Where and when was your first experience..................

[truthteller]

at buying coins. I was 11 years old and remember buying some dateless buffalo nickels in a grab bag from a dealer who ran a coin and popcorn stand in 'Leonards' department store in West Los Angeles. His name was Goody Bloom. Circa 1973.

 

TRUTH

 

 

 

[Leothelion]

Hi Truth

I started in grade school by trading lunch tokens for IH cents. It was 4th to 6th grade back in the early 1970's and my friend was probably getting the coins from his dad. I still have that set today. I believe I started to buy mint and proof sets with my dad in 1968. How old was I, I shan't not tell.

 

Leo

[Dry]

Well I was 16 years old, I had this 98 Oldsmobile and...Oh, COINS! I was probably around nine years old. I purchased some shield nickels for fifty cents each at a flea market at a festival. One was an 1871, the date barely readable. I still have it. After that, I shopped at coin shops soon after to get the "good looking stuff". I think I have most all of my coins from back then except for a blazing 1949s Franklin. I bought it with alot of saved up dough, this was before the grading services. I know that sucker is in a holder with FBL right now. I sold it to a pawn shop when I was about 16, I think it had something to do with that Oldsmobile

That pawn broker later told me "You got any more coins for sale? I did really good on that last one you sold me!"

[gmarguli]

Grandmother used to show me the proof and mint sets she had purchased over the years. My mom was given some folders with coins (mainly indian cents and wheat pennies). Got interested in it and decided to check out a few shops.

 

First coin I purchased was at auction. It was a 1937-D 3-legged Buffalo in VF/XF. Sold it a little while later.

[TomB]

Remember the coin department at Gimbles?

[EVillageProwler]

I went to Gimbles too, as well as to a place in Montvale in the Antique Mall that is about 1 minute from Exit 172 off the GSP.

 

Tom, remember that place?

 

EVP

 

[TomB]

I remember that place very well! It was in the basement of the antique mall, right? Just down the block from Tice's farm.

[reid1836]

I was about 8 years old. My Dad took me with him to a local coin shop. After a while I remember him asking me if I had seen anything I liked. I told him there was a two cent coin like the one he had at home. After a little while longer he said it was time to go. We left and headed for home. Somewhere in between he reached into his shirt pocket and handed me the first coin I ever cherished. A heavily worn two cent piece encased in a deluxe cardboard frame with genuine cellaphane optics. Or as it is more commonly known a 2x2.

[EVillageProwler]

Yup! The coin shop is no longer there; hasn't been for quite a while. What surprised me, after these years, is that the small convenience store at the corner of Weirimus and that road that takes you by Ingersoll-Rand (near Exit 171 off the GSP) is still there. I even think it's the same proprietor, because he and I once chatted about a certain candy (Roulettes by Haribo) that I've only seen at that store and in my high school (PRHS).

 

BTW, if anyone can tell me how I can order those Roulettes (by Haribo), I'd be much indebted! The Haribo website is useless to me! (I guess I'd order in bulk their gummy bears too!)

 

EVP

 

[Hoot]

I went with my dad to the penny Ranch in Chico, California, when I was about 10. I had been collecting coins from change for as long as I can remember, but I bought my first coin with my visit to the coin shop. The coin was a 1922 Peace dollar in XF condition. It cost me $1.25 and my dad warned me that I was paying $1.25 for only a dollar in cold cash! (Little did he know the monster lurking in me! ) I still have the coin.

 

Hoot

[EZ_E]

I started collecting in c. 1975 when I was 9 or 10 years old. I remember cherry-picking Buffalo nickels out of a basket for a quarter apiece. I remember that I got a 1914 D in the bunch. I probably had almost a complete set of them. Damn! I sure wish that I still had those buffs.

[chrisfuccione]

EVP here is link to order Roulettes. CHRIS

 

LINK

[SilverEagleCoins]

My cousin and I used to go to a coin store near his place when I was only 12. Because we had no jobs or money it was tough but we used to look through the cases for the oldest coins we could afford with no regard of rarity or condition. Fortunately I still had somewhat of a good eye and bought some decent Morgans and Franklins that I still have today!!

[Leothelion]

EVP here is link to order Roulettes. CHRIS

 

LINK

 

Yum! Yum! Does any of that stuff melt in your mouth? If I had any teeth left, I'd order some myself.

Today at 4:00 pm, central time, There I was, sitting in the doctors chair, not less then 2 hours ago. I was all napkined up and they were just about to start whipping up this goo stuff to fit me for dentures when suddenly the doctor cames back in and stops the whole procedure. They all left the room for a second to have a little conference and came back to tell me that I need to be reapproved for financial reasons before they can proceed. So it looks like another 4 to 6 weeks of green pea soup.

 

Leo

[DonHeath]

TomB,

 

In 1968, I visited NY and made a major purchase at Macy's coin shop. It was on the 5th floor. I bought a 55 Franklin in gem.

