Yesterday, July 26, 2014, I got in my car and headed toward the Annandale, VA coin show where I'd be helping to run an event for young numismatists. I arrived about 10am, just after the show had opened to the public. I spoke briefly to Karin and Wayne Herndon (organizer of the show), then made my way upstairs to the meeting room.

Tom Kays was already there and had set out all of the lots for the auction. I helped set up the registration and giveaway tables out in the hallway. The freebies included a number of U.S. Mint bookmarks and other promotional materials, and perhaps a hundred Whitman blue coin folders. I separated them by denomination and type, which spanned everything form Indian Head Heads to Kennedy Half dollars.

Kids and their parents began arriving just before 11am. Many had been to these events before, and knew the drill. Everyone got 10 auction dollars in an envelope.

I welcomed everyone and described the program. I tried to engage them with some questions, but I was dying - the crowd was pretty silent. Usually I can get them going, but I was clearly having an off day. I punted over to our guest speaker and hoped for the best.

Wayne Herndon had arranged for Paul Joseph from ANACS to speak on grading. I shouldn't have worried. A retired educator, Paul was interesting, engaging and funny. Despite a shipping snafu that left him without many sample coins to pass around, he led a great impromptu discussion. Without examples focusing on the HOW of grading, he way able to focus more on the WHY of grading - why it's important and what it means to the individual collector.

The audience had many great questions for him. He was only stumped by one - "Why are coins round?" What a GREAT question! I'd fielded the same question before from a group of kids and had had some time to think about it. So I butted in and asked them to think about smashing a blob of Play-Doh with a mallet. What shape would the Play-Doh look like? A triangle? A square? Well, it would actually be fairly round, as the squished material flattens out in all directions.

This led to later discussions of metal flow and the cartwheel effect. Although it was spontaneous, the banter worked pretty well, and served as a great introduction to some pretty advanced topics. But these kids are smart, and I'd like to think some of it sunk in.

Next was the auction.Tom Kays described the lots, Eric Schena called the sale, and Heather Schena was the runner, delivering lots and collecting auction dollars. The bidding was active on most of the lots, which included a coin from the 1750s, a Peace Dollar, some $1 Star notes, a mystery bag of coins and tokens, and a starter set of about 20 sales tax tokens. Many thanks to Tom for donating several of the lots.

Everyone had a great time. Most of the giveaway Whitman folders had disappeared.Afterwards Tom, Eric, Heather and I talked about the program. The kids are so smart and engaged it's a pleasure to work with them.Wayne's already working on our next speaker, and has a volunteer to talk about ancient coins. We're looking forward to it!