Are there any coin collectors here?

[Tobin S.]

My coin collection started when I was a teenager. My grandpa gave me a bunch of wheat pennies and a liberty dime as well as a case for both types of coins to hold a sample of each year's mintage. Over the years I would add to the pennies when I found a sample of a year that I was missing. I also kept any duplicates I would find. I only obtained one other liberty dime.

I was just collecting from coins that I would find in pocket change. I still get a wheat penny every once in a while. I've also gotten a 1906 Indian head penny in change as well as a 1920 buffalo nickle.

Over the years I would take out my modest coin collection and look it over. Those old coins captured my imagination. Were they worth anything? How did they survive in circulation for so long without anyone noticing their novelty? Where had those coins been? What was grandpa's interest in them?

A few years ago I renewed my interest in coins and started to seriously think about collecting old and rare coins- not just for the sake of hobby, but also for investment. I read up on the subject and the world of coin collecting opened up for me. There was a lot more to it than I'd realized.

I started seriously collecting, but in a haphazard way. I didn't really have a plan. I would just go through the auction sites and the dealers and buy things that would catch my eye. I was initially interested in higher grade antique coins and I have several Morgan dollars to show for it. Then I got into bullion coins and I have several newer minted Silver Eagles and well as a gold bullion coin.

But I needed to focus and wise up a little. The more I looked around and the more I learned, the realization hit me that I'd paid too much for many of my coins. I also started to see the value and challenge of collecting high grade type sets- having a sample from each year a type of coin was minted.

I ran across some coins one day that caught my attention. They are known as three cent silvers or trimes or fish scales. They were minted from 1851-1873 in response for the need of a handy coin to pay for the first class postage rate of the time which was three cents. Below is a link for more information about them.

http://typesets.wikidot.com/silver-3-cents

They look like this:

Obverse


Reverse


My goal is to collect a sample from each year that they were minted in grade MS60 or higher. A grade of MS70 is a perfect coin. I don't make a lot of money so this will be a challenge and will likely take me many years as the later minted coins are quite a bit rarer than the early mintages and command a pretty steep price, especially for highly graded coins.

[applegrove]

1. I was working in a tourist gift shop that sold coins. I got a $200 set of coins and the book of

words dirty because I had some cheeze organge dust on my hands from lunch. I could not clean it off so I bought them. I looked it up on line and they are worth $35 online. That will be the first and the last time I buy coins. LOL!

[Brickbat]

2. I inherited my great-grandma's coin collection and I collected coins in my youth. You've inspired me

to go hunt it up and see what I've got. Thanks!

[greiner3]

3. I started as a paperboy in 1966;

And there was another paperboy who would buy all the dimes, quarters and half dollars minted 1964 and before. He'd give a small premium for each coin. My dad was hip to this scam because he told me that those coins were minted with silver and no more would be. He told me to keep all the ones I got. Well, I never really did listen to my dad.

What's silver an ounce today? $28

My dad also told me to buy gold in 1973 or whenever Nixon took the US off of the gold standard. Gold then was about $35/ounce. Oh well!

[csziggy]

5. Dad saved all his silver coins once the change was made to alloys

When Mom & Dad moved out of their old house, he forgot the bags of coins he had stashed. A few years ago my sister was helping them clear out the old house before it was demolished and found those bags.

Two bags, full of silver coins, weighing about ten pounds each. They probably have some very collectible coins in them, but even just the silver metal value is significant! The last time he even thought about them before they found the "lost" bags was probably in the late 1960s.

Hubby is a haphazard collector. Every so often he'll buy rolls of coins and look for potential collectibles, but he does not go out and buy coins for investment. He has a friend who does, but the return has been irregular and unpredictable.

[alphafemale]

4. Not really a coin collector as such but I once found a Franklin Dollar

Shoved up pretty as you please one frost melt in our driveway turnaround. It was just sitting there,

That was probably about 78. I let my nephew drool over it for a few months. He collected coins at the time. And I gave him that for christmas