Went to my first ever Coin Club Meeting.....Questions for the community

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by TheCitrusGuy, Sep 19, 2019.

  1. TheCitrusGuy

    TheCitrusGuy Member

    Greetings folks,
    I went to my very first coin club meeting last night, and, while it was okay, I have some questions now for the rest of you concerning coin club meetings.

    Here is the gist of how it went down.
    I got there early to chat with folks, about 45 minutes before the meeting actually started.
    I had a couple of pleasant conversations, and I had brought a few things to show off, nothing earth-shattering.

    The meeting started at 7:30 with a prayer, then a business meeting. They discussed the minutes, upcoming shows, treasurer report, etc. Typical club stuff.

    Then they had a general raffle and a 50/50 raffle. When those were done about 50% of the crowd left before they held an auction of numerous items. I stuck around to see what they were bidding on. I almost won a nice Indian Head Cent, but, got outbid. Oh well. They had a few items only for YN's to bid on, which I thought was great! There were 4 YN's there, under the age of 12 I guessed.

    Then they started bidding on the big stuff, starting bids at $15 and up. Some REALLY nice stuff, out of my current pocketbook range. When the auctions were over, nothing.

    Meeting adjourned, see at the next one in two weeks.

    My question(s)
    Is this typical of a meeting all over the country?
    I assumed there would be some kind of a short educational bit, anything, Carson City coins, valuable mint sets, something.

    Was I expecting something that doesn't usually happen?
    I know what I could do, contact the president of the group and ask if this is something that could be done, but I don't want to look like an idiot asking for something that is not S.O.P.

    It was enjoyable, I doubt I will go every two weeks that they have a meeting, but I may stick my head in occasionally and see what is going on.

    Comments?
     
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  3. Jaelus

    Jaelus The Hungarian Antiquarian Supporter

    Sounds more or less like many club meetings I've been to, except that it is held every two weeks (monthly is typical).

    Sadly, educational content seems to be rather rare. My main club right now is the Fairfax Coin Club (VA) which was founded in 2017 with an educational focus. Every other month we focus purely on education with one or two main speakers (we've even had some prominent guest numismatists speak at our club like Roger Burdette and Peter Tompa). The other months we have our auctions and one smaller educational presentation.

    So clubs that have presentations do exist. There have also been guest speakers that have gone around to the different clubs in my area, even the clubs that do not focus on education. Aside from clubs, if you go to the larger conventions you will find many speakers and presentations - and of course right here on cointalk.
     
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  4. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    Yes, that is pretty typical from what I've seen. The coin club here in Charleston is pretty much exactly as you just described. It's nice to network with people, but I didn't really get much out of it, so I stopped going. The club in Daytona Beach when I was in college was very similar as well.

    I know that some clubs are very active in the educational scene, and some even put out their own newsletter with articles. I've never been lucky enough to live near enough to one of those sorts of clubs.

    The club here does put on a decent show twice a year, so I go to that as often as I can.
     
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  5. Nathan401

    Nathan401 Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    Sounds like my club as well. (Blackstone Valley Coin Club, Uxbridge, Massachusetts). We try to have Guest Speakers, but as was brought up at the last meeting, it’s getting harder and harder to find people willing to come in and speak on a topic.
     
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  6. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    Most I have been to seem to be social hours designed to measure how many old fogies are still living. Very little that you could call productive.
     
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  7. Seattlite86

    Seattlite86 Outspoken Member

    This describes the club I used to attend in El Paso. I ended up making a friend or two at that club that I met with outside of club hours.
     
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  8. Prez2

    Prez2 Well-Known Member

    Similar experience with me and my local club. Bunch of older fellas thinking they know everything trying to sell overpriced crap and their junk. Couple people seem to know their stuff. Most don't. Very disappointing for me. Same type of thing though. Raffle, 50//50, speaker talking about something of little value, etc. Mostly it's a place for hawks to dump their wares and little to enjoy. Don't know what I expected but it wasn't that.
     
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  9. TheCitrusGuy

    TheCitrusGuy Member

    LOL, I laughed out so loud I startled my wife.
    It WAS the Charleston club I was at last night!
    I didn't get a chance to go to the show in Ladson back in August.
    If the planets align well, I may not be in Charleston come the next show.
     
