What made you decide to start collecting coins?

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How you started? I am waiting interesting stories.
Well, I got about 150 foreign coins from a charity box where me mum worked when I was about 10. I added a few now and again over the next decade. In a period in my early 20s I  accrued some older and valuable stuff (Scottish mainly) in the days when I was flush with cash.Then I did all the wild wild life stuff..including lengthy periods of ups and downs living in abroad in Europe and the US. I was forced to sell the valuable coins and I was down to basics again. Then..full circle.. the advent of sites like this rekindled my love of coins and I've been glowing with coin collecting energy again for the last 2 years. Coins are the only things I collect. Why not stamps or beermats or whatever..nope..just always been coins.
I think my interest for coins awoke at these boring days during visits at my grandparents home when i was a small boy.

My grandparents were the generation that could not cast away anything that once had some use or value. So they had cupboards full of old stuff, eg. cigar boxes with buttons, rusty nails and old coins from WWI and II times and even prior to that.
As my grandfather had to be a soldier during both world wars he also had a lot of small change from other European countries.

So i became interested in different cultures and lost empires by trying to find out the meaning and background of corroded and worn metal disks.

Later i found there had been coins even prior to the 19th certury.

 :)
visit arminius-numismatics - my galery and database
Once I was helping my Dad count his money from his shop till. He put all the money in a bag down, mixed denominations, and spread it out on the floor. While I was sorting it and counting it he threw a large coin down too and said, "Here you have this...my Dad gave me this and now I give it to you." It was a 5 kopek piece 1763, a great starting point. I got other coins from my grandparents (Commemorative £2 (UK)). These stayed in a box until this summer when a friend of mine gave me his grandad's collection and a man I was doing Jury service gave me some old English coins too! Since then I have joined Numista, catalogued my whole collection (sans some duplicates) and am ready to buy more or swap!
Hello, Fire Blade5

About 30 years ago a relative gave me a box of coins he had found in his farm. It was a handful of Spanish copper coins from nineteenth century, surely 100 years forgotten. I've always loved History, and coins put in our hands a piece of History. In those few coins were the Napoleonic invasion, the end of the Ancient Regime, the Revolution and the Democracy. Viewing these coins I found that the distance between the History and I was the thickness of a coin.

Paco
Referee for Spain, Iberia (ancient), Suebi Kingdom and Visigothic Kingdom
My father worked in a bank. By the time I cam along he was the manager of a small, irrelevant branch. Sometimes he brought home the odd foreign coin (modern and worthless) which he gave to me. A fascination with different cultures within me was excited by money from far away and exotic places (like Canada and Spain, I did say I was young!) was piqued and I started collecting them.

With decimalisation the UK changed its coinage, and all the grown ups hoarded their old pennies in the belief that one day they would be worth something. They were wrong, but I went along with it to a degree collecting shillings, until a spell of abject poverty caused me to trade in the lot for a packet of cigarettes (including silver shillings).

Years later I needed photographs of coins for an online encyclopaedia I publish, so I dug out my collection and photographed the coins. This was the start of a slippery slope, as I decided I needed to obtain more examples to photograph....Then I started collecting again, encountered Numista, and my soul was at last owned by the Numismatic devil.

I tried to justify my collection by thinking of it as an investment for my youngest child, or perhaps grand children. But economic realities have shown that coins are not an investment, and I find myself deluding myself and slowly facing the reality that the hoard I have accumulated should be disposed of. They are not even worth anything as scrap. The costs of selling, risks and stress make eBay auctions unrealistic. Shop rents are similarly so high opening a coin shop is out of the question. Perhaps when the warmer seasons arrive I may attend a car boot sale and try to sell them at there, but even so I shall have to pay for the pitch and there is no guarantee of making a return.

This month I suspect most of my 50p duplicates will return to circulation - swapping is so expensive I can't afford to do it as frequently as I should like, and with current circulation coins I effectively end up buying low value coins for 50p each plus postage, not a sensible idea when one has a wife, child, mortgage and insufficient income.

So that's how I started, and perhaps how I am to finish collecting coins.

 :snif:

Matt
So sad! Please dont give up. It would be a shame.
At about age 6, my grandpa showed me a box full of large Chinese silver coins (of course I have now deemed them as fakes). If you've ever seen one of the Chinese silver coins, you would be immediately impressed by the mass of words and pictures on them.

Take, for instance, this first coin I bought (it's a real!)
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces7853.html

On the obverse is an archaic script for the word Han, surrounded with 18 circles. I've always wondered why such an archaic form of the word was used. I found out, much later, that the 18 circles represented the original 18 provinces of the Republic of China, and after 2 hundred years of Manchu domination, the Han Chinese envisioned a unified Han state protected by the provinces. Also interesting is that the reverse shows the wording format to be entirely the same as the Qing imperial coins.

Anyway, since age 6, it's been a downward slope for me. Coins just keep coming, and so has my pocket money. I have since amassed quite a collection though, pity about the lack of rare coins.
Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
Quote: fliegendehollanderpity about the lack of rare coins.
Is not every coin unique? and therefore rare? Just as every person is unique....

