I've been collecting coins as long as I can remember, today I was looking at some of my Whitman folders and realized that the last printed dates in some were 1991 and that year doesn't have mintage shown. I was born in 1986, so I guess at 5 I was already interested enough that my parents got me folders
I don't remember all too exactly from that age, but I do remember when I was in kindergarten trying to instruct classmates that not every coin was a penny, and explaining dates and mintmarks. And getting frustrated they didn't understand.
Growing up my dad put his pocket change on his dresser every day when he got home, I'd pull out the step stool to get up there and see if there were any dates I didn't have. And the bank tellers would keep anything interesting they found for me (it was a small town), got lots of wheat pennies and the occasional indian cent, buffalo nickel, kennedy half, and on rare occasion a silver coin. Before I got my own job when I was 12, my mom would let me have about 50¢ to $1 a week for those coins.
When I went to college in 2004 I left my collection at home, picked it back up about 2 years ago and started collecting again
I acquired my first old silver coins when I was still in Year 7 and ignorant of numismatics back in 2011/12; but I didn't get started actively looking for and buying coins and banknotes for my collection until around the time I created my account here in 2014. That was the year my fledgeling 'collection' got a boost from receiving some nicer old English/British + British colonial coins from a collector relative who was moving overseas. That boost is the still the reason why I have the most coins from any issuer from the UK (276 coins now).
It was also the year I began studying History, and holding a little piece of that history in your hand just felt really cool to say the least; so I began looking for coins that could be linked to a certain historical event(s); started out small with American war nickels and steel cents, then went on to Vichyste coinage, German hyperinflation marks, Russian civil war banknotes, and a few years later, I'm pretty happy with what I've amassed.
Verweis : "CassTaylor"holding a little piece of that history in your hand just felt really cool to say the least;
German hyperinflation marks,
That's one of the things I most love when I get an old coin, holding it, and trying to imagine all the previous people who have ever held it. I avoid slabbed coins, but actually I have one in the mail right now cause it was the best deal, but I'm going to break it out of the holder cause I like to actually feel the coins, means a lot more to me than re-sale.
I have 1, 50, 100, 1000, 10,000, 50,000, 1,000,000, and 50,000,000 German bills, because late 1923 is when my great-grandparents managed to get on a boat to America. They got here just in time for our deflation.
Verweis : "CassTaylor"
It was also the year I began studying History, and holding a little piece of that history in your hand just felt really cool to say the least; so I began looking for coins that could be linked to a certain historical event(s); started out small with American war nickels and steel cents, then went on to Vichyste coinage, German hyperinflation marks, Russian civil war banknotes, and a few years later, I'm pretty happy with what I've amassed.
It has also got me bitten by the history bug!
I especially love old European and American.
Also British empire and colonial (especially silver) wouldn't go amiss.
'We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.'
Sir Winston Churchill
I began collecting coins from 2016, as I walked inside a pawn shop I bought some Malay coins and one Canadian and American cent. Those little coppers moved me so much that I had to keep them staring along the whole day.
When I later came by Numista, I had increase my collection and there were many people here too gave me out coins. Once I had a talk about coins with one friend here in school and he says that he had a gold, 1901 Singapore coin. I-it was just funny and to laugh out when someone doesn;t know that there was no state of Singapore to have a gold coin in 1901! By and by my collection increased when I kept buying more coins from that very little pawn shop that tempted me to start collecting.
I remember bringing my first 40-odd pocket album to school to show to my class mates when I was 8, in 1972. It probably didn't hold more than left over holiday change from Austria, Germany and Belgium and some old Dutch cents.
I remember too that when i was about 9 there was a short hype at school about old coins so all my friends who had old coins came with them at school to swap them. I remember to have swapped a 5 centimes napoleon III with someone, not something too exceptionnal but at that time i thought it was the coolest thing in the world lol.
I don't remember it exactly anymore but I've started collecting somewhere between 1968 to 1970, so I'm almost collecting for50 years now and I'm still as passionate and fanatic, probably even much more as in those early days.
Verweis : "Essor Prof"I don't remember it exactly anymore but I've started collecting somewhere between 1968 to 1970, so I'm almost collecting for50 years now and I'm still as passionate and fanatic, probably even much more as in those early days.
Same as me.
