Why did you choose Coin Collecting for your hobby?

[joe bob]

I thought it would be an interesting discussion topic if we were to tell how, when, and why we chose coin collecting as our hobby. As a young man straight out of high school in Eufaula, Oklahoma, I decided it was time for me to follow the way of my [5] older brothers and one brother-in-law, and join the US Army. So, in 1958, I enlisted as a Regular Army recruit and signed on for three years. Back then you could specify your choice of where you would like to serve and I requested Europe. After boot training at the 14th Artillery in Fort Hood Texas,, I was assigned to the 22nd Artillery Battalion at Pinder Kaserne in Zirndorf, West Germany. It was during the height of the Cold War which had little meaning for me at the time. One thing working for me at that time was I had a talent that was needed at the Kaserne. All during High School, I had a job as a projectionist at the Palace Theater and The Chief Theater, that were under the same ownership. I rotated between the two theaters as needed and worked [7] nights a week plus Saturday and Sunday Matinees.

As luck would have it, upon my arrival at Pinder, it was time for the current projectionist to rotate stateside and they needed a prpjectionistto run the post theater. I volunteered for the job which turned out to be a great decision on my part. You see, I would report to Post Administration which meant that I had no KP duties, no inspections, no formations, and a private room shared by two PA Personnel. I would also make more money at the theater than what the Army was paying a Pvt. E-2. I had a driver report to me each morning for I had to take the preceding night’s receipts to the American Express Bank in Furth about 10 miles away. Also after the last film showing, I would have to drop off the film at the Bahnhof in Nurenburg and pick up the next film at another Kaserne in the area.

My NCOIC, Sergeant Hendrix, also worked at the theater as the manager. He talked to me one day about his hobby of collecting coins. He stirred my interest and he got me started by selling me [10] duplicate Indian Head Pennies from his collection from 1900 to 1909 at 30 cents apiece. With so much free time on my hands and at his suggestion, I began taking all the coinage and depositing them with my daily deposit runs to American Express and in turn, I would pick up new rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, and occasionally quarters . I would check out all the coins before depositing them, and then spend the afternoons going thru the rolls of coins. I picked up some very good coins and was pleased to check my new finds against the old coin value chart he had given me,

Through the years, after the service, I continued to check all my loose change and would just drop them off into a hand crafted wooden box one of the German National maintenance men had made per Sergeant Hendrix’s specifications. [see attached picture] I had a slew of little envelopes into which I placed the coinage for safe keeping with the contents written on the outside of the little envelopes. [see attached picture]. Having multiple coins in each envelope, I would then wrap the coins inside a sheet of toilet paper to prevent further contact during my moving them around.

This practice has worked well for me for these past 56 years and I have continued to this day using this method for storing my coins. I could not find the little envelopes so I began making my own out of a sheet of typing paper; each sheet would provide me with three new envelopes which I would tape the sides together and stand them upright between the file separators . With years of accumulation I had to build an additional file to accommodate my 1,637 coins a/o today.

I keep my coins identified with a program I devised using Excel. I have World coins as well as American coins with Tabs for each foreign country. A grand total Tally sheet keeps a running total of the number of coins by country and collectively and the valuations placed on each coin by me using the grading system guidelines set forth at NGC.

I hope I haven’t bored you with my meager beginnings but I felt it was a story some of you might find interesting.

Joe Bob

 

[Nutmeg Coin]

You seem to be very thorough, dedicated to the hobby, patriotic and focused on the hobby, Joe Bob. Congratulations.

 

My interest in numismatics began in the 1990s; based or rooted in US history, the classical money alternatives to Wall Street, and the Constitution and its adherence to principles not to whim. I find paper money to be quite interesting as the story and aesthetics conveyed by notes as pleasing and to be easier on the eyes.

 

It would be interesting to pose this question to all coin dealers to ask why they are in the field of numismatics?

