I've been giving all my nephews, nieces and cousins coins for gifts for about 5 years now. So far, I've had one really catch and decide he wants to collect foreign coins. His sister asked why I kept giving her coins even though I knew she wasn't really interested. My response was that some day she would, probably, have kids herself and not only would they be something that she could pass on to them, but she would have a story about Uncle Jim (me) Her reaction was, "oh, I never thought about that, please don't stop" I also have an "adopted" nephew who, when his mom comes home from anything that my wife and I are involved with also, asks if "Uncle Jim" sent him any coins! These pictures are of some of my cousins (8, 6 and almost 3) I asked their mom (who is their home school teacher) if she thought they would be interested. I recently got to meet them for the 1st time and made notebooks with one coin from the 20th and 21st (thus far) centuries, plus all kinds of collecting info, along with 2 Lincoln cents folders. I sent the little one a notebook (for his mom to keep up with) plus a small box with several foreign coins to "play" with. His brother's birthdays are in the next few weeks, so I sent them both boxes with foreign coins also. Their moms said that they had a blast looking through them and figuring out what countries they are from. I am hoping that, at least one of them catches the bug!!
That's a great thing to do. I have 15 (+2 in the hopper) grandkids and 20 plus great grandkids. I have made all of them type sets that are geared to their ancestry. I am trying to get them interested in collecting. You can see one of the type sets here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/another-type-set-for-a-grandchild.389880/
Very, very cool. I was in that age group when I started my Lincoln book.... You never know when it will stick with one of them. I have a long distance grandson that I gave a Morgan to years ago. Now he sends me photos all the time of his newest coins.
Awesome! My two oldest are 11 and 5 and I've managed to get them pretty hooked Glad to see some more YNs. The future is bright
I started at 7 or 8, which is the age of the oldest. The middle child who just turned 6 showed the most interest when I gave them the coin books. Hopefully one of them will continue collecting. Even if they don't, they'll still have a collection, whether they want one or not. That's been my theme for the last several years!! Everyone gets a coin collection, whether they want one or not!!
Now that's what I like to see!! I put together some Dansco 7106 albums for all the grandkids. So far two are in posession with the remainder too young yet.
Most of my grandkids have US Mint sets from the year they were born until just few years ago. I was on the mint enrollment for 20 sets a year. They kept adding coins to the point that I couldn't do it anymore. But I have given them a bunch of my accumulation.
Very nice indeed. They look like they are having a blast. My oldest, now soon to be 43 has a love for coins as I started him early. He has set it aside for his career for the time being. My youngest became a mechanic and landscaper and has no interest. But he will talk about his hobby, CB/Ham/SSB all day long and can build a radio from scratch.
Looks like Uncle Jim is a pretty special guy in some young minds!! Great job recruiting new collectors!!! Proves the coin bug can infect young and old alike!!!
I've given birth year mint sets to all of my nieces and nephews. So far none of them have really shown any interest but when one does they will inherit my collection.
I gave birth year sets to everyone a few years back. Ive already determined and told my wife the same thing about the ones who show interest are the ones who get the collection.
For the record, I spent a few years living in Jacksonville while my dad was still in the Navy. Should any of them continue to show interest in numismatics, I would highly recommend taking them to Edgewood Coin Company over in Murray Hill and letting them dig through their foreign coin box. Likewise, you could take them to the Greater Jacksonville Coin Club Show, held on May 26th through the 28th.
Thanks! That is my LCS, I work just down the street from there! I'm planning on being at the coin show in May! I took one my nephews to Edgewood Coin over the summer. He was amazed that there was a place you could buy coins. LOL
Introduce him to the foreign coin box if you haven't already. There's typically some pretty good stuff in there for the price of 8.3 cents per coin.
I believe you can find lesson plans online about coins, so if they are being home taught, make sure mom knows it is great for; Math, visual recognition skills, history, geography, reading, and the list goes on and on.