Referee for Spain, Iberia (ancient), Suebi Kingdom and Visigothic Kingdom
My interests started when I was about 9 years old. I was going thru my parents drawers and found some older Israel Lira coins. It's interested me because I have never seen the Hebrew alphabet on coinage before that day. I asked my father if I can have them and he agreed. I went to show off to my older brothers who had been collecting for at least 8-10 years prior. One of my brothers was excited that I showed interest in coins so he gave me a steel war penny, an off center penny, a few buffalo nickels and a silver dime. I was so excited with my newfound collection that I asked my parents for coin flips and an album.
I remember showing off my new collection and album to our maid and she told me that she had some coins from her home country Poland and that I can have them. She gave me what she had and now I had coins from 3 countries.
My parents travelled to Europe about that time period and brought me back coins from Switzerland, Italy and France. I now had from 6 countries.... at that point there was just no stopping me. I would always be looking at change. Going thru my father's pockets for his change, asking everyone from other countries if I can have some coins. I Harassed my cousins from Israel to scavenger hunt for coins in Israel before he came to visit us (he got me some real nice coin sets and from that point on Israel coinage are from my favorites).
When I grew up and started traveling with my parents or on my own I was always looking for unique coins from around the world.
I am now 31, started collecting around 1994/95.
It's been fun.
Now my son and daughter are showing an interest so you can be sure that I will help them along.
Verweis : "CassTaylor"
It was also the year I began studying History, and holding a little piece of that history in your hand just felt really cool to say the least; so I began looking for coins that could be linked to a certain historical event(s); started out small with American war nickels and steel cents, then went on to Vichyste coinage, German hyperinflation marks, Russian civil war banknotes, and a few years later, I'm pretty happy with what I've amassed.
It has also got me bitten by the history bug!
I especially love old European and American.
Also British empire and colonial (especially silver) wouldn't go amiss.
As people have mentioned their collecting-styles here, I will mention mine: I only buy coins from 1800-1917. Not 1799, nor 1918. That 117 year period I really like. Silver, copper and gold. Some of other. The end of WWII killed the old coinage, it died with the middle european monarchies.
I started metal detecting about six years ago so I suppose it started then, before that I couldn't give two hoots about coins or their history. Then about 18 months ago I bought a few USA silvers on ebay that kind of satisfied me until a year later when after a particularly unsuccessful organised metal detecting rally I worked out what I could've bought with the entrance fee and transport costs.
Started collecting at the age of 10. I found a Dutch 5 cent WII coin in the ground. I had a break from 2000 to 2014. Part of the time I lived in the US and my collection was in The Netherlands.
Humble start about 35 years ago when my mother gave me a book to collect 5 cent nickels. Off and on with going through pocket change to fill the book, then the big jump was about 7 years ago - filled up the nickel book, then toonies, pennies, dimes and quarters (up till the silver years, those are slower to fill up).
Verweis : "CassTaylor"
It was also the year I began studying History, and holding a little piece of that history in your hand just felt really cool to say the least; so I began looking for coins that could be linked to a certain historical event(s); started out small with American war nickels and steel cents, then went on to Vichyste coinage, German hyperinflation marks, Russian civil war banknotes, and a few years later, I'm pretty happy with what I've amassed.
It has also got me bitten by the history bug!
I especially love old European and American.
Also British empire and colonial (especially silver) wouldn't go amiss.
We have similar tastes!
Where I am in the uk its hard to get older colonial and imperial coinage of Europe,
I usually acquire coins from the internet, relatives (friends) and the once in a time coin shop when I head to the city (very rarely).
The last time I got a xf silver 6 pence from 1816.
Once a year there is a large fair in a nearby town,
Last year I got a cheeky deal for £15,
-There were 9 large silver coins (mainly old foreign)
-A irish half-penny (small)
-A 1936 George VI coronation medal
-A few 50 percent uk junk coins
-A South African 3d 50% silver
-An Indian 1/4 anna
-Few coins for my younger relative (random foreign)
-1807 1/2 penny
-Random foreign
-No cash value US token
It was a steal!
'We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.'
Sir Winston Churchill
I guess I could say that I started collecting in 1999, when I first lived abroad (Japan). For work, I visited over 100 countries in the next 8 years, picking up coins all along the way. There was no intent to become a 'collector,' I was simply trying to accumulate mementos of my visits.
