| To collect coins is not what most people think of | | | | They are a product of a people, a time, and a |
| as a heart stopping, pulse racing, knuckle biting | | | | place. |
| way to wring out the tensions of the workday. | | | | There are coins available at reasonable cost, even |
| This is a hobby of quiet contemplation. | | | | to student collectors, from many of the significant |
| Right? | | | | times in history. Usually they will be well worn |
| OK, so NASCAR it is not. But still, for such a calm | | | | rather than pristine. All the better. A well circulated |
| activity, there do seem to be more than a few | | | | coin has Been There. Who can say if the 1863 |
| coin collectors, especially in the US. More than you | | | | Indian Head cent your student brings into class |
| would think, if all these passionately involved | | | | was not in the pocket of a Union artilleryman at |
| individuals are just, uh, filling up holes in an album. | | | | Gettysburg? |
| What is going on here? What are all these people | | | | Kinship |
| thinking about, and why do they so enjoy what | | | | Many young coin collectors get their start from a |
| this hobby seems to be giving them? What is the | | | | relative who had some coins left over from a |
| connection? | | | | long ago trip overseas. Or, as in my case, from a |
| Ask any coin collector about his interest in the | | | | great grandmother who owned a small dry goods |
| hobby and you will see certain patterns of | | | | store in the Canton area of Baltimore during the |
| connection emerge. | | | | final decades of the nineteenth century. |
| Collecting Money is Fun | | | | Receiving coins from long ago that touch your |
| Most of us have a bit of avarice in our | | | | own family history brings a sense of participation, |
| personalities. Those photos of gold bars in Fort | | | | albeit through inheritance, in the life of long ago. |
| Knox, and the stacks of twenty dollar gold coins | | | | The Hunt |
| from the S. S. Central America sitting upon on the | | | | As a new collector delves into the hobby, an |
| sea floor at 8,000 feet below the surface are | | | | awareness of the incredible depth and breadth of |
| exciting. Would it be fun to have even one gold | | | | coinage takes hold. This is especially true as one |
| coin? | | | | enters a large coin show in a major city. Looking |
| Touching History | | | | over the vast expanse of dealer tables upon |
| Suppose you are a middle school teacher of social | | | | entering the room can be like ones first view of |
| studies or history, and you want to break through | | | | the ocean. |
| to your class in a tangible way. Coins have existed | | | | What incredible coin awaits my discovery? |
| in one form or another for 2,500 years or so. | | | | |