</gets coat and goes to nearest Shaolin temple>

Matt
Aye, they are. Hence I have no shame in my collection; every coin tells it's story.

For example, this Barbados 1 cent I have. I was in the LaFayette in Paris, and i see this coin rolling across the floor. I immediately recognized it as a non-Euro so I... pounced on it. It was almost between some lady's feet then. So the price for this rather common coin (didn't have it before) led to me being labelled as a weirdo perv.

Was worth it.
Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
Quote: fliegendehollanderAye, they are. Hence I have no shame in my collection; every coin tells it's story.

For example, this Barbados 1 cent I have. I was in the LaFayette in Paris, and i see this coin rolling across the floor. I immediately recognized it as a non-Euro so I... pounced on it. It was almost between some lady's feet then. So the price for this rather common coin (didn't have it before) led to me being labelled as a weirdo perv.

Was worth it.
I do wish I had been there to witness that.

 :)

Matt
And how do you started, Fire Blade5?
Referee for Spain, Iberia (ancient), Suebi Kingdom and Visigothic Kingdom
Quote: Matt Probert...

This month I suspect most of my 50p duplicates will return to circulation - swapping is so expensive I can't afford to do it as frequently as I should like, and with current circulation coins I effectively end up buying low value coins for 50p each plus postage, not a sensible idea when one has a wife, child, mortgage and insufficient income.

So that's how I started, and perhaps how I am to finish collecting coins.

 :snif:

Matt
Well, coin collecting without sufficient income is no fun.
But in contrast to many other hobbys coin collections have one very big advantage: Adequately stored at a dry and safe place they last forever and need no care or expenses - til better days may come.

Instead finishing by giving all away you may "freeze" the most interesting part of your collection. All the silver portion should be more valuable in future. The only valuables most poor people of our world war generations could save were some hidden pieces of precious metal.

  :)
visit arminius-numismatics - my galery and database
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About 16 years ago, while I was ten, my mom visit Jordan which we (Israel) made peace with a year before.
She brought me some coins from there, and with the US coins I had from the family trip over there a year before, I had 3 countries currency.
It seems to me than so exiting that each country have it's on currency - how tells things about their cloture and history, and to touch their coins gut me much closer with the world "out there".
Since then I ask anyone how fly abroad, to bring me some coins...
N.E. Yogev
Here's my story:
I am 16 years old and have really kicked off collecting,
When my grandpa passed away in 2004, my grandma knew Ive always had this thing for coins and sure enough I was given a box of coins from around the world. 9 years earlier and now one of my most prized possessions- was given by my family at birth, a 20 gold Helvetic franc coin. Since my uncle is a high ranking embassador for Switzerland, I frequently travel the world and the coins pile up, I go to makers and buy coins for  even a hundredth of thier actual value, with coins come banknotes and only since around 3 years have I started to notice that some in my collection were really valuable. Another shoe box filled with mostly silver and bronze coins  (some even gold!) from The english WWII period and earlier came from a english friend of our family. Hopefully in the years to come, my collection will prosper, because with the help of this website it certainly is.
-Daniel
Want coins banknotes and antiques for a fair price or for trade? http://coinsnnotes.tk is your solution! Also lets trade! My coins are better than VG! Associated with coinsnnotesUK.
Hello, I am also 16 Years old, and my dad died in 2005 and I had never even known much about him, but one day I was in the loft and i had stumbled upon a spices pot, and me being very nosy, thought i would take a look inside it, and i had found around a 100 or so coins, when i had found them i had a felling that I should go onto and collect coins, and since i found them last summer, i have been to a fair, and have met really great people and made good friends ever since, and from those first 100 coins, I have now got over a 1000 coins in total! so i am glad that i was very nosey that day, and still today people in my school think i'm weird for collecting coins, but most of the teachers think that it is good for me, and they have also contributed too, and they have given me around 100 all together! so really thank full to them.

Martin.
I started at 8 years old collecting the USA 1cent/penny when you could get older coins in change (1962). Well I had most of them saved up, and my younger boys needed candy money and took my coins, so I stopped 'til I was a teen, and me and some friends started back collecting coins, and again my coins were stolen. Then afther high school went into the U.S. Air Force did my 4 years got out, then I got married, had a son who is in the U.S. army right now in Afghanistan, oops back to story. Well I got divorced and ran wild for a while  X-D  then in 2008 I was in a very bad accident, broke my neck and was in paralysis from the neck down and thank god I'm a vet, and went the va hospital and learnt to walk again; and while in the hospital I found Numista and had my first swap with ZacUK, and now I'm a full-time coin nut.
  
james
This is cut and pasted from another coin collecting forum (I hate typing):



My name is Phil Nightingale and I'm a coin junkie. I've loved collecting coins since I was a child sorting through the change in my parents restaurant way back in the 1960's. Since then I've built up an impressive collection over many decades and despite selling up in the late 70's just before the bottom fell out of the coin market (I bought my first house!) I've been actively collecting again for the past few years. I particularly enjoy making new friends and contacts, I'm a real friendly and laid back guy. I treat everyone with courtesy and honesty and expect the same in return - I don't take advantage of the inexperienced and don't feel that I have to come out on top in every trade I make. As a result I've made a lot of friends and I'm a pretty active swapper with a perfect reputation. I already see a few familiar faces here (<wave>) but look forward to meeting new ones.

