This is an article that Andrew H., one of our Junior members wrote which won first place at the Young Numismatist literary awards this summer. The award was the Abe Kosoff Memorial Literary Award. Our hats are off to Andrew! A Must Read!!

KIDS CAN START COIN CLUBS

Andrew H.

I was working on the Early American Copper Coin Project and I was stuck project 3. I had to either organize or hold an office in an ANA member organization. I am only 8 so I thought it would be hard to hold an office an ANA member organization. I decided to start my own ANA coin club.

I met with the principal of my school to see if I could start a coin club at the school and use the library after school for meetings. She said it was all right and there was no charge.

The first meeting was in December. Every coin club started directly after school at 3:45. Every meeting had a coin related theme. We brought snacks every meeting. I gave away a wheat cent to everyone who came at almost every meeting. It was hosted in the Westerly Creek Elementary school library. During the meeting when kids answered questions correctly, they could pick a coin from a wheat cent grab bag. At the end of the meetings, I gave the members "homework" and if they brought it back the next meeting they would get an extra coin.

The December meeting was mostly about finding out what the members wanted to do with our coin club. Some kids brought coins, we looked every coin up and showed where they were on the map and how much they were worth. This month's "homework" was to complete one of the Find-a-Word's on the ANA website. I made copies for every kid to take home.

The January meeting was our most populated meeting with 25 kids. In this meeting we gave away a 1957 wheat cent. Theo Gould the president of the Denver Coin Club gave a speech and very generously donated a lot of supplies to our coin club. A few kids shared the coins they brought. They told us where they got them and why they liked them. We looked them up in our reference books to learn more about them. This month's homework was the Lincoln Find-a-Word with the Lincoln related terms from the ANA website that the YN's helped make.

The next meeting was held on February 12th. Since it was the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday, we had a cake with a Lincoln cent on it to celebrate the day. The topic of the day was the new Lincoln cents for 2009. I described all the different cents that are going to be made this year and what they represented. One of the kids brought in a 1964 silver quarter. Using that quarter, I was able to teach the class the difference between a modern quarter and a quarter before 1965. The homework for February was to color in the designs for the new cents.

In the March meeting, the Westerly Creek Coin Clun discussed the new 2009 three sisters Sacagawea dollar. I gave each member one of the new Sacagawea's donated by the members of the Denver Coin Club. I told the members about how corn, beans and squash got the name "three sisters" and how it helped the pilgrims.

April's theme was international coins. In the meeting invitation, I asked everyone to bring an international coin. The ANA generously donated some world mint passports to our club. I put a Canadian and Mexican coin in each passport and gave them to the members. I also gave everyone a 1955 wheat cent. All the kids shared about where they got their coins. We looked up the coins in our World Coin Book and looked on the map in the library to see where each country was. We almost got stuck on a coin from Sri Lanka.

The May meeting was the best and longest meeting of all. It was hosted on May 14th, the day the second Lincoln cent was released. The mint representatives gave away a Lincoln memorial cent, a Lincoln's birthplace cent and a Lincoln's youth cent. We were the only people in Colorado to have the Lincoln's youth cent on that day. We were all very excited to have the new cent. They also gave us the Puerto Rico quarter. They showed us on a video how the coins are made and how the designers make the design. This meeting lasted 15 extra minutes because everyone had so many questions.

I had so much fun starting this coin club that I plan to keep it going the whole time I am in elementary school. I am very lucky to live in Denver where I am near a US mint, near the ANA and the Denver Coin Club. Everyone has been very generous with my club and really helped make it fun for the members. I have also enjoyed becoming a part of the Denver Coin Club. The grown ups have been very generous to me and have helped me with my club. I am very glad I started the Westerly Creek Coin Club.