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.

On Saturday, October 30, 2021, the Legacy Knights Numismatic Society traveled to the 2021 Fall PAN Show for their first big field trip as a club.� The PAN Show (operated by the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists, or PAN) was held at the Monroeville Convention Center in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.LKNS took part in the PANKidZone activities especially geared towards young collectors.� The PANKidZone is an effort headed up by Mr. Malcolm Johnson to generate interest and enthusiasm among young people for numismatics and help them in their pursuit of their collection and knowledge.Due to unfortunate circumstances Mr. Johnson was unable to meet us there; however he made sure we were in capable hands with the rest of the friendly folks on the PAN committee.� Our members were the recipients of a generous collection of numismatic items, from t-shirts to cent collection folders to coins, literature, and more.� A couple of famous guests even helped us enjoy the show in the forms of Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln.The show itself was wonderful with a wide array of dealers attending.� We saw ancient coins, paper currency, lots of old and rare American coins, tokens, elongates, medals, and collector supplies.� Several of our members went home with new purchases to add to their collections.� The dealers seemed as happy to see us as the friendly PAN Show staff, and all were very helpful.� Several took the time to explain the significance of some of their displays or items for sale.� Their hospitality made an impression on our members, who felt they were treated like valued members of the numismatic community.The YN auction at the end of the day was a big hit with our students of course.� They had acquired some PANKidZone auction money through their participation in both the show and our club.� Bidding was often fast and furious and some of the bids reached some rather incredible heights before a sole bidder remained and won the lot.LKNS is an extracurricular activity of Legacy Christian Academy in Xenia, OH, which is about four hours away from Pittsburgh.� While some members opted to travel with their parents and spend the night in the Pittsburgh area, the main body of members rode together in vans and made the trip all in one day.� That made for a long day, but traveling with friends made the time pass quickly, and getting to attend the PAN Show was well worth the trip!Many thanks go to PAN, Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Mr. Pat McBride, and others who made sure we were able to attend and had an incredible field trip!To see more photos, please visit the PAN Show 2021 photo album on the LKNS Facebook page.

The first official meeting of the Legacy Knights Numismatic Society for the 2020-2021 school year is scheduled for Monday, October 26.After missing the last 3 meetings of last year, it's going to be good to be able to return to somewhat normal... however, even normal isn't quite the same with pandemic rules.

Been awhile since I've posted anything, but the Legacy Knights Numismatic Society had a pretty good meeting today and I thought I'd share.Earlier this school year, the Numismatic Knights heard from Mr. Bradley Karoleff, a regional coin dealer near us as well as a contributor to the Red Book, particularly noted for his knowledge on Spanish Colonial coinage.� One aspect of Spanish Colonial coinage that has always interested me (aside from their being "pirate money") is the fact that these coins, minted in the New World, ended up being used as money to the far-flung corners of the earth.� Proof of this is noted in the "chop marks" they received from being used in trade in the Far East, as well as the countermarks placed on them by other nations.� I particularly like to see the 8 reales coins that have King George III of England 's portrait punched into the portrait of King Charles of Spain.UK large pennies have been out of circulation for some time.� I came upon a quantity of extremely worn and/or cleaned examples that would make good media for trying our own countermarking.� I contacted our medieval die maker, Mr. Carson Engle, to see if he could make us a punch with a design reminiscent of our school mascot, the Knight.� He said he'd made punches before and would be glad to try.� After awhile I received a punch in the mail.� I must say, he did a good job for such a small area on which to work.� Our mascot's helm and plume create an unusual shape if you include the space around it for a punch, so we opted not to go with a rectangular or oval shape, but more of a sideways diamond.� In the photo accompanying this post, you can see the result of a decent strike.� I swung the four pound hammer for the students to avoid smashed fingers on anyone's part.� I'm no pro at it but I got some decent strikes.� You can see the helm with its facemask and the plume flowing from the top to the rear of the helm.The kids enjoyed the activity and the counterstruck coins.� While some were watching their penny get countermarked, the rest spent their time filling their Whitman Lincoln Cent No. 2 blue folders by searching donated wheat cents.� They managed to search a few thousand coins in about an hour; next time they will already have them sorted by year to try filling in any remaining holes in their folders.� All in all it was a very good meeting.

As I keep exploring resources available to me as a coin collector, I keep finding new things.� My latest find revolves around the LKNS coins I submitted to NGC for certifying.� NGC will take a digital image of your coin in its holder, so that when you go to ngccoin.com to verify the genuineness of an NGC-slabbed coin, you can see a picture of it after you enter the certification number.� You can also ask NGC to take higher resolution professional photos of your coins before they are slabbed, which is very nice for seeing surface details.� But once you have these nice photos, where can you show them off (as is natural for a collector to want to do)?There's always the Collections section here at money.org, but did you know you can also create a collection within the NGC Registry?� Not only that, if it falls within a certain category type, you can actually compete your collection against others' collections for fun and points... maybe even recognition.� I did not know anything about this... I'd heard of Registry Sets but didn't know much about the topic.Of course, not every type of coin that people collect are categorized.� Some won't be, but others just haven't been identified yet as an area of collectors' interest.� If you don't see the proper category for the type of set you want to compete, you can suggest it and NGC will consider creating it.� It's not guaranteed that they will, though.Your other option is to create a Custom Set.� It's not a competitive set, in that you don't win prizes or score points comparing your set to someone else's of the same type of coins.� But you do get to display it where other collectors can see it whenever they want.As of this writing, NGC has been updating their set registry pages.� While competitive sets are hosted on NGCCoin.com/registry, custom sets are still hosted at the old site,�https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinCustomSetListing.aspx.� Plans are to migrate the custom sets to the new URL eventually.I decided to try this out by listing my set of LKNS coins.� First I created a custom set, gave it a name, and added the coins using the NGC certification numbers.� Adding the coins brought over the photographs NGC took when they certified them.� Then I could fill in details, both about the set, and about the individual coins.� Check it out:https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=27929You can do this for your own sets of NGC-graded coins.� If you like adding details and telling background stories behind each coin or set, this format lets you do that.� Sometimes a good coin is better when the story behind it is known.