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Great Ideas to Add Sizzle to your Fundraiser

This page is devoted to sharing ideas to help you make your coin collecting fundraiser more fun, more exciting, and more profitable to your group. If you’ve got any ideas you would like to share, please send them to us and we’ll add them to the list. Please also share your successes so that others can benefit from them (and if you tried something which didn’t work for you, let us know and perhaps others can learn from that experience as well). Click here to share your ideas.

Ideas to Boost Competition

Each of the Euro-issuing countries produces its own coins, and many produce numerous commemorative coins as well. Because of this, there are dozens of different Euro coins in circulation. Great Britain issues many different regular and commemorative coins also, and there are a wide variety of older coin varieties still readily available. Canada issues more varieties of commemorative quarters than perhaps any country in the world. As in the U.S., some coins are more frequently seen than others. This creates great opportunities for competition and, as discussed below, great opportunities for education, too. Our Coin Identifier page is a great place to start if you want to see some of the many coins your group is likely to find.
  • Most coins collected
  • Highest total collected
  • Most complete sets
  • Most countries represented (or separate competitions for the most coins from each country)
  • Most different coins
  • Most paper money
Look for creative ways for your group’s members to compete with each other (ex. class vs. class; by age group or grade; boys vs. girls; men vs. women; individuals, etc.)

Ideas to Boost Collections

As part of your coin drive, consider collecting U.S. Dollar coins such as Eisenhower dollars. These are the large-sized “silver dollars” which were issued from 1971-78, although they are not really silver coins. Many people saved them but found that they did not appreciate as collectables. As coins, most are worth a dollar — no more, no less. 1972 Eisenhower dollar coinThese are big, hefty coins which kids find especially fascinating. Why not enhance your fundraiser by running a separate competition to collect the most “Ike’s”?

You can take them straight to your local bank and your group will pocket an easy 100% profit.
Hint: There are a few varieties which are 40% silver and are worth significantly more than a dollar. Look for 1971-S and 1972-S Eisenhower dollars (the “S” mint mark is between the portrait and the date). For 1973, 1974 and 1976, first locate for the “S” mint mark, then check the side of the coin. Most ordinary coins have a “bright” and clearly distinguishable copper edge. The silver ones don’t. If you have access to a good digital scale, the silver Ikes weigh 24.59g, while the ordinary copper-clad ones only weigh 22.68 grams.

Boosting Competition AND Collections

In addition to collecting foreign coins, consider collecting loose U.S. change of all kinds. By collecting everyday pocket change, everyone can participate. And you can take it all straight to your bank. You owe us nothing.

To boost the competitive spirit between individual groups, consider this approach which we learned from a school in Australia:

Publish running totals for each competing group. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters add their face value to each group’s total, but dollars and half-dollars subtract from it. This creates an incentive to bring halves and dollars in, and drop them into competitors’ collection jar! For instance, all the little kids can “gang up” on the 6th graders and load their jar with dollars. In the end, the school wins!

Prospect List

Who do you know who has travelled outside the U.S. in the last few years?

  • Relatives (and their friends and neighbors)
  • Friends
  • Neighbors
  • Members of your church or synagogue
  • Co-workers
  • Local travel agent

Lesson Planning

Foreign coins offer endless opportunities to construct lesson plans for students of all ages and interests.

  • Geography: Euro coins are issued by almost 20 different countries, and pounds sterling are used in several more. Despite our close association with Canada, most Americans know very little about our neighbor’s fascinating history. We also buy pre-euro paper money from thirteen countries, many of which get little or no mention in typical history curricula, but which played significant roles in world history. This creates countless options to study the map of Europe, North America, Asia, etc.
  • Art: Coins and paper money carry the works of skilled engravers and artists from each issuing country.
  • History: Coins offer students a physical connection to European history.
  • Economics and finance
  • Math: Limitless opportunities to discuss units, fractions, weight, area, ratios, addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, etc. Tally sheets can be completed by students.
  • Science: Metals, alloys, mass, density, chemistry, etc.
  • Computer science: On-line research any of these topics on-line. Tally sheets can be modified as a teaching lesson in spreadsheets.
  • Social studies / Political science: conversion to the euro; England’s refusal to convert from the euro to the pound; European Union; comparisons between the EU, UK and US systems; new and potential members of the EU; Canada/US relations; Quebec’s role in Canada