ask because I think I may speak for alot of numists on here when I say it's nice to see another coin that isn't yours and not one of them is exactly the same as another! You'll see as you immerse in it more, if you start to feel like the coins may have tiny little coin souls then your a collector!
Oh yeah dizzy DON'T I REPEAT DO NOT CLEAN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If something is hard for you to read on a coin try first with a little water on a q-tip and lightly clean it…Try oh so hard not to rub it, just concentrate on the one little thing you want to get off the coin and try to lift it off as twist the head of the qtip in a fashion to roll the stuck debris up and off the coin, sort of like using a grinder when you want the sparks and debris to go down to the floor as you cut metal. It's reverse from that you want to envision the qtip as like the grinder hehe and shoot the debris up into your face :)
Microscope not a problem…. not saying how many I inherited! 🙄
Went and bought some scales today so that's sorted just need to get a magnet.
Cleaning ok hearing you loud a little rinse with RO water if its totally grotty other than that leave well alone 👍
The offers of answering questions…. you just dropped yourselves in to a bottomless pit LMAO
Just come across a gold anniversary “coin” and its in a sealed sleeve (been in there untouched by humans hands or fresh air since purchased in 1971) That's going to be a nightmare as its not on this site …. I may have a meltdown when it comes to taking it out packaging to weigh it. Do you suggest gloves perhaps?
Definitely gloves. If you live in America I recommend buying the “Soft Scrub” brand Nitrile gloves 50 pack for like 5 bucks on the cleaning aisle in your grocery store. When I have pennies that are really dirty and stuff is stuck to them extremely bad, like there is no way to ever get the original mint finish back because the coin has been neglected, I submerge them in vinegar and salt and I mean some salt hehe. I bought a pack of craft paint brushes at the dollar store with red handles on them, they have different sizes I think 10 brushes in the dollar pack, but the brushes are perfect in softness but stiff as well. I will clean them down to a uniform finish and sadly toss it in a toner jar. But at least I saved the coin from total destruction because I will sometimes go to junkyards and unbolt seats and get the pennies hehe. I know I have a problem…It keeps me out of trouble though :)
I live in a little dinky spot of a village in deepest darkest East Yorkshire over in the UK.
Will wait till I have to go up to the city to get some gloves and leave the coin sealed until then.
Junk yard hmm a breakers then not sure there's even one of those within 80 miles of me but these days we're not allowed to go into the yard itself due to health and safety regs.
To collect am going to have to either have to go to the boot sales, charity shops where they just throw old coins in a bucket, perhaps the “new to me shops”, perhaps auctions at the end where you can pick up a box of misc stuff in a box at the end for a couple of quid. Going to have to think of something if I want to collect more other than going to a coin store. Being new to it all going to have to figure out how others over here do it without blowing their bank managers nervous system to pot!
Remember the old saying…."It takes money to make money"? I am figuring out here in just the past 3 months actually that some people may have been serious when they said they paid a pretty penny for ….or I traded a few pennies….I don't think some of them were lyin' haha The way I manage to look at pennies by the bulk, now mind you it's only pennies. I start off with a few what I call trash rolls, basically it's a roll of pennies that are nothing but shield pennies. Now the trick is to build a relationship with as many tellers at as many shops as possible that you can trade roll for roll, now some of the lets say mathematically challenged will sometimes have a hard time grasping the notion as if you are making the coins yourself haha or my personal favorite “whats wrong with your pennies?” And now here's a where a little charisma with opposite sex will hook em every time….I answer that question: Well I know what I got but I really wanna see yours…hehe
I live in a little dinky spot of a village in deepest darkest East Yorkshire over in the UK.
Will wait till I have to go up to the city to get some gloves and leave the coin sealed until then.
Junk yard hmm a breakers then not sure there's even one of those within 80 miles of me but these days we're not allowed to go into the yard itself due to health and safety regs.
To collect am going to have to either have to go to the boot sales, charity shops where they just throw old coins in a bucket, perhaps the “new to me shops”, perhaps auctions at the end where you can pick up a box of misc stuff in a box at the end for a couple of quid. Going to have to think of something if I want to collect more other than going to a coin store. Being new to it all going to have to figure out how others over here do it without blowing their bank managers nervous system to pot!
