Boy Scout coin collecting HELP

woodardcoin

Hello all,

My son Vaughan (8) just joined the local Boy Scout pack . The other night I was thumbing through his handbook and one of the upcoming chapters/acctivities where the boys can earn a badge is about starting a collection. So when dear ole' dad saw this my eyes popped out of my head and an idea was born. My wife (who also collects ) and I have decided to make up starter kits for the boys that they can keep going with . I am looking for suggestions from the members here on what you would put into the "kits" .

Now all of the funding for this will be coming from my pocket , so I can not go overboard as I would like to . What would you put in the kits to keep the budget low but the enthusiam high ? A memorial cent folder or two ?? Where they could dig through Mom and Dads pocket change trying to fill holes , without braking the bank?


Any thoughts and ideas will be greatly appreciated . I personally would love to give each and ever Scout in his troop "the bug " . All total I think he has 10 scouts in his pack so keep that in mind with your ideas.



Thanks

JP

NHSBaseball

That's a great idea. I earned that merit badge when I was in Scouts. In the handbook there is a list of requirements for that particular merit badge. I remember that putting together a type set was one of the requirements, for example. I would check the manual, see what the requirements are, and go from there.

woodardcoin

Here is the text from the collecting section of the handbook.

Make a collection of anything you want. Start with ten things put together in a neat order .Show and explain your collection.

Thaat basically it. It list diefferent collections .ie Shells , stamps, COINS. LOL I thought it would be great to start all of them into coins and hope that that little seed will grow into a full-time collector .

djm

Funny story about the Boy Scout coin collecting merit badge. Half of the troop got their merit badges using my coins, but for some reason I never got the merit badge.

covers

I got my start in stamp collecting, and my avocation for the past 40 years, because of Boy Scouts. I figured here is an easy badge and I "borrowed" some of my sister's stamps. Well, the person in charge of awarding the badges rightly flunked me on my test because I couldn't identify where one of the stamps was issued (an "A & T" overprinted stamp from Annam & Tonkin). Well, that got me motivated enough to start learning ...... Got my badge finally, eagle, etc.

JP - if you want some foreign coins to have for the kids, please PM me for a donation.

Stella

Have a bunch of coins (Lincoln pennies, for example) that they can put into Cent folders or something similar. You could 'salt' the group of coins with a couple of interesting earlier dates (ones which are not too expensive.) This would add to the thrill of the hunt when the kids search though the coins and put them in the folders.

Also, you could have some flips and maybe a cheap loupe for each of them. Having some Redbooks would be great! This would be very informational, and there are lots of coin pictures for the younger Scouts to look at.

19Lyds

Your description sounds like Cub Scouts friend and there is a difference.

Boy Scout Coin Collecting merit badge requirements.

Boy Scout Collections merit badge requirements.

Cub Scouts Wolf Badge Start a Collection Requirements.

Basically, Cub Scouts allows Akela (the Scouts Adult or Parent) to sign off on requirements whereas Boy Scouts has set coin collecting requirements which must be signed off by a qualified Merit Badge Counselor.

I think a whitman folder would be a little over the edge but perhaps some of the US Mint presidential dollar holders available for free from the US Mint?
Maybe some of the Whitman plastic year set holders?

Just about anything would work but you'll want to keep it simple or you'll lose them. Besides, 8 year old boys would rather jump and play than sit sorting through coins.
At least, that has been my experience.

zeek

<< <i>Here is the text from the collecting section of the handbook.

Make a collection of anything you want. Start with ten things put together in a neat order .Show and explain your collection.

Thaat basically it. It list diefferent collections .ie Shells , stamps, COINS. LOL I thought it would be great to start all of them into coins and hope that that little seed will grow into a full-time collector . >>



Mint sets normally have 10 or more coins. Required I think, or when I was a Weblo, a small research report. Require a coin related report for the year the set is from. coinsboby.com sells sets at FMV and free shipping.

britintexas

I'd say nickels are the best, you can get a good range of dates from pocket change and even the keys are available from circulation if you search enough. It's a little more challenging / interesting than memorials IMO because other than the S mints the full cent set is extremely easy to find. You also get to go another 2 decades back. A year set of nickels is easy enough to find because for every year at least one coin is plentiful.

Edited to add even the war nickels are available from circ. You could perhaps seed a couple into a roll for your son. Your local B&M should have some circulated examples for less than a dollar.

Eagleguy

Lee is right, at 8 years old your son should be in the Cub Scouts. But a collection of coins now may put him on the path to the CC merit badge later on (which I never did get myself ). Might I suggest statehood quarters?

JH

baddspellar

You might also consider darkside. You can buy foreign coins by the pound and the boys can organize by country. This is also quite inexpensive.

VAMSKY

Great ideas! To make them "stick" and the boys to continue their numismatic journey, i.e., get the "bug" you'll need to discover what motivates them. Is it the potential for profit; admiration of the technical process of minting coins; the history behind the coin; the fraternity of fellow collectors; etc.? Find the motivator(s) and you've found the key. My motivator was my dad. He had a passion for it and I discovered we could share quality time in this pursuit. Today there are virtually unlimited resources online to educate YN's. Don't forget to show them these resources and turn 'em loose.

lcoopie

show how to handle a coin
get a mint and a proof set, show the differences
get magnifying glasses

show the different parts of a coin, mint marks
show how to store coins

get some older ones, indian heads, buff nickles, merc dimes, halves, morgans

sounds like fun

jhd

I take all my culls and slicks put them in 2x2. My wife looks up something in history that happend in that year and then we give them out for good behavior and prizes. Then the next meeting they have to tell everyone about the coins history " mint, metal, type, .." We can see who is into or is getting into the coins by how much they know about the coin. It works well and also get them working on thier history badge.

jmcu12

Hey woodardcoin, how about a type set of sorts. So instead of putting together a set of lincolns - nothing wrong with this btw, just offering another idea - you could get the kids started learning about ALL of the coins that the US has produced?

I think that this, along with a red book (maybe you could get this donated by a local dealer?) would be a great way to get them started.

jmcu12

I was thinking about this and thought about which 10 coins to include, if we are indeed limiting ourselves to 10.


Lincoln Cent - Wheatie only - you can get tons from circulation with the memorial reverse, it needs to be special

Steel Lincoln Cent

Merc Dime

Standing Lib Quarter

Barber Half

Seated Dime

Three cent (nickel or silver depending upon grade and cost)

Silver War nickel

Two cent

Large Cent

These can all be had by going through the junk bins at most coin shops - look at all the history just in these coins alone!

Silverstate

8 yr old is a cub scout.

But one of the requirements is to collect a year set from the year you were born to date.

So, for a young guy that should be pretty easy in pennies or whatever.

The handbook is helpful for them to learn a little.

They need to learn about the mint marks ect. Great fun, once in a while a new collector is born via this merit badge.

Of course an approved merit badge counselor is needed to sign that "Blue Card"