Did you know the boy scouts had a coin collecting badge?
I didn't, and I enjoy coin collecting. I was at the monthly parent meeting for the troop, and it was brought up the boys had picked to work on the coin collecting badge the next month. I was pretty surprised the scouts had a badge for it, but was pretty excited. This is a great opportunity to show the kids some indoor hobbies that can provide a great balance to all the outdoor skills they learn. Not to mention, I love to see younger kids start a small collection. Even if they never get really excited about it, it can teach alot about history from the lens of money.
Lets take a look at the badge.
It is a pretty cool optional badge the kids on work on. Personally I wish they would have used an image of something older like Barber or Seated coins rather than the washing quarters. While I understand keeping it with the current series so kids can have a connection.
Like all things in the scouts, there will be a lot of requirements the kids must go through in order to earn the badge. Lets take a look at the high level information they will have demonstrate knowledge.
- Understand how coins are made, and where the active U.S. Mint facilities are located.
- Explain these collecting terms:
(a) Obverse
(b) Reverse
(c) Reeding
(d) Clad
(e) Type set
(f) Date set- Explain the grading terms Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, and Poor. Show five different grade examples of the same coin type. Explain the term proof and why it is not a grade. Tell what encapsulated coins are.
- Know three different ways to store a collection, and describe the benefits, drawbacks, and expense of each method. Pick one to use when completing requirements.
- Do ONE of the following:
(a) Demonstrate to your counselor that you know how to use two U.S. or world coin reference catalogs.
(b) Read a numismatic magazine or newspaper and tell your counselor about what you learned.- Describe the 1999-2008 50 State Quarters program or the 2010-2021 America the Beautiful Quarters program. Collect and show your counselor five different quarters from circulation you have acquired from one of these programs.
- Collect from circulation a set of current U.S. coins. Include one coin of each denomination (cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, dollar). For each coin, locate the mint marks, if any, and the designer's initials, if any.
- Do the following:
(a) Identify the people depicted on the following denominations of current U.S. paper money: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.
(b) Explain "legal tender."
(c) Describe the role the Federal Reserve System plays in the distribution of currency.- Do ONE of the following:
(a) Collect and identify 50 foreign coins from at least 10 different countries.
(b) Collect and identify 20 bank notes from at least five different countries.
(c) Collect and identify 15 different tokens or medals.
(d) For each year since the year of your birth, collect a date set of a single type of coin.- Do ONE of the following:
(a) Tour a U.S. Mint facility, a Bureau of Engraving and Printing facility, a Federal Reserve bank, or a numismatic museum or exhibit, and describe what you learned to your counselor.
(b) With your parent's permission, attend a coin show or coin club meeting, or view the website of the U.S. Mint or a coin dealer, and report what you learned.
(c) Give a talk about coin collecting to a group such as your troop, a Cub Scout pack, or your class at school.
(d) Do drawings of five Colonial-era U.S. coins.
As you can see earning the badge is kind of detailed but not over the complicated. It will require some work outside of the meeting and review, it will also require some collecting for the boys some of which are clearly much easier than others.
Looking at number nine I have no idea how one option can be to collect and identify 50 different foreign coins from 10 different countries. I've been collecting for quite a while and while I don't do any international you end up getting quite a bit in random lots here and there. I don't think I even meet the 10 country rule at this point. But the other one is only to have a collection for each year of your birth a typeset of a single type of coin. Since most of these kids are under 16 it's not too difficult to collect that just from the coins you have from circulation.
My amazing coworker
Have an amazing coworker who is a large collector. When we started talking about coin collecting he was the one who really helped me get into it and is nothing but supportive of the hobby. He is a true enthusiast who subscribes to many coin magazines and really enjoys learning the rich history of the coins and the art on them. When I learned that the boys were going to do a coin badge and no one in the leadership felt very knowledgeable in the area I said I would ask if you could come and present and share a little bit to the boys.
Under promise but way over delivered.
Well my coworker did show up with a PowerPoint presentation, it was really just for him as his speaking notes. We just so happen to have a large TV available with a connecting cord, but this wasn't really a slideshow more of a note outline so he didn't lose place and skip over something he wanted to cover to help them with the merit badge.
I was a little worried because if you think about coin collecting and numismatics and precious metals the topic can be really boring for those who are not already in enthusiast. You could tell from several of the leadership in the room that they weren't exactly looking forward to the discussion because it doesn't sound very exciting on his face.
I will say I swear my coworker could do this for a living. He somehow managed to engage 8 to 10 boys ranging from 6th grade through sophomores and high schools with active conversation, discussion, and thoughtful questions for close to 90 minutes. He had some amazing trivia which I'm going to ask him for and I'm going to put up some poles on #threads as I think they were really great. He has some very thought-provoking questions and he had more patience than I did with some of the kids.
We both shared parts of our collections.
We both brought stuff to share. I made sure to bring some red books, some other coin books, my grading coin book that has the super high detail photos that can help explain the different conditions of the coins to pass around. I also brought some dancehall books with some partial collections that I have and some different storage options for the coins with three ring binders, tubes, flip etc.
The coworker brought much of the same, plus lots of magazines, additional books, and a very diverse collection to share. He didn't shy away from bringing very nice coins either he brought plenty of seated a couple of bust quarters, plenty of silver and gold as well to bring in the precious metal discussion about when it was part of our money and what it use to look like. Many of the kids had little to no idea that the coins used to contain real precious metals and that if you go back long enough in history are coins were actually made out of gold. They were pretty impressed to see the size of a gold coin and understand how much gold is per ounce and to think about how much people could carry around with a handful of gold coins.
By the end of the night everyone is pretty excited because they had not only have a great start on completing their merit badge, with getting coverage of probably close to 70% of their checklists, many of them actually seemed more interested than when they had started tonight. And talking with the leadership afterwards they were blown away by the presentation and the participation. They said they were a little worried about it being a typical dry corporate type presentation where no one really pays attention, but they said it was absolutely amazing and they thanked them multiple times for doing such a great job. I think I could bring him back every year to do the same presentation for new kids if he wanted.
Amazing generosity
Well he doesn't even have any connection to the group other than me, he brought free coin collecting paraphernalia for the kids. He let the kids come up and pick one thing from a table to take back home and at the end if there's anything left kids could take something else once everyone had something. Stuff on the table included copies of the red book which is like the holy Bible for coin collectors. All these additions are older they still cover the vast majority of years. He also included several type of the old Whitman blue books where you have to press the coins into the blue cardboard like we all did his kids. A lot of the kids were actually really excited to get those as it was a way for them to start their collection and it didn't cost them anything. I feel a little ashamed I didn't think about doing something like that for the kids, but it's something to think about for the future years.
I clearly have a large debt to such a nice person but I did at least get to take them out to lunch a few days later and pick up the tab as a way to try to say thank you. There were photos taken of the presentation table and the spread of stuff we showed but whose phone they're on and where they went is currently a mystery.
Either way I think it was really exciting to see the kids eyes light up when talking about coin collecting, how much the coins could be worth, the value of gold and silver and real money and the history of it being in our coinage until 1964. I think we may have started a few of the kids down the path of potentially being a coin collector, gold and silver stacker, and crypto enthusiasts.
It was a great night, and I hope more scouts get interested in coin collecting.