When I was younger, my father gave me a small box of coins from a few countries he had been into. There was nothing valuable in there but I loved playing with them when I was a kid. Then, two years ago someone gave me a really old coin from the Austria-Hungary empire (1774) and although barely anything can be read on it, it simply got me into collecting coins. I guess that's where it all started because I started documenting myself on coins and soon made the first purchases.
I started collecting coins when I was young, my interest was peaked when I found an old penny from 1899 in the rubble of a demolished building. In my teens I switched to the dark side and started collecting stamps instead and my coin collection got sold off to feed my habit. Later in life I sold off my stamps to buy an engagement ring for my then girlfriend (now wife of 14 years) I tried to build it up again after we were married, but the passion wasn't there, and the stamp market tanked. About 6 or 7 years ago I got a big bulk lot of coins for dirt cheap and found some rarities in it. It rekindled the spark of my passion for coins again and I haven't looked back since.
Quote: "neilithic"I started collecting coins when I was young, my interest was peaked when I found an old penny from 1899 in the rubble of a demolished building. In my teens I switched to the dark side and started collecting stamps instead and my coin collection got sold off to feed my habit. Later in life I sold off my stamps to buy an engagement ring for my then girlfriend (now wife of 14 years) I tried to build it up again after we were married, but the passion wasn't there, and the stamp market tanked. About 6 or 7 years ago I got a big bulk lot of coins for dirt cheap and found some rarities in it. It rekindled the spark of my passion for coins again and I haven't looked back since.
Hey
I am new to the site, but started coin collecting when I was in Boy Scouts maybe around 12 years old when my grandfather gave me some for the merit badge. I stopped for a while during my late teens and early twenties but am back at it now and loving it!
After a family member passed away, I helped clear out her apartment and I rounded up all the loose change from the top of her dresser, etc. I originally intended to just cash it in at the bank or CoinStar machine, but then I noticed there were a lot of wheat cents. It seemed a shame to just get rid of all those old coins that she had evidently been (very casually) collecting or at least hanging on to. So I bought some Whitman cardboard folders, and started casually collecting US coins from circulation, sort of in her memory I guess. First just watching my change, and later I did some coin roll hunting with rolls from the bank. I like nickel rolls the best; they seem to be the easiest to find older dates in.
On and off for quite a few years now, I've made a plum pudding for Christmas dinner, and last year I thought I might do the traditional thing of putting a few silver threepence or sixpence in for luck. So I looked on eBay, found that you could get George V sterling threepence for only a few bucks, and bought a couple to cook in my pudding! That led me to researching the whole pounds/shillings/pennies (LSD) system to learn more about what British pocket change actually looked like in the Victorian / Edwardian era, which led me to Numista, and I fell down a rabbit hole of world coin collecting. As an early Christmas present to myself I ordered a five pound bulk lot of world coins, which jump-started my collection and swap list here. And now within a year, I've done 45 swaps and built up my collection to over 1700 different types and 215 Numista "countries". Looking forward to year #2 as a world coin collector!
When I was eleven I used to fish with my grandpa. I was digging in the ground for worms and found the 5 cent 1941 Netherlands coin that the German made during World War II. This coin started my interest in coins. Growing up in the Netherlands, we went on vacation a lot to different countries and got a lot of coins that way.
I started collecting coins about 3 years ago when I was getting ready to retire from the US Marine Corps. I figured I couldn't travel the world anymore so now I just do the next best thing get coins from countries all over the world. Now I'm up to 311 countries and have learned so much history I don't think I would have ever come across otherwise. I also have been able to meet some great collectors from all over. If I've come this far in this short period of time I can't wait to see where my collection will be in another 10 years.
Sheer chance, started with coin rings but started to love coins and couldn't bring myself to mutilate them as time went on. My health then forced me to stop anything heavy duty, this is when my collecting journey began.
My story isn't too great, but Numista and especially Neil and Phil are the reason my interest soared. Now I truly am a NumismAddict!
Restoration addict : Verdigris Removal : Zinc White spot removal : Iron Rust Removal : Silver brooch/necklace mount Removal
My grandmother gave me this coin when I was 7 years old. It was the beginning. It was almost 30 years ago.
All this time the coins came to me by chance during travels. But only 3 years ago I started collecting coins a little more seriously.
Got a one guilder coin from my grandfather (which I still have) and then he asked me onetime; jelle which country is this coin from? It was a 2euro cc from France I think, and then I started. The 1 guilder is the 'specialst' item in my collection =D
There have been several similar topics over the years, this is cut and pasted from one such-
I started collecting coins way back in the mid 60's in a small town called Ramsbottom. My parents owned a chain of Fish and Chip shops and we lived above the largest one. At the back of the shop was a huge kitchen where they made fresh pies every day, next to that was the original kitchen with the black iron fireplace with built in ovens. It was no longer in use so they kept the takings in them until the weekly trip to the bank. I spent hours sorting through the coins, separating them by date and eventually started to collect them. Been doing it ever since on and off.
Back then Victorian pennies were commonplace, even silver coins although it was a lot harder to persuade my parents to donate those. I reckon that I had the best collection of pennies ever put together by a ten year old. I sold up in 1976 and put a down payment on my first house with the proceeds.
