Options
What’s an age appropriate YN coin gift for a 9 year old YN
Mr_Spud
Posts: 7,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
Long story short - I recently hired a new person in my group at work. He has a 9 year old son who is very interested in coins. I have boxes of low value stuff I plan on donating to a coin club with a YN program sooner or later, but I thought it would be cool to gift something to the new guy’s son. What would be appropriate. Any replies would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Mr_Spud
4
Comments
1909 VDB Lincoln cent?
Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
Life is roadblocks. Don't let nothing stop you, 'cause we ain't stopping. - DJ Khaled
Does he have a RED BOOK?
A Buffalo nickel, Mercury dime or Walking Liberty Half.
When I was a kid, any type prior to the current circulating coins interested me the most. The older the better. Never know what might pique someone’s interest tho, perhaps a few foreign coins of historical interest, or even a few ancient coppers.
A silver eagle minted his birth year.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I think a ASE like mentioned above would be perfect. He’ll cherish it!
I was thinking something big and silver... this is perfect!
My daughter gravitated to Peace Dollars at that age...
I was thinking either big/silver, or old... like a beat up Large Cent with a readable date
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
A silver eagle or silver round would be very nice gifts.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
get some intel from dad?
the ase sounds good
Or a silver coin 100/200/300 years older than he was born.
All of the above are good ideas.
When I was young a big old silver dollar from the 1800s was always interesting.
I also was obsessed with getting a coin from the 1700s. I finally bought a 1798 large cent.
Read / gift the book first. I remember my first book on coin collecting was the pohotograde book from the library.
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore, Nickpatton, Namvet69,...
midgrade Buffs and Indianhead head cents might be really cool to a young kid.
Successful BST with ad4400, Kccoin, lablover, pointfivezero, koynekwest, jwitten, coin22lover, HalfDimeDude, erwindoc, jyzskowsi, COINS MAKE CENTS, AlanSki, BryceM
How about a slabbed proof state quarter from his state of residence? I'd like that.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
A big bag of cheap, relatively modern foreign coins. He'll see some interesting designs and can have fun looking up where they are from and their exchange rates to USD.
Pm me your or his shipping address if this works, i’ll happily gift this if it might intrigue to a sprouting YN.
Founder- Peak Rarities
Website
Instagram
Facebook
That’s awesome!
Baseball commems from 2014
We once gave out brothel tokens to the YN club.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
When I was a kid my dad gave me a '21 Morgan and it blew my mind. Still have it. I thought it was soooo old and loved the history around it. A Morgan from the 1800's would be even better. Can start digging through the Redbook and dreaming about all the possibilities.
A large cent would be really cool and probably trigger lots of good questions.
A coin 100 years prior to his birth year would also be awesome.
Kids were more excited to view this and handle the raw circulated 1913 buffalo nickels with a full date than the ultra rare 1913 Liberty Head nickel which was inside the TPG slab.
Some commemorative dog you are hopelessly underwater on anyway
Tough answer w/o knowing what coins interest him and why. I would feel an album of what ever coin type he held an interest in. Perhaps even including a couple of nicer specimens if affordable. At that age I would feel Lincolns, Jeffersons and Roosevelt's would immediately come to mind. Would be very nice to encourage the young man in a hobby that is highly rewarding, at least it has been for me. Good luck.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
How about a common date high mint state Morgan or Peace Dollar? Silver dollars rock!
Casual collector: Morgans & Peace Dollars & 20th Century Type Set. Successful BST transactions with ProofCollection, Morgan13, CoinFinder, CoinHunter4, Bretsan.
When I was a YN a collector let me go through a bag of 1000 Mercs and pick some out. I spent hours going through each one, sorting and narrowing down. A great gift and a great experience.
If there’s anything like that you can replicate, it’d be cool to it was a great experience to have to choose and give most of them back.
Thanks everybody, lots of great suggestions, giving me lots of good ideas and lots to think over. You guys are the best !
Mr_Spud
A Lincoln folder and $10 of penny rolls.
Books are boring. Give him something he'll love. Small bag of silver or classic type coin would be cool! Doesn't need to be expensive, just something he'll treasure.
Proud follower of Christ! I love the USA! Land of the Bright and Beautiful! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
See if his dad has any info as to what he thinks is cool and what books he has. The Red Book and the ANA Grading Guide are the first books that someone should have.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Thanks again everybody. I want to surprise his dad with the gift for his son, but will probably throw in a spare redbook I have lying around just in case his son doesn’t have one yet along with the coin(s). I might also have one of those ANA grading standards lying around somewhere too.
Mr_Spud
Really thoughtful of you man! Did this a couple of months ago for a young collector and he was overjoyed! Always good to spread the love and appreciation to the younger generation. That's what this hobby is all about!
Proud follower of Christ! I love the USA! Land of the Bright and Beautiful! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
In my lifetime I have given out 7 capitol plastic holders with Classic low grade type coins in them.
