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Wednesday, July 6, 2011
US Coin wisdom - 1981 Type 1 and 2
Friday, July 1, 2011
Coin Terms Glossary
Coin Terms Glossary
We are going to take this up and post it a bit at a time and then archive it for reference.
This is a glossary of coin terms that you might find on this site or elsewhere.
Do you have any suggestions or comments? Words you'd like to see added to the glossary? By all means, please let us know!
Blank
A flat disk of metal intended to become a coin but which has not yet been impressed with the coin's design. Also called a "planchet".
Brilliant Uncirculated
Refers to a coin which has not been circulated and which still retains the majority of its original mint luster.
Sometimes "Uncirculated" and "Brilliant Uncirculated" are used interchangeably. However "Brilliant" would not be applied to a coin which has significant defects impairing its eye appeal or which is lacking in luster.
Blue Ike
In 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 the US Mint issued 40% silver Eisenhower Dollars for collectors in colored packaging. The Proof version was issued in a brown box and the Brilliant Uncirculated version was issued in a blue envelope. Thus coin collectors and dealers have adopted the terms "Brown Ikes" and "Blue Ikes" to refer respectively to the proof and BU silver Eisenhower Dollars of these years
Brown Ike
See Blue Ike.
BU
(abbr) see Brilliant Uncirculated.
Business Strike
Refers to a coin which was made to be circulated in everyday financial transactions.
Business strike is only one of the methods of manufacturing coins that a mint can use. See Proof for comparison photographs.
Cameo
The frostiness of the raised portions (such as the device or the lettering) of some proof coins.
Visually, this frostiness makes the raised portions of the coin look whitish and completely eradicates the mirror-like finish one would otherwise see on these parts of the proof coin. When only the raised portions of the coin have this cameo effect, it creates an appealing contrast against the mirror-like finish of the coin's field.
The physical texture of the cameo effect can be compared to that of glass which has been acid etched.
Example of a Deep Cameo coin Example of a cameo coin Example of a coin with no cameo
Deep Cameo Cameo No Cameo
Prior to the 1970s the US mint was not entirely consistent in creating coins with complete, attractive cameo. Coin making equipment would be polished and prepared and the first many coins produced for that year or for that batch may have had a nice, deep cameo. As the equipment would begin to wear the cameo effect would diminish to the point where we would only classify the coins as "cameo". When the cameo has diminished to the point where it was significantly incomplete, no cameo designation is warranted at all.
In the 1980s the US mint perfected their methods and for modern years almost all proof coins you find will have a very complete, deep cameo finish on the device and lettering. Generally the earlier you go, the less likely proof coins are to have complete or attractive cameo on them.
Since cameo is desired by many proof coin collectors, earlier coins with attractive cameo tend to cost more.
We are going to take this up and post it a bit at a time and then archive it for reference.
This is a glossary of coin terms that you might find on this site or elsewhere.
Do you have any suggestions or comments? Words you'd like to see added to the glossary? By all means, please let us know!
Blank
A flat disk of metal intended to become a coin but which has not yet been impressed with the coin's design. Also called a "planchet".
Brilliant Uncirculated
Refers to a coin which has not been circulated and which still retains the majority of its original mint luster.
Sometimes "Uncirculated" and "Brilliant Uncirculated" are used interchangeably. However "Brilliant" would not be applied to a coin which has significant defects impairing its eye appeal or which is lacking in luster.
Blue Ike
In 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 the US Mint issued 40% silver Eisenhower Dollars for collectors in colored packaging. The Proof version was issued in a brown box and the Brilliant Uncirculated version was issued in a blue envelope. Thus coin collectors and dealers have adopted the terms "Brown Ikes" and "Blue Ikes" to refer respectively to the proof and BU silver Eisenhower Dollars of these years
Brown Ike
See Blue Ike.
BU
(abbr) see Brilliant Uncirculated.
Business Strike
Refers to a coin which was made to be circulated in everyday financial transactions.
