What are good first coins for a YN?
Zoins
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Just curious on what people think are good first coins to give a YN to generate interest in the hobby?
Recently I've been thinking slabbed MS Morgans might fit the bill.
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Raw Morgan's. It is good to feel the weight of real coins.
Common date Morgans in 63 or 64.
Washington Quarters from the 1940s and 1950s in 64.
Silver Eagles in 69 or 70.
Peace Dollars in 63 or 64.
Franklins in 64 or 65.
Mercs in 64 or 65.
Would all be good.
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Some 19th-century circulated coins (half cent, large cent, 2-cent piece, Morgan dollar etc.)
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Mid to upper range wheat cents. Lots of bang for the buck. A strong set of VF/XF matched brown cents are attractive and although not expensive are somewhat difficult to obtain. An enjoyable pursuit and one that doesn't require a minimum age to collect.
A nice mint state Columbian Expo commem.
Agree with the Morgan because it's heavy and they have never seen it. Maybe a 2/3/20 peice. It's a denomination that they never knew/saw so it will really pique their interest.
yes
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
We are talking about people with very little money to spend on coins. People between the age of 12-15. Maybe younger. Kids don't have money to buy a Morgan silver dollar. GET REAL! CIRCULATED Lincoln pennies. Jefferson nickels. And yes, even ROOSEVELT DIMES. That's where to start. It's wonderful that us old folks care about getting kids into the hobby, but keep it real. You all started with pennies. You're still with it. That's how young kids should start out today. It's the only way they can. Repeat after me.........CIRCULATED COINS......POCKET CHANGE.....it's fun! Don't you all remember what it was like to be a kid collecting coins?
I'm thinking it may be less about collecting the specific coin but having a halo coin to create interest. My father and grandmother gave me silver dollar coins that I'll always treasure but coins I purchased myself were lower denominations when I started.
Zoins, do you still have those silver dollars? I'll bet you do. Or wish you did.
Of course I do!
One of the coins my Dad gave me was a circulated Morgan.
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trophy coins, maybe a nice HR Saint in gem
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Mercury dimes are affordable (generally), have the attractiveness of Renaissance period coins and it is relatively easy to locate them raw or slabbed.
At a sandwich shop I used to frequent, I would present the teenagers working there with the option of choosing their tip; a nice AU Mercury dime or fiat currency. Not one time did any of them choose paper money. It was a good primer for talking about numismatics and for me it was just plain fun to see the employees that knew me scramble to ensure they took my order.
Eventually I had to stop because I didn't have the heart to leave anyone out so tipping with silver got too expensive. The interest and excitement those kids showed was genuine and the experience was rewarding for me.
Imagine the fun of holding those raw and running your fingers over the fields and devices
Hmmm... The rim is too sharp. Let me grind it down with dad's sander.
Forget US coins. If you want to generate real interest give them some inexpensive 4th century Roman coins in high grade. No slabs needed.
This former YN was blown away by early 20th and late 19th century type stuff. It was so different from the Lincolns, Jeffersons, and Washingtons I saw in change. And of course world coins and ancient stuff really drove the imagination too.
And I'm talking about inexpensive stuff too.
Btw, the YN who won the auction for our club's coin collector starter basket has decided to join the club full time and drag along Dad/Mom and kid brother too. What was in the basket? Some starter coins, a couple Lincoln planchets, a Red Book, Whitman coin folders, and some other reading material, along with an auction catalog from Kagin's with lots of color pictures of really cool coins.
So lots of different things. Be creative.
Gonna get me a $50 Octagonal someday. Some. Day.
Redbook, 2c, 3c, Peace dollar. Stuff you might have never heard of, and a book with stuff to dream about someday having.
It might help if the coins sought possibly tie into other interests or are from places the YN may want to visit.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
You think circulated pocket change will spark their interest? Doubt it! Talk about getting real! They are more likely to spend it then collect it. And 12-15 year olds have more money than you think. Ever see one without a $500 iPhone or iPad? Yeah , I haven't either.
Now if you're talking about younger kids, then I would agree.