I'm English by birth but I've travelled, lived, and worked in many different countries. As far East as Russia, as far South as the Sudan, as far North as Canada and as far West as the great state of Texas. Since 2000 I have lived mostly in the USA, currently on Florida's Gulf Coast but plan to retire to the NC/VA border in the next couple of years. The point is not simply that I like to travel, it's that having seen a lot of the globe I am left with an appreciation of it's people, it's cultures and..... it's coins!

I started out collecting world coins by type but recently changed my focus to a much narrower collecting theme. As a result I have a lot of coins that I am looking to trade. I have listed quite a lot but I also have some rare / higher value pieces which I prefer to trade individually rather that as part of a bulk trade.

I'm interested in the following:-

UK pre decimal. Copper/Bronze pre 1900 and silver pre 1947. My main interest is Victorian coins which I think are the most consistently beautiful coins ever produced. My collection of 20th century coins and post 1947 silver is pretty much complete but I am still interested in higher grade coins, especially for the key dates. I'd like a really nice 1970 proof set too.

US - I'm putting together a complete set of Cents and need UNC wheats pre 1940 and Indian Heads pre 1880. I need quite a few dates pre 65 silver in decent grades .

Third Reich issues - I started collecting these a year or so ago but it's proving much more difficult that I imagined because of the many mint marks and the restrictions in certain countries.

Poland - I'm still at the hoarding stage, I like Polish coins and always had a soft spot for all things Polski having worked there in the 1980's

Switzerland - Again, I'm still at the early stages but it's a very rewarding country to collect due to the consistency of it's coinage.

I'm also attracted to the idea of collecting coins from countries which no longer exist, e.g. Rhodesia but haven't arrived at a firm decision of which to include and British India coins. This is still at the planning stage but any offers will be considered.

Other than the above I have a few US and UK proof sets and would like some more along with NGC, PCGS & ANACS cerftified coins. I don't really collect these, I just like to look at them. Also stamps from the 3rd Reich and occupied countries. Again this is pretty new to me so I need pretty much everything. Interesting Banknotes occasionally too, as well as old share certificates, bond receipts and the like.

I don't collect error coins, bullion coins, tokens, non legal tender issues, private mint issues, commemoratives or fantasy coins.

I'm looking to make contact with reputable collectors in the US and Canada. I will consider trades with other countries where maiiling coins is not prohibited such as the UK and much of Europe. Sorry guys but if you live in a country which confiscates coins then it's just too much drama for me. I will however treat any offer on it's merits on the understanding that my obligations end at the counter of the USPS - if your incoming parcel is emptied by YOUR customs officer or stolen by YOUR mailman, IT AIN'T MY PROBLEM. Oh, and please be able to understand English, I'm much too dumb to be able to learn another language.

This was much longer than I intended, I'm alternating between a half dozen different things as usual and just keep on writing. Thank you for your perserverance if you have read all this and let me finish with a final thought. Colllecting is a hobby, meant to be enjoyable, rewarding and relaxing. Fighting off scammers, worrying about thieving mailmen or rapacious customs officials isn't appealing to me so I just don't do it!

Phil Nightingale
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
^ a good read that, but I have some thoughts.
My interests are eclectic (very unfocused). I'll get on one series for awhile then hit a plateau and move to something else.  Love the Peru Sols wih the intricate patterns on the reverse; U.S. Administration Philippine coins; Canada 5 cents which were silver until about 1921. Love the French "sower" design, Anything with Vicky on it.

Got started with my paper route many moons ago. Got a Whitman folder to plug in pennies.  I have them all now except the 1909-S VDB.  

Somehat disagree with you on bullion though. There is such a thing as collectible bullion, Some standouts are the Mexico Libertads, I have all the Pandas, The Kookaburras, and New Zealand had a series of one ounce silver Kiwis for about 4 years. These are richly priced now, but weren't when they were first issued. These are among my favorite coins.

Moving to NC/VA border. :| Hmmm, that's the bible belt, Falwell country. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!). Just so you are aware.  :)
Aye Chas~, I tend to focus on a particular series, switch when it starts getting harder to fill, switch back when a nice buy rekindles the interest. I agree about the Peru Sol, I like he Panama Balboa series too. I have to fight hard to stay focused. I'm tempted to start collecting British India coins but there are some terrifically expensive pieces which meeans I will never get close to completion.

Bullion coins are like Art Bars to me, I see the attraction, I can understand why people collect them but I can't think of them as coins.

Stokes County... King / Walnut Cove area. A few bible readers will be a huge improvement over the gang bangers, pill poppers and meth heads in Florida.  They drive better too.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
Quote: pnightingaleAye Chas~, I tend to focus on a particular series, switch when it starts getting harder to fill, switch back when a nice buy rekindles the interest. I agree about the Peru Sol, I like he Panama Balboa series too. I have to fight hard to stay focused. I'm tempted to start collecting British India coins but there are some terrifically expensive pieces which meeans I will never get close to completion.