Business strike is only one of the methods of manufacturing coins that a mint can use. See Proof for comparison photographs.
Cameo
The frostiness of the raised portions (such as the device or the lettering) of some proof coins.
Visually, this frostiness makes the raised portions of the coin look whitish and completely eradicates the mirror-like finish one would otherwise see on these parts of the proof coin. When only the raised portions of the coin have this cameo effect, it creates an appealing contrast against the mirror-like finish of the coin's field.
The physical texture of the cameo effect can be compared to that of glass which has been acid etched.
Example of a Deep Cameo coin Example of a cameo coin Example of a coin with no cameo
Deep Cameo Cameo No Cameo
Prior to the 1970s the US mint was not entirely consistent in creating coins with complete, attractive cameo. Coin making equipment would be polished and prepared and the first many coins produced for that year or for that batch may have had a nice, deep cameo. As the equipment would begin to wear the cameo effect would diminish to the point where we would only classify the coins as "cameo". When the cameo has diminished to the point where it was significantly incomplete, no cameo designation is warranted at all.
In the 1980s the US mint perfected their methods and for modern years almost all proof coins you find will have a very complete, deep cameo finish on the device and lettering. Generally the earlier you go, the less likely proof coins are to have complete or attractive cameo on them.
Since cameo is desired by many proof coin collectors, earlier coins with attractive cameo tend to cost more.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Changes with Ebay - How to adapt and stay viable
Buying and selling Collectible Coins on E-Bay
We started our business on EBay with our EBay store, which we still run. We have since opened our own direct website at davescoins.com and a bidStart store, which is a site like EBay, only specializing directly in collectibles. They began with stamps, but have quickly expanded in the US collectible coins market as well.
It would be nearly impossible to argue against the fact that eBay has continuously made it more difficult for both buyers and sellers of collectible coins, to find satisfaction in using eBay as a medium for engaging in the numismatic activity we all enjoy so much. So, certainly the balance between Joy and Pain referenced in the article has been tipping towards the Pain side as time goes by, and is probably at an all-time high in the Pain department at this moment, both for buyers and sellers alike.
However, I think the wrong approach is to throw in the towel, wave the white flag, or otherwise quit on a service that has ultimately been a massive positive force in numismatics as a whole. I would instead suggest that everyone who has found this service worthwhile in the past, take some time to let eBay know what is needed and wanted by the numismatic dealers and collectors, while working together to make the best of it.
I could probably go on forever discussing all of the many changes and ramifications and suggest countless potential solutions for each individual frustration. However, the bulk of it boils down to one specific important point in my opinion.
Communication; Sellers need to put in the extra effort to more effectively communicate to the buyers what exactly they are selling, how the transaction will unfold and describe the coins more meticulously and take better photographs.
This is extremely important in my opinion, as one of the most frustrating problems for sellers, (particularly sellers like us that try to be meticulous in our customer care), is that eBay has cut us off from being able to communicate to buyers unless they specifically communicate to us first. This is the major problem, because that was the most effective way to resolve problems for buyers before potential issues became a serious problem.
This in turn places as emphasis, as stated above, on the seller needing to do everything they can in their listings, photos and descriptions, to answer any potential problems for buyers beforehand. In this respect sellers need to take more responsibility and put in more effort on their part.
Buyers need to communicate more readily themselves, PRIOR to making the purchase. Moreover, they need to be more selective in determining not just the products they want, but WHO they want to sell the product to them. Establish relationships with sellers that do go the extra mile to make your experience better. Find out who those sellers are from your other contacts and communicate to those contacts when you find a trustworthy seller.
In essence; sellers need to go the extra mile to help the buyers. Buyers need to understand and recognize the sellers that do that. There is currently no alternative to the traffic and exposure that eBay offers sellers. Conversely, there is currently no alternative to the selection and freedom of choice that eBay offers buyers.
