How to get youngsters interested in coins

Hello all, I’m trying to figure out ways to get the kids in my family interested in coins. I’ve given them cheaper type coins and boxes to keep their coins in. But they seem only to be interested in the current value of each coin.

What are somethings I can do to get them more engaged into the artistry, history, and overall story each coin has to tell?
Thanks!

 

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I let my son put each coin in a 2X2 and in a binder. He learned a lot and has a good understanding of the hobby.

 

Buy them a Whitman’s folder and let them fill holes from change or CRH.

 

Make it fun. If you can swing it with a bank, get them addicted to searching through coins.

 

Also maybe a trip with the kids to a local coin show. Or a museum that has a display of coins found locally, and a history lesson ,without it being taught but shared.
But like anything else there's either a spark of interest or there isn't. You can only offer a taste...but sometimes one doesn't like whats offered... never try and force feed...but offer another hobby or interest that the kids can relate to....my entire family played golf... I love the outdoors, and love to hike...
As for chasing a ball around a well groomed lawn....no thanks.

 

I real great way its to start buying them coins early, got my nephew interested at a
young age, started him on the state quarters and he was hooked ! now he's moved
up to Morgan dollars, and who knows from there !

 

You didn't mention the age of the children. If younger than around eight, they have only learned that coins are worth something to buy "goodies," so that's all they care about. If you make learning about coins, as a collector, fun, you need to pique their interest by challenging them. Make a game out of them finding out everything they can about a certain coin, and if they do well, give them a reward.
Bribery? Yep, winning some reward is a good motivator.

 

he is 10, I think thats a pretty good age to start just because they have a little understanding of what coin collecting is all about and what I tell him...LOL
his birthday is coming up pretty soon so thinking a set of ASE,S might be in
order for his 11 th

 

I'll start by saying that they will either be interested in collecting or they won't be. It comes down to their personality and interests. I took an interest in coins starting around age seven when I took a liking to my father's single Whitman album comprising circulated Indian and wheat cents.

I then became further intrigued when I came upon a wheat cent in circulation (this was in about 1993). In time, I started collecting foreign coins and eventually grew out of an oval brass container I initially held my collection in. What also helped ground me in coins was my grandfather was a collector and an older cousin of mine collected them as well.

Anyway, taking them to a coin show or doing some coin roll hunting could be fun, as suggested. Ultimately, it's up to them if they want to continue from where you've helped start them off and whether they become genuinely interested in collecting, take a liking to their history, or just care what they're worth if they were to sell them.

 

One may approach this another way....as if the kid likes bugs, I would terest him in coins featuring Insects, flowers, boats, horses, etc.etc...
Ut like anything else.. its presentation! We buy with our eyes, or taste,or smell....so if you use that as a bridge to spark the fire.

 

My mother gave me a Franklin half to buy my lunch with at school when I was a kid. That started my coin collecting journey. I spent years collecting worn slick IHC’s, V-nickels and the like….. And I distinctly recall that the value of my coins was always paramount in my young mind…… So use that to your advantage and get them a Redbook. The historical aspect will come. You just planted the seed. Now let Father Time work his magic on them.

 

"Collectors are born, not made" has been said many times. It seems true. And, as said above, kids will either become interested in this hobby or they won't. If they clearly aren't interested, pushing them will likely make them even less interested. They have to discover what they like and don't like for themselves. They may even become interested for a year or two and lose interest for life. Who knows? Don't worry about things that you really don't have any control over in the long term. Enjoy the hobby if you enjoy it and if others come along on the ride with you, great, but if they don't, that's really their own business.

As for me, no one in my entire family had even the slightest interest in coins (they still don't), but somehow I became interested anyway. I think my interest came from pocket change, but pocket change has become a lot less interesting these days, especially considering that it exists mostly to make change. Giving a kid a quarter is almost an insult today. When my nephew was growing up, he openly preferred gift cards to cash. His father has the collector's gene, but it didn't pass on. The family has tried to interest my nephew in sports cards and other collectibles, but he still has zero interest.

Lastly, the coin hobby has really become an adult hobby, which is really why kids probably don't seem interested en masse. Sports cards have gone the same way. Not that no kids are interested (there are some younger people on this forum), but since pocket change doesn't have the power it once had and a billion other more stimulating things exist for kids these days, the best one can hope for is that they will find an interest later in life. They might or they might not.

 

The way I got into it was that my mum was the manager of the advertising account for Air Canada in the 1980s-90s. One of the promos that her (she was a partner) agency put together was a sack of international change for certain giveaways. One was left over, and she gave it to me, on the condition that we (along with my father, ie as a family) would find all the countries on a globe. We did this a few at a time, each evening reading about each from an old encyclopedia we had.

I was hooked - family time, and stories - it wasnt long before I was insisting on more tales from countries I had a particular interest in (one of which I now call home). I am now a professional coin and stamp dealer, and even got my best friend (who at one time made fun of me for it) in the biz, and he is now a foremost expert on a couple of subsections of NA medallic material.

The key is making it early, and meaningful. Connect good memories with it, connect sensible values with it. If you cant make it early, make it interesting - find a way into the inner sanctum.

All of this being said, my Dad has always been into quality items and what makes them, and my mum has always been into history (our family program was Antiques Roadshow - both the British and the American), and this has had a huge influence on my life.

 

I dont know if I’d force someone into a hobby they don’t have much of an interest in.

 

I started with a Whitman’s folder for cents. Since my early days as a child I’ve never stopped. I was five when I started so thanks dad for helping me getting started.

 

Eagle reverse quarters are getting too tough. Some dates are almost unavailable and will be low grade culls if you find one.

I'd suggest dimes or nickels but dimes are less picked over so you have a better chance of finding varieties and higher grades. You might not be able to find a couple of them very easily but in time you will.

CRH is getting tough to put any nice sets together because the coins are disappearing and what's left is degraded. They were only designed to last 30 years and that was nearly 60 years ago.

 

"Collectors are born, not made" has been said many times. "
By whom?

And that's not true...at all...all behaviors one isn't born with...yes true we are animals, but animals with a superior mind. Not an animal who instincts are breed into them by nature.
One becomes a collector for many reasons. One being mentored by another or others. Influenced by others whom they respect or admire.
I had two uncles who collected,and a father who worked in a bank. Thats how I began collecting coins.
I also had a paper route that afforded me a means to obtain coins out of a money bag used to make change for the customers who recieved the paper.
However on a spring day in 1954 I didn't emerge, and ask the doctor smacking my behinde...By chance do you have a copy of the red book on coins? You see Doc for 9 months now....as I was conceived summer of 53.... I've been wondering the current price of an 1877 IHC in xf condition.... this Spring of 1954.
Yes true as most have said you can plant a seed ,and hope it grows...but you cannot force anything as such on any one... as if you do you're setting yourself up for failure. As well creating a mis-trust for trying to do so.