How to get youngsters interested in coins

Get a nice big world map and have them find a coin from each country. Then get a pre-WWI map and find those countries.

 

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At the worlds fair of money...its a great show to spark a kids interest. As they get a passport and as they walk the show and stop by each country they have their passports stamped ,and usually get a token coin from that country. I've been to that show in Baltimore, and it was such a pleasure watching both parents and kids going to each booth and having their passport stamped and getting a free coin.
When I worked the local shows... it gave me such joy..watching the kids,as well grand pa ,or mom bring them to the show.
You know we all take issues about that brat kid....but one needs to ask one self...has anyone ever gave the child some postive mentoring....one needs not spend a fortune to please a child....just show them that you care...and want to spend time with them....deep down thats what they desire...a half hour of playing catch....with them. Or sharing with your daughter her interest... goes a long way.
As a store manager I treated each child who entered the store as future customer, I gave them respect,and you know what...most of the time got it back.
I totally hate the saying " children should be seen, and not heard"
Who ever penned that saying...must of had a terrible childhood!

 

Forgot to mention the Mint's site for youngsters:
https://www.usmint.gov/learn/kids

 

Thank you all for your great replies. I’ll make sure I’m not making them feel forced. Think I’m going to take them up to a coin shop and let them pick out some coins that interest them and a folder for searching for newer coins in circulation. Thanks again!

 

I think my interest was stimulated by foreign coins from "exotic" lands (exotic being anywhere other than SE Kentucky )

 

I’ll tell you this little story. My grandson is in his early twenties. He lives half way across the country and I don’t get to see him as often as I would like….. A dozen years ago I went home for the holidays and carried a roll of cull Morgans to give to my many assorted grandkids, nieces and nephews. That Morgan really intrigued him and now twelve years later he is as raging a coin-o-holic as I am. Now I look for excuses to go visit so I can take my grandson to his local coin shop….. Sometimes it just sticks.

 

How old are they because the US MINT has age related coin collecting stuff.
such as these from 2019 (I have both in case something special is found like the Congratulations sets I had).

 

Exactly what I was going to say...

 

Since you asked, I'll cite a few examples below, one from a 1923 issue of The Numismatist. The claim has been said so many times over such a spread of time that it's reached near cliché status. A deeper Internet search will reveal countless other examples.

And it's a controversial claim, of course, which is why, in my original post, I followed it up with "it seems true." Key word "seems." That's my opinion. I've also found, again, my opinion, that collectors tend to want to turn other people into collectors, so the claim that collectors "can't be made" tends to ring sour with them. It defies their confirmation biases. But I'm sure that cases do exist to the contrary.

I have known collectors and I have known non-collectors. Each seem to approach the world differently. To take a very personal example, I am a collector, but my wife is not. She does not understand my desire to collect things at all. She has never collected anything and I highly doubt that she ever will. Yet she has lived with a collector (me) for a few decades now and the behavior has not "rubbed off on her." She appreciates many things, even some of my own collection, but she doesn't have the desire to possess things in the way that most collectors do. My nephew has exactly the same mentality. Another friend of mine once saw my collection and said "I've never collected anything in my life." To the contrary, other members of my family have piles of collections in their homes. This isn't a scientific study, of course, but I've seen too many examples of the dichotomy to dismiss the claim. Like most such claims, it doesn't carry universal truth, but it does seem to carry at least a general truth.

https://arterritory.com/en/conversations_with-collectors/conversations_with-collectors/18676-collectors_are_born_not_made/

https://www.amoa.org/pricecollection

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/22/...or-dies-specialist-in-antiquities-was-85.html'

https://www.larryslist.com/artmarket/the-talks/i-have-been-a-born-collector/

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy...de-good-manners-design-dealer-patrick-parrish

https://books.google.com/books?id=QjlOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA538&lpg=PA538&dq=collectors+are+born+not+made&source=bl&ots=OOfkVtSC2K&sig=ACfU3U3jeNQlp107RP7goiSVNVWn3keqmQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi70sbB7_34AhW2lYkEHYzaD_EQ6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=collectors are born not made&f=false

 

Welp, I even tried bribery but nothing worked with my kids. They think coins are stupid.

 

I started collecting coins maybe 6-7 years ago. It was right out of the middle of nowhere. Being that I’m old enough now to get “Senior Discounts" I guess that makes me a “MADE” collector rather than “BORN”.

I’m a retired school teacher still subbing in high-schools. I do “Coin-Club” with kids at different schools. If they’re interested I start them off with either “State” or “National Park” quarters. They are available anywhere you get change.

Lots of guys calling themselves “real” collectors really hammer me for getting my kids collecting stuff with zero appreciation upside. My answer is really simple. HS kids change their interests faster than their socs. If they want to bust everything out sometime and go buy pizza and pop ... they’re out NOTHING. Pocket change invested ... pocket change spent. NO angry mother is coming after me with a frying pan because her child has seriously more $$$ into a collection than they can quickly get out.