Bullion coins are like Art Bars to me, I see the attraction, I can understand why people collect them but I can't think of them as coins.

Stokes County... King / Walnut Cove area. A few bible readers will be a huge improvement over the gang bangers, pill poppers and meth heads in Florida.  They drive better too.
its a lot better place then were i grew up in detriot :snif:
james
Let's try and maintain the thread.

What made you decide to start colecting coins?
Quote: bam777Let's try and maintain the thread.

What made you decide to start colecting coins?
you right bam777  :D
james
wouldnt mind on of these myself...

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces18228.html
Well, I was born in a country called Hungary, and most of the time in my childhood (that is late 60s, early 70s) I was watching Comrade Brezhniev on TV (you know the guy from the Sovietunion, with the generous eyebrows!), rather than Jockey Ewing, or Captain Onedin.

That was a country - almost totally - isolated behind the Iron Curtain, and the first time I left my country I was 11 and we went to Czechoslovakia, which is where my mother was born in 1942 (at that time it was Hungary), but was forced to leave the state in 1946 (at her age of 4) to Hungary with my grandparents. Their sin was that they were Hungarians.

Anyhow, we went to my ancestor's village in 1977, when I was 11, and my parents still had lots of relatives in the village. As it was Easter, due to cultural traditions, young boys go from house to house, tell a poem and get some money (mostly coins) in return.

So, I got a bunch of LOCAL coins, and I was fascinated why a LION has 2 tails. Since none of my relatives (indeed, the entire village) was unable to answer that question (what the heck did they know about the Czech Lion, as they all were Hungarians...)

So this has become "my holy grail" quest to collect coins with lions with TWO tails: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2013.html and to figure out why the hell they have two tails...

It took me 12 years to figure out why the lion has two tails...
It took me 12 years to figure out why the lion has two tails...

Now it's time to share your knowledge with us.  :)
I don't send via registered mail with very few exceptions.
Quote: sccedaIt took me 12 years to figure out why the lion has two tails...
Now it's time to share your knowledge with us.  :)
I am ready to share ANY knowledge, but this one, you need to discover.... :)
ASK me something else!
One tail for Czech Republic and one for Slovakia in Czechoslovakia maybe?
Quote: Fire Blade5One tail for Czech Republic and one for Slovakia in Czechoslovakia maybe?
I thought about this too, but then I realized that imreh talks about Czech lion, not Czechoslovak. It must be older than 100 years. Or maybe I'm wrong?
I don't send via registered mail with very few exceptions.
I believe it's sometimes known as the Bohemian lion and goes back many hundreds of years - are we getting close, imreh?
Just because you can't see it ... doesn't mean it isn't there - Anon.

Coin catalogue referee for England, United Kingdom & pre-Union South Africa.
Banknote catalogue referee for England & United Kingdom.
Hello everyone! I've been lurking in the shadows for a tad now and decided why not make a post (I'm a bit of a hermit).

I just recently started my own collection. My father is the inspiration for why I decided to start my own collection. I don't have a focus as of right now, I just like to put away what I think looks pretty and I think has some history to it. My father has been a long time coin and banknote collector and I used to and still always enjoy when he would bring out his collection and tell me stories about where he got the coins, what to look for, and so on. Whenever I would find an old coin or an interesting banknote I would add it to my father's collection.

Times and money started to get rough and I saw less and less of my father's collection. and heard far less stories. After quite a few years of barely seeing his coin collection or hearing his stories I decided that I wanted to start my own collection alongside my fathers, in hopes of seeing the smiles and getting to hear those stories more often. I went to a flea market, bought a wooden box that reminded me of the box my father keeps his loose coins, tokens, and trinkets in, and started filling it up with coins that caught my interest. Every time I win or find a coin or note I can't wait to tell him so I can see that smile and the collection again.

I don't know if I'll ever have a specific focus for my collection, but for right now it's mainly to keep the coin collecting blood alive in the family.
It may be useful to discuss the aspect "What made you decide to REstart colecting coins?", as many long term collectors had more restarts for different reasons but only one start.

My collecting interruptions were caused by lack of money, missing sources or affordable supply, new jobs, hobbies and passions (first of all "wine, women and song" at the age of ca. 20).

My main restarts were supported by my still existing collection and knowledge about coins, the ignitions caused by better facts and insight about history plus growing data availability (first of all internet, online databases, wikipedia, discussions in collector communities like this one, global online markets, ... ). Now the experts, catalogues and fellow collectors are on hand for everyone with a cheap digicam.