Additionally, how many new coin collectors have been created, or otherwise encouraged through eBay? Hundreds of thousands would be my guess. It would seem a shame and ultimately self-defeating, for all of us as the wider numismatic community, to give in to this frustration, rather than apply a little extra intelligence and honest effort to rise above it.
1979 Type 1 and 2 - Get Educated!
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Saturday, June 11, 2011
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Thursday, June 9, 2011
Buying and selling Collectible Coins on E-Bay
We started our business on EBay with our EBay store, which we still run. We have since opened our own direct website at davescoins.com and a bidStart store, which is a site like EBay, only specializing directly in collectibles. They began with stamps, but have quickly expanded in the US collectible coins market as well.
It would be nearly impossible to argue against the fact that eBay has continuously made it more difficult for both buyers and sellers of collectible coins, to find satisfaction in using eBay as a medium for engaging in the numismatic activity we all enjoy so much. So, certainly the balance between Joy and Pain referenced in the article has been tipping towards the Pain side as time goes by, and is probably at an all-time high in the Pain department at this moment, both for buyers and sellers alike.
However, I think the wrong approach is to throw in the towel, wave the white flag, or otherwise quit on a service that has ultimately been a massive positive force in numismatics as a whole. I would instead suggest that everyone who has found this service worthwhile in the past, take some time to let eBay know what is needed and wanted by the numismatic dealers and collectors, while working together to make the best of it.
I could probably go on forever discussing all of the many changes and ramifications and suggest countless potential solutions for each individual frustration. However, the bulk of it boils down to one specific important point in my opinion.
Communication; Sellers need to put in the extra effort to more effectively communicate to the buyers what exactly they are selling, how the transaction will unfold and describe the coins more meticulously and take better photographs.
This is extremely important in my opinion, as one of the most frustrating problems for sellers, (particularly sellers like us that try to be meticulous in our customer care), is that eBay has cut us off from being able to communicate to buyers unless they specifically communicate to us first. This is the major problem, because that was the most effective way to resolve problems for buyers before potential issues became a serious problem.
This in turn places as emphasis, as stated above, on the seller needing to do everything they can in their listings, photos and descriptions, to answer any potential problems for buyers beforehand. In this respect sellers need to take more responsibility and put in more effort on their part.
Buyers need to communicate more readily themselves, PRIOR to making the purchase. Moreover, they need to be more selective in determining not just the products they want, but WHO they want to sell the product to them. Establish relationships with sellers that do go the extra mile to make your experience better. Find out who those sellers are from your other contacts and communicate to those contacts when you find a trustworthy seller.
In essence; sellers need to go the extra mile to help the buyers. Buyers need to understand and recognize the sellers that do that. There is currently no alternative to the traffic and exposure that eBay offers sellers. Conversely, there is currently no alternative to the selection and freedom of choice that eBay offers buyers.
Additionally, how many new coin collectors have been created, or otherwise encouraged through eBay? Hundreds of thousands would be my guess. It would seem a shame and ultimately self-defeating, for all of us as the wider numismatic community, to give in to this frustration, rather than apply a little extra intelligence and honest effort to rise above it.
US Coins - Coin Wisdom
Back in World War II— especially in 1943 — the metal demand for the war efforts in Europe changed the way pennies were made. The U.S. mint was home trying to find a way to decrease their use of copper so the copper in turn could be used to produce shell casings, bullets, bombs and guns for the troops.
The mint experimented with alternate materials for the cent such as ceramics, glass, other metals and plastics. They finally settled on a low-carbon steel cent plated with zinc. There were many problems to come for this new steel cent.
When first introduced the new cent was shunned. The brand new 1943 cents with their silver color were often mistaken for dimes. Due to the magnetic property of the steel, magnets in vending machines used to pick up steel slugs would also reject the legitimate steel cents. (Imagine today a vending machine that uses a penny! Times have changed.) To make matters worse the two metals are not compatible in moist atmospheres. The steel cores would rust while the zinc plating oxidized. Even the sweat off of your hands would cause the coins to corrode.
