The Legacy Knights Numismatic Society kicked off its seventh season of after-school activities at Legacy Christian Academy, Xenia, Ohio yesterday with a Membership Signup Session in the school library.  Parents picking up their 3rd through 6th grade students were invited to park and come inside to ask questions, complete forms, pay dues, sign up for an upcoming field trip, order t-shirts, and meet the Club Coordinator.  The LCA students were joined by several local homeschool students.  20 members so far are joining us for this year, some of which are returning members and some of which are brand new to our club.  We expect to pick up a few more members as signups remain open, but 20 is a good turnout.  We are excited and looking forward to a great year!Our after-school signup event prior to our first official meeting has been a breakthrough for our club.  We tried it first last year and it was such a success, we will continue doing it this way.  We will of course still accept late-joining members each year, but taking care of this administrative work gives us a great idea of how much to prepare for the rest of the year:  planning activities, buying supplies, sending in ANA YN memberships, etc.  It also gives us a jump on collecting dues, t-shirt orders, etc., so that we can make all of the above available to our members sooner than later.  Plus, our first official meeting can be spent as a real meeting, rather than standing in line turning in applications, etc.We have some fun activities planned already:  Our first official club meeting is September 19.  Club meetings are normally the last Monday of the month (except December and May)... but this September we had to change that for a schedule conflict.  Instead, we are planning to take a tour of Osborne Coinage and Mint in Cincinnati, America's oldest private mint!  Some of our students' parents may remember using tokens when visiting Chuck-E-Cheese pizzerias in the 1990s; those were made by Osborne.  Some of our students' great-grandparents may remember using blue and red OPA tokens during WW2 as ration points; those were made by Osborne.  The company's name and ownership have changed periodically over the generations (it was originally Z. Bisbee Co.), but it's been there ever since 1835.  We hope to see original dies from Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaigns (as well as a couple other famous Presidents) and see how coins and tokens are made, from design to production!Of course we will have guest speakers, a Christmas party, our annual LKNS anniversary party, and our end-of-the-year auction, as well as some activities to teach us about minting, grading, identification, and other related subjects.  We *might* even get started on another LKNS coin this year!  You can follow the fun on our club's Facebook page.I highly encourage everyone to get involved in a club... and if you don't have one, look for ways to start one.  It's a great hobby, and better when you can share it.

The first Legacy Knights Numismatic Society meeting of the 2020-2021 school year is in the books.  We were able to register 20 members, and although we would have room for a few more, I am very happy.  Given how the pandemic has impacted how people think about social gatherings, 20 kids in an after school program is great.  It's actually right in the middle of our membership average over the years since we've started.  Maybe the pandemic is not as much a factor on our numbers as is the fluctuation in class sizes of eligible grades from year to year.  I'll have to look into that.We started out with an introduction to LKNS for the benefit of our several new members, and as a review for the returning members who hadn't been to a meeting in a long time due to the cancellation of the last three months of in-person school events last year.  Some things could be dry, especially for kids, but if you keep them involved as you go through, and break it up with a few giveaways here and there, you can hold their attention awhile longer.Normally we give out Red Books to our new members.  They are usually not current year Red Books; we ask for donations of Red Books from people who want to upgrade to the latest year, because it's not so much the latest prices that we need from these books as much as the information, grading guides, mintage figures, etc. that you can find in a Red Book.  I like the size of the Red Books because our students can throw one in their school bookbag without taking up too much space or adding too much weight.  Because we haven't been meeting with other coin clubs, we haven't been able to gather second-hand Red Books like we used to.  But we have a month to get some.\Next month we have a special presentation about elongated coins for our meeting.  The Elongate Collectors Club (TEC) provided this lesson plan to us through a Miami Valley Coin Club member who attended one of the national ANA shows.  They made a nice donation of some souvenir elongated cents so that every member could have a couple.  I also managed to find a couple of 100+ lots of elongated cents on eBay for a great price.  You see these machines across the country but you don't realize how many there are until you start looking on places like www.pennycollector.com and sorting through them by state.  They are most common in zoos, museum gift shops, and other local tourist attractions.  The National Museum of the US Air Force isn't far from our school and they have 3 machines producing a dozen designs.  Kings Island has machines all over the park it seems.  The retired designs are fun to find.  I managed to find the last retired design of the NMUSAF (back when it was called the USAF Museum) that I was missing:  The Apollo 15 capsule.  Now I believe I have the complete "official" collection (I've come across a few others but I don't know if they were actually made at the AF museum or not).It's so much fun seeing the kids getting interested in something, learning, and having fun together over a common interest.  I'd encourage anyone who loves kids first, numismatics second, to consider starting a YN club at your local school.  Schools need volunteers to help interest the kids in learning and developing their minds.  Numismatics definitely supports a good well rounded education through all the connections to history, science, math, economics, languages, and cultures.  Put together your idea for a club and approach your local school administration.   You should have a good basic knowledge of numismatics to start a club, but you do not have to be a professional at it or even know all the answers.  You will learn with the kids!  Being an organized person in your planning helps (I'm not great at that but am learning).  Being organized in running meetings helps too, but when dealing with kids, you can't let a little chaos get in the way of having a good time!  Know going in that the kids have limits to their attention span... structure is good, tyranny is not.  You'll have to keep them engaged by keeping it simple, keeping it moving, and keeping them actively engaged.  But always remember, the kids are more important than the coins.  If you believe that, you will make a good club coordinator.  What's most important to them is that you care about them, and will make a safe place for them to have fun while learning.  They will surprise you with what they learn!

Our young numismatists' club operates during the academic school year, so our club "new year" starts each September.  Although we communicate a little over the summer, the active portion of our club year ends with our Awards Ceremony on the last day of school, which is usually near the end of May.  Our members earn medals during the school year for achieving certain levels of participation, and we present them before the entire elementary school.  This is a great way to recognize our dedicated members, and serves as a great recruitment tool for the next school year.

If you've been reading my series on the making of a medieval style club coin, we discussed all the background research, design selection, inscription translation, processes, technology, and costs that go into such a project.  As you could easily conclude, a project like that can take a lot of effort and time before you even begin striking coins.  But the result was a beautiful, truly medieval looking coin for our club.  This was an incredible, rewarding way to learn about the minting process, particularly for hammered coinage.  The real fun for our club was in actually getting to take part in making them!