The set I usually give is a Walker, Std. Lib. Qtr., Mercury dime, Buffalo nickel, Indian cent. The holders cost me $4.99 years ago (still have 2), and I have numerous low grade coins in my set so it is not a financial burden for me. just my experience. James
Well, one of the coins I will give him for his son is this one
That one should have special meaning for them both. My new employee was discussing with me how he wanted to reformulate a problematic Softgel product (I’m head of R&D at a place that makes dietary supplement Softgel products, and his title is Manager, R&D Process Engineering, and he is trying to develop a more economical process for the problem product) He used aluminum as an analogy as to what he wanted to try, about how the older process was too expensive and that it wasn’t until the newer cheaper process was invented that it became affordable.
Long story short - I ended up showing him some pictures of my aluminum so-called dollars from the Colombian Exposition. He was amazed that I had those, and knew about the cheaper process and that’s when he opened up and told me about his coin collection and that he gave his collection to his son and how his son is so into them. So definately I’m giving him that one pictured above to give to his son. But I’ll give him more than that now, and also more for his son at Christmas. I give all my employees Silver Eagles for Christmas every year, and often throw in something for their kids, like last year I bought a science kit for one of my employees sons who is showing great interest in science. That sort of thing.
Mr_Spud
This. I have the coins and s folder if you wish.
Baseball Commemorative dollar or any ASE
Big and shiny for yutes is great advice I got here and have always taken
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
This
You think kids these days would benefit from a Scan-o-matic or too old school? I think I’m up to 5 of those now, one of each model and 2 generics, but I have a duplicate that I upgraded because I found one with the original box, so giving him the one without the box won’t cost me anything. I know I would have loved to have one of those when I was a kid and had just started collecting, but no idea if a kid these days would benefit or not.
Mr_Spud
My go to for kids born in the 2000-2009 era were Barber Dimes from the New Orleans Mint, 1900 to 1909, giving them a bit of history to connect to. If this youngster was born in 2016 and the budget is there, I would gift him an 1816 Large Cent and a 1916 Mercury Dime (maybe the 1916-S so he could learn where the mintmark was). With the 1816 Large Cent, I'd challenge him to identify which other coins were made that year. All of us here know that cents were the only coins made then, however for him the research will be an exposition into history of operations and practices at the Mint and should pull him further into collecting.
Custom album maker and numismatic photographer.
Need a personalized album made? Design it on the website below and I'll build it for you.
https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/.
Well, no real info on what the kid currently has or collects. But I’ll suggest modern stuff or anything in the states or parks quarters might be interesting to them. Things they can afford at 9 - 4th or 5th grade.
Was an explanation what they were used for go with the gift?😀 Of course children do grow up early these days what with the Internet.
a Proof Set from his birth year
Have to make a pitch from the error coin camp. How about throwing in an error coin? That might spark some inquiries into the minting process from the lad. Did for me at a young age.
Good stuff here. While this is the coin forum, I would also toss out the idea of including an XF-BU 1935 or 1957 $1 silver certificate.
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
How about a silver proof set from his year of birth so he can pawn the silver in about 6 or 7 years for a tank of gas, a case of beer and a great beach day with his girl?
The idea of a Redbook and a Coin from the Redbook, preferably something older than his Grandparents, is probably always a hit.
The book helps spark the wonder as much as the coin.
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
I would go with a Whitman Album for "Roosevelt Dimes Basic Set, Proof (1950-present)" and a couple of bank rolls to search thru.
The (raw) coins are readily available at banks, span numerous decades and won't deplete his allowance.
There is also pocket change to search thru.
Wayne
Kennedys are my quest...
That’s funny and so true. I sold a lot of the silver coins from my childhood collection when I was home from college one year during the summer and had enough money to do fun stuff with all summer. It was the year the Hunt Brothers tried to corner the silver market. I was got $10 per every $1 face value and still don’t regret it. It was a long long time before it got to $10 per
$1 face again.
Mr_Spud
For sure I’ll do that too, only with a basic Whitman folder. Mrs_Spud one time got the idea of buying a bulk lot of clad/modern Whitman Roosevelt folders and getting a whole bunch of bankrolls of dimes.
Long story short - that was 20 years ago, but I recently found a box in my attic and inside were all the coin tubes of dimes sorted by date along with the stack of Roosevelt Whitman folders. I’m going to donate these to a coin club with a YN program sooner or later, so might as well throw in some loose dimes in a baggie with some of the harder to find clad Roosevelt years/mintmarks peppered in along with some random dimes from a 10 gallon change jar I have. Won’t cost me anything so why not 🌞
Mr_Spud
As far as another non-coin item, consider a modern coin auction catalog especially if you have access to some free ones going to be trashed or free at a coin show. A catalog that also has various items beyond just standard issues can be particularly interesting especially with a Prices Realized list.
Just make sure there is no personally identifying info left inside.
One of various numismatic items that affected the course of things for me.
"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
When my kids were that age, I’d give them $20 to spend at a show. One bought coins with sports on them and the other gravitated to world coins with animals.