  10. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    When I was in grade school and early high school (50's) we had a semi official club. I got many of my nice or more difficult coins by trading with other students in my age group. We all visited local hot spots for coins and met occasionally to trade. At these 'meetings' we would trade info about terminology, new coins, etc.; the things you find today on line. We had no source but word of mouth. And, we traded based upon local difficulty and some sense of grade based upon G, AG, F, VF, etc., not necessarily based upon published value. It was a great time to be a collector.
     
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  11. Paddy54

    Paddy54 Well-Known Member

    Most clubs follow a format as such, how to fix that is to bring up at the next meeting more table topics or speakers would be of more value to the members.
    Or start your own club and include in your charter the purpose of the club is educational
    Not just a social event,but one where members as well guest speakers can give a talk.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2019
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  12. ewomack

    ewomack 魚の下着

    Though I am a life member (it was really cheap), I have attended only a few meetings of the coin club near me. All of the meeting I went to featured extremely good talks and coin pass-arounds. I never saw nor heard of an auction. All of the selling took place before and after the meeting, not during. Given my experience, I should go more often, but I didn't find it a great place to meet people, sadly. Everyone seemed to have their exclusive cliques. Maybe I'll try again soon.
     
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  13. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    Exclusive cliques. Great observation. I have gone to one of the club meetings (called a meeting but intended to be a bourse) in the greater Houston area and found the clique syndrome to be dominant. Dominant to the point that the sellers would rather clique than sell. Not bragging, but I am of the age and position that I have considerable disposable finances. Not money to throw away, but if I see something I like I might just buy it. Never liked cliques of any kind.
     
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  14. SchwaVB57

    SchwaVB57 Well-Known Member

    Pretty typical, except an educational topic is presented at each monthly meeting. A door prize drawing with 10 to 12 winners each month. A guest speaker presents a program each quarter, usually from the ANA, or a major publication (since published in our club's hometown), and a trade night for members to bring in items to trade with other members a couple times a year.
     
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  15. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    Sounds like a typical club meeting. Some clubs offer an educational timeframe but most do not. Some clubs have a show and tell time slot. I would suggest you go to three or four more meetings and if they are all the same as the first one then seek out some of the members on the board of the club and make friendly suggestions.
     
  16. Beardigger

    Beardigger Well-Known Member

    I went to my first coin club meeting this week too. Was about the same, but there was an educational presentation about revolutionary war congressional medals. The speaker gave a great presentation with history. History of coins (medals) identifying fakes and also brought examples to show. Presentation lasted about 30 minutes. I enjoyed it.
     
  17. TheCitrusGuy

    TheCitrusGuy Member

    Amazing how the answers have varied so much, from yeah that is what mine is like to EXACTLY what I was expecting. Well, if I stay here in Charleston, I may just make a few friendly suggestions.
     
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  18. rte

    rte Well-Known Member

    I'd say go to a few more meetings and see how it goes.

    My local club has an auction sheet that any member can put up to 15 items for sale.
    5% of the sale goes to the club.
    The club also buys a range of coins to sell as fund raisers (I believe these coins come from a dealer that sells wholesale)
    Raffle tickets are available for raffle prizes IF any were donated.
    We used to have one member that bought a lot of jewelry from one pawnshop and they would usually donate something coin related to the raffle....that and or the buyer would negotiate something else coin related into his bulk purchase and donate it to the club raffle.
    One younger member does a newsletter and there is usually some sort of show and tell items.
    I've been known to donate a coin or two that didn't sell from my auction list if prizes are low.
     
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  19. Oldhoopster

    Oldhoopster Member of the ANA since 1982

    Add another to the "pretty typical" response. When I lived in Boston, the BSN had some really good presentations and there were a lot of very knowledgeable members. I've also belonged to some small clubs and usually got roped into an officer's position after a couple meetings. I always tried to drum up interest in the members doing short presentations. I usually had a 5-10 min talk with me if nobody wanted to present (which unfortunately was most of the time)
     
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  20. Islander80-83

    Islander80-83 Well-Known Member

    Yes, very typical and similar experience as the above. The faster you seek out and find those with similar collecting interests as you....that are willing to share their knowledge and experience....the faster you will have a positive experience.

    NOTE: Looks can be very deserving. They're not all as crazy as they look.

    ..........But watch out for the crazy ones!!!! :hilarious:
     
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  21. Prez2

    Prez2 Well-Known Member

    Here I was kinda hoping my experience was somehow a fluke. Guess not so much.
     
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