As it relates to several posts made recently, I wanted to share a story from my personal experiences regarding getting kids (or anybody for that matter) interested in coin collecting. My wife and I recently attended the Central States Numismatic Society's Spring Convention in St. Louis. The CSNS was giving away copies of an old video the US Mint had made regarding coin minting and collecting to any teacher that was interested. My wife is a grade school teacher and thought that she might like to have a copy. It came with a booklet or two and maybe some exercises. It's about a half hour tape. It's a bit dated, but still enjoyable to watch. She showed the video to her kids the next week. They were all excited about it and couldn't believe all the bags of coins sitting there on pallets, etc. She also took in a couple of my mint Proof sets to show the kids. The next day, no less than half of her class brought in coins to show her. Some had wheat pennies, or Canadian pennies or other random coins that probably weren't worth much monitarily, but that the kids thought were really cool. I'll bet at least one of those kids ends up collecting coins to at least some extent at some point. At any rate, any chances like that to broaden a kid's horizon would be silly to pass up. Although we all don't have a cool video to show, I'd take advantage of any chance you get to show off a few coins at a school, Cub Scout metting, youth group, etc... you might just make a lasting impression on a child. And don't forget, along with initially being interested in coins, often times, interests in history and other subjects comes right along with it. Thanks for your time and happy collecting!
I'm a seriuois 13 year old collecter and it is good to reach kids my age I'm a 13 year old collector and I am serious about collecting (trade dollars type gold, M.S. silver 3 cents) but not many kids my age collect more than the state quarters. I think kids need to be reached at a young age and brought into collecting, because they are the future of our hobby.
I just introduced my 7 year old grandson to the State Quarter progam. I had saved about a dozen quarters and purchased a nice album. The day before yesterday we sat down and filled about 12 to 15 holes with the coins I had saved for him. He is very excited about filling the other vacancys himself. Lotsa fun.--Proud paw paw
