Please suggest some educational topics for my club?

[CSdot]

My local club meeting has segment dedicated to educational topics. One thing I find frustrating as president is getting to that segment and having no one in the room of 50 respond with an educational topic. I usually throw out something I read online, like the Saddle Ridge hoard, big name sales, or the latest US Mint offerings, but I'd love to prompt discussions that are more education vs current events that might help me, as one of the younger club members, learn something more about the hobby. We've tried setting up an educational committee, but it doesn't seem to take hold.

 

What are some educational topics that I can prompt that might get older collectors (50-85) excited about sharing their knowledge and wisdom with our younger members?

 

Thanks.

[AnkurJ]

Grade flation

Artificial toning

Putty

[MarkFeld]

What about a study of and discussion about (some of) the especially rare and interesting US coins in the Smithsonian collection?

 

There should be enough good on-line images of many amazing coins. Perhaps each participant could choose one and do a presentation on it?

[Catbert]

What about an introduction to the registry format and show one with pictures and descriptions? I did that once at my local coin club and the older collectors appeared interested. You could also introduce other on-line information resources that they likely don't know exist.

[RWB]

You have my permission - encouragement - to excerpt material from any of the Renaissance books, from Mine to Mint, Peace dollar book, etc. to assemble an educational program for your club. That includes scanning photos so you can project the material for the club. Please attribute what you use.

 

RWB

[leeg]

The early commemoratives are really nice in that they are about coins and history all wrapped up in one. I can send you a chapter to see if it fits, if it does, as Roger mentioned, proper citations please.

 

Lee

[AHFreak]

It wasn't that long ago that I was starting from absolute ground zero in terms of numismatics.... Looking back, it was always easier for me to get and stay engaged when the topic was a subject I could go out in the coin world and "touch" in my own way somehow, so to speak. For instance, say my meeting was learning about early gold U.S. coinage... I mean, it was fascinating and everything, but at the time, I literally could not imagine myself ever being able to go out and get involved in that market, because I could have never afforded one... Take the meeting about VAM's, and some of the popular varieties, and I was 100% captivated and right there.. Because at the end of that meeting I could go out and start looking for them or otherwise applying that new info/knowledge/etc....

 

I know some of the numismatist scholars are doing this right now (and for good reason, I understand how important it is to keep all the history alive and what not) It's just that, how many of your average hobbyists can relate?

 

So my point is, that for me, in the first few years especially, I was more engaged when learning about things where I could go out the next day and apply to the hobby in somehow someway.

 

A few things I remember learning about where I couldn't wait to go apply what I was learning.

 

-Carson City Morgan dollars.

-VAM's

-Discussion about the "Cherry Pickers Guide" where some of the most popular varieties were discussed, and a few real world examples of successful picks should be discussed.

 

-CRH (coin roll hunting) whether for filling albums for fun, hunting for silver to stack, or searching for other treasures to rescue from circulation.

 

-history on the grading game, how it came about, when, why, how it affected the coin market then, and how it affects it currently. (pros & cons)

 

-problem coins was a big one for me, I for one was terrified of unknowingly buying a problem coin, or a doctored coin. So, what some of the common problems are that the average everyday hobbyist needs to know about and be aware of.

 

Doctored coin/counterfeit detection of any kind I think is always a very important discussion to have so we can all try to help each other stay sharp and on our toes.

 

I guess what I am saying, is really any and all topics/subjects that address common questions/concerns, and/or provide insight that your everyday average collector can go out and directly apply at his/her local coin shop, or the next coin show in town..

 

Now, with all that said, I now have gotten to the point where I cannot get enough of the early history regarding coins, any history for that matter even when it may not directly apply to coins.. coins have been my Segway into history being one of my favorite life-subjects... But with how important all that is, I think there are a lot of present-day topics that will engage your average hobbyist having an immediate affect on their success/longevity in the hobby. (whatever that success means to them, I assume its different for everyone.).

 

Not sure that makes sense, hopefully it is as clear in writing as it is in my head.

 

Anyways, awesome question.

