WHERE HAVE ALL THE PINT-SIZED COLLECTORS GONE?
Where have all the pint-sized collectors gone?
by: Marilyn Gardner
Jan. 12, 2009
Angela Watson remembers the pleasure of childhood stamp collecting. Whenever friends and family gave her stamps, especially from foreign countries, she would study them. Then she would turn to the Encyclopedia Britannica for more information.
"Stamps provided a large part of my education in history, geography, science, and nature," says Ms. Watson of Long Beach, Calif.
Today far fewer youngsters are involved in the traditional "big three" of children's collecting - stamps, coins, and sports cards.
As Watson explains, "Getting kids interested in 'traditional' hobbies can be very difficult because we are competing with video games, skateboards, and TV."
For a time, baseball cards became more popular than coin collecting for children, says Mark Albarian, president of Goldline International, a rare coin and precious metals trading firm. "Now that's changing because of the United States Mint. The state quarter program, new gold and silver coins, and the new Lincoln pennies for 2009 have brought coin collecting to center stage."
The above information has been redacted from the article as it originally appeared in The Christian Science Monitor.
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