Sitting with family and coins and I think I see a spark of the salesman in my eight year old nephew. For the past 5 years i've been giving each of my nieces and nephews a proof year date American Eagle for Christmas. (It's a very nice gift for what $35 buys now). Unfortunately I can usually count on a big sluggish "Thank you Uncle John...<yawn>", but i'm not changing my ways. Someday they will appreciate it . Usually i'm walking around after the gift ripping picking up certificates of authenticity.. etc. Well yesterday, my sisters son, who is 8, Eric, comes up to me while i'm rummaging through my "junk coins box" and starts looking at everything all wide eyed. Naturally i'm egging him on, and an hour later i've given him a morgan, 3 indian head pennies, a couple buffalo nickels etc, and we are both pigs in mud. Anyway this Christmas I will be giving my new protege a special xmas gift, a complete 38-present circulated nickel collection I'm going to make up for him. So I ask you... am I gullible or what?
Me I think it's very nice thing to do :thumb: I can remember as a kid the fun of sorting through my Dad's junk coins and remembring what I learnt from them De Orc :kewl:
I think it's great !! But rather than give the boy the full set - give him the albums and just plug a few holes. He'll spend the next few weeks going through every change jar in the family searching for dates to fill those holes. Hopefully after that he will branch out into other denominations. That's what I did with my son, and 3 or 4 of his friends. That was 4 years ago. It worked on him and every time I see his pals they are telling me how they are still searching & collecting.
You've been owned by a child. With the smart ones, it's whay they do best to uncles and grandparents. In return, you have likely planted the seed which will grow into a full-on obsession, like we have. I propose that you give him the full set you mentioned (so he can see what the goal looks like), and *one* silver Roosevelt. The hook is in his mouth, and it's up to you to set it.
If you teach kids about coin collecting while they are young, there's less of a chance they will try to spend their parent's coin collections at McDonalds.