It's kinda sad to see how many "collectors" care nothing about their coins, viewing them as mere investments. I find that part of the fascination is holding a coin in my hand knowing that it has passed through many more hands before mine. Modern proof "coins" and slabbed MS coins are just sterile.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
It all started when my great-grand-mother died and we had to empty the old house where noone has ever been to for 25 years. I found tons of awesome items, but my mother turned up with an old wallet with reall old coins in it and other more modern coins from when she was travelling abroad. those really old coins caught my attention, so that is why i began to collect interesting coins I kept finding everywhere. I managed to date some of the old coins, one is roman the oldest with a date is from 1653 and plenty of other awesome old coins. In Switzerland I discovered that you could assemble your own swiss coin collection by just paying attention when I receive change. that was 8 years ago. 3 years ago I was finding old coins on a regular basis by checking snack vending machines, cash registers and my parents wallet puls my own wallet. Back then I was writing a 4 page thesis about the distribution of the dates of siwss coins currently in cuîrculation and my father had the idea to open bankrolls to find out the most acurrate distribution. Of course I found tons of old coins when opening those rolls, it was like 5 times better than checking the snack vending machines back at my school. That is when I began to hunt old coins in bankroll on a regular basis and the bank first had to accept it that a "crazy, young man" always comes once every week to get hundreds of one type of coins, only to oben them and to bring them back for new ones. The truth is that I only keep the valuable and interesting coisn the rest goes back to the bank.
Today, I am 18 years old and the youngest Swiss Coin Roll Hunter currently known in Switzerland, and I don't know a younger collector only specialized on Swiss coins than me :P
My collection is now greater than 1500 coins, not including the foreign coins and old coins form my Great-Grand-Mother. I only bought 4 or 5 silver coins, the rest was given to me as a gift or found by me :P
That is quite a story, is it?
The best thing about collecting is finding the coins, but not if you have to buy them.
I was around 7 years old when my much-traveled aunt was going through her purse and removed some funny looking "gold" and "silver" and "two-coloured" coins. I was fascinated and she just handed to me. From then on I was collecting just for the different pictures and sizes. It wasn't too long before I realised even Indian coins had different "pictures". In the next few years, my interests morphed towards learning more about history and geography...my window to the world! By the time I was 10, my neighbour found out about my "methodical collecting" and introduced me to Indian collector sets and we went to the mint and bought my first set back in 1993, probably the only kid standing in line over there among all those grey heads! 1999 was another milestone year, because I did my first exchange thanks to the internet. I have never stopped collecting since receiving those first coins as a kid and its been more than 25 years already!
I still recall my aunt giving me a Italian 500 lire coin (the regular circulation one), I can't remember the others, but i reckon that was the one that piqued my interest
When I got 10 years old my uncle (he collected coins) gave me 1 franc 1961 (my birth year) from Katanga. Sinds then I start collecting all coins from 1961, but nowadays I collect all types and mints.
By the way I still have that Katanga coin.
My father has a collection from his early days, and when the Escudo ended, he asked me if I would prefer to spend the money or keep it at the transition period. Of course I said "no, I will keep it". If I knew it back then, I could had benefit from the coins and expect a few years later to get them in job lots hehe.
So, with the Euro, I started to gather some different issued coins for fun. Then, with travelling, I was able to get a few more, and suddently, I started to buy some numismatic material, and reading catalogs and get into the coins.
Anyway, the big push was when I found accidentally a kiloware coin lot for sale, and I felt like a multimillionnaire with a few kilos of coins to catalog. I had never supposed that it would be possible to have on my hand.
Needless to say that in a glimpse, the "super-huge" 1000 coins from my dad, become quickly doubled, tripled... and the moderate objective of getting only coins from travels or holiday-trips was too easy.
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..Then I found Numista to catalog and track international coins , swap with other fellow collectors, and here I am alive and kicking.
As a kid in 90's,there been few coins left from my grandparents' times,also my father been bringing&keeping few coins from here and there...i've been getting interested for a while,and then,losing interest again:)
Then,5 years later,went to USA for few months of work,and finding out that there are different state quarters,i said myself i'm not taking the plane back to Europe without "getting them all"...and,luckily i managed:)
Previous summer,the coin thrill got me again in a most unexpected way...visited a cave with my gf,and on a wall where visitors have been putting little coins so their wish could come true,i saw a coin looking interesting(turned to be 25 kopecks from Ukraine...and i used to wait one minute so my gf would go away,and i could pick down the nice coin...i'm still ashamed,but also happy i did it)
So,i got curious to get all my coins at one place,and i counted a total of 24 countries...and,unexpectingly,i didn't lost my interest,so i kept chasing new countries,and in like 4 months got to 100-something...year later,i'm getting close to 200...and the fun keeps going on:)
puls my own wallet. Back then I was writing a 4 page thesis about the distribution of the dates of siwss coins currently in cuîrculation and my father had the idea to open bankrolls to find out the most acurrate distribution. Of course I found tons of old coins when opening those rolls, it was like 5 times better than checking the snack vending machines back at my school. That is when I began to hunt old coins in bankroll on a regular basis and the bank first had to accept it that a "crazy, young man" always comes once every week to get hundreds of one type of coins, only to oben them and to bring them back for new ones. The truth is that I only keep the valuable and interesting coisn the rest goes back to the bank.
