As a child I began coin collecting, and today, as an adult, I still treasure my Mercury dimes, Wheatback cents (pennies), Buffalo nickels, Standing Liberty quarters and my many other coins and bills from around the world.
You too can easily introduce your child to the joys of starting a coin collection. By Preschool age, a child can begin his collection just by saving coins from change and learning their names and values.
By First Grade, a child can understand how to keep their coins organized based on year of mintage.
Once your child has some money of his own to spend, he can learn how to make responsible decisions about which old coins to buy at a coin shop to enhance his collection.
First Steps to Start a Child's Coin Collection
Since 1999, when the Fifty State Quarters were introduced, many children have enjoyed collecting these coins and saving them in a Commemorative Quarter Map or Coin Folder. These are fun, to start cheap and easy, just change every quarter in your pocket every day.
Nickels and Cents
When I helped my three youngest children (ages 3, 5 and 7) start their coin collections last year, we started buying cheap money folder ($ 2.99 each) for Lincoln Memorial Cents and Jefferson Nickels from 1940 to collect this.
Why Nickels and cents? Well, first of all are easy to find for young children in their own pockets and changeare cheap to get in in coin rolls from the bank. When my six-year-old son finds an old Wheatback cent (from 1959 and earlier), he reacts like he just found a pot of gold! It's like finding a treasure each time he finds an old coin to fill an empty year in his coin folders.
What Math Skills Can Your Child Learn from Coin Collecting?
Addition and Subtraction: Start by counting numbers of coins, then once your child understands coin values, you can ask them to calculate the value of "2 pennies plus 4 nickels" or "5 dimes minus 1 quarter". For children in Third Grade or older, you might ask, for example, "How many years are there between an 1990 dime and a 2001 dime?"
Place Values: Learning to read the mintage dates on the coins, and putting their coins into chronological order in a coin folder is a great way to place values to the thousands and also teach how we measure years on a calendar.
Multiplication: Begin by teaching your child there are 100 cents in a dollar. "That means that 100 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes and 4 quarters each make up 100 cents or $1." Work on multiplying each of the coin values by 2's, 5's and 10's first and then try the harder numbers in the times tables. Coin rolls also lend themselves easily to multiplication. Ask your child, "If there are 25 quarters in a roll, what is the value of the whole roll of quarters?"
Fine Motor: For children working on their pre-writing skills, stacking coins and rolling them in coin wrappers is great for working on the pincer grip. For example, you can help your child make 5 stacks of ten pennies each and fit them correctly into their wrapper.
More Coin Collecting Resources
Once your child gets bitten by the coin collecting bug, she will be hungry for more information. She will want to learn about the value and history of her coins, and generally learn more about how coins are made.
The U.S. Mint has a wonderful website for child coin collectors with lots of activities and history of all U.S. coinage.
To learn about the values of our old coins (as if we would ever want to sell them!) my family uses The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of United States Coins, because it's easy to read and the information is very nicely organized. Coin books also teach about coin values so that before you go on a coin shopping trip, you will know what you should spend on a 1922 Buffalo nickel or some other treasure for your collection.
Coin collecting is a wonderful, inexpensive family activity that you and your child can enjoy together for years. The math learned along the way is just a wonderful side benefit.
Happy Collecting!
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