In 1943 when the mints were making the switch from copper to steel, some copper planchets remained in tote bins and other coining equipment and remained undiscovered. So a few copper cents accidentally got produced by all three mints. But thanks to the mint’s switch to steel cents there was plenty of copper for the war effort.
Athough the steel cent was not great to deal with, in the end the copper freed up for the war effort was enough to meet the needs of 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, 1,243 flying fortresses, 120 field guns and 120 howitzers. This is enough copper to make 1.25 million shells for our big field guns.
Shortly after the war the mints started to work their way back to the normal composition of the copper cent. In 1944 the mint began to recycle spent shell casings from the war and use them for cent production. Pure copper ingots were combined with the 70% copper shell casings to bring the alloy up to the pre 1943 95% copper, 5% zinc combination. However the same error that happened in 1943 now happened in 1944 and a few steel cents were made when they were all supposed to be copper.
There are two explanations given why there are steel cents in 1944. The first one is that when the mint was switching back over to the copper alloy, a few of the steel planchets prepared for 1943 dated cents remained in the system and were struck as 1944 cents. The other explanation is that the Philadelphia mint used the leftover steel planchets to produce 25 million two-franc coins for recently liberated Belgium. Given the poor quality control that characterized the wartime Philadelphia mint, it is likely that some of these planchets found their way into a tote filled with cent planchets.
In 1945 the mint began to withdraw the steel cents from circulation. The mint withdrew over a hundred million steel cents. This withdrawal and the corrosive metal of the coin makes a pristine, brilliant uncirculated example hard to find.
But everything was going back to normal in 1946. This year was the transition from the cents being made from the shell case alloy and other cents using the prewar compositions of 95% copper, 4% zinc, and 1% tin. It is very hard to tell the difference between the two alloys.
1943 Copper Cent
The 1943 copper cent is a very rare coin. If you happen to have a 1943 Copper Cent there are some ways you can easily check to see if it may be a counterfeit. One way is to look at the date. If you look at the “3”, you will notice that it slopes down toward the “S”. If the “3” looks like half of a “8” it is most likely an altered 1948 cent. Sometimes 1943 steel cents were copper plated to fool an unsuspecting buyer, but these can be detected by weight (see below).
1944 Steel Cent
The 1944 steel cent is also a rare coin and is often counterfeited. Some 1944 copper cents have been zinc plated. To tell the difference a steel cent weighs in at 2.7 grams while the copper cent weighs 3.11. Also there is the magnet test. If the coin is attracted to the magnet you have a steel cent and if not, then it is copper. It can be verified that it is an authentic coin buy having it certified by one of the better grading service such as PCGS or NGC.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Is Your Coin Silver or Not?
How to Tell the Difference
Silver is all the rage these days, with prices shooting from about seventeen dollars an ounce at the start of the year, to nineteen dollars in July, twenty-two dollars in October, and now at the close of 2010 almost topping thirty dollars an ounce. Being as it is a wise investment at this time, and a bit of a hobby too, people are digging through their closets and rooting through their attics for silver odds and ends, jewelry pieces, and coins.
But how do you know if that dusty, old shoe box full of coins in the back of your closet has any silver in it? Or if that jar full of spare change on the mantle has some surprises in store for you? How do you tell if a coin is silver of not? Several tests exist to determine the silver content of a coin; simple, quick, and easy observations one can make of one's own collection, to see if any goodies lie therein.
Date
Probably the easiest, and also the most foolproof method for determining a coin's silver content is its date. Every coin minted in the U.S. has a date on the face of the coin, and dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins minted in 1964 and earlier have a ninety percent silver content. If you're rummaging through your collection and you happen to come across an old quarter, dime, half dollar, or dollar that dates before 1965 then you're in luck! That's ninety percent silver right there!