 :)
visit arminius-numismatics - my galery and database
     When I was a 6 or 7 years old, came to live in my neighborhood a Swedish boy of my own age, who was the son of a diplomat. We soon became friends and I enjoyed going to play their home with our toy soldiers. One day he asked me "Do you want to take a look to my coins"? That surprised me a little bit because for me all the coins were the same and I thought he was going to show me a piggy bank (as one of mine). He pulled a box from under his bed and and very proud and smiling began to showing coins of various sizes and colors, which had separated into different bags of felt.
I was stunned, :8D  first of all because until then  I had no idea that there were coins different from those of my own country, and second because I saw a boy of my age could have them.
 That day he gifted me my first foreign coins, :D  trying to give me one of each country, those that he had repeat. I was all afternoon (even at dinner) admiring and sorting the coins that my friend had given me.  
 Since then my interest in  collect coins begun and I will always be grateful to that smiling kid who knew how to open my eyes to other places in the world.
I used to collect stamps.  When I needed some cash and tried to sell some of my stamps I was horrified to find that my collection sold for only a small fraction of what I paid for it.  I've always liked coins and I decided to collect only silver coins.  That way even if the value of the coins decreased I would still be able to get at least the scrap value for them if I ever needed money and decided to sell part of my collection.  I've currently got about 80 silver coins and a collection of pre-decimal fijian coins.
My father gave me a $5 gold coin when I graduated high school. I have always been interested in history. I like collecting coins of historical events. This year is the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee and the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Of course, there are many other historical events but these are the 2 events on which I am focusing in 2012. I also like coins related to the military.
Quote: radrick007I believe it's sometimes known as the Bohemian lion and goes back many hundreds of years - are we getting close, imreh?
My apologies guys for leaving you in hesitation for such a long time :)
For a long time I was convinced that the two tails are representing Bohemia and Moravia, the two distinctive Kingdoms under the Czech King.
Then I read an article in a history magazine, that it is nothing but an artistic expression, and should be understood not as two tails, but one tail in motion, representing the health and the happiness of the kingdom (like a happy dog is wagging his tail, so does a lion, the artist thought - maybe) - so it is medieval animation.
I really got disappointed, when I have learnt this.

The concept appears in many coat of arms, sometimes in various versions like here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Luxembourg
I had some old and foreign coins (no more than 50) when I had 7 and I started collecting them. But last year I started officially as a numismatic (although I already was and I didn't know  :P  )
I went to a coin shop one day (just to see some interesting coins, I didn't start collecting yet), and I saw a "junk box". I picked out fifty interesting coins, paid $7.50, and left. A few months later I received proof silver eagle as a gift. Then, in June and July 2011 I made some large purchases on eBay. In October I got my eBay bucks. I wanted to simply get cash back, so I began searching for coins and bills. My best plan was to get $2.75 for $5.12 in eBay bucks. Then, I relized that all these coins and bills were collectible, and I shifted my interests from getting cash to getting collectible coins. I also spent $5 on a roll of wheat pennies. In it I found $12 worth of pennies. That is how I started collecting coins.
I started collecting silver and gold bullion coins, got hooked and now try to stop my collecting habit from spiralling out of control by limiting what I actively seek. Most of my friends and colleagues think I'm a bit mad, but the odd gem in unending piles of junk is keeping me going.
I started a couple of years ago partly as a way of educating my children about geography. Getting coins from friends and relatives and using them to fill in the Numista map has been a great way to fix in their minds where countries are and a little bit of information about them. Currency tells a lot about a country's history and culture, its alphabet, its leaders and so on. Sometimes they borrow coins to take to school for a history or geography project.
I only collect cheap circulated coins, aiming to fill the map completely. I am half way there thanks to you.
Rory Bergin
When I was a very young Lotus07  ;) , I got a lot of coins from the countries I visited with my parents. I had a lot of Scandinavian, German and British coins. Once a time, I threw all of them in a glass jar and never looked back to them. Then, after a few years, the Netherlands started to pay with eurocoins. Back then there were 12 different countries. Once a day a had a lot of small pocketmoney ( 5 - 20 cents) and I saw there were a lot of different countries on the back of each coin. So then I thought; "Why shouldn't I collect them?" So I did - a few months later I bought my first coin album and I put all my coins in it, including my old(er) world coins. Then friends and family gave me coins, I made accounts for all kinds of fora (mostly Dutch ones), I start visiting coinfairs, trade coins with friends and I got into this fantastic site.
And now I got a lot of albums, full with world coins, Dutch coins and more.

