So I decided to be nice and instead of giving young relatives gift cars or cash, why not give them something that they can learn from like an oz of silver! A niece had a birthday recently and I looked through my stash and had my kid pick out whatever looked pretty; a painted ASE, ok, fine. And BTW, no, I didn't pay extra for the painted ASE. I had made a deal with a guy to trade an ugly generic 10oz hand poured bar for 9 ASEs, some painted, some not, just because I was getting started and didn't yet have and ASEs. I thought about Disney rounds with favorite characters but unless I find them accidentally in the generic box at my local coin shop, I doubt I'll pay those premiums! Other ideas or good sources for "popular" rounds like Disney and such? I was just thinking this morning, what form of silver do the rest of you like to gift?
For my niece I've been giving her a 1 oz coin every birthday and Christmas. Hopefully by the time she is 18 she will understand the value of them.
I was thinking of asking the same question on here. I recieved funny looks when i suggested giving a silver coin for a childs gift. I wish somebody thought to give me silver years ago!
Doesn't this just expose you as someone who has PM's at home? I love my nieces but my sister is so oblivious to the real world (iPhone mum) and would probably tell all her friends about it on Facebook, and I wouldn't trust my brother in law as far as I could throw him (he is about 120kg so it wouldn't be very far anyway).
I do the same, for her birthday she gets a different coin minted in the year she was born and for Christmas she gets one for the current year. She is still too young to appreciate/not appreciate it so my wife puts the birthday coin in a new purse for her, she gets to play with the purse but her mum puts the coin straight into a box once she has seen it. For the Christmas coin I put it in one of the loop holders and it becomes a Christmas Tree ornament, which she can add to each year, and each year she will be able to get them all out and decorate the tree, so she will get some pleasure out of it. As to the designs, loads of animals out there! Kids love animals, so I am building up a zoo of buffaloes, eagles, mooses, wolves, turtles, bears and all the lunars. I have a feeling that one day she will find the box and there will be a pile of cards and capsules in one corner and a pile of silver in another. For this reason I am not buying any high premium coins or any rare ones or proofs. My wife makes sure she always gets 'a proper present' as well. My inlaws see PM as just another one of my collecting fads, after cereal promos, star wars figues and trade cards so they don't even bother to ask how much the coins are worth, I just tell them they will be worth a fortune in the future and they just roll their eyes at me.
Im going to give my nephew a bar for his 1st birthday. Not the most exciting present, but hey by the time he is old enough to sell it himself, he will certainly appreciate it. I like the idea of the different 1oz coins. Lizard i too collected a whole bunch of things, trading cards, casino chips etc, and im sure the family sees this as just another one of those things, but i tell you i sure wish i had only collected coins/pms from a young age instead of all the other things. I cringe if i think how much money got sunk in to those other "collectables".
My wife's family gets a wooden box when a child is born and puts a newspaper from that day, a bottle of red wine and some other stuff in there. It's stashed and 18 years later they open it. Realistically, the parents drink the wine since most 18 year olds don't want it. :lol: Anyway, long story short, as a stash for when they grow up, it sounds like a good idea. Newspaper, 10oz bar, bottle of red.
We were going to put away a couple of bottles of red for when the niece gets married but not all wine stores that well and we are still waiting for the 2011 vintage to be released, the stuff we like isn't bottled every year. Plus we are a bit short on space and it is pretty nice wine...
I think works perfectly! I normally ask my 7yo child to choose from few coins I have, she always said: YELLOW ONES PLEASE! just because they look pretty, very clever my girl
If she's a typical well informed, home schooled kid of anarcho-capitalist parents it will be saved with the others.
Thanks for all the comments, please keep them coming! The nieces I'm talking about are in their mid-upper teens. I make sure they understand the value is the 1oz fine silver, NOT one dolar face value. I like the ideas of animals and birth year coins.
Well if they are old enough to appreciate it how about a charm bracelet then! Get a 1/10th oz gold coin each year and stick a loop on it and the bracelet grows each year.
Didn't do the newspaper or wine, but my first silver purchase was a 2012 10oz NTR silver dragon bar for the daughter. Haven't decided whether to add 1 or 10oz a year yet. I'll give them to her at 18, 21 or whenever she is ready to receive it. I see it as a way to store some wealth for her for the future - as long as silver is $100s/oz and not $10/oz!!!!
A mate gave 1oz of gold nuggets to both his kids when they turned 18. One sold half immediately (via me so they got good price) and partied the proceeds. The other waited 2 years and then sold half to get bond money for a house rental. Better to put away a bunch of smaller coins than single large jobs I reckon. That way if they want cash instead they/you may not have to sell the lot. Also better chances of ending up with some with numi-added value.
