Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Encouraging a Budding Coin Collector
Last week Vanessa was telling me that she had to bring in something that she had collected to school. She had planned on bringing in some dolls or her collection of pretty stones and beach glass she had found, but other kids had already brought in those things, and she wanted to bring in something different.

So I showed her some extras I had from my coin collection: mainly a bunch of stray British, Canadian and American coins with a few odd, mainly European, coins thrown in. As she looked at what I offered her, she commented on the pictures on many of them, and I proceeded to tell her the history behind the ones I knew about. There were 1,700-year old coins from the end of the Roman empire, most mottled with verdigris from being in the ground for most of that time. Then there were the light coins made out of aluminum by several post-WWII European countries that could actually float, which I demonstrated by pouring water gradually into a pan and letter the surface tension gentle raise the coins until they were afloat. Then there was the steel American penny made in wartime to save copper. Or the sole gold coin I now have, a tiny thing a quarter the size of a penny issued under the short-lived Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. The coin collecting bug can be infectious, and I could tell she was interested.

To help encourage her, and to add some further spice to the collection, we headed down to Arcade Stamp and Coin downtown.

There's a lot of personal history tied up in that place. My father took me there as a then-budding Canadian stamp collector – my Father collected mainly British stamps -- when I was a kid. I still remember the thrill of buying a torn (and therefore affordable) example of the very first Canadian stamp (a 3 penny red beaver stamp) issued in the late 1800s. In the end it was coin collecting that I ended up having a lasting interest in (mainly Canadian and ancients).

I haven't been to the shop for a while, but things are little changed. The staff was charmed by the girls, and an old fellow there asked some silly questions to make them laugh and gave Vanessa and Annie both a shiny old British penny apiece, along with a gumball. I bought Vanessa a pound of world coins for $10, along with several coin slip pages to put them into. I bought Annie a sticker sheet of Canadian provincial flags that she took a shine to.

In the evening, we sorted through the coins and with some direction from me, we sorted what Vanessa wanted to display, which was a motley but fun collection of Canadian, British, American, Mexican, and "float-y" coins, as well as those containing prominent animal pictures. I also threw in a giant American penny I picked up at a magic shop, more as a visual joke than anything else.

It may be a passing fad, but I noticed Vanessa taking a closer look at the money she gets as change, and was asking about any that seemed "different". Will have to see if the coin collecting "bug" takes hold.