This old boy has collected coins since the late 1960’s. I never joined ANA, so I know nothing about it…… My boy went with me to a coin show last month and the ANA was outwardly grooming YN’s at the show which I appreciated so I joined my boy up….. Today we got his membership info so I helped him get logged in…… I’m just not real sure what to do for him at this point. He noodled around a bit and moved on to his video gaming….. Anyway, it occurs to me that I am not 100% sure what the ANA as an organization does for us. Is it an educational tool? I guess if I knew the goal I might better know how to get the boy interested in the website if that makes any sense.
It is. They have a good publication and also run seminars and classes you can sign up for. I feel it’s well worth the $46 a year and have actually thought of upgrading to life membership
Sorry Randy! I can't help you! I can't even get my son signed up on Coin Talk. When he tried to join he got a message he was banned. Now he gets an error when he goes on the site. Screen says he is logged in but it's froze, and he can't log out. When I search for his screen name, he isn't there. Sorry for venting on your thread. Hope you learn more about the ANA. I'm curious too!
You’re going to get a very mixed bag of answers here. Some people swear by them and others like myself couldn’t care less about them. As a collector there’s very little benefit to it, there’s unlimited information on the internet that does a much better job and in much more captivating ways. To be fair there was a time the ANA was a great and necessary resource, but that time has passed. It’s really one of those things a lot of people do because they’ve always done it. Their summer sessions for learning are good, but the ANA leadership for decades now has failed wholeheartedly in taking advantage of social media like the IG, TicTOk, YouTube etc which is where the younger people are going to learn. Before anyone starts about misinformation yes there is, but there’s a lot of good information as well and younger people understand that. Even a misinformation parking lot find video can lead someone down a rabbit hole to good videos so it’s not entirely bad. Like it or not that’s been the biggest draw for younger people and where a lot of the teaching will occur. PCGS has set a great format for the others to follow and which CAC has started to for how to use social media to get people excited and interested in coins. Even PSA has done live streams with Logan Paul opening old Pokémon packs which is one of the things that set the card industry on fire. Videos and posts don’t have to be an hour long and super dry and if they are you make some short clips of teasers that people can watch in a minute or less with a you want to learn more go here etc. I’m aware that coin collecting will never be for teens as it takes money, but even middle aged people now grew up with the internet and a large percentage of the elderly used computers during their careers. I just don’t understand the stubbornness. I get that a lot of people like books and magazines, but books and magazines simply aren’t the best way to get information out if the goal is actually to educate and not to make money. You can monetize views online anyways though
Posting from BIzaro World again doggo? The problem with the NGC board is that it's very quiet. One loud-mouth-idjit ruins the whole thing.
ANA used to have an arrangement with NGC to grade your coins for the cost of grading and not having to join the NGC Club and paying yearly dues. One would have to go to the website for more information. The ANA library lends books for the cost of postage. The biggest asset to ANA membership is the Numismatist magazine. Published monthly. I always get the magazine mailed to me. I enjoy re-reading many times. While there are behind the scenes politics, I think that occurs in most areas of life. If you decide to attend one of their conventions, members go in for free. Not sure what the non member admission is. I'm a 40+ year member. For me it's a good experience. When the conventions are in Denver, I always take the opportunity to go to Colorado Springs to bum around the headquarters. Yes, it has been and is a good experience for me. Website: https://www.money.org/
A lot of kids my age find it boring or uncool. I don't think money is the reason they don't collect though. You can learn a lot from CRHing or work on inexpensive sets/world coins, etc. If you're smart, you learn how to make money from coin collecting
But in regards to the ANA, I was a member last year and it was pretty cool. Haven't renewed my membership yet. I think there are a lot more activities for YNs than adults. YNs have access to monthly and yearly auctions and they can earn YN dollars (funny money) by doing collecting related activities. They use the YN dollars to buy auction items donated to the ANA. Some really cool prizes, but you need to dedicate a lot of time to earn the YN dollars and I found I could spend my time more productively. There is also a summer seminar where you take classes but I haven't been.
You cant collect without money and its not a secret or a new phenomenon that teenagers overwhelmingly spend their money on sports/dates/partying/video games like COD and Minecraft. Even for collecting things coins would be down the list Nothing wrong with that, its just unrealistic to expect teens to be a collecting force
Just re-upped with ANA. I’ve gotten lots of good collecting ideas from their magazine. Consider it well worth the 40 or so dollars.
The magazine is the major benefit. When I started collecting in the late '60s, it was the Coin magazines/newspapers that I subscribed to that kept my interest going. Make sure Jr. reads the magazine!!! If a really strong interest develops, then the library is the next best benefit. And the legend that is V Kurt Bellman.
They were offering free membership a couple years ago so I signed up. I enjoyed the magazine (digital version).
There was another discount offering recently, ask you local coin club. ANA member clubs received coupons to distribute.
Well, as a long time member, don't expect the website to be a Broadway show or to compete with video games for a YN. One benefit used to be direct NGC submissions for some people but I don't care about that. I just join NGC when I need to submit. They give you a discount for collection insurance. After covid a lot of their educational classes have went online but they can get pretty indepth. They can go "into the weeds" for an hour and a half plus which some will love but will be too much for others. But excellent material for being free. You can also borrow physical books from their extensive library. (I've never personally used it) The magazine is very good as others have stated. I've stuck with the digital version for years and I'm happy with it. It's worth the cost of membership. You get an email that the month's issue is out and you can just click on it and click through the pages. It doesn't get lost and you don't have to store it. High quality articles. You can go back and look at any of the past magazines in the archives on the website as well. Being a member also gets you into their big shows for free and in the door an hour earlier at the Worlds Fair of Money. I have used that perk a couple times.
