How'd you start in the hobby?

General discussions about canadian coins.
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Gerryinthe6ix
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How'd you start in the hobby?

Post by Gerryinthe6ix » Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:11 pm

Hi everyone. I’m a long-time collector who is new to this site. I’ve been collecting for over 50 years. I am curious how you got the bug. In my case, on my 8th birthday, my aunt (who had a huge U.S. collection) gave me a high grade 1900 “O” Morgan dollar. She told me if I took good care of it, she would give me another one on my next birthday. She told me about the mint marks and gave me some coin books to read. The following year she presented me with a near mint state 1884 “S” Morgan dollar that she said had a notable mint mark. As I grew more interested, she gave me a U.S. steel cent and some very early Lincoln cents. I was really interested in expanding my collection - that was comprised exclusively of coins I got out of circulation. To speed up the process, I would borrow $10, then $20, $50 from my finance manager (mom) and head to the bank and get rolls of pennies. I would spend days going through them making a point to keep the best five of every year I could find. I would then return the coins to the bank, offset the difference with my allowance. By the time I was 10, I had pretty well every small cent. The large cents were elusive to me so I shifted to nickels. My aunt would occasionally come by with rolls of dimes or nickels for me. In my early teens I discovered the “coin store”. Two places in my home town that sold coins. My first purchases were the large cents from the latter years. In my late teens I worked in a large supermarket and the head cashier would put old coins and bank notes away for me. That was a great source for my Devil’s head and replacement notes. Sadly I sold off most of my bills to fund my 20s lifestyle. I kept my focus on coinage. Fast forward, as I moved cities, changed careers, my collecting slowed down but I still checked my change. As I now near retirement, I want to finish up my cent and 5-cent collection focusing on higher quality errors and varieties. My daughter is now the proud owner of the remainder of my collection. It includes every Canadian dime and dollar. She has a lot of work to do on the Victorian quarters and half dollars.

Bill in Burl
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Re: How’d you start in the hobby?

Post by Bill in Burl » Thu Sep 23, 2021 6:35 am

Neat story, somewhat similar to mine from the US. Most of my coins to look through (I started with nickels) came from my paper route and my mother picking up $50 bags of nickels from parking meters once a month. I would replace the ones taken from the bag with my paper route money. Once in the late teens, I gave it all up and started up again 20+ years later and started with Canadian large cents about 30 years ago.
Bill in Burl

Jim J
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Re: How’d you start in the hobby?

Post by Jim J » Thu Sep 23, 2021 10:26 am

My collecting bug hit me at a early age of 8, similar story of original post.

A friend of my mothers noticed I liked to collect pennies I was trying to collect every year that I could find in change, so she gave me about 30 circulated Canadian large cent coins in an envelope dated 1911-1920 that was the first time I ever saw a large cent coin that I could remember I was pretty pumped and that's how I stared collecting coins, now I shoot for Mint State Canadian coins from 1858 - date

Rwood88
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Re: How’d you start in the hobby?

Post by Rwood88 » Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:28 pm

I started mine when I was about 10. My brother gave me a 1992 Quebec quarter and from there I was fascinated with all coins. I then started going through all the change we had to complete a Nickle collection from 1922-2006 my uncle ended up giving me his entire collection and now the itch will never go away.

Freakydude
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Re: How’d you start in the hobby?

Post by Freakydude » Fri Mar 25, 2022 6:57 pm

I just started. I was gifted a few coins, One of them I found out by accident was worth something. As I researched it blew me away what coins are worth, I found a couple and sold them, found some more and I am not selling them anymore. In less than a year I have collected over 100 1 oz silver coins. The more creative mints get around the world the more I want to grab them and save them in my collection.
A joke is a very serious thing Winston Churchill

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CanuckCoinGirl
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Re: How’d you start in the hobby?

Post by CanuckCoinGirl » Thu May 19, 2022 10:10 pm

It's all my dad's fault! I am my dad's little girl, regardless of my age. He likes old cars, coins, and his garden. He has had a good life and has a couple old cars, but I can only really afford the last two. He's been collecting since he was a kid and had some great coins. He had left them at his family home when he left home to work, and his younger siblings raided his collection to buy candy. Can you imagine? It was always part of what he did - evaluate bills and coins on the dining room table. And some made it into his collection. In any handful of change or pile of bills anyone in the family had, special ones went to him for evaluation. He loved the RCM Proof sets, and as someone hard to buy for, they became his yearly Christmas present. I knew he would spend hours just looking at it closely. I had always tried to read a lot on the hobby to have meaningful discussions, but only collected a few things here and there, as I paid for school, started an adult life, and paid for other stuff. He'd set me on a task to look for some things since I had lived in the city where there were coin dealers and places to maybe see things. And my collection has grown substantially now. I had aimed for quantity for a bit - not just to have a lot, but to have a lot to compare and evalutate. Now am just better at knowing more and trying to pick better things...but as you all know... better things cost more, so less is being added, but there are some fun things. :Lecture:

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