Not too often do I get perplexed about something that I cannot find an answer for. The problem I would like to address in this column is how to get kids involved in collecting coins. This question really hit home this last weekend after the Des Moines Coin Club show in Altoona, Iowa.

Every show that we attend, we have a binder with 2×2 pages containing 3 coins and the rest blank 2x2s. We give these pages out to all of the youth we see at a show in the hopes that it may jump start a kid into collecting coins. I found a 1919-S Lincoln Cent in my penny pot when I was 5 and this got me interested in collecting coins. The rest is history. At this last show we had our usual kids table with a club member helping kids identify foreign coins.

Well in advance of this show we reached out to the central Iowa Boys Scouts and Cub Scouts in the hopes of getting a few of them to come to the show. Coin collecting can be a step toward getting a merit badge. As large as central Iowa is, we did not have one Boy Scout or Cub Scout at the show.

I know that kids today are really involved in all sorts of activities. I hate to use the phrase “when I was a kid”, but in my youth lots of kids collected coins, stamps, rocks and all sorts of things. There was no internet or soccer.

If we don’t get kids involved in collecting coins, this hobby/business could be in serious trouble down the road.

If anyone has any brilliant solutions, please let me know.

Kind regards,
Chris Seuntjens
Owner/President
Christopher’s Fine Jewelry and Rare Coins
chris@christophersjewelry.com