Getting younger people interest in collecting coins.

16 over here!

 

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Well, as a corollary, when I was an exchange student to Japan, I knew more JAPANESE history than over 90% of the Japanese citizens I met, and knew east asian geography to a pinpoint - whereas I could barely point out most north american states or provinces on a map, let alone cities, and have just a vague working knowledge of north american history. It's not a case of the kids are dumb, just uninterested in what is local/familiar, usually.

 

As for getting more YNs hooked - I had an idea a while back, but I didn't know how to go about starting to implement it.

Almost every one of us, and nearly every coin collector out there, has a stash of "worthless" wheaties, yeah? Lol. Not a grade worth collecting, not a year worth saving, probably not worth more than the copper value, but you still just set them aside rather than leave them in circulation - it's like an automatic response, yeah? Lol! Some of us even have stashes of cull buffalo nickels and indian head cents. Worthless, but set aside.

I was thinking, what about doing a major drive, and collecting a TON of junk-drawer wheat, IHC, and buffaloes. Then try to set up a massive mailing, together with the help of the post office or maybe department of education, and mail 1 wheat cent (or the other coins) to every kid? Yes, I am serious... lol.

Maybe do it through the public schools, maybe through the post office, but I bet if the north american numismatic community came together, and the project was put forth by the ANA or some similar organization (maybe even the mints would get in on it... after all, coin collecting is VERY good business for them! Lol!) we could distribute 1 old "interesting" coin to each and every kid under, say, 20. I would bet that that would spark a wave of interest in coin collecting in the youth... I REALLY think that it could work.

Heck, the current gov't is handing out money and funding left and right for all kinds of things - I bet a properly worded and phrased proposal could get a grant to see the project through. It really couldn't hurt to look into it, and although the project would be MASSIVE, with some large organization or group behind it and putting it together.

I really do believe it would be a positive movement, and could gain a lot of support and a LOT of positive press/interest/awareness of coin collecting, as more than just a bunch of misers hoarding gold and silver, and nerds in basements carefully cataloging hundred year old coins (I'm teasing, y'all... lol!) It would also encourage participation in an activity that was not A) a video game, B) television, C) violent, or D) criminal. Not that I have anything against video games - I love them myself. But they can be taken too far - like my brother who plays them from the time he wakes up until he passes out, without doing chores or getting a job. And TV is fine - some of it. But there is no reason or excuse to sit in front of it 8+ hours/day...

Please comment, since I'm just spitballing here. There is a lot of room for refinement in this idea, but I think the basic premise is sound. Give our hobby/lifestyle/whatever an adrenaline boost, and an influx of fresh blood Plus, I think it would be just plain FUN to do/organize! Lol!

 

im a yn (20) and ive gotten a few of my buddies into coin roll hunting, we started as kids. and i recently have been getting a few of my younger cousins involved in collecting, if they come to me with an interest in it(everyone in my family knows i collect) i bring them a couple folders usually jeffersons or memorials whichever i have a few extra of and i give them a couple cull indians and partial date buffalos to spark their interest. it has been pretty successful so far.

cody

 

Hey CC, I grew up in Cedar Falls! I think we covered that before, but is Casey's Coin still around? That guy was so nice, and always gave me fair prices.

 

yea caseys still around! hes the only shop in the area now. the next closest is in cedar rapids. his prices are still fair and i buy from him weekly

cody

 

There are many things that inspire young people. Sometimes it is an adult figure, other times they find it on their own. Collecting is in the genes I believe.
I posted this a while back and thought I would add it to this.
[h=2]Just a little story for kicks[/h]

The year was 1940.
A little boy 8 years old, blue jeans and tee shirt with some scuff marks is walking down a sidewalk and sees a penny, tails up laying in the grass. He picks up the coin and looks at the date. 1913. He says to himself that tails up is lucky, but the number 13 is unlucky. He declares that the tails up over rides the 13 and puts the coin in his pocket. Later after supper the boy takes the coin from his pocket and places on the kitchen table. His mother ask what is he doing with the penny. The little boy says it is lonesome and needs some friends. So his mother takes a jar of pennies down from top the shelf and places in front of the little boy. Well there are a few friends he can share. But there is one condition. You better not loose them and you can’t spend them. The little boy is all excited and takes the coins into his room. He pours them out on his small table and starts counting them. There are 187 pennies. He looks at the dates and decides to place them in date order. After a couple dates have been placed he came up on a problem. He did not have a date for each coin in order. So he skipped this date and continued with the dates he had skipping each date he did not have. When he finished he had several of the same dates. So he decided he would only keep the best looking coin from each date. The little boy noticed that some of the pennies had letters under the date. So he decided he would separate one with having no letter and the other with the letter D would be together. Now he had the best coins with two types of years.
The little boy went to school the next morning. His first order of the day is the teacher collects the lunch money so they know how many kids will be eating lunch in the lunch room. So he has to pay his teacher $.5 cents for his lunch. He thinks this over and decides going without lunch one day will not hurt anything. So he goes all day without anything to eat. He rides his bicycle to the drug store and goes in. The clerk behind the counter ask what he can do for such a young fellow? Can I give you this nickel for 5 pennies the little boy ask? The clerk says sure. What you going to do with 5 pennies the clerk ask? Well sir. I am going to take them home and sort them by date and how good they look. The clerk not knowing of such things just smirked, and said OK young fellow. After the boy left the drug store he went to the five and dime discount store where a long time ago he saw a coin book. He thought it was still there, it had been there for ever. He was in luck, it was a coin album for pennies. 1909 thru 1936. The little boy ask the clerk how much the book was? The clerk said it is twenty five cents. The little boy got an allowance of five cents a week if he was good. So he figured that he could skip the lunches for the rest of the week and with his other pennies he could buy the coin album.
From this day forward he was a coin collector.

Thanks by Big Ed ​

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Yes. Even more sad that it is by design. We're left with a bunch of spoiled brats, who not only don't care about coins but completely take personal liberty for granted as well. The powers that be are talking about dropping history class as they "don't feel it's an important enough subject anymore". I wonder why and what that will lead to? Most kids don't know anything as it is, with history class. This isn't a joke. We should probably be more worried about maintaining the bill of rights more than if another generation will still be interested in coins, IMO. It's a much larger danger than some would think.

Notice that the schools don't teach kids about money either. Probably the most important aspect of their lives. Also by design.

 

I'm Younger. Probably the youngest one here.

 

I put a little more thought into this and this is what I think.
After 1964 there was very little are no bullion value in circulated coins. All collectible coins are horded up.
So perking up interest to coin collecting has become small to the younger people. Most new collectors are getting into it because of older people passing coins and collections down to them. I am not a young person, and was out of collecting for many years. I just got back into collecting two years ago. What happened was my wife's father passed and left her a bag full of coins. This re-sparked the coin bug and here we are. This same bug has to grab hold of the young people and with the coinage of today, I feel this may need a lot of help from coin people and the numismatic industry to encourage this.
Big Ed

 

How to get young people interested in coins? Make an app for that.

 

Well I'm at young collector only 14, but I don't know if cash is to much of an issue as long as you start out small. Normally for young collectors you don't want to start out trying for silver halfs or dollars, but something more price reasonable. It helps a lot if one of your parents or family member used to collect to show somethings.