Do you feel it is important to get kids into the hobby and Why?

I keep hearing about getting kids involved in this hobby and I wonder what the pros and cons are. Enlighten me.

 

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I think it is very important to get kids into the hobby. First, without new blood the hobby would eventually die out. Secondly, it is a very rewarding life long hobby and I am thankful to the collectors who got me interested when I was younger. And selfishly, when I am very old I will eventually want to sell off my collection, and the more new collectors there are, the more I will get for my collection then!

 

I'm sorry, do you mean the pros and cons of having kids in the hobby, in general terms?

or the pros and cons of what it takes to get them involved?

 

I don't have any close friends or family who are interested in coins. If I'm going to have someone to talk to, I better get them started early!

I think it's natural for adults to want to interest children in things that are important to them. It's part of passing on your values. Having my daughter inherit a somewhat valuable collection is less important to me than wanting her to be curious about why Liberty is depicted on U.S. coinage, how to translate dates from Hebrew or Chinese, or how coinage developed in the first place.

I guess I'm not overly concerned about children as a whole developing into coin collectors. But when you amass knowledge--share it! Whether it's fishing, music, coin collecting, or a new food, it's immensely satisfying to invite a newbie and have them get interested and thank you for it later.

 

My 9 year old daughter knows more about error coins than my wife. She found her first error the other day. She found a "Speared Foot" Bison, very cool. Then she found a "Jefferson Speared Twice" Bison error coin. My daughter knows that I bought some "Speard Bisons", but I think I forgot to tell my wife.

She also likes hobo nickels. She will be getting a very nice error and coin collection.

 

Once my 10 year equated a Lincoln cent that could be equal to U.S. dollars, he became interested. He found a 1972 DDO cent in circulation and we sent to PCGS. It came back AU55 and he sold it for $267.50 on eBay.

Want to see a kid's eyes like up? Count 20's as his older brother and sister look on.

Now he looks at EVERYTHING. He is on the hunt for WIDE AM's (Lincoln), the 1972 and 1995 DDO Lincolns and the extra leaf Wisconsin quarter. When he finds something, he immediately goes to the RED BOOK to see if it is valuable.

Cents equal to dollars!?! What a country!

 

As a younger person myself, only 17 years old, I think that it is extremely important to 'recruit' the younger generations into a hobby such as this. Coin collecting may prevent them from doing wrong or bad things in their youth, and may keep them from the streets. It can also teach them about the bright history of their nation, and would allow them to compare and contrast the vast differences. I think its important for the older generation to help, teach, and lead the younger genertation about coins.

The Pros are that it keeps the hobby going alive and strong. The Cons are that it makes more people wanting to get the same stuff you want

 

It's this aspect that bothers me a little. If, as I do, have a collection to hand down to my kids, it is only natural to want to get them interested in it so they don't just sell it off when they get it. But starting from scratch with nothing only makes the finite number of coins some of us have worth more. So it's sort of preditory to try and involve new people in the hobby and it bothers me when it's kids. But that's just me.

 

Sorry for the confusion... Yes.

 

You might have a bit too sunny of a picture of the hobby

 

Coin collecting is an interesting hobby - all of us believe that, or none of us would be here, on this site, today. We find it enjoyable, or it would be a passing fad that none of us would have stuck with for as long as we have.

Will coin collecting keep kids off drugs? Probably not - let's be realistic, it's not an antidote for trouble. On the other hand, will it be one more avenue a child can channel their mind into, and spend just that much less time watching television, or playing video games? Absolutely so. Will it be one more possible thing they can find enjoyable, along with those afore mentioned activities? You bet.

To this, I also add what has already been voiced. This hobby, in its current state, leans far older skewed... but it was not always that way. Without new generations coming in, the house will be empty in future years. A lot of people, for unselfish reasons, find that sad.

 

Sure, we need people less knowledgeable than ourselves to take advantage of !

