Options
Coin Colleciting Merit Badge Requirements are Tougher
bidask
Posts: 14,022 ✭✭✭✭✭
When I was a kid I got my coin collecting merit badge, ............did you?
But holy cow, it was nothing like the below current requirements!
1.Understand how coins are made, and where the active U.S. Mint facilities are located.
2.Explain these collecting terms:
a. Obverse
b. Reverse
c. Reeding
d. Clad
e. Type set
f. Date set
3.Explain the grading terms Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, and Poor. Show five different grade examples of the same coin type. Explain the term proof and why it is not a grade. Tell what encapsulated coins are.
4.Know three different ways to store a collection, and describe the benefits, drawbacks, and expenses of each method. Pick one to use when completing requirements.
5.Do the following:
a. Demonstrate to your counselor that you know how to use two U.S. or world coin reference catalogs.
b. Read a numismatic magazine or newspaper and tell your counselor about what you learned.
6.Describe the 1999-2008 50 State Quarters Program. Collect and show your counselor five different quarters you have acquired from circulation.
7.Collect from circulation a set of currently circulating U.S. coins. Include one coin of each denomination (cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, dollar). For each coin, locate the mint marks, if any, and the designer’s initials, if any.
8.Do the following:
a. Identify the people depicted on the following denominations of current U.S. paper money: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.
b. Explain “legal tender.”
c. Describe the role the Federal Reserve System plays in the distribution of currency.
9.Do ONE of the following:
a. Collect and identify 50 foreign coins from at least 10 different countries.
b. Collect and identify 20 bank notes from at least five different countries.
c. Collect and identify 15 different tokens or medals.
d. For each year since the year of your birth, collect a date set of a single type of coin.
10.Do ONE of the following:
a. Tour a U.S. Mint facility, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or a Federal Reserve bank, and describe what you learned to your counselor.
b. With your parent’s permission, attend a coin show or coin club meeting, or view the Web site of the U.S. Mint or a coin dealer, and report what you learned.
c. Give a talk about coin collecting to your troop or class at school.
d. Do drawings of five Colonial-era U.S. coins.
But holy cow, it was nothing like the below current requirements!
1.Understand how coins are made, and where the active U.S. Mint facilities are located.
2.Explain these collecting terms:
a. Obverse
b. Reverse
c. Reeding
d. Clad
e. Type set
f. Date set
3.Explain the grading terms Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, and Poor. Show five different grade examples of the same coin type. Explain the term proof and why it is not a grade. Tell what encapsulated coins are.
4.Know three different ways to store a collection, and describe the benefits, drawbacks, and expenses of each method. Pick one to use when completing requirements.
5.Do the following:
a. Demonstrate to your counselor that you know how to use two U.S. or world coin reference catalogs.
b. Read a numismatic magazine or newspaper and tell your counselor about what you learned.
6.Describe the 1999-2008 50 State Quarters Program. Collect and show your counselor five different quarters you have acquired from circulation.
7.Collect from circulation a set of currently circulating U.S. coins. Include one coin of each denomination (cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, dollar). For each coin, locate the mint marks, if any, and the designer’s initials, if any.
8.Do the following:
a. Identify the people depicted on the following denominations of current U.S. paper money: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.
b. Explain “legal tender.”
c. Describe the role the Federal Reserve System plays in the distribution of currency.
9.Do ONE of the following:
a. Collect and identify 50 foreign coins from at least 10 different countries.
b. Collect and identify 20 bank notes from at least five different countries.
c. Collect and identify 15 different tokens or medals.
d. For each year since the year of your birth, collect a date set of a single type of coin.
10.Do ONE of the following:
a. Tour a U.S. Mint facility, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or a Federal Reserve bank, and describe what you learned to your counselor.
b. With your parent’s permission, attend a coin show or coin club meeting, or view the Web site of the U.S. Mint or a coin dealer, and report what you learned.
c. Give a talk about coin collecting to your troop or class at school.
d. Do drawings of five Colonial-era U.S. coins.
I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
0
Comments
In fact, I've been meaning to sign up as a counselor for this merit badge with the council office. Thanks for reminding me.
YNs are the future.
As a quick note, Eagle Scouts have been stripped of their rank so it's not guaranteed forever.
I'm very proud to say that both of my boys are Eagle Scouts. Both of them have received job offers on the spot as a result of their interviewer seeing that they were Eagle Scouts.
When my boys were in Boy Scouts, I was the troop's Coin Collecting Merit Badge counselor (as well as for several other Merit Badges). I don't mind increasing requirements for the Coin Collecting Merit Badge and personally feel that several of them could do with an over haul.
The Penny Lady®
That set is still around somewhere in the house.
<< <i>As a former (and current) Eagle Scout, I approve of these requirements
As a quick note, Eagle Scouts have been stripped of their rank so it's not guaranteed forever. >>
I'm not offended easily, but I find your edit to be, well.........., offensive. Get the torches lit and pitchforks sharpened.
It would seem that Tour-de-France titles, football championships, membership in the ANA, and even being a member of the cookie-of-the month club isn't guaranteed forever. It seems, however, that in most cases a person is only kicked out for justifiable cause.
You can get started with the witch hunt now if you'd like, but if it's all the same to you, I'll just conduct myself in such a manner that they'll (forever) see fit to include me in their ranks.
As an aside, I know of no other thing that a young man can do that will carry so much weight in future job interviews, promotion boards, or any other serious endeavor. In my application to medical schools and residency programs it came up in almost every interview. I underestimated the impact it would have so much later in life.
I am proud to be an Eagle Scout and member of the Order of the Arrow with no intentions of dishonoring the BSA.
My only comment here is that forever is a precarious thing and can be unpredictable. I choose not to make predictions about that, which is a standard I use for myself as well. My apologies if that general standard offends you as that was not my intent.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
<< <i>I don't know that these requirements are harder than they were back in 1978. >>
I don't believe these look overly difficult.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
<< <i>
<< <i>I don't know that these requirements are harder than they were back in 1978. >>
I don't believe these look overly difficult. >>
Ditto here. I earned this merit badge in 1979.
i wonder how many adult collectors could do this (without looking of course)
www.brunkauctions.com
Less history to learn! LOL.
I earned all my merit badges and my eagle scout by December 1967. It helps when you go to boy scout camp!
I was not offended by Zoins comment about Eagle Scout not guaranteed to be forever. But I would like to know more.
My curiosity is up on it though.
BTW, I never earned the coin collecting or medicine merit badges. It's a bit funny in retrospect.
I was a scoutmaster a few years ago and I was surprised at how difficult some of the requirements seemed. I went back and looked and discovered that the ones I earned weren't any easier even back then. It's funny how time changes a person's perspective. I think in many cases young people are capable of much more than we give them credit for.