Kudos to the South Wellington Coin Society for their creative efforts in reaching out to their local community.
The club sends me their monthly newsletter, The Wellington Circular, which I read thoroughly to learn what is happening at the club level while also looking for items to share with readers of Canadian Coin News. (This is a great way to help promote your club, so be sure to send me your newsletter to info@trajan.ca.) While reading Judy Blackman’s “Editor’s Message,” I learned the club is holding an educational symposium free to the public.
“We are looking for folks new to the hobby or on the fence about entering the hobby, and folks who never heard of numismatics and are interested in learning more,” she writes.
What a fantastic and inspiring way to reach out to your local community.
The “Explore Coin Collecting Hobby” symposium will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 at the Royal Canadian Legion’s Colonel John McCrae Memorial Branch 234 at 57 Watson Pkwy. South in Guelph, Ont., the same location where the South Wellington Coin Society holds its popular spring and fall coin shows.
Billed as an “All Ages Educational & Fun Event,” the day-long symposium will offer four topics, including: What is Numismatics (e.g. Canadian Tire Money, Medals, Tokens, etc.); Where to Begin With Inherited Collection (knowing what you have); Kids Learning Having Fun with Coins; and, Is there Value in Collecting Coins?
The event is free and the deadline to pre-register is Oct. 24.
I contacted the society’s president, Scott Douglas, who is also chair of the popular educational symposiums offered at the annual conventions of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association.
“I conceived this idea about two years ago and brought it to the South Wellington Coin Society executive meeting,” Douglas writes in an email response to questions I had about how this event came to fruition.
“The idea was well received and tabled for further thought. Originally we were going to draw from the numismatic community for speakers, but then an idea evolved not to make the seminar too complicated but to talk about the basics of coin collecting and how much the average collector, advanced or novice, could get out of this hobby,” he explains. “Individuals not deeply involved in the coin collecting world all have a different idea of what a coin collector and coin collecting is really about. We hope this seminar will shed some light.”
At the time of writing this column, promoting the symposium was in the early stages.
“The response so far has been minimal because we are just getting the flyers out to the libraries, Legion, community board, etc.,” writes Douglas. “We will push the seminar at our show on September 24 and gauge response from there. Many of the people through the door of our show are locals and are often seeking guidance.”
Douglas adds: “This is our first attempt at this and I am sure we will all learn things from it. If we were to do another it may very well be completely different depending on the feedback.”
I cannot help but overstate how great a concept this is in providing the Guelph and area communities with an opportunity to learn more about the fascinating and rewarding hobby of numismatics. I’m sure it will serve to promote the club and, hopefully, membership. But, just as importantly, the symposium delivers the message that, thanks to the South Wellington Coin Society, there is a great resource available to the residents of Guelph and area who want to learn more about numismatics.
I hope this idea spreads throughout Canada’s numismatic communities!
For more details on the symposium, visit southwellingtoncoinsociety.com.