Kind regards, Lotus07
"For by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing"
-Plato
When I was young my Mom would have to travel to the UK for work once a year and she would give me any coins she had when she got home.  Then she would give me coins given to her from co-workers.
Then when the US State quarters came out my Grandmother would give everyone in the family a few coins from a roll she would buy.
More recently a co-worker gave me a 2Euro coin from Italy.
That was about a year ago and I have been serious about collecting ever since then.
I am even planning on going to the ANA Worlds Fair of Money next week here in Philadelphia.
Well this sounds weird, I was at the beach 700 km away from my house so I throw sand on my sister then I have put my hand again, and wow - a metallic coin in my hand from beach sand. Wet * sands so the coin was full of black things - I was like weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee an old coin and I said it will be worth 1000 $ +++
then I cleaned it and i discovered this   https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4580.html  hahahah.
So from that day I started to collect, and luckily there are coin collectors in my family - they gave me common things haha - sorry for my English
Armenian and i live in egypt
When I was about 4/5 my granda Gave me loads of different coins from his collection, as his dad was in the merchant navy during world war II and brought him back loads of different coins and other objects (including a real live monkey) I was fascinated and continued to collect to about 10 off where people had been on holiday etc. however this dwindled away and I only found them again a few years ago and out of nostalgia looked at them. I brought them out of the loft and kept them in my room and somehow decided that I would start collecting again, initially I decided to get one or two of every nation in the current world and then work back to get them of previous names etc but now I have decided I only want empire coins I want British empire first but I have some of the Danish and Prussia roman and Byzantine etc
I started about five years ago when I found a pill bottle full of barber dimes in some stuff my grandfather left me. Since then I have had a collection burn to nothing in a house fire, and one set was stolen out of my car. But each time it just makes me want more. I've been doing ok so far, I've been collecting again for about six months and have around 800 coins again.
House fire...stolen...sounds like a nightmare!
Quote: bam777House fire...stolen...sounds like a nightmare!
lol it was a bad two years. I saved a few coins from the fire but not many. In fact one of my most prized coins is just a basic 1966 Washington quarter that bubbled out on both sides due to the heat.  
I'm back!
 I've been travelling around Europe for a while now as a senior school student, and I've received some money from my family back in the UK (we've moved back from Hong Kong), and I got some really good finds.
Anyway, I started collecting fake coins when I was 7, and after a while I got bored of collecting replicas (they were stamped with replica), so I got some cash and started collecting.
 I've now got some relatively rare coins (mintages under 10,000), and lots of silver crowns, especially in the past two months.
Quote: bam777Once I was helping my Dad count his money from his shop till. He put all the money in a bag down, mixed denominations, and spread it out on the floor. While I was sorting it and counting it he threw a large coin down too and said, "Here you have this...my Dad gave me this and now I give it to you." It was a 5 kopek piece 1763, a great starting point. I got other coins from my grandparents (Commemorative £2 (UK)). These stayed in a box until this summer when a friend of mine gave me his grandad's collection and a man I was doing Jury service gave me some old English coins too! Since then I have joined Numista, catalogued my whole collection (sans some duplicates) and am ready to buy more or swap!
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17968.html or https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8257.html?
The second!
I am basically from India, born, educated and brought up there. I was inspired by my cousin who was collecting stamps and coins long long back when i was about 12-13 years of age.  I started with stamp collection at that time. I remeber the first album and 100 stamps my father bought for me. I was not very inerested in coins at that time and did not know the value as otherwise i should have quite a bit of old India and british india coins (many of the 1/2 anna coins  i lost through playing ). When i was about 16 or so i started putting away some odd indian coins which were limited edition and given to me by my uncle in a piggy bank. When i started working and travelling around the world, i started keeping the left over coins and change from each country in a box. Only a couple of years back my cousin (who inspired me to collect stamps and become an engineer) again inspired me when he showed me his collection of coins (he had brought back a large sack of coins from his trip to USA). I joined Numista and also started labelling, sorting and storing my coins in album and also started swapping. I am quite new to this but now i am more interested in coins than stamps. I wish now i had brought back atleast a bag of coins from over 20 different countries i had visited so far instead of just keeping the left over change. I would have had a huge coins swap list if i had done so. But yes i still have lot of scope to do it as my work requires me to travel once in a while.  I am settled in Singapore at present. But am open to work in other countries if a chance comes my way. Especially i want to see USA which i have not visited so far.

 
V. Nagarajan
I went metal detecting with a friend of mine back in July last year, He gave me a quick go of his detector and within a few feet I found an 1806 George III halfpenny. This got me hooked on detecting so bought myself one and started finding plenty of old coins.
As my finds started to mount up I decided to get a folder to display them all in, and whilst I was inserting them all into my coin cards to protect them I found a £2 coin with an interesting design. This sparked a memory of having a 1996 football £2 coin stored somewhere, which I hunted out and found in a tin with loads more £2 coins with all different designs.
So those quickly went into the folder too! Which led on to me trying to fill the gaps.
I started looking at £1 and 50p designs and looking through my spare change I found I had a lot of those also. I knew some people who collected the Olympic designs, so thought I'd do the same.
I remembered I had lots of American state quarters from my last 2 holidays so they found their way into my folder too, Now it's getting a bit obsessive  :D
Telford, Shropshire, United Kingdom.
About 9 or 10 years ago, when I was about 6 or 7 years old, my father, who travels a bit more than many people here where I live, brought me a coin from Denmark.

It was a pretty regular coin, pocket change, a 2003 50 Ore coin, pretty unintresting. Yet I fell in love with it, I admired it for a bit. Then, about 2 years or so later I found out that people actually collected coins (well, I was 9 years old, it wasn't so obvious to me  :P ) and so I started asking my grandparents and other family members if they had any old coins, or foreign ones, any coins they could have. After about 100 coins that was when my collection was born  :D

Now I have over 500 coins, and it all came from one single coin, and a pretty boring one also!
My paternal grand father died before I was born and left a small collection of coins. These coin from far off countries and times gone by always fascinated me, enough to eventually start collecting myself.
I found a comm. €2 in circulation and because I had never seen it before I was interested in it and started collecting the others. And by now my collection has grown a lot
Quote: Matt Probert
Quote: fliegendehollanderpity about the lack of rare coins.
Is not every coin unique? and therefore rare? Just as every person is unique....