Oh yeah and one more important thing, don't feel inclinated to get a partner to help you do jack)*#)@ with you and your families coins not really sure of your age good sir or mamn. It needs to be your best kept secret, there are very desperate people these times. I live in a an area where some of the hardest hitting motorcycle gangs in the state of Texas operate their HQs out of and everyone and their mother smokes freakin meth crime is getting a little rampant because of the police shortage they won't speak about! Remember at the end of the day you are going to be taking valuable coins and essentially conveniently putting them into an easy to grab whatever…so buy a damn safe!!! In england you can't own firearms so I reccommend some high tensile strength crossbows with solid aluminum arrows. I made that mistake of thinking I could commission a business owner of 32 years whom had a coin microscope and slowly over the years we became friends, well he was a snake. Long story short in the end of that ordeal was an exchange of gunfire as I was dumping all my penny collection through the gaps in the boards of my front porch, picking my pistol backup to keep the evil at bay!!! BE CAREFUL Yep there it is in black and white, people tried to shoot me and take my collection. They rattled this old dogs cage and bit way more off from a 2 year Afghanistan Vet with expert qualification of the Glock 9, recipient of 3 bravo zulus, 2 silver stars, and 2 purple hearts :) I'm one of those don't people shit about the war was in 2001 to 2003. 25th Infantry and if you wikipedia us lol we were never in combat LMFAO
We don't get cash in a roll its in a plastic coin bag all rattling together and scratching each other which very few places have in their tills its mainly loose and filled up in the secure back offices 😶
As for the cashier interactions…. you'd probably get a poke in the eye with a sharp stick over here 😆 and being female myself hmm I am old enough to be the vast majority of the male cashiers grandma don't think even charisma is going to help me out not that I have any of that anyways 🤣
Crossbows legal but not if used on humans. Wouldn't know how to handle one anyway unless to thump somebody upside the head with it which would also be illegal. Your not allowed to even set a “trap” in your home to defend yourself its reasonable force only ie tackle somebody to the ground if they are running off with your property, bundle them out the house…. People over here before now have ended up in jail for a serious amount of time for defending their own property / homes / self.
Already have a safe thank goodness that's not on the shopping list.
Blimey sounds a tad scary where you are good job your allowed to defend yourself.
Think I've derailed this thread somewhat oops! Somebody drag it back to normality!
We don't get cash in a roll its in a plastic coin bag all rattling together and scratching each other which very few places have in their tills its mainly loose and filled up in the secure back offices 😶
As for the cashier interactions…. you'd probably get a poke in the eye with a sharp stick over here 😆 and being female myself hmm I am old enough to be the vast majority of the male cashiers grandma don't think even charisma is going to help me out not that I have any of that anyways 🤣
After my grand parents died, we had to empty their house and I discovered my grand father collected some world coins dated 1920's-1980's
I don't know why (and never will…) but he had also one ancient coin (16th century), from french king Henri II, it was the first time I was touching such thing, it lighted on something both in my heart and mind! :-)
After my grand parents died, we had to empty their house and I discovered my grand father collected some world coins dated 1920's-1980's
I don't know why (and never will…) but he had also one ancient coin (16th century), from french king Henri II, it was the first time I was touching such thing, it lighted on something both in my heart and mind! :-)
That sounds like an amazing experience and quite a touching story but also a little sad you didn't get to ask. Sorry for you loss.
That sounds like an amazing experience and quite a touching story but also a little sad you didn't get to ask. Sorry for you loss.
Thanks 🙂
Sad indeed, it happened several years ago now but I often think about how I'd love to talk with him of this new passion I have since this moment
WOW that's a piece of history that must have been really exhilarating. I know how I felt when finding some coins…almost like going into cardiac arrest I assume. From the 16th century MAN!!! I as well am sorry for your loss. I know the feeling about not being able to ask them questions about their belongings. My father passed away 2 years ago this June and tucked away in a box with his baby pictures and letters from some woman with a kid I never met in my life…Pretty sure not my dad's I'm assuming LoL, but under that letter was a badge from the brazilian secret service and I was like….well…still am wondering what in the hell my dad had thing for!!!
That sounds like an amazing experience and quite a touching story but also a little sad you didn't get to ask. Sorry for you loss.
Thanks 🙂
Sad indeed, it happened several years ago now but I often think about how I'd love to talk with him of this new passion I have since this moment
WOW that's a piece of history that must have been really exhilarating. I know how I felt when finding some coins…almost like going into cardiac arrest I assume. From the 16th century MAN!!! I as well am sorry for your loss. I know the feeling about not being able to ask them questions about their belongings. My father passed away 2 years ago this June and tucked away in a box with his baby pictures and letters from some woman with a kid I never met in my life…Pretty sure not my dad's I'm assuming LoL, but under that letter was a badge from the brazilian secret service and I was like….well…still am wondering what in the hell my dad had thing for!!!
