Are you still active in any kind of local coin club?
bennybravo
Posts: 1,909 ✭✭✭
In the early 90's, I had a once a month, thursday night coin club. This was a rural, 2nd tuesday of the month meeting where I and 25 to 30 or so folks would meet and have a small auction among ourselves, have a snack, and talk about whatever was going on in the hobby as everyone had a subscription to "coin world", The ages ranged from early 20's young folks with the old timers in their 60's to 80's with much wisdom. I'm 50 now, and think fondly of those pre internet days. Do these kinda situations still exists? Are you still involved in keeping these kinda clubs alive, or is this just a fond memory that will never be duplicated?
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Not any more. I wish that there were a decent local club in my area that is easily accessible.
My focus has turned to writing articles for "FUN Topics" with is the magazine for the Florida United Numismatists organization and providing programs for Winter and Summer FUN shows when asked.
I only went to a few coin club meetings in my area. The last was probably 45 years ago.
Yup, same here -- no coin club for over 100 miles from here, just like no coin shops -- just jewelry stores with a few ASEs. Fortunately, we do have gigabit Internet and there are lots of auctions.
I'd be happy to join a club in Dallas (especially one that focuses on pre-33 gold) if anyone knows of one
I used to meet monthly with two collector friends, although that ended about 30 years ago.
Dave
There are a number of good coin clubs near me, but I've never actually attended one of their meetings. I just can't get motivated to give up an entire evening when I don't know in advance who's going to be talking about what.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
As all the old-timers passed or retired and moved away, the talks and “show and tell” got quite mundane and “dumbed down.”
I stopped attending about 20 years ago.
No, but my wife and I plan on re-joining the Charlotte Coin Club after I retire in a couple of years and we move back to the Carolina’s. We had so much fun with the coin club when we were living in Charlotte. My wife was the club secretary and coordinated the Coin Shows, including an ANA show. It’s a fairly big coin club and hosts a fairly large annual show. The monthly meetings were great, and most importantly we were good friends with a lot of collector/part time dealers and did road trips to all the coin shows and hung out all the time.
Mr_Spud
I am in two local clubs. One usually has 50-60 people in attendance, the other, which I am the Secretary of, is smaller, with about 40 members and a usuall attendance of 16-22, but growing. Both have Educational programs, Auctions, and the ability of members to set up tables as dealers, Raffles and Door Prizes. One club has a Show and Tell segment.
Life member of ANA
There are no coin clubs around me, so no.
This is awesome! Glad these kinda things are still out there!
https://www.ebay.com/mys/active
No local coin clubs (or LCS) in Douglasville, GA. But that seems to be the way most social gatherings are going. Even the local Masonic Lodge has gone from meeting once a week to once a month to handle business. Even the local Treasure Hunting Club has gone to meeting once a month.
Went to my local club a few months back.
Seemed like a fun group.
Might be extreme, but I counted four other clubs within about a 90 minute drive.
If I ever put my dealer hat on, it would probably be worth the time just to schmooze.
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I am a member of the Greater Houston Coin Club. It is well organized and very professionally operated with all of the meeting activities that one would expect. We sponsor the Houston Money Show annually in January. Anyone in the area is more than welcome to join.
https://www.houstoncoinclub.org/
I live in Brisbane, Australia; there are four coin clubs in the greater Brisbane area and I'm a member of all four and go to each of their monthly meetings.
Numbers aren't as great as they used to be back when I first joined a coin club in the 1990s, which in turn were smaller than they were in the club heyday of the 1960s.
The Internet has done a lot to cause club participation and membership to shrink. The younger generation simply isn't as "club-joining" as previous generations, and it's hard to persuade people to pay an annual membership fee and come out to physical meetings, or even watch a meeting on Zoom, when "I can get all the information I need for free" on the Internet, with the upside that the Internet is more private/anonymous.
To survive, clubs need to get creative and offer things that the online world cannot.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
I suppose this is it.
I am a member of a local coin club which meets monthly. We have about 25 members and usually around 10 - 15 attend any meeting. We have a presentation at each meeting, because I am program chairman, I do most of those. We announce the meeting in the local newspaper each month, this does draw some new people. There are no other local coin clubs within 50 miles.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
I’m so very lucky, as I live about 35 minutes away from where the Palm Beach Coin Club holds their twice a month meetings. I believe this is the largest local coin club in the U.S., with roughly around 265 PAID members (the Florida United Numismatists club - FUN, is larger, but that’s a regional club, not a local club). We have about 75 members showing up at each meeting.
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
Can you recommend any coin clubs in North CO?
I have three coin clubs that are all 20 miles from here.
One north (Fort Collins Coin Club), one east (Greeley Coin Club), one south (Front Range Coin Club [in Longmont]).
