Why/When To Join A Coin Club

I live in a small town outside of Omaha, NE and (when I dont have work) I travel 30 minutes to attened the Omaha Coin Club. For how large Omaha is, we really are a small group. Only about 30-40 people attened, and its usually all the same people attending. Mostly older people (not trying to be offensive, I'm only 16 so everyone seems old to me).

Someone brings treats to every meeting, and another person brings pop and coffee. We start off with the business meeting, conclude that, and then move on to the silent auction for about 15 minutes. After that, we move on to the main event. Sometimes we have programs, live auctions, members only shows, or sometimes we just watch a video about collecting. I really like going, and I'm glad I joined.

The club in my city is miles from my home and involves night driving in a not so good part of town. I just don't like that idea. The idea of a coin club really appeals to me, however. I like to talk about coins and show mine to others and maybe do some trading.

There are no local coin clubs around me so I decided to join various coin groups, I wrote down all the ones that publish a journal/newsletter.

I joined the Barber Coin Collectors Society because a member here recommended one of my stories for publication in 2015. I have enjoyed reading about others' interests.

Last year I stepped it up and joined EAC, C4, SPMC, NSCA, LSCC, PMCM. Their newsletters/journals have expanded my knowledge.

If you want to learn about an area-- before shelling out big $$ on coins--consider join a specialty club the cost of membership is affordable.

-MV

A coin club can be a good idea, but it can depend on what the club is "into". I'm a member of four local clubs. All have their social side but one of them has some interest in education and has produced some good numismatists and three ANA Presidents. Another is pretty much geared solely around the monthly auction (100 to 150 lots, values from a couple dollars up to around $500) and has little to no interest in education. A third was just social, small and not much attendance until I took over the newsletter and took it from a one page announcement of the next meeting to a six to eight page thing with pictures commentary and articles. Attendance is now growing.

I will say that you will get more out of it if you are ACTIVE in the club and try to put something into it. If you just sit there you may learn some things, but you will get a lot more out of it is you ask questions and volunteer to help out. I will say that clubs are always in need of people willing to step up and help and even being a newbie if you are active don't be surprised if they try to get you to be one of the officers. Most clubs have a real problem getting people to run for office and the same people tend to wind up serving year after year. That isn't good because you do need new people and new ideas to rotate in and out.

And I know what you mean about being the young guy there. I joined my first club when I was 15, That was 41 years ago. By the time I was 20 I was running the State Coin Show. I've been the Secretary for three of the clubs, been writing articles for one newsletter for twenty years and publishing one of them for ten years, and started publishing another one last year. So remember the more you put into it, the more you can get out of it.

My father was in the military, and the base had a monthly coin club meeting and he took me with him. Mind you, this was 50+ years ago, but I still remember: Meeting other coin collectors, seeing other people's coins, the auction, and.....door prizes!

I joined our local coin club over 10 years ago, partly at the suggestion of a local dealer. I am not much of a joiner, which is why I resisted for so long.

I have make some good friends and acquaintances. I particularly like some of the presentations, as some of our members have an almost scholarly knowledge of their subject. Our last one was on Gun Money, and I was the one who introduced this guy to it! We also have trading and selling, all rather informal, and host some major conventions from time to time.

That being said, I am not going to pretend that it is all perfect. When there are people, there is the potential for conflict, but at the moment I am still having fun.

Of course, as someone mentioned, every club is different, so you really must go as a visitor and see for yourself if you like it or not. If you don't like it, wait a year or two and see if it has changed.

Someone pointed out that you have to be active, which is true. I was secretary for a few years; now I handle the door prizes and 50/50 draw.