My son wants to start collecting. Ideas?

Dimetime

We always hope our kids will take up our hobbies we enjoy. Well my 8 year old son told me he'd like to start collecting coins. Now the question is where do I start him? It would seem to me that he should pick a coin and start a low end set, like wheat pennies. I'm so tempted to give him some of my coins, but wouldn't that ruin the fun of getting the coins yourself.

What coins did everyone start with?
What do you consider a fun coin to collect?
Would you've wanted to be given coins or did it mean more to find them yourself?

wallstreetman

A low end set like Wheat Pennies? Have you seen the prices on some of these Wheat Pennies lately? Ask him what he likes and tell him to get a Paper Route like I did! At 8, I guess he can start with collecting cans for coins!

wallstreetman

I started with Indian Head Cents!

wingedliberty

I agree with wallstreetman, Start him with Wheats, Mercs, and also Statehoodquarters, also try foreign, alot of dealers have them by the pound very cheap. Start with Dansco and Whitmans. That is how I started. Nurture him and answer his questions with patience, take him to shows, Shows are great for kids.

Brian

MrLee

My daughter started with wheat cents and, being I have quite a few, let her go through them and pick out what she wanted. She had a real good time searching, sorting, grading, then putting them in her new album. She goes with me to all the shows and I'll pick up a couple for her here and there. Being she takes her album with her, she also has had several dealers contribute to her collection. (There really are some very generous dealers out there.) It's turned into a real nice collection that she's quite proud of. We're also working on a Roosevelt collection.

It's turned into a Father/Daughter thing for us and she very good about keeping an eye on upcoming show dates and reminds me when one is getting close. This has been a joy for me as, of all my kids, she's the only one to take an interest in coins.

Guess who will know what to choose when it comes time to divide my collection

ursabear

Cool question! I just went through this myself.

Similar to that above, wheats and circulated mercs are great, and yes, the old-style folder albums are nice because they are fairly durable, lightweight, and with a little priming of the hole, easy to use.

Jeffersons are also cool. You can still get them from the bank in rolls by the dozens and work on treasure hunts with them!

ccr

When I collected as a kid, I was into wheaties. At the time, there where a number of coin shops in town that had a cigar box type boxes with cheap coins that I could afford. Some had Buffalos or Wheaties or cheap silver coins. For me, I went towards the pennies. So the approach that was taken with me was to let me decide on what I liked/wanted. One of my brothers went towards V-Nickels. Another went towards Jefferson nickels. Neither one collects anymore. I left coin collecting and came back a couple of years ago after a very lengthy furlough. So one approach is to let your son see whats out there and let him pick out what he likes.

ursabear

P.S. I have a little bag of wheats I'd love to donate to the treasure hunt. PM me if you wish them for him.

KlectorKid

I started with some seated stuff mostly dimes and half dimes than moved towards bust stuff while buying whatever I liked at the same time. Then it was onto gold and draped bust.

Askari

How about the Dark Side? Really, it's a great way to learn geography, history, world cultures, and so on. World coins -- or banknotes -- have many attractive designs that can fit better in a young collector's budget. A BU US coin can cost much more than an older BU foreign coin. A very attractive collection can be built for a modest layout and you'd be surprised what can sometimes be found in (US) dealers' "junk boxes." It could be interesting to collect issues of countries from which their ancestors immigrated or issues from their birth year or so on. In fact, there are many, many more ways to collect world coins or notes than there are themes by which to collect only US coins. A very popular way to start out is to build a "one-per-country" set. That's a real eye-opener, both from the variety of designs to challenge of trying to find where some of these nations are (or were). A lot of Darksiders of all ages enjoy trading their extras for coins they don't have. They can even trade with people in many different countries. And, best of all, you don't have to kit them out in abestos before allowing them to read CU threads "over there."

trozau

Bring the kid with you to a coin show and let him loose on a world coin junk box. That way he'll be able to choose the coins that are beautiful and interesting to him. And like Askari said, it opens him up to learning not only about the coins that he picked but the country and its people as well. The start should be interesting and full of variety. He'll be able to decide later which way he should pursue when it is time to get serious. MOO.

