Why I started to collecting coins

[Ed J]

2009 was a great year for collecting coins fo me.

 

Hello to all my fellow collectors I hope 2011 was great year for all you're collecting. I started collecting back in 2009. I have come across some nice coins here in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. I fell in love with the ASE and started to collect them only to be shot down by the US Mints miss handling of the series. Now I do not know if the broken series is worth the hard work of collecting the full series. My first purchase was the 2009 Lincoln Proof and Uncirculated Commemorative Silver Dollar, the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle and the 2008 Martin Van Buren's not slabbed. I started to buy slabbed coins because I found it easier then sending coins to NGC for a 70 grade. I started collecting when a friend showed me his collection. I started as a hoby and I do not think I will ever be as good in collecting fine coins like some of the collectors here. I admire the serious collector's and their ablities to find great coins. I have to settel to just find them on auction sites. My reasoning is simple I am not that good at telling if a coin has been alter or cleaned. For example I sent to NGC 5 1986 ASE, (two proof and three uncirculate) and 4 came back as 69's and one improper cleaning.

 

Now that I have been collecting some coins for a few years, I have 3 competitive sets that have been ranked number one (although I am not at the top of the series). To me this is an accomplishment that I never thought I would ever be able to obtain within two years. My quest is to get ASE First Year Of Issue but to buy one from an auction is way too expansive so I will continue to find 1986 ASE and send it in hoping my eye did catch an ASE. 70.

 

Happy Collecting to all,

Ed

 

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[Mokiechan]

Ed,

You've done a great job in your two years of collecting. Everyone gets fooled once in a while, but we all learn from our errors and move on. As for the Mint, they probably lost some customers forever by their bumbling regarding the 25th Ann set.

I hope they learned a lesson, the 30th is only 5 years away.

 

Later,

Malcolm

[chunk-it]

Hi, I'm in about the same shoes as you. I started collecting in 2009 when some insufficiently_thoughtful_person payed with $5 in franklin halfs at my store. I quickly bought the coins for face value not having a clue of their value. After alittle research I was hooked. Thats when it started for me. After getting burned a few times on raw coins, I realized that graded was the way to go. My passion is for jefferson nickels. I started a competitive set around April 2011. After lots of searching and lots of money. I now find my self at ranked 5th in 1965-date. Never thought it would grow this fast or how that I would be able to find so many top pop's and solo finest. But I love it. I got many years of collecting left as I'm only 27 years old.

 

Anyways. Congrats on your accomplishments and good luck in the future.

 

Brian

[Kenneth F]

I started to collect coins when my greatuncle gave me an Indian Head Cent. This cent was mounted in a metal arrowhead necklace. It was interesting. After that I started to collect Walking Liberty Halves. Since I spent alot of time with my grandparents growing up, I got my hands on Walkers, Franklins and Silver Certificates. After that, the flood gates opened. My daughter is hooked now too but her flavor is foreign coins and Silver American Eagles. It didnt take that long to get the wife hooked.. not I dont have to wait for my allowance before buying coins.. she normally gets them. ha ha ha.

[ron consults-migration]

good job ed J.....i started collecting when i was twelve...my grandma had two peace dollars that she was going to give to my cousin and i....he was ten days older than me and the dollars were dated 1922 and 1928...i did some research and came up with a solution for grandmas dilemna of who to give each one too.

"Grandma" i said "I think cousin Terry should get the older one, because he is the older of us two." Grandma was happy, cousin was happy, and i never forgot that mintage of 360,649...

[cpm9ball]

Hi, Ed!

 

I started collecting in 1957 when at the age of 10, I beat a 16-year old by the name of Joe Clement out of $5 playing 9-Ball at the hometown poolroom and he paid me with 4 dollar bills and a Morgan silver dollar. I was able to go to the bank and get more silver dollars at face value with the rest of those winnings, so every time I won more money (I rarely lost) I'd go to the bank and get more.

 

I noticed that some of your SAE's are in "Early Releases" slabs. I hope you realize that there is absolutely no premium added to the value of the coin because of it. This marketing gimmick was the idea of one of the coin shows on tv so they can convince people to pay their outrageous prices.

 

It's rather easy telling the difference between a PF70 and a PF69. All you need is a bright light and about a 10x loupe. Holding the coin under the light, examine the cameo surfaces carefully (even the letters & numbers) by slowly tilting the coin back-and-forth, up-and-down every which way. If there is the slightest pinprick of a nick in the cameo you will see a glimmer of light from the shiny metal exposed beneath the surface. For the mirrored fields, you have to concentrate a little harder looking for the slightest blemish or nick, but most often you will find them in the cameo.

 

It's a little harder trying to distinguish between CAM & DCAM, but one of my friends explained it to me this way. Think of the cameo as the frost on your car's windshield in the wintertime. If it is really thick, you can't see through it and your windshield wipers don't do any good removing it. This is DCAM. If it is a little bit thinner and slushy, it is somewhat translucent and the windshield wipers can remove some of it. This is CAM.

 

So, take a couple of those PF69's you have and see if you can find the flaws.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Chris