Well, for his birthday I bought my 7-year old (Owen) a Whitman State Quarter album and he immediately went to town going through all my change bins trying to fill it. He probably found 2/3 of the coins. What I didn't expect was his 5-year old brother (Oliver) to get super upset because he wanted a coin book too. Apparently both of them are interested. So, wanting to encourage this behavior I bought Oliver a book too but knowing Owen had pillaged most of my state quarters I needed something different. I settled on a Whitman 20th & 21st Century Type Album. I figured we could find a lot of the coins in my change bucket and many of the others I probably had duplicates of he could have. Each night for about the last week we have worked on his coin book...going through the spare change and pilfering little bits of lower grade coins from my collection. He has had a blast and nearly filled the book. He especially enjoyed the Franklin Half as we were in Philadelphia 2 weeks ago and saw the Liberty Bell and Franklin's Grave. I think the last few I will have to jump on eBay to grab but we are close. We were able to find everything except: Barber Half Dollar Ike Bicentennial Dollar SBA Dollar American Innovation Dollar But, those will be easy enough to snag online. We've both had a lot of fun. Here he is proudly with his Type Album
What a great post! Good to hear your boys are both interested in coins. But I am sure it’s primarily you who want to complete the books :-D
@CamaroDMD .....I have the IKE, SBA and Innovation I will be happy to contribute. Just PM the address.
Great idea! Have you considered trying to collect all the Lincoln cents? There are so many it would keep them occupied for years!
Thank you for the nice messages everyone. I have actually had PMs as well from a couple very generous members offering to help Oliver get closer to completing his book. I really appreciate all the kindness here.
That is fabulous. I am so glad that you are getting your boys into collecting at such a young age. They might like some modern proof coins, as they are bright, and shiny. Perhaps, some of the recent clad Kennedy half proofs?
I actually bought them silver proof sets and a proof ASE from their birth year when they were babies. Both love to get them out and look at them but the 5-year old seems to enjoy it more.
The Ike Silver proofs are great for kids. They are big,shiny, and can be had in great condition for very little money, as they are so common. Same goes for the clad proofs. In fact, assembling an Ike set is one of the least expensive sets of US coins.
My son was about 12 when he started collecting comic books. When he got his first comic book, I purchased the comic book protecting holders and showed him how to put them in them as well as teaching him to put a label on the outside of the Protection Sheet with the Date Purchased and how much he paid for it. I told him that if he was going to collect his comic books, he would have to really take care of them. He was on an allowance at the time and it was only enough to buy a couple of comic books and if he wanted more, he would have to get a job, which isn't easy for a 12 year old. I could believe it when he told me he had a job at the Pharmacy where he got his first comic book. It was a walking distance from our house. Each day that he would work (2 hours) he was paid a comic book. He worked 5 days of the week and he had to keep his grades up. He collected mainly, Marvel comic books. He lives in Georgia now and I'm in North Carolina. He and his family came to visit a couple of weeks ago and I asked him if he still had his comic books. I was not surprised when he told me he had every one of them and that they are in mint shape. I also started him on collecting baseball cards. Each year, I bought in the Years release of all of the baseball cards and he has treated them as good as his comics. My son is in sales. He told me, but it was over my head. He will be 50 this coming October. He has a boat, 2 cars, and a Harley as well as two beach homes in Florida that he rents out. To say I am proud of my son, would be an understatement. He also has three in collecge. Of all my collections, he is my favorate.
I might have made a mistake already though. I let him pluck a lot of the type coins out of my collection and made a point to let him know that the Morgan Dollar (and the Peace Dollar to a lesser extent) is my favorite coin. I gave him a 1921 which he thought was SUPER cool. But, he keeps talking about the Morgan and I'm not sure that this set is within a 5 year olds budget. LOL. I showed him my DMPL 1880-S and he was pretty impressed. He has already told me that my coins will one day be his coins. When I asked him what his brother will get he said "something else."
I, personally, think you opened a can of worms. Although you allowed him to get some of your coins for his collection, he may find it easier to take them from your collection and not ask you because he may feel it was all right to get your coins for his collection.
@CamaroDMD Ya know? I've watched you grow up on these 'boards' and now I'm watching your boys do the same. It won't be long until they too, will be posting here.........
Oh, I'm not that worried about it. We went through my stuff together and I let him have what he needed. He didn't take anything. He's a good kid and I think this is an interest worth nurturing. It probably won't be too long before they are here. I can't believe they are already 5 and 7.
Our two little terrorist granddaughters are both into coins. We encourage and enhance them in their pursuit of collecting. Our youth will carry on our passion, welcome aboard!
I apologize if was out of order about your sons. Hold on to them as long as you can, because one day, they will have to take care of you. As far as coin collecting, congratulations on leading your sons on a great hobby.
Oh...no need to apologize. I totally understand what you are saying. I jokingly said that he had pillaged my collection but the truth is we spent a lot of time "finding" pieces of his book. It was actually a really fun experience. He is also very interested in my coins in general and we have spent a lot of time looking at them and talking about what they are and where they are from. He has gotten interested in a few historical events (he's very interested in the Titanic for example) so a lot of our discussions have been looking at dates and seeing how old the coin is relative to the ship's 1912 sinking. I actually bought a junk silver Barber Half online for him...it's not here yet but I found a 1912 just for that reason.
The time together is the best collection . . . of memories. Before long, they will be too "busy" to spend a lot of time. The older I get, the more I wish I had spent more time with my grandfather when I was a teen.
This is, indeed, one of the best hobbies to share with your wife and children. Many wifes get interested in coin collecting once they actually have time to look at it. To me, I am able to relax while looking through my coins. I do have a question though. I've been using Excel to keep a record of my coins. It takes a lot of time just setting it up. Are there any commercial programs or software available. That way, programmers can go through the process of creating a program.