</gets coat and goes to nearest Shaolin temple>

Matt
Funny... this is what I thought when I held my first 1 cent Newfoundland piece in my hand. I thought, "This may be common as pre-Confederate Newfoundland coins go, and it may not even be worth the money I paid, but it is MINE, and no one else in the world has this exact same coin." And I do feel good about that. Knowing that even if I bought something, now it is mine to keep, and now I have a piece of history that no one else possesses.

As for me and coins... well, I always had a few collections on the go when I was a little girl. One of them was pins; I also had a small rock/fossil collection (trilobite pieces from a river near my city). I still have my pins and I still enjoy them, but they're certainly not worth anything except nostalgic memories -- which I do treasure. (I also call them "old-school" pins now, because pins were of course made popular by the emo and punk fashion trends when I was a teenager, so now there are millions and millions of them and everyone makes them.) The rocks have long been tossed somewhere into nature, aside from two special ones my parents brought me from Hawaii last year.

Coins, on the other hand... well, I think maybe it began when my cousin Martha gave me several foreign coins when I was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old (she's much older than me). Three of them were Taiwanese and the fourth was an extraordinarily fascinating coin with a hole in the middle which I later discovered to be Japanese. But I keep thinking there must have been some REASON she gave me coins, of all things -- maybe I was interested in them even before that. If I was I have no recollection of it.

What I do remember is that, in 1999/2000, when all the fun Canadian quarters were out to celebrate the coming millennium and then the beginning of the millennium, I was exceedingly interested in attaining all the coins of both sets. I came very close (all the 1999 month coins, and 11/12 virtues coins from 2000). After that, coin collecting was just a natural extension of my general collecting hobbies. I also recall purposely keeping most of my small change from St. Pierre et Miquelon when I went in grade 7, because the coins were French francs. In high school, I asked Dad to bring me back Cuban coins when he went on a trip there with his school (he's a teacher), and he brought me back quite a few of them, as well as a small-value Cuban bank note. At one point I also got a $1 bank note from America (this may have been from the last trip we took to Florida, back in 2007). I didn't have the sense as a child to save any of the $2 Canadian bills when they were taken out of circulation (I liked the new $2 coins better -- typical). I did NOT save any of the special $1 or $2 coins when they were actually in circulation because when you're a kid, $2 is a lot of dang money and you're not going to not spend it.

It was coming here, though, after a friend from a chat room showed me this site and his own extensive collection, that made me decide I wanted to be more than just an amateur/hobbyist collector. I mean, mind you, I'm still an amateur collector, but I'm starting to develop a better coin base now, and starting to get more ideas of the coins I'd really like to have. Some are very long-term-goal coins and some will be shorter-term; and even though I can easily admit to being an impatient person, I think this is something I can be patient about. Also, learning all about silver pieces and collectibles and grading systems and more and more ins-and-outs of the coin collecting world has also been fascinating. I love everything about coin collecting so far, even the disappointments (ie paying too much money for something), because all of it is about learning and improving both my collections and my discernment skills. The businesslike aspect to coin collecting is almost as fascinating as the collecting itself, at least for me.

I guess I'll end this ramble by saying that I'm VERY glad my friend showed me this site, because it's gotten me into collecting for real, and I know this will almost certainly be a lifelong pastime that I will continually enjoy. :)
A six year Numista absence makes the heart grow fonder... ?
Hi
I was a bad boy and my probation officer (for 2yr)
Nice chap said I needed find a hobby to keep me out of trouble.
He offered me a choice stamps-cards-coins.
Was undecided but he said he had a moneybag with a few in.
So I said yes it would give me a start. Anyway when he gave them over
it turned out to be a bank sack with about 300-400 coins in.
I can remember French 5 and 10 centimes in good nick and a
few silver joeys - tanners and shillings. Go to remember this was in 1964.
When you could still find silver in your change. Anyway my DAD (god bless him-gone now)
said if I was to stay with it he would help. He got as hooked as I did and we traded
coins all over. Nothing fancy but a few nice Hammered Brit. When he passed I took
over as an inheritance. Still enjoying the trades and banter and of course the disagreements
over prices and grades. ALL IN THE GAME
YORKIE
Thanks for sharing, Yorkie.
Thanks for sharing, nosouvenirs.
I dont really remember when I started collecting coins.
I have always kinda been collecting all kinds of stuff, and I know I was an eager coin collector when I was about 10.
At some point coins kind of just got forgotten, and was hidden away amongst my other collectables.
About 2002 I started working in a Metal Recycling company, I first started of with sanitising white goods (washing machines, fridges and that kind). Taking out things that are harmful to the environment before the white goods to a scrap heap that later gets shipped to another facility where everything gets shredded up to tiny pieces and sorted by material types.
About 4 years ago I started driving a Wheel loader, where I offload and load things that come in to the facility.
We basically treat anything that mostly contain any form of metals.
We also have a department that receive and sort finer metals, like stainless steel, copper, brass and any other metals that are of a high value.
One day about 3 years ago, I walked into the fine metals department,
and next to the scale I noticed that there were several boxes with brass/copper coins.
Fearing they might be recycled as scrap, I asked my boss about them,
and my boss said I could have them.
So that day I got 10kg of Norwegian 5 øre coins (about 1500 coins).

