My Dad picked up my younger brother to go to the coin shop to find me a Christmas present. (YAY) Well, while in the shop, my brother/niece (8)looked through the foreign coins bin. $1 for 10. Searched though them ALL and looked for the oldest coins and the interesting coins. Asked what the scallops were for and many, many questions. Turns out they were talking with my favorite person there and he gave them tons of info and answered the almost endless questions. He even identified country of origin for them, but that's all (got to do some of the work for herself u know) and wrote it down. Now I have someone to go there with and learn! I'm really excited about this. I have never seen her so happy about something that cost less than $1.
That's a great story... just to show you what a friendly, knowlegable person can mean to a coin shop. It makes you want to keep going back. I love looking through the bins of so called "junk" coins... last Saturday I picked up five U.S. large cents, all with readable dates but heavily worned and/or slightly damaged for just a few dollars. I'm heading back again today!
This could be an educational experience for your niece. The owner of our local coin shop told me of a costomer who started assembling a collection this way. They tried getting a coin from every country on earth. Then they realized after the fall of the Berlin Wall they would be extending their list as old countries split into new ones and others changed their currency. It is a cheap and fun way to get into collecting!!!
Unpretentious friendly dealer.....truely a rarity, at least in my neck of the woods. And the hobby just picked up a new collector. Wonderful news!
Thanks for the replies. BOth my neices looked though all the change in the house today. They are looking for something unusual, but not sure what they are looking for yet. Gonna have to learn 'em before they lose interest.
Seed something for them to find. Get a bunch of change and put maybe a foreign coin in it, maybe a couple of wheaties, etc. Nothing wrong with that if it gets them interested. I liked the story.