[brg5658]

I would vote for something like:

 

1) The minting process (great material in Mine to Mint -- I have re-read those parts probably a half dozen times -- always learn something new!)

 

2) Civil war tokens (how a hoarding/shortage of small cents led to private issues)

 

3) Discussion of odd denominations that are no longer struck (1/2 cent, 2 cent, 3 cent, $4)

 

 

[illini420]

Our members seem to get bored with too many programs that are lectures or powerpoint presentations. We find it helpful to mix it up sometimes. Sometimes we'll do a video and you can borrow many of those from the ANA Library. Also lots of them on YouTube if you have a good internet connection at your meeting. We also try to do interactive programs a couple of times a year to get people involved. For our September program each year we have a coin grading competition which is fun (usually pass around slabbed coins w/ the labels covered and have people guess the grade). And we give prizes to those with the best scores. We also try to do some type of quiz for a program once a year and our members seem to enjoy it.

 

But yeah, we have around 35 at each of our meetings and if I asked for volunteers to give a program or for ideas, the room would be silent. But when I approach people individually and somewhat privately, I've been able to get about half of our members to give programs.

[Kurtdog]

My local club meeting has segment dedicated to educational topics. One thing I find frustrating as president is getting to that segment and having no one in the room of 50 respond with an educational topic. I usually throw out something I read online, like the Saddle Ridge hoard, big name sales, or the latest US Mint offerings, but I'd love to prompt discussions that are more education vs current events that might help me, as one of the younger club members, learn something more about the hobby. We've tried setting up an educational committee, but it doesn't seem to take hold.

 

What are some educational topics that I can prompt that might get older collectors (50-85) excited about sharing their knowledge and wisdom with our younger members?

 

Thanks.

What does it mean to be a collector? Leave it open-ended like that, see what you draw, see what they think. You're looking for prompt discussion, get them involved? Ask the question, let them find the answers.

[RWB]

Well, you can do "Bobbing for Bullion," or "Searching for Silver...." or "Debbie does Dollars," well, what motivates your club members?

[CSdot]

Great suggestions. I just heard from our club secretary who volunteered to put on a PowerPoint about Liberty seated dimes tonight.

[Curry]

Benefeits of grading and how to grade

[DaveG]

It's a little difficult to give useful advice in a vacuum.

 

Can you describe a typical club meeting?

 

Can you tell us something about your membership? Of the 50 people in the room, what's the split between old and young? How young are your youngest members? Are the "old guys" just there for the donuts or are they knowledgeable collectors?

 

Fortunately, my club has the opposite problem - we have a lot of very, very knowledgeable people. Sometimes it's a chore to get them to shut up and listen!

[CSdot]

I passed on the ideas to the rest of the board and the suggestions were well received. I have good expectations that we can have more informative meetings.

 

We usually have between 30 and 50 members at our twice a month meetings. There a some YNs, and there are some members in their 20s, but of the majority of the members are over 50. I would say 90% of our members are white, male and middle class. We have a good mix of retired and working folks. I would like to expand our membership to better reflect the community (more women, diversity, socio-economic, age, etc), which is one of my reasons for wanting to make our meetings more interesting.

[DaveG]

Well, my coin club has a speaker at every meeting. It's usually a club member who's talking about one of his areas of interest, but we try to get outside speakers when we can.

 

We have monthly meetings with about 20-25 attendees. All are middle-aged or older white males. We used to have three female members (two spouses of existing members and the other woman brought her husband along), but one has moved away and the other two stopped coming.

 

Our meetings last a couple of hours. We start with club business, talk about what's going on in the numismatic world, have a 50-50 drawing, the speaker's presentation and we close with a general show-and-tell session.

 

I think our meetings are pretty interesting and I've gotten to know several local dealers, which has paid off at coin shows - some of which look like club meetings, as we get a half dozen members gathered around a member-dealer's table.

 

Our membership is aging, so I'm trying to expand our membership, too. As you say, it would be nice to have a wider mix of people, but coin collectors (around here at least) tend to fit a fairly small demographic and most people don't have a lot of time for evening meetings until they get their kids out of high school.