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I have found that a pile of coins (those not worth slabbing) that includes old silver and copper along with some current coins, really generates some excitement when they look through the coins... seeing what came before the coins they know now generates interest.... at least that is what happened the three times I tried it with kids ....general age 10-14.... Seemed the IHC's usually garnered the greatest interest. Cheers, RickO
I was trying to get my eleven year old grand daughter interested in coins so I gave her a lazier cut mercury dime she spent hours putting it back together and then had questions about coins ?I will she how it goes
Raw coins are the place to start. Very first numismatic lesson should be proper handling, and that can't be taught with slabs.
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Depends on age and funds a bit. A redbook, cent albums and/or state quarters with some 'unsearched rolls' to go through. Instead of a $20 bill in a card, a birthday (or stocking stuffer) could be $20 worth of quarters. A couple of treasures (how did THAT get in there????) and the rest are spending money. Kind of puts the seed of 'play money' vs. 'save money' in place early too
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Plus a couple oddballs to start a type set--heck if the kiddo is older then maybe a type set album too. Also, the birth year set (though as a child I was hideously jealous that my sister--who could care less-- got a pre 1964 set and I-who-cared-deeply had a mere post 1964 set...the jealously may have been the impetus to keep looking for silver in change etc).
An interest in a particular animal, theme, country also is cool. Start a 'one-per-country' set too. That can be a never ending challenge and lead to a lot of interest in history in general and coins in particular. My son read about groats in a book so naturally I bought him a grote when requested (he now has a nice Henry the something groat in a slab, but the first was a relative el cheapo he could touch).
When I was very new, my parents bought me a Dansco 7070 for Christmas one year, they populated it with a few of the less common coins (less common for a 10 year old). Seated half dime, Classic head large cent, Classic head half cent, a couple commems etc.
They didn't fill it, but made it feel less empty. It also gave me reason to dream of what could go into those open ports.
It really opened me up to type collecting.
Maybe that's not for everyone, but it sure worked for me.
Start with a silver Ike dollar. Big & affordable.
And it's a great litmus test: My 7-year old cousin is mesmerized by my 1971-S pocket piece.
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Good idea, I did get a silver Ike in a blue envelope too.
As a kid, I would have been excited by an unc Walking Liberty Half or a Barber Half. Barbers are on the expensive side, but Walkers seem reasonable too. Perhaps after there is some interest. They are smaller than Morgan and Peace dollars but also seemed more rare.
Are you giving to an actual YN, a young person with a collector personality you would like to introduce to numismatics, or a young person that is not a collector of anything that you are trying to introduce to collecting in general through coins? Also, how old is this person? I imagine recommendations would vary with the answers to these questions.
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I've always said a great start set for a yn is silver roosey dimes. They are silver, they are cheap, they are easy to find, and there isn't really an expensive key date. To me all those things combine into a set that WONT eventually frustrate a kid because either there out of money, can ever find any
HAPPY COLLECTING
My 5 year old son can't wait to go to the coin show to get a steel penny for his collection.
Have to see what he looks at after that.
When I was a YN I went for circulated 2 cent pieces, which were fairly inexpensive, and nobody was really looking for varieties.
Nowadays, they remain fairly inexpensive and few people are really looking for varieties, so they remain an appealing choice for new collectors.
Capped bust type is still my favorite recommendation for new collectors. It's 200 years old and you can still get a reasonable ~VF circulated piece (half dime, dime, or half dollar - quarter is more expensive) for around $100-150.
I wrote a blog on money.org a while back, and here is what I got:
Many numismatic conversations (at least in my opinion) at some point turn to the topic of getting more people into our hobby-especially Young Numismatists. So, I was thinking of ways to intrigue young people to join the hobby. And then I thought of a numismatic grab bag. The concept of a Numismatic Grab Bag has probably been thought of many times before; I just am posting my thoughts. A numismatic grab bag would be a small bag containing awesome coins/tokens. Hopefully one of these coins/tokens would spark a YN's interest. Following are some of the things I would include:
Large Cent
Indian Head Cent
Mercury Dime
Kennedy Half Dollar
Eisenhower Dollar
Hard Times Token
Denmark 10 Ore (For the Hole in the Middle)
Egypt 1944 2 Piastres (for the Hexagonal shape)
These are a few things I would put in my bag-what would you put in yours? In the comments below, please give a few examples of what you would put in your bag (and perhaps why). Thanks!
