Collecting Coins With Your Kids - An Investment
Collecting Coins With Your Kids - An Investment With Big
Returns by Ryan Konecky
I remember being 10 years old and standing in my dad's den.
We had saved up a little in a mutual fund for my brother and
I. He asked if we wanted to keep the money in a mutual fund,
or use it to invest in some coins. Being 10 years old, I
didn't have to think very long. I couldn't really hold the
mutual fund in my hands and admire it like I could a coin.
I'm sure that my younger brother felt the same way I did.
The decision was unanimous: We would begin collecting coins.
That decision turned out to be one of the best investments
that either of us made. Through whatever process a 10
year-old goes through to make decisions like this, I chose
to collect Franklin half dollars. I think that I had some
admiration for Ben Franklin from studying him in school. The
coin also had some asthetic appeal to me.
Not long after that decision was made, I got a paper route
so that I could earn some extra money to pay for some of
these coins. I wish I could say that I saved all of the
money that I got from my paper route to feed by
coin-collecting habit. A lot of money was also spent on
candy and other things that a kid with money will buy. I did
manage to buy quite a few Franklin half dollars to add to my
collection, though. I would sit at my dad's desk in the den
and go through my coin catalog to choose a specific coin
that I wanted. I'd then save the money to buy it and start
the process all over again. This taught me the value of a
dollar and the value in setting goals.
I spent some time reading about the history of each coin
that I collected. I was interested in what the designs
signified and what made the rarest coins so... well, rare.
It seemed incredible to hold something in my hand that was
so old and had seen so much history. I often wondered who
all of the people were that held that very coin in their
hands. What had they spent it on? Where were they now? I
learned that history actually had an impact on me and wasn't
just something I read about at school.
My dad, my brother and I spent a lot of time going to coin
shows, searching through catalogs, and just reading about
different coins. We began looking at the change that we had
in our pockets and showing each other our "finds". We spent
a lot of time talking about the coins in our collection and
their history.
I still have that set of Franklin half dollars as well as
some of the other coins that I had collected. I'm still
adding to them. I know that they've gone up in value a bit
over the years, but sometimes I find myself wondering if I
would have made more money if I would have stuck with the
mutual fund. Then I think of all of the lessons that I
learned. Lessons about money and history. Then I think of
all that time I spent with my dad and my brother. All of
those days spent in my dad's den talking. The Sunday
afternoons driving to the nearest coin show and all of the
time spent together just talking. It's then that I realize
just how big the returns were from our coin collecting.
About the Author
Ryan has been collecting US coins for most of his life. Find
and buy Morgan silver dollars at his web site, http://www.MorganDollarsOnline.com,
which allows visitors to bid on Morgan Dollars as well as
learn a little of the history of the coin.
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