[BillJones]

I got started when my uncle gave me the 13th edition of the Red Book and the two Whitman Lincoln Cent folders for Christmas in 1959. I was probably already predisposed to it because before that I had been drawn to and was hoarding the new Lincoln Memorial cents that were introduced that year.

 

From there it was strong in history that drew me to hobby, greatly inspired by my mother, and the collectors' desire to fill the holes in an album. I think that if you don't have an urge to fill holes, be the real in the album, on a list, or in your brain, you probably will not become a committed collector.

 

From there my interest has continued to expand over the last 56 years.

 

[TonerGuy]

My interest started when my maternal grandfather gave me his loose change he collected while in the Merchant Marine in Panama in the 1930s. It was all US coinage from the late 1800s. It wasnt a big collection (Morgans, Barber dimes, quarters and halves, IHCs ect) but I still have it to this day...

 

My mother then helped in my earliest years by taking me to coin stores and adding a little money to my collecting funds when she could. I still remember her taking me to a store in my town so I could finish my first album set - Jefferson Nickels. Unfortunately I dont have that one anymore.

 

And then my collecting when on a 20 yr hiatus. I was married and in my first home at the time. I was flipping channels when I came across Robert Chambers and his TV coin show... He was selling 10 raw BU Morgans for some high price. But they caught my eye and I bought them. I was rehooked...

 

I called my mom and asked her to send me my grandfather's collection and I was off to the races and have never looked back. Its been about 15 yrs now.

[johnny9434]

i liked the history of them and how they became what they are. my uncles helped me get started in that as well.

[cpm9ball]

Joe Bob,

 

I started playing pool in 1956 when I was 9, and the year before you joined the Army, I won $5 from a 16 year old kid named Joe at the local poolroom. When Joe paid me, he gave me a silver dollar. (I learned later that it was a Morgan dollar.) I had never seen one before, so I went to the bank where I had a savings account and asked a teller if she had any more. She spread a bunch across the counter, and I got four more with the rest of my winnings. After that, I would always take part of my winnings (I rarely lost!) and get more silver dollars.

 

Chris

[messydesk]

November 2015 Numismatist, page 91. It's all explained there.

[WoodenJefferson]

1957-58 (55+ years ago so my memory is a bit foggy) I was climbing around in my Great Uncles garage and there on top of a dusty old china cabinet, I found a 1812 half dollar stuck in a shot glass. No one I showed the coin to had ever seen anything like that so I went to the library and tried to find a book about coins. There was one but it was checked out so I waited. And waited...finally it was checked back in, I do not even remember the name but I think it was the Blue Book of Coins and there it was! Well, that series anyways and on top of that, it was worth about $3.50 bucks!

 

My Mom used to drag us kids to F.W. Woolworth's to buy blue jeans and that is where I found the coin counter! I worked all summer long and just before school started we were once again off to Woolworth's in the big city, only this time I didn't mind because I had a band-aid box full of money in which to buy coins, now that's a novel idea, buying money.

 

I bought coins I had never seen in circulation, Liberty nickels, a standing liberty quarter and a barber half dollar. I examined those coins all day long and couldn't wait to get to the library to look up these coins. I paid about .35 more than the listed price for the quarter, a little more for the half and book price, plus or minus .05 for the nickels.

 

Then there was Littleton Coin Co. which advertised in the back of magazines, but that's another story.

 

Wish it were that easy now, now you can loose hundreds of dollars on a single coin!

[Danye West]

When my parents moved over the summer, I didn't know anyone, and I wasn't in camp, so I spent the summer at the outdoor mall-esque thing. There was a coin shop there, and I liked what I saw inside.

[RWB]

November 2015 Numismatist, page 91. It's all explained there.

Very nice article, John.

[coinsbygary]

November 2015 Numismatist, page 91. It's all explained there.

Very nice article, John.

Dittos on the very nice article. I related to much of what you said in the article. It is also kind of neat to see a face associated with the name and the blogs.

Gary