 

As a kid, my first real purchases were from Sears. That was about 1963. I bought the deluxe coin deal. It included several Lincoln Whitmans, 20 different "S" mint pennies, a flashlight magnifier, plastic tongs, and POLISH. My grandfather started me in 1962, with a 1893 Columbian half and a nice 92-CC Morgan in F. It's been downhill ever since. My dream coin back then was a 55 DD Lincoln. It was about $300 in gem. I never did get one. Maybe it's time.

[EVillageProwler]

Leo,

 

You don't really need teeth to eat the gummy rolls (Roulettes) and Gummi Bears. They actually do melt somewhat in your mouth!

 

I ordered about $70 worth of candy today; hopefully the candy will get delivered without any hassles!

 

EVP

 

PS Thanks, Chris!

[goose3]

My first time I was probably about my son's age, 5 or so with my grandfather around 1975 or so.

 

He used to have me look at his liberty nickels for the 1913 and used to have me try and see the mintmarks on coins. I also recall him having me look at wheaties at 1955 cents!

 

He used to take me to a local Woolworth. They had one of those rotating machines with the go button on the top right hand side. I recall him buying me a moon token which I still have and some of those goofy one dollar bills with famous people's heads glued to them.

 

 

[LAWMAN-migration]

Old coin shop on Tremont or Washington St., downtown in Boston where I grew up, in the late 50's when everybody was looking for 55/55's cents in change. I bought a killer 43 steel cent, don't even remember if it was mint marked or not. I took it over to my grandmother's to show to my parents and my aunt who were visiting. They told me I would buy anything, that it was "pocket change," that it was a 'rubber nail' (I had bought the week before a fake nail that looked like you had just hammered it into somebody's fine furniture at Little Jack Horner's Joke Shop next door to the coin shop). Not a lot of support from Depression-era ancestors, but I was unfazed as I am still collecting some 45 years later. (My grandmother did, however, have a stash of Morgans and Peace Dollars that she gave to me and my sister and we promptly spent because, back then, who wanted to collect those big, heavy shiny things).

[Beijim]

They told me I would buy anything, that it was "pocket change," that it was a 'rubber nail' (I had bought the week before a fake nail that looked like you had just hammered it into somebody's fine furniture at Little Jack Horner's Joke Shop next door to the coin shop).

 

By the way, there is still a "Jack's Joke Shop" in this neighborhood. I imagine it's the same company you remember, with a slightly "hipper" name .

 

Regards,

Beijim

 

[LAWMAN-migration]

But, do they still sell rubber nails?

[nwcs]

I was around 13 and it was at a local coin shop with a proprietor we later nicknamed "jailbird" because he was found guilty of scamming people on gold kruggerands. He sold us stuff at nice inflated prices.

[BillJones]

I was in the 5th grade. My mother's cleaning lady brought so old coins to our house, and I purchased them. They were an 1846 large cent and an 1838 half dime. The half dime really fascinated me because it seemed SO old ... over 120 years at the time!

 

Later she sold me some other pieces, but she never sold me her best family heirloom, an 1853-C gold dollar. I bet that coin had some great stories to tell. I''ve read that slaves saved sometimes incredible amounts of money in efforts to buy their freedom. Since that coin was minted in the South, I image that it did spend some time in a slave cabin before it made it's way up North.

[Newmismatist]

April 10, 1950. an Uncirculated 1931-S Lincoln penny. Purchased from Reynolds Stamp & Coin Shop the Monday after Easter. My father (disguised as the Easter Bunny) had left each of us 50 cents as an Easter present. The next day I went to our local coin shop, stood on a little step stool because I was too small to reach the counter and picked out an Unc 31-S from a partial roll for my Lincoln penny collection. I wanted to buy the whole roll, but I didn't have enough money.

 

I was 4 1/2 and had been diligently filling a Whitman (I think) penny board that I had received the previous Christmas from Santa Claus. Sold that penny and the rest of my Unc Lincolns in 1962 to buy a brand new Chevy II convertible - I think along with a bunch of other coins also)

 

(Just occurred to me that this post "Disproves" a previous post of mine that there is no Easter Bunny or Santa Claus when buying & selling coins - "they" were both involved in my introduction to coin collecting!)

[MikeKing]

I was probably about 11 years old myself...more like circa 1963. My father kept some old coins in a drawer, and once in a while I would take them out and look at them with awe. A few Indian Heads, some Liberty Nickles, I think there was a SLQ now gone (I have the IH's and Liberty nickles still). So my interest developed and I started buying coins. Used to get them on approval from, I think, Littleton. Still have the collection of foreign and US coins, less my 1909 VDB. I had quite a nice Lincoln collection in one of those old cardboard book-type holders, which inlcuded the VDB. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it was quite a sum for me, and for a penny...to pay $$$. That even amazed, me.

 

One day I was at a wedding, and a couple of family friends came over to my table. The husband thanked me for the Lincoln cent collection I gave his kids. My jaw dropped. My mother (who was a wonderful lady who supported and encouraged my interest in collecting coins) had given the Lincoln collection away...along with my VDB!!! Needless to say, this became an issue..though, a very minor one, in the course of life.