4 years ago (Mar 2014 as my profile shows) I was cleaning up my office and found many envelopes full of coins and banknotes from my travels. Numista helped me identify where all the coins I had found came from. Since then, colleting is my indoor hobby, which is good for cold days in Alaska.
I still remember that day very vividly. I was 12 years old or something and was spending my summer vacations at by Grandparent’s place. I was playing outside when by Grandfather called me inside and showed me his collection of beautiful old coins that he had put together over a period of several years. At first, I was not too keen about them. Later on, my grandpa shared a few historical stories about these coins. I was hooked from that moment onwards. The first coin that I collected was the one that was gifted to me by my grandpa. There has been no looking back since then!
Like almost everyone else I started out by collecting coins from circulation. However I did have two huge advantages.
The first being that when I was but a scrawny 8 year old it was 1964. The Beatles were at the height of their popularity, everyone was still talking about JFK and "silver" coins were still silver. English currency had been largely the same for over 150 years so it was quite common to find coins with Edward VII and Queen Victoria on the front in your pocket change. Can you just imagine that?
The other advantage was that my parents owned a string of restaurants and we lived in a large apartment over the biggest one. Downstairs there were three large rooms, the actual restaurant part at the front, a large modern kitchen at the back where my parents would be busy making pies at 4am, and in the middle a fully preserved Victorian kitchen which they no longer used. It had a long table which my grandmother and great aunt would sit for hours skinning fish. Across the back wall was a complete kitchen range, well over 100 years old made from blackened iron. In addition to a central fireplace it had ovens on either side. It hadn't been used for decades as the room was kept cozy and warm even in those bleak Pennine winters. It did however make an excellent safe. My father and Uncle would go around the town of an evening collecting the day's takings plus the rents from several properties. There was no 24 hour banking in those days so they brought the cash home, safely guarded by two billy clubs and stored it in the "safe".
I wasn't allowed to touch the banknotes but I was allowed to play with hundreds of pounds worth of change. Oh, how I wish I could go back knowing what I know now! It was sorted out into huge iron pots, one for each denomination and on Friday morning they would count it all up, put it into bank bags (no coin rolls in those days) and take it to our local William's and Glynn's. My favorite coins were the large pennies (still are today I reckon) and I would spend hours stacking them up in columns by date. I quickly worked out that some of the columns were a lot smaller than others and so I was hooked.
I asked my mother if I could make a collection of pennies and she agreed. I kept them all in a shoebox and most evenings I'd have the contents of the penny bucket all over the fish table looking for new dates. Occasionally my parents would come into the back to show me an interesting coin they had taken, I wasn't allowed to keep many of the large silver ones but I remember how exciting it was to hold them, even if only briefly. My father showed me the H and KN mintmarks and told me to shout out if I found a 1933.
Been doing it ever since.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Verweis : "pnightingale"Like almost everyone else I started out by collecting coins from circulation. However I did have two huge advantages.
The first being that when I was but a scrawny 8 year old it was 1964. The Beatles were at the height of their popularity, everyone was still talking about JFK and "silver" coins were still silver. English currency had been largely the same for over 150 years so it was quite common to find coins with Edward VII and Queen Victoria on the front in your pocket change. Can you just imagine that?
The other advantage was that my parents owned a string of restaurants and we lived in a large apartment over the biggest one. Downstairs there were three large rooms, the actual restaurant part at the front, a large modern kitchen at the back where my parents would be busy making pies at 4am, and in the middle a fully preserved Victorian kitchen which they no longer used. It had a long table which my grandmother and great aunt would sit for hours skinning fish. Across the back wall was a complete kitchen range, well over 100 years old made from blackened iron. In addition to a central fireplace it had ovens on either side. It hadn't been used for decades as the room was kept cozy and warm even in those bleak Pennine winters. It did however make an excellent safe. My father and Uncle would go around the town of an evening collecting the day's takings plus the rents from several properties. There was no 24 hour banking in those days so they brought the cash home, safely guarded by two billy clubs and stored it in the "safe".
