Community Voice Response: June 9, 2020

From the May 15, 2020, Numismatic News E-NewsLetter

What are you doing to help encourage the next generation to take up coin collecting?

Here are some answers sent in from our E-Newsletter readers.

I am offering thousands of coins on the internet, scientifically described and not slabbed, to let new collectors get the emotional feeling which can’t be experienced in a plastic environment.

Dr. Hubert Lanz
Address Withheld

We actively donate boxes of coins to young collectors through youth programs with ANA, FUN, Virginia State, along with local coin clubs. My company also pays young collectors’ local club dues. Further, we offer young collectors in our store sets at no cost. Old folders are free all the time.

Richard Schornak
Address Withheld

I try to motivate a new generation by handing cashiers half dollars. Some freak out, and it’s funny to see their reactions.

Name and Address Withheld

Our club has a monthly coin show. We are now preparing to begin a Kid’s Corner at the show, where children can answer a few questions and earn one or more coins. We are hoping to attract parents and children to the show and to our club meetings. We intend to listen to the children to learn about their interests.

Tim J.
South Brevard Coin Club
Melbourne, Fla.

I must admit I skipped a generation, so I’ve started off my first grandson with a 2016 Canadian Mint Birth Set. (None made by U.S. Mint.) And the second grandson received a 2019 U.S. Mint Birth Set.

Mike White
Lake Dallas, Texas

I have run the trivia challenge for my club the last couple of years, and I also help with the young collectors at the elementary school. I go to five career days during the year when school’s in session to talk about coins. I always carry some coins around with me so that if I run into some young people in a waiting room or something, I can go ahead and tell them about the history of the coins I am carrying.

Name and Address Withheld

My stepdaughter, Catherine, asked me to help my developmentally disabled grandson get the Boy Scout coin collecting merit badge. I obtained the Whitman Scout badge folders for him and two younger grandchildren. We visited a local coin dealer and spent a day going through my jars of coins.

Edward O’Connor
via Facebook

I told my daughter she could keep any old coins she finds in our change. So I planted some Indian Head cents in there. She was shocked!

Mark Shure
via Facebook

The Fairfield Coin Club, the Northern California Numismatic Association (NCNA), and the Vallejo Numismatic Society, all of northern California, have joined together to promote and to entice young people into our world of money hobby with their “IKEs For As and JFKs For Bs,” which rewards students with letter grades on confirmed report cards and academic excellence with seldom seen Ike dollars and the likewise Kennedy halves. This is offered to neighboring local coin clubs and includes a magnifier and coin wallet.

Also, NCNA has its Treasure Chest, which encourages and invites youngsters to dig for older and recent foreign coins with stipulations such as “don’t place the coins in your mouths or throw these at your younger sister.” This program was created by Donald L. Hill, of Vallejo, Calif., derived from donated foreign coins in volumes.

Regretfully, the current pandemic has curtailed and canceled the above two but, once normalcy is returned, these are ready to be implemented.

In addition, the California State Numismatic Association has added an Intern Director to its statewide governing board, Matthew L. Malvini, who is also occasionally writing for the association’s award-winning California Numismatist. Matthew may be remembered by Numismatic News readers as a “Coin Celebrant,” in the April 16, 2019, issue.

Michael S. Turrini
Vallejo, Calif.