If you have a large circle of friends, relatives, business associates and acquaintances, chances are you get dozens of birth and graduation announcements each year, as well as invitations to several birthday parties for children of all ages. All these announcements and invitations require a gift, but having to shop for this many can become both tedious and expensive. When this happens, most people just give up and fall back into the rut of giving the same tired gifts, such as baby layettes and gift cards, year after year. If the time has come to get out of your self-imposed gifting rut, here are some very good reasons to consider gifting with vintage coins.
A piece of history
Giving a child a gift steeped in history can help foster their own interest in the rich history of our country. Because collectible coins can be purchased from nearly every era of the past, you can choose ones with dates or specific engravings that correspond with specific historically important dates.
Gifting Tip: To make a coin gift more interesting, pair it with a good book that offers an age-appropriate, but interesting and factual account of the historical period or event the coin depicts.
A potential for increasing value
When a new baby receives a layette, gift card or another piece of equipment for the nursery, the value of the gift will likely never increase. However, if an infant is given a rare coin at birth, even a relatively inexpensive one, chances are good that the coin will continue to increase in value throughout their lifetime. If they choose to pass the coin down to their child when they become parents, the coin's value will increase even more as the years pass.
Gifting Tip: To make this type of coin gift even more special, look for coins that predate the new baby's birth year by a full century. For instance, a baby born this year would be gifted with a coin from 1915 or a classic head half cent.
If you would like to find out more about starting a tradition of giving coins to the youngsters in your life, consider contacting a reputable coin dealer in your area. They can help you understand the value of collectible coins and help you learn to recognize condition and wear issues that can have an impact on the price. They can also help you find and network with other coin collectors in your area, should you decide to pursue coin collecting as a hobby.