I wasn't allowed to touch the banknotes but I was allowed to play with hundreds of pounds worth of change. Oh, how I wish I could go back knowing what I know now! It was sorted out into huge iron pots, one for each denomination and on Friday morning they would count it all up, put it into bank bags (no coin rolls in those days) and take it to our local William's and Glynn's. My favorite coins were the large pennies (still are today I reckon) and I would spend hours stacking them up in columns by date. I quickly worked out that some of the columns were a lot smaller than others and so I was hooked.
I asked my mother if I could make a collection of pennies and she agreed. I kept them all in a shoebox and most evenings I'd have the contents of the penny bucket all over the fish table looking for new dates. Occasionally my parents would come into the back to show me an interesting coin they had taken, I wasn't allowed to keep many of the large silver ones but I remember how exciting it was to hold them, even if only briefly. My father showed me the H and KN mintmarks and told me to shout out if I found a 1933.
Been doing it ever since.
That england part is quite sad. Mostly because here anyone born after 1980s does not know that over 100 year coins mostly don't cost thousands.
I fear that the numismatics will die away from Finland and the pattern strikes will go to a neighbouring country, most likely Russia. Or investors. But its probably okay as people can become numismatics with foreign money left in a cupboard.
I started collecting when I was 6 years old. Since a lot of my family used to live in India (I am from Bangladesh), I used to travel there quite often. I started with Indian changes that my dad used to give me and my cousins to buy icecream and pop. I still remember my uncle taking me to the Indian Museum in Calcutta, and bought me a few coins from outside the museum and every year since then, I would save up whatever I could so that I could buy 5-6 coins every time I visited. Started from there and have been continuing ever since.
It was about 1979 and the Olympic craze started in the USSR. The Moscow Summer Olympics of 1980 were hugely publicized, unlike any Olympics in any country I've seen since. As I understand it now, it was because of the war in Afghanistan, Soviet leaders were desperate to create some positive image of their country. And so, as a part of the propaganda campaign, a set of commemorative "Olympic" rubles was minted (you can see the first, the most common one here, with the links to the whole set, there were 6 of them in total, of different rarity):
This was not the first Soviet commemorative coin, but the previous ones were boring: Lenin, the revolution of 1917, the victory of 1945. Nobody cared much for them. However the Olympic rubles were different, suddenly the whole country became obsessed with them, everybody was looking for them and hoping to collect the whole set, even people with typically very little interest in collecting coins or anything else. It went so far that a popular children's animated cartoon of 1978 featured one of these coins, a little bird stole an Olympic ruble from a postman (you can see the moment here at 8:10):
It was a bit mystical and definitely an adventure, especially for a child of an early school age (which I was at the time). I am sure there were coin catalogs and numismatic clubs, but for a commoner far from those circles it was very difficult to find any information, so all kinds of wild rumors were going on about these coins: some said there was 3 of them, others -- 5. The verbal description of what was actually depicted on those coins was also quite colorful, specially, again, among the schoolchildren I think at some point there was an article about the Olympic rubles in a newspaper, with all 6 photos, and then we finally knew. It was a moment of truth!
My parents helped me to gather all of the rubles they or any of their willing friends could get their hands on. I think ultimately I got 4 out of 6. Later I also added all the other Soviet commemoratives to my little collection, even the big ugly one with Lenin And that was quite a great sacrifice for a child: 1 ruble would buy 5 portions of ice-cream! Occasionally I would also get some foreign coins -- mostly from Poland, Czechoslovakia and German Democratic Republic. People kept them as souvenirs and gave to each other, since going abroad even to a socialist country was rare. If looking carefully through change, one could also sometimes find Bulgarian 2 stotinki, they were so similar to Soviet 2 kopecks that they fit Soviet public city telephones (which very inconveniently accepted only 2 kopecks coins!) and in this way entered the circulation. And if lucky, some coins from before the 1961 reform could have been encountered -- not valid in theory, but sometimes circulating nevertheless, because they did not look much different from the new ones. That was pretty much the extent of Soviet coin collecting of my childhood, so it never went far.
I did not became a serious coin collector, but kept the fascination with coins for all my life. And do not miss a chance to add a few interesting coins to my collection ever since.
I had been a casual collector since my childhood. But in 2006 I found a 1944 cent on the floor of the train and wanted to know its mintage. That's when I started organizing my collection, keeping records, and actively pursuing new specimens.... a serious collector.
