A cheap and fun way to entertain your young numismatic enthusiast is to roll penny and nickel rolls to bring to the bank. The way this works is simple. First, collect unused pennies and nickels from around the house. You can search purses, jars of coins, and even under the couch to start this collection. Identify any rare or precious coins, such as buffalo nickels, wheat pennies, or Canadian coins, and set those aside. Your next step is to deposit the remaining coins into bank-provided paper rolls. Pennies must be rolled as 50 cents, nickels as two dollars, dimes as ten dollars, and so forth. Your local bank should able to provide you with coin rolls to get started. Alternatively, you can purchase a coin sifter, which can shake out the appropriate number of coins for easier coin roll packing. Once you've stuffed your coins, go to your nearest teller and exchange your rolls for new rolls from the bank. For instance, trade your 50 rolled pennies for 50 new pennies from the bank, and so forth. Although you won't be gaining or losing money, you'll get a chance to review a whole new suite of coins. At home, you can unwrap your new rolls and search for wheat pennies, buffalo nickels, and the like. Repeat this exchange until you develop a big collection of oddballs. In this way, you can cull some really interesting coins from circulation. Once your young charge has caught the coin-collecting bug, he or she will likely take initiative to discover more hidden treasures. Make sure to put all of your finds away in a protective album or plastic display case, so as to preserve them from the environment. |
