Numismatic Gifts for the Holidays

Hanukkah Gelt is pretty easy. Kids like anything. You can give them
Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes, and Indianhead cents in little bags
and you have given them "ancient" history as far as they are
concerned. You can buy packs of mixed foreign banknotes for $5, $10,
and $20 from ads in CW and NN. When the kids get older, before they
are barred or batted, one silver round is nice, maybe the last time
before they are officially too old, a small gold coin. A US Gold
Certificate, a Silver Certificate Star Note, something like that might
be equivalent if the kids shows any kind of a head on their shoulder
for the value of money.

For Christmas for kids, the same guidelines apply. Teens should not
get numismatic items for the holidays unless they are already YNs or
something. You can spark a little kid's interest equally with coins
from 1976 or 1876: it's all the distant past. (You know me and I
raised my daughter and she is now 24 and worked as YN at several
conventions, but for all that, she only recently figured out that
cowboys chasing Indians did not listen to rock 'n' roll. So with kids,
anything different -- foreigns by the pound, for instance; 19th and
early 20th century US, of course -- is compelling in the extreme.

The real problems come from buying numismatic gifts for grown-ups.
Unless your target giftee is a collector or otherwise gives evidence
of interest, you risk not being appreciated except for giving "an old
coin." And if you are known as a collector, the assumption is that
you got it wholesale, so it isn't worth all that much anyway and was
cheaper for you to give than whatever they gave you in return. Call
me a cynic. I just think that gifts must come from the heart. Too
often, we tend to give the gifts we wish we got.

That said, numismatic items are easier for us to shop for (and, okay,
pay for) and are indeed out of the ordinary to most people.

Coins need to be unusual but need not be numismatically interesting.
For instance, an Extremely Fine Large Cent is what it is. If you try
to deliver a Newcombe Variety, their eyes will glaze over and they
will pass out from boredom before you get done explaining it. Seated
coins, the larger and the higher the grade, the better, Bust Halves,
the coins that no one sees or could have seen. Similarly, a Roman
denarius is always interesting. And so on.

But there are other alternatives. Paper money has a certain reality
to it for most people that coins no longer can. Does your wallet have
a coin purse? No. Coins are small change. Paper money is real. The
advantage to paper -- though this applies to coins, also -- is the
breadth of thematic subject. If your target is a pilot, give a
Singapore note with the Concorde on it. Give a French note with St.
Exupery and the Little Prince. One of the leading paper money people
is named Blackwell and he collects notes from Blackwell, Oklahoma.
You can see how that would work out and National Bank Notes are broad,
deep, and long as material. Wildcat banks, the Confederacy, and so on,
the options are limitless if you think, not so much of the "rare
numismatic" aspect as the relevance of the message medium to the
recipient.

If you know someone named "Vogel" you can give them a passel of
banknotes and coins with birds on them. Cats, dogs, horses, ships,
dragons, even Kirk and Spock are on coins. How about giving the
musician in your life an obsolete stock certificate from EMI? (This
assumes that you already gave them at least one Irish coin.) For the
price of a nice coin that may or may not be appreciated as you would
want, try literature. "The Currency of Fame" is a coffee table book
about Renaissance Medals. "The Money Makers" are two books that show
how notes are designed and printed with focus on the US, Australia,
and other nations. "The Art of Money" is a new book with stunning
color pictures of paper (and a few coins). A nice book will get more
use than a nice coin or banknote, especially in a family with
school-age children. In fact, I believe that giving numismatic books
to the kids is better for them than giving them coins or banknotes.
Give them the book; make them work for the coin.

You don't have to limit your numismatic gift giving to the holidays.
I have twice given people who turned 50 Franklin Halves from their
birthyears, certified, of course.

The point, though, is to think of the recipient, not the gift.

The point, though, is to think of the recipient, not the gift.

Well said Michael, my grandson is seven this year, and his step
brother the same age, so am planning on giving each of them a small
numismatic sampler...basically a 3 ring binder, with a couple of
plastic pages and a dozen or so coins (and a token or two). I have
mixed the coins up pretty well, Canadian cents (cheap!), common buff.
nickels, merc dimes, rosie dimes, franklin halves, indian cents,
mexican coins, etc. Basically a magpie collector approach, exposing
them to various types. Of course since they are getting high tech
toys, like elect. scooters...I suspect they won't even see the coins
for a few weeks. Maybe after the scooters are broken, or the first
visit to the hospital for a split chin. Never the less, the seeds
will be planted.
We are expecting a third grandchild next summer, so the future of
numismatics and exonumia is looking to expand more and more!

Those older collectors are harder as you say, for me, since I
specialize in trade tokens, it is not hard to figure WHAT I want, just
harder to find something that pleases.
Plus, books on numismatics and exonumia are always pleasers, assuming
one can afford them, I know you like to shop at used book stores for
them, and "half price books" is a good spot, and I think one is
opening not a mile from our house in the next few months.

Mike,
I forgot to mention that last year I gave a (newer minted) maria
theresa thaler, which is a nice large hunk of silver, and has the old
date on it, to my brainy nephew, who is about 13 or 14. He seemed
really pleased with it. Also to my grandsons this year, each will get
a silver morgan dollar, to provide plenty of span to the spectrum.
j.

The point, though, is to think of the recipient, not the gift.

Good post. Like someone driving around blasting loud music from their car
with the windows rolled down, I think it's occasionally alright to impress
our interests on others. I've also found numismatic gifts a good way to
do this when I can't think of other ideas. And it's a lot less noisy too.

I've often used the traditional Proof Set gift for birthdays, as well as the
occasional silver Eagle. I'm a pilot, so I find the aviation-related gifts
work well for others in the industry as well. The 100th Anniversary Commems
from the Mint this year are great, although i'm still waiting for part of my
order placed in September.... For co-workers in our flight department, I
often take a North Carolina quarter, put it in a Harris plastic holder with
the reverse showing up, and give that with a Christmas card. Makes a nice
economical gift. As for the Singapore currency with the concorde, I didn't
know about that...will have to start looking.

-Eric


"Michael E. Marotta" wrote in message
om...
Hanukkah Gelt is pretty easy. Kids like anything. You can give them
Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes, and Indianhead cents in little bags
and you have given them "ancient" history as far as they are
concerned. You can buy packs of mixed foreign banknotes for $5, $10,
and $20 from ads in CW and NN. When the kids get older, before they
are barred or batted, one silver round is nice, maybe the last time
before they are officially too old, a small gold coin. A US Gold
Certificate, a Silver Certificate Star Note, something like that might
be equivalent if the kids shows any kind of a head on their shoulder
for the value of money.

[Post Trimmed Slightly]