At the time, I had a few hundred coins from a few dozen countries. No proofs, no silver. I didn't own any coin books, and World Coin Gallery was my most frequently used online resource.
Snapshot of now... I have more than 10,000 coins from 174 countries. l, including a handful of circulated proofs and half a kilo of silver. I have 35 coin books, and I use Numista and Colnect daily. I have branched out into banknotes and stamps.
My worst habit these days is buying coins faster than I can catalog them. My backlog starts at February 2017!
I was 7 or 8 and accompanying my mom to the bank so she could do some banking. I noticed a stack of huge coins at the cashier's window. I asked mom if I could have one, having never seen one before. She agreed.
Turns out the coin was an Eisenhower dollar, which would soon be out of circulation. After that, I started getting coins as Christmas and Easter presents from my mom and dad. I also raided the cash register at my dad's store for old wheat pennies, nickels and silver dimes and quarters. Got quite a few old coins that way.
Then, my aunts started giving me extra Canadian and German coins from their own collections, but I didn't get serious into world coins until my wife gave me a 50 coins from 50 nations set as a Christmas present a few years back.
After that, I found Numista and have more than quadrupled my nations thanks to the many excellent members here.
Verweis : "Cerulean"I had been a casual collector since my childhood. But in 2006 I found a 1944 cent on the floor of the train and wanted to know its mintage. That's when I started organizing my collection, keeping records, and actively pursuing new specimens.... a serious collector.
Finding coins on the ground (shrapnel) is cool. Finding old coins is cool. Combine the two and it's something that's gonna make your day!
I always dream of finding an old coin lodged between the cobblestones of the pavements.... either it's a pipe dream or I'm not looking hard enough.
Verweis : "Cerulean"I had been a casual collector since my childhood. But in 2006 I found a 1944 cent on the floor of the train and wanted to know its mintage. That's when I started organizing my collection, keeping records, and actively pursuing new specimens.... a serious collector.
Finding coins on the ground (shrapnel) is cool. Finding old coins is cool. Combine the two and it's something that's gonna make your day!
I always dream of finding an old coin lodged between the cobblestones of the pavements.... either it's a pipe dream or I'm not looking hard enough.
The coolest coin I ever just "found" was in a hidden drawer in a dresser my parents inherited when I was about 10, a USA 1846 large cent. Among other things in that drawer, like a 1950's solid gold case Omega watch, and yes it's authentic.
Every month or so I find early 1900 coins in pocket change, usually pennies but about once a year I find a silver. I found another WW2 "silver" nickel a couple months back, but it was a duplicate so I gave it to my friend who loves WW2 history.
I started collecting when I was 7 (four years ago). I'd always had a fascination with coins and stamps, and remember truly starting when I found two wheat pennies and when I went to Iceland and saw their cool coinage.
I've just started collecting. Before this I was keen on uk dissertation writing. But I decided to add one more hobby to my life. And I hope to find a lot of useful information on this site.
I've always had a jar of world coins from relatives overseas, and pre-2006 New Zealand coins (pretty much everyone saved a few). I only seriously started collecting when I moved to Australia two years ago and discovered that commemorative coins were a thing. In my travels to America and Europe I became even more obsessed, especially seeing my uncle's huge collection with date sets of British coins and all sorts of old European coins. When I came back home, I resolved to get a complete date set of New Zealand (still working on that ) and I discovered Numista. Now there's no escape.
I think at some point there was an article about the Olympic rubles in a newspaper, with all 6 photos, and then we finally knew. It was a moment of truth!
And that was quite a great sacrifice for a child: 1 ruble would buy 5 portions of ice-cream! Occasionally I would also get some foreign coins -- mostly from Poland, Czechoslovakia and German Democratic Republic. People kept them as souvenirs and gave to each other, since going abroad even to a socialist country was rare. If looking carefully through change, one could also sometimes find Bulgarian 2 stotinki, they were so similar to Soviet 2 kopecks that they fit Soviet public city telephones (which very inconveniently accepted only 2 kopecks coins!) and in this way entered the circulation. And if lucky, some coins from before the 1961 reform could have been encountered -- not valid in theory, but sometimes circulating nevertheless, because they did not look much different from the new ones. That was pretty much the extent of Soviet coin collecting of my childhood, so it never went far.
) and I discovered Numista. Now there's no escape. 