Numismatists have their sneaky ways to lure unsuspecting laypeople to their passion.
They might, for example, sprinkle wheat sheaf pennies on a school playground, or salt a till with Indian head nickels, hoping to beguile the people who find the coins.
In Pierce County, they are going so far as to get their preferred reading material into the schools, one way or another.
As you read this, they are making plans to distribute 144 copies of The Red Book to librarians, or possibly history or language teachers in middle and elementary schools.
The idea: Hook them while they’re young, curious and into collecting. Get them to look at the jingle in their pockets while they’re kids.
That’s when many of the 85 members of the Tacoma-Lakewood Coin Club first got interested in collecting coins, medals and currency.
That’s why they are donating 144 copies of “A Guide to United States Coins,” better known as The Red Book, to schools in Tacoma and Pierce County.
David Schmidt, 68, has been a member of the club for 50 years, is now its president, and, when he’s not working his day job as a psychologist, travels the world in search of rare coins and medals.
(Note to those with nefarious plans: Schmidt’s collection is in a vault, so don’t bother burgling his house.)
Indeed, as we spoke by phone on Friday, he was walking the aisles of the World’s Fair of Money, the American Numismatic Association Convention in Boston.
He was spotting coinage celebrities, admiring collections of Martin Luther Reformation medals and dealing in ancient money with international clients.
“I sold a Roman coin here at the show to a dealer from Madrid,” he said.
It was minted before Christ was born, and passed from buyer to seller in cities and towns that crumbled into archaeology centuries ago. It could have jingled in a centurion’s leather pouch. It could have been paid in taxes to a tyrant, or settled a laundry bill.
It’s a good feeling, he said, to hold a coin like that.
“It’s a kind of appreciation of history,” he said, then paused. “As I pass this display, I am looking at a guy from Pennsylvania who has all of the Olympic participation medals since 1986.”
He notices Olympics collections because he had a shot to earn, not buy, a medal. In the 1970s he was a wrestler, though he didn’t quite make the games. Now, he said, he sees medals sold by athletes’ heirs, and by athletes on hard economic times.
As an athlete himself, he collects them. As a Lutheran, he buys Reformation medals and European cathedral medals. As a good husband, he collects any minted angel for his wife.
The joy of coins lies in their variety.
“Your collection can be anything you want it to be,” Schmidt said. “I have a friend who was born in 1955. He collects coins from all over the world that have 1955 on them.”
He has friends of Norwegian descent who collect money from Norway.
He has teacher friends who keep a stash of low-value foreign coins in their desks to hand out to students as rewards for good grades. Their aim is to get the students interested in where that coin comes from, and what it represents.
Good coin collectors, he said, are like good students. They work to become inquisitive, creative and patient. They train themselves to notice telling details and understand the broader context.
That’s why Tacoma-Lakewood Coin Club members are hand-delivering those Red Books to schools.
That’s why they might even scatter a few bits of antique currency around the school grounds.
They want young people to expand their sense of the world by understanding the money in their hands.
Sly, generous numismatists.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
SEEKING CHANGE?
Founded in 1957, The Tacoma-Lakewood Coin Club meets at 7 p.m. the first Tuesday of the month at the Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare, 9330 59th Ave. S.W., Lakewood. For information, call David Schmidt at 253-565-6565 or go to the group's website at www.tlcc.info.
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