What is the Best Age to Start Collecting Coins?
Do you have a child or a grandchild looking for a new hobby? You may be looking to start a new collection or pass interest on to the next generation. Coin collecting is the perfect hobby that can be started by anyone at any age. There is no perfect age to start. Teaching a child about coin collecting at a young age can teach all sorts of lessons that can be used in life. Collecting coins can help create a solid foundation of money management, personal values and other valuable life skills.
Teach Your Kids About History and Saving Money at the Same Time.
The best age to start your child or grandchild in a coin collecting hobby is around six to ten years old. At this age range, the child should be old enough to understand coin collecting. It is necessary to explain the purpose of the collection and that the coins must not be spent, but held on to and kept safe and in good condition. Hold a small history lesson with your child on what was happening in the world when a new coin in your collection was released. Every date would have it’s own story and characteristics. You could also use this time to teach your child how to save coins that are not part of their collection. Teach them to keep them safe in a piggy bank or a personal bank account.
What You Should Know Before You Begin Collecting.
Before you start collecting coins on your own or with your kids, you should like with anything DO YOUR RESEARCH. Ask yourself: “Why do I want to collect coins?” Think about these brief points:
- Like all investments, collecting coins costs money so you need to set a budget ahead of time to know how much you’re willing to spend on coins for your collection.
- Coins are not always expensive! There are also many FREE ways to obtain coins to collect. We mention some of those ways in this article!
- Decide what the goal of your coin collection is.
- Are these coins being set aside to help pay for further education for your child as an investment?
- Are the coins going to be used as gifts or a tradition that has sentimental value?
- Is your coin collection meant to be an investment to be cashed in someday?
- Will the coins someday be passed down to your family’s future generations to enjoy and look after or possibly sell?
You might already be interested in the hobby yourself and hope that your child will take up coin collecting as a hobby someday. Depending on what your collecting goals are and what your budget is, you’ll want to buy and look out for many different types of coins.
How Can I Help a Child to Start a Coin Collection?
If your goal is to get your child or grandchild to take an interest in collecting coins, the best option would not be to buy expensive and rare coins as a starting point. It would be a good idea to search Ebay, Craigslist, or possible garage sales and flea markets for bulk mixed lots of older U.S. or foreign coin types. This is usually the best and cheapest way to start a nice well rounded coin collection.
For example, you could:
- Spend face value to get more common coins. This is the cheapest option. The plan is to go to the bank and purchase coins at a face value. Face value just means 1 dollar is 100 pennies, or you’re paying exactly what a coin is worth. You can actually find rare and 90% silver coins in bank and customer wrapped rolls! We talk more about coin roll hunting in this article.
- Spend more money to get older coins. For this option, you would buy a bulk mixed lot of old US coins as previously mentioned or several rolls of circulated wheat cents. Wheat cents go for around $6 for a roll of 50 coins. These are old copper pennies dated from 1909-1958 and are sold higher than face value. Each wheat cent is worth around 8-10 cents in bulk due to their rarity and high collectability!
- Put a message out on social media and ask family members. Mention that your child has an interest in coin collecting. Ask if anyone has some coins they’d like to donate or spare for the new collection. Be aware, you might receive more coins than you could have asked for! People can be very generous when supporting someone’s new found passion or hobby.
- You can even look for coins in places we mentioned here!
In both of these examples, the next step would be to pair your coin rolls along with a Whitman Coin Folder and the newest edition of the Official Red Book. These items are helpful to show your child how to store the coins as well as how to put the coins into folders in the correct position. This can be done by sitting down with your child and showing them how to look at each coin’s date and possible mint marking and finally placing it in the proper labeled spot. It’s also fun and a valuable lesson to find duplicates of the same coin. This is when you can have your child decide which coin they should keep for their collection based on it’s condition. This teaches how to collect and set aside coins that are better quality as well as developing the skill of having an eye for small detail. The Official Red Book is very at this point as it provides insight and photos of rare coins along with values based on the coins mint-state.
Starting Your First Collection
Searching for information on your own and doing research beforehand regarding your new collection can be very helpful in the learning process. This can help your child or grandchild to learn about the hobby faster You can teach them how to use a magnifying glass or your cell phone’s camera to see the fine lines and the details of a coin. Taking pictures and looking at coins while listening to stories of the past is likely an exciting experience for a child or anyone. If while telling stories you are unsure of any information about the coin that your child may ask, it is okay to say you don’t know the answer. If find that this is the case, you can make it a side project to find out online together and learn something new about coins!
Coin collecting can be enjoyed by anyone
Coin collecting is the oldest hobby in America and it is also a financial investment in more ways than one. Whether it be the value of the metal or the value of the coins themselves, one of the main goals as a coin collector is to purchase coins that will increase in value over time. Get out there and find some coins to add to your collection that you and your family can enjoy for years to come.