 

Moen

I believe that if youngsters become bitten by the coin bug at an early age, it most likely will be a life-long affliction. It happened to me when I was 5 years old.
My kindergarten teacher gave each one of us a brand-new shiny 1959 Lincoln
Memorial cent. Pennies were a big thing to five year olds in 1959. Take my word for it.
Somehow, it intrigued me that pennies (coins) could change. Someone bought me
one of those blue Whitman penny folders and I started plugging holes. I am sure many others here have simular stories.
My point is, I guess, that if encouraged at an early age, you may become a life-long
coin collecter. There are no cons to introducing "kids" (or any one else for that matter)
to coin collecting. New blood is vital to sustaining our "hobby". Of course there is a
monetary factor to all of this. We all like to see our coins "go up". Alot of us have
been around long enough to see a few down cycles as well.
Every "kid", or new collecter, should probably have a mentor of some type, so they can avoid some of the pitfalls of the hobby that most of us have experienced sometime in our coin collecting . There have always been sharks out there, and newer
collecters are especially vulnerable in the age of internet hype and scammers.
I am new to posting here, and I apoligize if this sounds like a rant, I have a few more rants to go as the subjects arise. With my apologies in advance!

 

I see I have to double-space paragraphs.

 

I think it is very, very important to get kids in the hobby.

Thats my .02

 

I started a Kennedy Half Dollar collection for my son a couple of years ago, including the proofs. It is almost complete, I have about 10 to go. Some of the newer proof half dollars are crazily priced. He is excited to have it almost done, he keeps wanting to go to the bank to get more rolls, but most days I don't have the cash. I'am definitely doing it for him, I think it is a valuable hobby that he likes and am glad he does.

 

It's only natural to want to share things we love with others. A hobby is wonderful
in that it can get a person through good times and bad. It is educational and will
help keep the mind active well into advanced age. It is rewarding in friendships and
acquaintances. It can provide structure.

Coin collecting is one of the finest hobbies as it can teach so many subjects from
geography and history to metalurgy and statistics. It is often quite financially re-
warding.

It's also important to attract children because the hobby is aging. Unless a whole
new generation of collectors is added there simply isn't going to be enough of a mar-
ket when we go to sell our coins. There was and still is some danger of coin collect-
ing fading out as a hobby for the masses. It would be a shame if the "hobby of kings"
were to shrink to only the wealthy and elite.
























edited for formatting

 

The sole purpose of my AGE, ASE, Commem's, Select Morgans, and Cameo collection is for the direct benefit of my 3 yr old son when he becomes a young man. I have had him on the bourse floor many times already..removing him when he smells of poop! I leave stacks of junk silver coins on the table and stacks of clad..he can detect the difference in sound and plays with the silver ones (Kennedys) old and worn. I take him to the safe and he says daddy are these my piggies? I let him hold the air tite holders of the speial conis I have for him and tell him can you understand gold? He looks at the pictures with me and see's me marking off another in the RedBook and associates it with his piggies. I am 1000% behind promoting this rich historical filled venue with my young son and develop him into a wise and well informed young man..one day he will need to go to college and when he has all the AGE and ASE that are current for the past 35 years assuming he collects them for the next 16..he will be set for dealing with a buyer. I hope that is the case..start em young guys!!

Regards,

 

Aside from the numismatic aspects of introducing children to the hobby there are other less tangible things which are just as, if not more important. When I was a child my grandparents were coin collectors. We lived half a continent away and did not see them often, maybe once or twice a year if lucky. but some of my fondest memories are of my grandfather bringing home sacks of pennies for us to sort through deep into the night. I never found anything terribly valuable, and my Whitman penny album was only half full when I abandoned it somewhere in my teens. But I recall a great and gradual awakening of respect for my grandparents and parents through this activity. I learned that far from being the distant and disconnected people I had thought adults to be, they were actually capable of doing something cool and interesting, a lot more like me than I had realized. I think perhaps it caused me to pay a bit more attention to the things they said, to value their opinions more. In short I am probably a bit better person for it. Such are the subtle influences we have on those around us. So yes, let a child see that life can be fun as an adult. Share your collection.

 

Obviously, but you didn't say why you thought it was important.