And since that day, a fire was lit in my coin collecting interest,
and I haven't been able to stop collecting coins since.
My current main goals are to get coins from all countries of the world (I got currently from 189 countries), and I'm also trying to get all coins from My country Norway from 1900 to today.
That's an awesome story, traser! Do you still get all the coins that come into the fine metal department?

Regards, Lotus07
"For by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing"
-Plato
Getting lots of coins is something that rarely happens, but everybody at work knows I'm a collector.
So if anything pops up, I am told.
As my workplace pays for anything that comes in, I probably have to cover cost if I want them.
Since I was a little kid! Instead of just saving the money in a piggy bank or spending it, I would sit for hours sorting, admiring them. So my mom gave me all foreign currency she had as a souvenir of my family's travels and would go with me to ask my relatives if they have any foreign currency left from their travels.

When I was 12, she gave me her childhood piggy bank. All the coins were from 1942-1970 (Silver, bronze and cupronickel coins) at that moment collecting became a very serious thing for me.
So it's thanks to my mom.
-DMK-  Just a collector with hoarding tendencies.
I was given a tin of coins when I was a child by my grandma, it contained mostly old pennies, some silver crowns, sixpences, etc. During my childhood, more modern coinage was added, whenever people came back from holiday they would give me their foreign coins, and the pile built up. I also do quite a bit of metal detecting, and managed to gain a lot of ancient coinage too.

Never was I truly interested in them until this last year. I decided to look through them, and find out more about them. And I was hooked from then. I'll admit I much prefer sorting through coins, than just buying singular coins. So I tend to buy bulk bins of coins.

Also I have to say Numista has really captivated my interest. Being able to see all my coins, with details is amazing. Not sure I would be as into coin collecting if it wasn't for this cataloging ability. Soon I will look forward to exchanging on this website, and improve my collection. :)
 
 I still remember the day of my very first collection 18 years ago. My dad came home from his business trip and gave me a plastic bag full of coins from Singapore. As a kid, I was  growing  up in a country where coins were not minted for a long period of time until recently when they decided to mint them again. Therefore, I would spent hours just sorting them and look at them without boring and admire all the details minted on each coin everyday. Those coins are very precious to me because I found nowhere else but only from my dad business trips as a souvenir from the countries where he went. And year by year, I got more coins and this made a small collection.
   I left my collection back home and moved to Canada to pursuit my education. Very sad to say good bye to my childhood collection. Busy school schedule and work keep me completely to forget about collecting them again. Well, my second collection start with a set of 12 months of Canadian 25Cents. I found my very first one in my changes for laundry and it caught my attention and curious. And this makes me a habit to check out every single coin and put aside every special one in all the changes I had. Until one day, I realized all the  coins that I kept is huge enough to restart a new collection again. Well this made me realize how much I like to sit down and spend time to separate them, look at them and admire them.
   Well this is my story and my two collections.
I remember I was just bored one day and went through my change jar, and thought it was cool that I found (didn't actually, but that doesn't) some quarters from 1776 (they were actually bicentennial quarters), but it still gave a love for coins.

I used to keep these, but I got too many - and have only kept one from each mint for my date run.
I have literally zero idea
Because of Pandemic I found this as my new hobby. I have more time to sort, arrange, pack the coins I have and began to read more about coins and history. Collecting coins seems to be an alternative way of traveling (travel back to history or travel to new places I have never been). With this new hobby I found out this wonderful Numista website and began to color the map and I am happy every time I add color to it.


Happy collecting everyone!

MaiCoins
MaiCoins
My aunt travels a lot in her 30s-40s. When she doesn't live with me anymore, some of the leftover changes from a few countries were left in my possession. When I was younger sometimes I just took out the container and examined them one by one. It was not until the beginning of this year I decided to collect banknotes, which later expanded to coins as well.

I don't really remember when I started but I have ever since I can remember been finding coins on the floor and picking them up even if it's a penny. Once I went for a walk and I was walking round a cricket club and I saw something stuck in the ground about half-way so I pick it up and I see the numbers ‘43’ (me who has no knowledge about coins at the time). I then rub off the dirt and see that the date is 1943 and it being a sixpence of George vi (.500 silver) only to find that out when I got home. I deserved to be locked up for this but I stupidly polished it not realising that it was silver. I know, I know, I shouldn't have done but I didn't know at the time. Ever since then, the idea of having a collection of old and interesting coins really got to me and here I am now with currently 1780 coins in my numista collection. 

 

Hope everyone who reads this enjoys the rest of their day. 

I started collecting around 10. My dad and mom buy and sell antiques for extra money and my dad gave me some coins that they had gotten. I loved them and it has just gone forward from there.

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