Also, the Kennedy half dollars minted in 1965 to 1970 were made with forty percent silver. Not quite as valuable, but definitely worth keeping an eye out for! Other collector coins have been made of silver (in 1976 for the bicentennial of the United States and then from 1992 to present time) but these are very rarely found in circulation.
Appearance
The appearance of a coin is the next best indicator of whether or not it's silver. Silver coins actually have a different look to them than the "clad" (regular copper/nickel) coins. These clad coins are actually a bit of a sandwich. Imagine two plates of nickel alloy being pressed onto a piece of copper, then stamped and finished up. Well, that's how modern dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins are made. And since the copper/nickel alloy is actually a harder metal than regular silver, silver coins that have been in circulation tend to have a softer, less defined, more worn look, and sometimes have distinctive dark or tarnished areas on its surface.
Grab a quarter out of your pocket. Take a look at the edge of the coin. Notice how it's kinda brown, while the two faces of the coin are the typical silvery color? On the edge of the coin the copper is actually showing through where the nickel didn't fully cover. This brown edge indicative of clad coins does not appear on 90% silver coins. The edges of these silver coins are evenly the same color as the rest of the coin. As an exception to this rule, forty percent silver coins can have a darker ring around the edge. The center layer of these is made up of mostly copper, sandwitched between two layers of silver. Best to double verify by checking the dates on these ones.
Weight
Next, the weight of a coin can actually tell you what kind of metal it's made of. Granted you'll need a very delicate measuring device, perhaps a gram scale or a jeweler's scale to determine this, and also granted a coin will lose some of its weight through circulation caused by abrasion, destruction, and rubbing, but this method is still quite effective.
Basically silver weighs more than the usual copper/nickel alloy. For example a run of the mill Washington quarter weighs 5.67 grams, and a silver Washington quarter will weigh in at 6.25 grams, a little more than half a gram difference.
Sound
Finally, the sound a coin makes when dropped onto a hard surface is also an indicator of its make-up. Silver coins when dropped onto something hard produce a very distinctive ringing tune, where clad coins make more of a thud. The sound is actually so unique that some experts who have worked with a lot of silver can actually tell if a coin is silver or not, simply by dropping it on the table.
Using these four above methods: date, appearance, weight, and sound you can accurately see if your coins are silver or not. No need to take them to a dealer or pawn shop to determine their make-up now. And for anyone with a lot of old coins and some free time, applying this data can be a fun way to spend a rainy day, and possibly profitable too! So good luck and happy searching!
Silver is all the rage these days, with prices shooting from about seventeen dollars an ounce at the start of the year, to nineteen dollars in July, twenty-two dollars in October, and now at the close of 2010 almost topping thirty dollars an ounce. Being as it is a wise investment at this time, and a bit of a hobby too, people are digging through their closets and rooting through their attics for silver odds and ends, jewelry pieces, and coins.
But how do you know if that dusty, old shoe box full of coins in the back of your closet has any silver in it? Or if that jar full of spare change on the mantle has some surprises in store for you? How do you tell if a coin is silver of not? Several tests exist to determine the silver content of a coin; simple, quick, and easy observations one can make of one's own collection, to see if any goodies lie therein.
Date
Probably the easiest, and also the most foolproof method for determining a coin's silver content is its date. Every coin minted in the U.S. has a date on the face of the coin, and dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins minted in 1964 and earlier have a ninety percent silver content. If you're rummaging through your collection and you happen to come across an old quarter, dime, half dollar, or dollar that dates before 1965 then you're in luck! That's ninety percent silver right there!
Also, the Kennedy half dollars minted in 1965 to 1970 were made with forty percent silver. Not quite as valuable, but definitely worth keeping an eye out for! Other collector coins have been made of silver (in 1976 for the bicentennial of the United States and then from 1992 to present time) but these are very rarely found in circulation.