I go to all three, but not every meeting.
When I retired in 2021 I rejoined the local club, Southport Coin Association , Southport, New York. We meet once a month and average 18 members at each meeting. I'm the V.P. and auctioneer. Last month we held a show and I was also the Raffle Ticket Chairman. I sold the most tickets and won an ASE.
In the past I was a member of the A.N.A. (1982-86) the Jacksonville- Camp Lejune Coin Club (1982-83).
No, I let my membership lapse, I used to belong to the one that meets in Broomfield, Colorado.
@KiwiNumi
As @dcarr mentioned, there are those three in the Northern areas of Colorado. There is also the Northside Coin Club in Broomfield (a northern suburb of the Denver area near Boulder) and the Denver Coin club in its' namesake.
Life member of ANA
Anyone know if there are coin clubs in Orange County California?
There was a greater OC coin club. Not sure how active they still are. You can probably get information at the Buena Park coin show coming up. There is also a monthly Anaheim coin show where you may be able to get club contact info.
Mike Kittle @illini420 is active in the so cal clubs and may be helpful.
My Ebay Store
I've not been to the Baltimore Coin Club yet but I keep getting fliers for them when I attend the Baltimore Whitman Coin Expo. I think their meetings were scheduled when I had another commitment so I never went... my work commitments are set to change this upcoming Fall semester so I might be able to fit this in...
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Past President
Past VP
Current Bourse Chairman, rarely miss a meeting.
Red River Valley Coin Club out of North Dakota.
Be careful about doing too much. I picked up the club after it closed down after Covid. I wrote articles for the monthly meeting notices. I gave presentations on a variety of topics which were never repeated over a 7 year period. They were on Power Point with lots of illustrations. I was the treasurer and took care of all the reports the club had to make to the state and IRS.
I got tried of doing just about everything and asked some people to step up and do some more of the work. A dealer stood up an demanded that I resign. He wanted to take over the club. Nobody said much of anything to him. He took over and I left.
I have belonged to other clubs who honored those who helped to keep the organization going. This one didn't.
@BillJones brings up a good point. Many clubs have Presidents, Secretaries, Treasurers, Program chairs, etc. that do most of the work of what makes a club good. Eventually those people get burned out and want someone else in the club to step up an take over. Many times there are no takers. The club begins to be less engaging and fewer attend, until it is no more. Good clubs are those that have many members that get involved in more of the aspects of running the club not just enjoying the fruits of the labor of the few. Those clubs grow and remain strong over the years. If you do join a club, help out, take your turn at one of the more vital roles in the club. Be more than just a seat in a chair. JMHO
Life member of ANA
No.
HE>I
I used to go regularly to a small one in the '70's, those were good times.
Then life took over.
Today, the closest clubs or shows are now a major schlep, what used to be a 15 minute drive is now 1 hour, and what used to be further out taking 45 min, is now double that.
In the area I live in, NY Metro area, life has gotten impossible on many levels so the short answer here is absolutely not, unfortunately.
That said, the internet and online avenues and options make it so that one barely feels that loss, other than schmoozing with like friends, the camaraderie, and so forth.
Sign of the times, unless I move down South and the options are much better as @winesteven mentioned.
I used to be active with the local coin club, in the 1990s.
I stopped going when I was unable to attend the meetings, due to a conflicting group meeting, and working evenings.
I might start going back (at least a few times per year), now that those conflicts are gone.
But I am more specialized in my collecting now and feel like I should work on that rather than go to a meeting.
I am a member of the Cincinnati Numismatic Association which is going strong and nearing our 100th anniversary.
We have an educational presentation and show and tell at each meeting. We have begun to zoom our meetings. If anyone would like a zoom invitation for our next meeting, let me know. We meet the second Friday of the month beginning at 7:30.
If anyone is traveling through and would like to attend, send me a note and I’ll have you as a guest. We go to dinner beforehand and you would be welcome to join us for that also.
Our yearly show, the Greater Cincinnati Numismatic Expo is coming up July 25-27 at the Sharonville convention center just north of Cincinnati, exit 15 off I75. We still have a couple tables remaining. 100+ dealers and growing.
Hope to see some of you in the future.
Brad
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Louis Armstrong
Salem Oregon has a club, meets once monthly, maybe 60 people attend, most are age 50 or over. A few YNs, usually have some sort of an educational program, raffle, giveaway drawing, auction. A couple of folks set up a table to sell coins. Have an annual Christmas dinner.
There's also a club about 15 miles away in Polk County, much smaller, but same general program, another in Albany, about 20 miles away, and at least one in Portland, about 50 miles away. It seems most of the people go to both the Salem and Polk County club meetings. I haven't been to Albany or Portland.
if you Google local coin clubs, you might find something close to you.