All sorts of things come out of the skeleton cupboard on somebodies passing, My dad died many many years ago when I was 21 he was 50. Two days later I discovered I had a half brother who is 1 month older than my older sister! Until I discovered hidden paperwork knew nothing about anything, it changed my perspective on life. He wasn't just my dad but also a person in his own right also a human.
Just came back from the local corner shop and just about fell off the ceiling! In my change are three 50ps a Benjamin Bunny, and two new King Charles ones. Sooo all three going into the collection. 😊
That sounds like an amazing experience and quite a touching story but also a little sad you didn't get to ask. Sorry for you loss.
Thanks 🙂
Sad indeed, it happened several years ago now but I often think about how I'd love to talk with him of this new passion I have since this moment
WOW that's a piece of history that must have been really exhilarating. I know how I felt when finding some coins…almost like going into cardiac arrest I assume. From the 16th century MAN!!! I as well am sorry for your loss. I know the feeling about not being able to ask them questions about their belongings. My father passed away 2 years ago this June and tucked away in a box with his baby pictures and letters from some woman with a kid I never met in my life…Pretty sure not my dad's I'm assuming LoL, but under that letter was a badge from the brazilian secret service and I was like….well…still am wondering what in the hell my dad had thing for!!!
All sorts of things come out of the skeleton cupboard on somebodies passing, My dad died many many years ago when I was 21 he was 50. Two days later I discovered I had a half brother who is 1 month older than my older sister! Until I discovered hidden paperwork knew nothing about anything, it changed my perspective on life. He wasn't just my dad but also a person in his own right also a human.
Just came back from the local corner shop and just about fell off the ceiling! In my change are three 50ps a Benjamin Bunny, and two new King Charles ones. Sooo all three going into the collection. 😊
You found two 1950 coins that look new?!?!?! I bet you got your cardio workout for the day lol!!!
Topic moved to "Free discussion"(ZacUK, 9 Jan 2024, 19:12)
In 1975 my grandfather passed away. After the funereal my mother handed me an old cigar box with some Walking Liberty halves, Franklin halves and a 1916 Barbara Dime. A couple of MPC's too. I was hooked at that point, and it was easy in the beginning to find stuff. As the years went by I would save my lunch money and buy rolls to hunt through. My family was not well off, so many of the things I wanted were out of reach. I didn't visit my first coin shop till I was in my late teens.
Silver went through the roof in the late 70's and that was also when I got into video games, which took most of my time. When we went out, my parents would take me somewhere with a video game room and I guess to get a break, they would hand me a few dollars and say “go play”. That started me collecting tokens, cheap, easy to get and didn't cost me anything. I got the same enjoyment of hunting, chasing and sorting through them. Got a lot of them through other kids in school that had extras. All I had to do was ask (beg) for a new place to go when or if we went out. And living in Atlanta Georgia at the time, there were plenty of places.
World coins came easy too, living near several military bases.
I started in 2012-13 by buy stuff from garage sales and coins from coin shop top 50 collectable things and coin. starting to trade multi collectibles in 2022
Not 1950's think you skim read that last post LincolnCollector81 LMAO
Said three 50p coins that are new a 2017, 2022 and a 2023
No I read it right LOL just a 50p to me lol is a 1950 Philadelphia minted coin LOL I think yours means 50 cent piece maybe? I know absolutely zero about U.K. currency. Other then Euros and pounds I know absolutely zero about U.K. money mamn.
Not 1950's think you skim read that last post LincolnCollector81 LMAO
Said three 50p coins that are new a 2017, 2022 and a 2023
No I read it right LOL just a 50p to me lol is a 1950 Philadelphia minted coin LOL I think yours means 50 cent piece maybe? I know absolutely zero about U.K. currency. Other then Euros and pounds I know absolutely zero about U.K. money mamn.
I have 10 Mickey mantle 1952 topp, 3 magic the gathering cards black lotus alpha set, 2 artworks worth 4 million and 46 million and bunch of other collectibles worth total 500 billion
I have 10 Mickey mantle 1952 topp, 3 magic the gathering cards black lotus alpha set, 2 artworks worth 4 million and 46 million and bunch of other collectibles worth total 500 billion
Mickey mantles I have is graded beckett 8-8.5 worth 500,000-150,000 each. black lotus is a reserve list card. wizadds of the coast can’t reprint reserved list in magic the gathering there’s only 100 alpha black lotus cards out there I have 3 psa grades 7 worth 150,000 each