Appearance
The appearance of a coin is the next best indicator of whether or not it's silver. Silver coins actually have a different look to them than the "clad" (regular copper/nickel) coins. These clad coins are actually a bit of a sandwich. Imagine two plates of nickel alloy being pressed onto a piece of copper, then stamped and finished up. Well, that's how modern dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins are made. And since the copper/nickel alloy is actually a harder metal than regular silver, silver coins that have been in circulation tend to have a softer, less defined, more worn look, and sometimes have distinctive dark or tarnished areas on its surface.
Grab a quarter out of your pocket. Take a look at the edge of the coin. Notice how it's kinda brown, while the two faces of the coin are the typical silvery color? On the edge of the coin the copper is actually showing through where the nickel didn't fully cover. This brown edge indicative of clad coins does not appear on 90% silver coins. The edges of these silver coins are evenly the same color as the rest of the coin. As an exception to this rule, forty percent silver coins can have a darker ring around the edge. The center layer of these is made up of mostly copper, sandwitched between two layers of silver. Best to double verify by checking the dates on these ones.
Weight
Next, the weight of a coin can actually tell you what kind of metal it's made of. Granted you'll need a very delicate measuring device, perhaps a gram scale or a jeweler's scale to determine this, and also granted a coin will lose some of its weight through circulation caused by abrasion, destruction, and rubbing, but this method is still quite effective.
Basically silver weighs more than the usual copper/nickel alloy. For example a run of the mill Washington quarter weighs 5.67 grams, and a silver Washington quarter will weigh in at 6.25 grams, a little more than half a gram difference.
Sound
Finally, the sound a coin makes when dropped onto a hard surface is also an indicator of its make-up. Silver coins when dropped onto something hard produce a very distinctive ringing tune, where clad coins make more of a thud. The sound is actually so unique that some experts who have worked with a lot of silver can actually tell if a coin is silver or not, simply by dropping it on the table.
Using these four above methods: date, appearance, weight, and sound you can accurately see if your coins are silver or not. No need to take them to a dealer or pawn shop to determine their make-up now. And for anyone with a lot of old coins and some free time, applying this data can be a fun way to spend a rainy day, and possibly profitable too! So good luck and happy searching!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Young Collectors
Ever seen this at your house?
Maybe so.
Picture this.....
“Come on Timmy, dinner’s almost ready and you still need to take the trash out and set the table,” Grandma called across the house to her 12 year-old grandson. Timmy’s blank eyes stayed glued to the tv screen, mouth hung open, fingers being the only moving part of his body as they worked madly over the video game controls.
Timmy ignored his grandmother, “Heck yeah! Get shot you nasty Arcturian!” he exclaimed suddenly, as he blew up some big alien or something.
“Come on Timmy!” Grandma shouted from the kitchen.
Timmy rolled his eyes, ignored her some more, and kept playing, blowing up at least five or six more aliens. It wasn’t until he could hear his grandma’s footsteps coming down the hall towards him that he hit the pause button, grumbled and mumbled to his feet, and headed for the kitchen.
Now picture this.....
“Wow gramps, this one’s so cool!” Timmy said, gazing at his grandpa’s favorite coin, a 1947 silver Walking Liberty half dollar. Sitting in a dimly lit room, with the cold wind blowing on the windows, and steaming mugs of hot chocolate resting on the desk, Grandpa and Timmy pored over Grandpa’s old coin collection, taking turns inspecting each coin closely, and admiring the individual characteristics of each one.
“Timmy, that there coin was minted the very same year your Grandmother and I were married. It was also the last year that coin was ever made.”
“Niiiice,” Timmy said, not taking his eyes off the coin as he turned it over and over in his fingers.
Grandpa smiled, took a sip of his cocoa, and continued with his story. “Yeah, that was one heck of a year alright. A couple days before the wedding I was shoppin’ around downtown, making some last minute purchases before the big day, and I stepped into that old coffee shop across the street from the collectibles store. I bought myself a cup of joe and that there Liberty was my change. Don’t quite know why I’ve kept it all these years, I guess old Miss Liberty just reminded me of your grandma.”