TheNumish

A few months ago my wife and I watched my friends 11 year old daughter for the weekend. I had a map of the world and gave her a bunch of foreign coins to put on the country they were from. I let her keep up to three coins from each country. It was a lot of fun watching her try to figure it out. Showed her the Krause catalog so she could try to figure out some of them. I also gave her a dansco album for state quarters and gave her a bag of quarters to go through and try to fill it in. Then I gave her a 1992 silver eagle for her birth year. Then my wife took her to the mall and they got their nails done. Then my wife bought her a bunch of clothes. Then we took her to dinner and then a movie. We saw the second Harry Potter movie which I didn't like as much as the first one. Now she's calling to come over for another weekend. Don't know if we can afford it.

relayer

You could tie it in to teaching something. That's the theory behind the statehood quarters.

Or a big pile of wheat cents to look through and start an album.

hookooekoo

I got my nephew started by getting him one of those 20th century type coin albums. It's cheap to start filling it up because some of the stuff you can get out of circulation, and some of the older stuff you can buy real cheap (after all, when all you need is one Mercury Dime, you can get an XF for about a buck).

TommyB

My 5 year old son goes to coin shows with me and at each one he gets to pick out a coin he wants. (I do a pretty good job at directing him to what I want him to pick). I got him a 1900 type set album and he absolutely loves filling it up. One coin at each show. I have fun with it too. Next coins shows are Sacramento and Santa Clara. Yippee.

michael

for me

the best coins to start him with that will hold their values and also/maybe go up and also learn him the bestabout coins and how to grade and the history and romance of coins

is to only buy 1800 to 1954 coins also commems till 1954 as type coins that are clean and eye appealling from grades good 4 to as best as you can get like a gem common date walker 1930 buff nickel now of course an early large cent would be great in a solid good vg fineclean and eye appealling!

it all depends ion the price range the higher priced coins are okie as type coins early coins in good vg whereas the walkers merc dimea in choice and gem ms gradxes! still reaasonable

but as always eye appeal and value play the most important part!

many 19 century type coins are great values in vg fine vf even good and if the coins are eye appealling clean and look good i bet they will be great buys as per the above i have said

i would totally stay away from all modern coins unless raw from circulation/searched roll coins at face value

sincerely michael

clackamas

Proof seated halves Seriously start with moderns, Get some BU rolls from the bank and ahve him find the choice ones. Its a cheap way.

ARCO

My local dealer has a wheatie special for $9.99. For that you get 100 wheats, all different dates. Have to say after years of collecting, that it was still magical and exciting to open up the bag and find early date wheaties. How could any kid not love that?

Tyler

keets

1----Whitman Lincoln Memorial Cent folder.
1----Red Book.
1----ANA Grading Book.

pick a day that works good for a routine, maybe saturday. take him to the local bank and let him get 10 rolls of pennies from one of the tellers. roll up what's left and go back the next saturday for an exchange. if you start with current modern issues you should be able to instill an understanding of grade difference in circulated and AU/BU coins at little expense while allowing him to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

starting with lincolns is the only way to go since it's such a common coin and easy for those little fingers to handle. then work on up the denomination scale. he'll also get a chance to read that Red Book and learn some about history as a bonus

good luck.

al h.

WWW

As a kid, I loved collecting Indian Head Cents. They were readily available in 19th century dates which I felt added to the mystic of the coin.

RYK

I started with Indian Cents, Buffalo Nickels, and Mercury Dimes, allcoins that were/are out of circulation and reasonably priced in circulated grades (except for the keys) when I was 6 (1971). I had a grandmother with a large box of these and other coins, and she would take a coffee cup and take out a cupful of coins, and we would sit together and insert what we could into Whitman folders. I thought it was a lot of fun!

Dimetime

Thanks for all the great ideas. I think I'll let him hunt through some coin books and maybe a show or two and let him pick one he thinks is cool. He'll have to like the series to keep up his interest. Secretly, I'm pushing for wheat and mercs.

Fairlaneman

This is easy. Just purchase a Merc that looks like your Icon and he will be hooked for life on the Pretty Little Lady. BTW when I purchased that coin its cost was right at $70. Still have not figured out why I sold it.

Actually VF Lincolns are Cool also and for the most part affordable.

Ken

StillLurking

Memorial Lincolns 1959 to date. A complete set can be pulled from pocket change with only a little trouble in the early 70 S coins. Easy to upgrade too.
Canadian small cents 1920 to date for something foreign. Six "key" dates in the 1920s are inexpensive and make a great Christmas/birthday gift to help the collection along.
State Quarters and Jefferson Nickels, again from pocket change.
Have your son roll the rest for a "coin money" account.