Laugh at me all you want ... but I use Littleton a lot. Right now they’ve got the entire ATB Quarter collection all in one shot for $19.95, a little $5.95 premium over 56-coins. Less than 11¢ per coin. All in BU condition. YES ... I gotta teach them about Littleton's ways. I call that part of the game. Once you learn how to play it’s simple.

My very first coin was a BU ASE for $19.95 w/ FREE S&H ... from Littleton.

 

Welp, I’m not a Littleton fan and instead attempted to teach the tremendous upside aspects with little to no effort whatsoever. Perhaps this is because my kids are lazy I felt doing barely nothing would appeal to them. I went with this because for the older one there was the interest in money. She’d gotten a job all on her own, opened a IRA on her own, and was making $300 a day, during summers with only a HS diploma. Buying coins worth several thousands for $5-$50 should appeal to most everyone, and certainly wouldn’t draw any frying pans. I’d consider this methodology better than spending similar sums on coins with little to no future value.

 

That which appeals to you is considerably different to what appeals to most mothers of HS kids. I have NO interest in trying to explain why their child got jacked-up losing $50 on any coin that I suggested. I’m happy that you have successful children. Those that I work with are not yet in that same peer group. Like I said before ... My reasoning is based on the behaviors of a sample group that changes their minds like the changes in temperature and wind direction.

This is still a HOBBY. People COLLECT things for many different reasons. Those reasons include appreciation of future value but are not always just that reason.

 

My experience has always been that the collector instinct is most easily seen in the desire of kids to plug holes and the immense satisfaction they get in completing a collection. Almost all the kids who started collecting from the 1930's to the 1960's began in this way.

Coins in circulation today are older, more diverse, and far scarcer than they were in 1957 when I started collecting buffalo nickels. Even 50 year old coins in those days were almost unimaginable and today most coins date back 55 years and a few date back over a century. All the better coins were picked clean from circulation before I started but I didn't know that then. Today many coins in circulation have never even been looked at and scarcities abound.

New collectors should learn the ropes anyway before they start buying expensive coins. What better and less expensive way than to find coins in circulation.

I think you're doing great work and if more followed your lead the success of the hobby would be assured for generations to come because many collectors start with their parents' and grandparents' help and encouragement.

 

Thank You.
The facts sort of help me out here just a little bit.

The 50 State quarters (authorized by Pub.L. 105–124 (text) (PDF), 111 Stat. 2534, enacted December 1, 1997) was a series of circulating commemorativequarters released by the United States Mint. Minted from 1999 through 2008, they featured unique designs for each of the 50 US states on the reverse.


The 50 State Quarters Program was started to support a new generation of coin collectors, and it became the most successful numismatic program in history, with roughly half of the US population collecting the coins, either in a casual manner or as a serious pursuit. The US federal government so far has made additional profits of $3 billion from collectors taking the coins out of circulation.

In 2009, the US Mint began issuing quarters under the 2009 District of Columbia and US Territories Program. The Territories Quarter Program was authorized by the passage of a newer legislative act, H.R. 2764. This program features the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.


I’ve picked up a number of sets of both the “Sates” and “America the Beautiful” programs on deals very close to face value. I feed these to kids over a period of time. They think it’s so cool when I hand off a BU coin to replace their pocket circulation coins, many of which have taken a beating along the way.

 

Take them to a show. IMHO that's a great way to start learning. Some shows, like the one I attend in Broadview Heights (Cleveland area) every month, usually give out free coins (usually foreign) to kids. I always felt that coin collecting and stamp collecting were GREAT and FUN ways to learn about history and geography and languages. It's a great way to learn about other people around the world who are different than you.

 

That which appeals to you is considerably different to what appeals to most mothers of HS kids.

Huh? So option 1 HS kid is taught how to buy a coin for $5 bucks that is worth $5K.

or option 2: HS Kid spends $30 bucks on coins likely never worth more than $25.

I’ll admit I’ve been outta HS for a really long time, and I obviously have no grasp for what appeals to most HS Moms but I see no issue with option 1.

 

It's REALLY that easy...

 

SERIOUSLY?!?

That happens ALL THE TIME. Coin collectors are just all falling over each other getting all the great $5G deals for ONLY $5.

I see it everywhere. Did you all miss the memo?!?

 

Now you’re just being immature. I’ve been doing it for several years and if you don’t know how that’s on you because the information is widely available. It is easy and I’d expect any 6th grader could do it. First one was $30 second was $9. So $39 becomes $2200. I haven’t done any selling in a year or so and those are just recent sales. IIRC spending little effort one month I’d picked up 3, $50, $5, and $28. Sold total was $11,549. There’s more to collecting that just making random purchases without first doing a bit of educational reading. There’s nothing wrong with State Quarters, and I didn’t poke fun at that but if you teach a man to fish….So yes, it’s really that easy.