The 28th annual Cambridge Coin Show, which is being held a week earlier this year, is a benefit to the host club’s local community as well as numismatics in Canada.
Hosted by the Waterloo Coin Society, the one-day show is slated for March 9, and while admission is free, organizers will be collecting donations for the Cambridge Self Help Food Bank as well as the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association (RCNA).
“Over the past five years, Waterloo Coin Society, collectors and the community have benefited from the show perhaps in ways they could not imagine or have even considered,” reads the January 2019 edition of the society’s newsletter.
“A portion of the profits is directed to the Cambridge Self Help Food Bank and the R.C.N.A. with many new collectors discovering the hobby as a result. Attendees are motivated to share in the club’s generosity by dropping coins or bills in the donation jar which is added to the C.S.H.F.B. donation and publicized in the following month’s newsletter.”
Hosted by the now-defunct Cambridge Coin Club for 22 years before that club folded in 2013 because of low attendance, the show – and its attendance – has “consistently rated high among local area shows due in part to location and timing,” reads the newsletter.
“Dealers who are fortunate enough to secure a table prior to the application deadline have shared that it is one of their most profitable and enjoyable coin shows of the year.”
A complete list of dealers attending the 2019 show will be published soon.
As for helping hands, show organizers say it “takes more than just a handful of dedicated volunteers to keep an event such as this going year after year.”
“For most clubs including Waterloo, the added boost to finances is certainly welcome but comes second to being able to budget for constantly rising operating costs and perhaps even introduce a few new programs. Such a large and important investment project such as this helps to bring members together focused on tasks that will have a lasting impact and is a service to dealers and collectors who faithfully purchase tables and support their living buying and selling coins and banknotes.”