Deja vu all over again! I started collecting coins at age 6 fifty years
ago. It started with a Whitman blank penny folder (still have
it).Before too long I had folders for each circulating denomination,
which included "Mercury" dimes, Buffalo nickels (yeah, not many still
circulating but still found them), SLQ were a rare find and usually
slick "no-dates", and Walking Liberty halves. I would go through my
parents pocket change, being allowed to keep only 1 of each date,
mintmark and denomination. I never completed any of those totally from
circulation. The thought of actually having to buy a coin was anethema!
Where was the thrill of the hunt? I did buy my first coin at the age of
14, an 1878CC dollar in VF condition. I wanted it because of the
mintmark. At about the same time I started saving wheat pennies by the
roll. In those days collecting uncirculated rolls was all the rage so I
figured that circulated rolls was the next step down from that. Before
too long most of my relatives knew that I was collecting coins and
would often give me a silver dollar for my birthday or Christmas. When
my grandfather died I got two bags of coins that he had put away,
probably passed down to him as well. These bags had a lot of Large
Cents, Indian Cents, "V" nickels and surprisingly, Civil War Tokens and
Hard Times Tokens. Then a friend of the family started me off in a
whole new direction by giving me a number of British coins. Now I was a
foreign coin collector! I too remember the first Memorial cents. Ahh
yes, those were the days. I ashamedly admit to actually spending a
silver dollar at the drug store soda fountain (remember them?). After
all, it was only worth a dollar!