“It’s so pretty, gramps,” Timmy said, taking his eyes off the coin for the first time. He smiled at his grandfather, and reached for his cocoa mug.
Grandpa took a sip from his own mug, stared into the dark brown liquid for half a moment, then spoke again. “I reckon you can have it Timmy. And that coffee shop’s long gone but I reckon that old collectibles store is still in business, and if you want, I’ll take you on by tomorrow morning, and maybe we can find some more coins for you.”
Timmy almost choked on his hot cocoa. “Aww, thanks Grandpa!” Timmy put down his mug and hugged his grandpa, then leapt of the stool to go tell Grandma about it, the whole time keeping a tight grip on the Walking Liberty, not setting it down, or even putting it in his pocket.
* * *
The various hobbies children choose to take part in have changed over the decades. When the baby boomers were young, stamp collecting, coin collecting, model plane and car building, and other constructive and valuable hobbies were very popular. Now the grandchildren of the baby boomers, kids born in the nineties and the early part of the twenty-first century have a very different idea of fun. Video gaming, social networking online, television, movies, and online games are just some of the more popular interests youngsters have in this day and age.
But what can any one child learn from a video game or a tv show? With hobbies like coin collecting a kid could not only learn a lot about coins in general, knowledge that may come useful later in life, but could also build a collection that’s value might grow exceedingly with age. That, and he’d be doing something creative.
Anyone’s most valuable use of his or her abilities is through the act of creation. But what is your child or grandchild really creating by sitting in front of a tv for hours on end on a sunday afternoon? Not much really. What if that same child spent that time raiding pawn shops, antique stores, and online businesses looking for his or her favorite coins, organizing them, labeling them, and creating a collection of coins? And then what if that youth could sit you down and dictate to you details about all the different coins in your pocket? And what if a few years later that kid was all grown up, was so learned in the field of coin collecting, and had such a big collection, that maybe that kid wanted to open up his or her own business? And make a living doing it? That hobby would’ve turned out to be a pretty useful one.
Video games themselves are not all bad. There’s nothing wrong with collapsing on the couch after a hard day at school or work, and blowing up some aliens for a little while. But when this sort of “digital fixation” is all children do, except of course when they are being made to do other things by their parents, it becomes a bit of a problem.
Could this digital fixation be argued to effect children in other areas than the home life? School maybe? Perhaps. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the amount of children receiving good grades and doing well in school was steadily rising throughout the fifties, sixties, seventies, and the first half of the eighties. But right around 1987 this trend leveled out, and the good grades didn’t get any better, and even dropped in some areas.
But what would a hobby like coin collecting do for your child or grand kid? Hours of time spent studying, labeling, and sorting coins would be hours spent learning. Imagine if little Timmy not only went to school to learn, but then came home and sat down at his desk, pulled out his coin box, and learned some more? Time spent studying something, actual free time nonetheless, would only make the routine of public school that much easier.
Hobbies like coin collecting impress other values on youngsters too, subtler, more subjective ideals. When a child gazes at an old coin, perhaps one that is even more than a century old, he or she takes in the art that is the embodiment of the coin. The various marks etched into its surface from years of circulation, the coloration from exposure to the elements, the artistry of the design itself; these all sing the song of creativity and art. But on the “flip side” of the coin so to speak, there is not much artistry or creation involved with video games, or tv, or mindless hours wasted transfixed and zombified by a computer screen.
So the hobbies of old, coin collecting, model cars, planes and trains, stamp collecting, etc. all teach and help our children discover many things: appreciation for art, creativity, useful knowledge of the hobby itself, potential futures, and the simplicity of respect for the little, the real, and the special things in life. The tokens, whether they be a special coin, a limited edition stamp, a well made model car, or even a finished jigsaw puzzle, are all puddles of opportunity for our children and grandchildren to splash in. And let’s let them get as wet and muddy as they’d possibly want, for who knows what one, little, childhood hobby might become in the future.
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