Cub Scouts Pack Meeting

Awesome. All of the types that I don't have!

How many in your Pack? I bet you'd have enough generous people here donate to come up with a little package of an IHC, Wheat Cent, and Buffalo for each and perhaps enough for each to come away with a silver dime, war nickel, quarter and maybe even a half from a drawing.

Kids in general love big, so make sure to take a couple of silver dollars. They also love war related stories, so a silver nickel/steel cent discussion would be a hit as well. I'm sure I'll think of more later. My son took his 20th century type set to a meeting and it was a big hit (even though he lost the Barber Half which we now need to replace). Great idea.

SJU,

Whether this is pertinent or not to your thread, I personally have been an Eagle Scout of the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) since 1973,

http://www.troop315.org/index.php?m...sition=59:59 ,

and also have been periodically involved as a BSA district commissioner tasked with always trying to increase troop and pack membership.

When I was very young collecting coins as a youngster this practice had nowhere near the prestige or allure that this hobby now has as an adult.

The key to motivating youngsters to practice this hobby could be, for example, successfully linking the practice of IDing and correctly marking their coins to a 'FUN' contest with an attainable (without getting frustrated) and enjoyable end result/goal.

An example of a coin-related contest might be the awarding of two free movie passes(including two sodas and two popcorn bags) to the scout who correctly identifies and appropriately marks on Mylar holders the most Lincoln cents having an S mint mark over a four (4) week period etc....

One has to completely segregate the reasons for motivating an adult from that of a child or teen; distinctive differences obviously exist at every at every age level.

But one constant, however, always remains the same throughout one's lifetime: stimulating and maintaining motivation is created by associating fun with any task.

From a parallel perspective that is why some of the most successful entrepreneurs developed their truly loved hobbies into extremely thriving businesses; the task they undertook was never considered work or drudgery.

mdpmedia

Bring your red book. If they cannot see the coin in hand, at least you can show them that what they look like.

Good ideas.

You might want to bring some magazines and let those who show interest take them home.

Of course, mentioning CCF is a good idea as well (with parental supervision, of course).

This is probably one of the better suggestions since I'm positive that our VERY computer literate on-line youth nowadays would always find at least a couple of coin related topics that interest them on CCF because of the multitude of ‘appropriately filtered' topics to choose from.

Also the topic subscription service serves as a constant reminder for those kids interested enough to enable this fantastic feature.

What better way is there today using technology to develop and promote a clean and safe habit like coin collecting that will only increase one's net worth even as a youth if appropriately managed utilizing CCF's resources?

mdpmedia

Some info for those that may not know...a Cub Scout Pack consists of Dens (Tiger, Wolf, etc.). Tiger is for first graders, so he will have kids ranging from age 5-10 or so and must capture the attention of all simultaneously. Not easy. Honestly, other than a few pictures, I don't see a thing on this site that will hold the attention of very many 6 year olds very long, especially with Mario as competition, so keep that in mind.

As Seated touches upon though, kids can be mesmerized by gold, silver, millions of dollars. So if you have wi-fi and a laptop at the meeting, you could show pictures and prices of high value items. You can mention how that 1795 dollar could have been used by George Washington. Or bring up some pics of the SS Central America double eagles. I'd wager quite a bit that if you mention sunken treasure, the boys will be interested. Also, since it's a history lesson, employ the gold and silver angle again to cover why we had the US Mints we did. Pull up pics of the obverses of the unusual denominations and have them guess what they are. Not many will believe there was such a thing as a half cent. If you don't have wi-fi, you could always prepare something in advance. And lastly, from experience, if they are not actively involved in doing something, max out at about 15 minutes.

You should also attempt to contact organaizatons like Whitman Publishing for any free handouts. Same with coin magazines such as Numismedia or Coin World. At some of the coin shows I go to there are tables full of free issues of those magazines and I once asked where they came from. The answer was they simply contacted the publishers and requested anything free for the show and poof, they now get a pile of copies all the time. If nothing else, when contacting whitman, request seveal copies of their catalog. It is amazing how many products for coins they make.
Might be worth a try to go to Google and type in Coin collecting products and you could get a list of manufacturers and distributors. Again, contact them for anything free for the kids. The Whitman Catalog is almost 90 pages and is full of many, many items for coins.
For sure also check out the PCGS and NGC web sites for anything free for the kids too.
And don't forget to discuss TPGS's with the kids.