Comments
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I have been to a few coin shows where they actually have brown grab bags. One let all YN's grab three coins as their parents registered. The others were used as attendance prizes allowing YN's to have their name drawn from a free raffle ticket barrel every 30 minutes. These grab bags usually consisted of US cents, nickels and dimes, also, world coins and tokens. Wooden nickels would be a nice touch.
2.
I really like this idea! I remember as a kid when we would go somewhere, the gift shops would always have small brown lunch bags all sealed up with treasures inside...I always purchased one excited about what might be inside! : ) Elongated pennies might be a fun addition.
3.
Want to get them excited? Then add something that is old. Now I'm not talking 1800ish. I'm talking 320ish! Add some late Roman bronzes. These coins can be relatively inexpensive but still need to have enough detail to be attributable. You might even hook a dad or two along the way.
4.
Steel Cent, Indian Head Cent, Large Cent, Buffalo and V Nickels, Mercury Dime, SLQ, Franklin and Walking Liberty Half Dollars. This would be a little more expensive than your set, I mean, bag, however.
Hope this helps!
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Any small denomination Whitman Blue Folder and a few coins
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Raw coins for sure.
Take the YN to a shop or show and let their interest guide you.
Back that up with Whitman folders that you can fill from circulation. Their interest in hunting will tell you if they are interested in continuing.
Best of luck
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.
My vote goes to a current edition of the Redbook and a handful of common date, low grade coins from the turn of the century,
You don't want to buy a YN anything too high of a grade from the late 1800's or early 1900s, or else the kid will think that's the norm. The first 'old' coins I saw as a kid were not MS66 Indian Cents and Barber quarters. I started out with coins grading between AG3 and VG8. That's where kids should start. Show them this is the norm. Mint state Barber coins and 1804 dollars are not good introductions to numismatics to a kid. Your first car wasn't a Lamborghini Diablo, was it?
Remember they have not yet seen enough coins to appreciate key dates. Do you remember the first time you saw a Mercury head dime? What did you think of the date? You probably thought 'Wow, that's old', or 'what a cool looking dime'! You didn't care whether it was a 1921-D or an 1944-D besides the fact a 1921 was older. Only after seeing dozens of 1936 Buffalo Nickels or 1952 Lincoln what back cents that you notice key dates in those series.
Besides, you want to introduce kids to coins they can afford. If you start them off with coins worth hundreds of dollars, the temptation to hold off on the newest Xbox or PlayStation may be too much. Show them what you can get for ten dollars or less. There is plenty available for ten dollars or less. These are easily obtainable by a kid and will not require the kid to sacrifice something else that kids simply don't have the willpower to sacrifice. Introduce them to numismatics by saying 'you can have this AND the newest video game' rather than 'you can have this OR the newest video game'. Kids rarely have the self discipline old men have.
My recommendations:
2017 Redbook
handful of wheat cents in VF to XF
three or four Indian cents in AG3 to F12
three of four wartime nickels in F to VF
five or ten buffalo nickels in VG to F
three or four Barber nickels in AG3 to VG8
one shield nickel with a clear date, otherwise G4
three or four Mercury head dimes in G to VF
One Mercury head dime in AU
two or three Barber dimes in AG3 to G
five silver Washington quarters in VG to F
two or three standing liberty quarters in G to VG
One Barber quarter AG3 to G4
Franklin half dollar in AU
1964 Kennedy Half in UNC
One or two walking liberty halves in VG to F from the 1940's
One Peace dollar XF to AU, dated 1922 or 1923
Two Morgan dollars from the early 1900s or late 1800s graded VF to XF, NOT a 1921
One random common date low grade Seated Liberty coin
One common date, low grade but problem free large cent
small selection of odd denominations (half dime, two cent, three cent, half cent) in low grade
One low grade but problem free capped bust half dollar
fifty to a hundred assorted world coins of low value, preferably old
All presented RAW in an old metal container from before 1970 or some other 'old' container no longer seen today
and tell them NOT TO CLEAN THEM!