Coin Collecting Made Fun With Whitman Statehood Quarters Starter Pack!
Written: Aug 21 '04 (Updated Nov 20 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Tons of goodies, color map with stickers, faux Declaration of Independence.
Cons: Only covers the first three years of quarters.
The Bottom Line: A great starter kit for kids! Educational and entertaining .. and sturdy enough for even the roughest little monsters.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Whitman Statehood Quarters Starter Pack Books |
When the United States mint started releasing the new series of quarters, the brood went crazy. They started searching for ones that were in the best possible shape and I am sure it drove more than a few sales clerks crazy in the process. With their collection growing almost every time we left the house I knew that I needed to start investing in some type of storage unit for them; with so many different books on the market it was hit or miss type of thing – some had plastic holders that eventually loosened so there were quarters everywhere and others were just too expensive for them to treat as roughly as they do. When my youngest son and I made our weekly trip to Border’s we both spotted the very cool looking Whitman Statehood Quarters Starter Pack on the clearance shelf. For the sale price of $3.00 I couldn’t pas picking up the remaining seven boxes – not only would they be great for the boys to make use of but the remaining ones would be great to save for gift giving. In hindsight I wish I would have read the box a little closer before getting so slap happy – this starter kit only covers the first three years of the new quarters [1999-2001]; even so, for three bucks this was well worth it.
Whitman Statehood Quarters Starter Pack
To be completely honest, I do feel like a fool. It says ‘starter pack’ right in the name of the product and it never dawned on me to look and see what all that entailed as a definition. Even so, what you get for the price is more than fair and it’s a great thing for teachers and homeschoolers to invest in. If I had to made this purchase over again at full retail price I am sure that I would do so, the educational value alone is worth it – not to mention the responsibility that kids get from collecting the coins, learning about the places they were made and the release schedule of new ones. So I guess when you stop and think about it, this is a two-in-one kind of thing – educational in regards to United States history and teaching the basics of coin collecting. Outside of that, the coin book that comes with the set is high quality, folds nicely and is sure to outlast even the roughest of kids.
What You Get
On the cover of the box it clearly states that you get a “Statehood Quarter 3-Year Folder” [9679] however when you open the box and look at the extremely nice tri fold book – it is a little confusing at first. There are six sections so you automatically assume that it’s six years – wrong. 1999, 2000 and 2001 each saw ten new quarters being released; five each year from the Philadelphia Mint and five each year from the Denver Mint – these are broken up into two separate sections with each of the coin pods being labeled with the appropriate State. When you open the booklet you will see years 1999 and 2000 but to get to 2001, you need to lift the informational page on the right hand side. To me this is a real drawback since the page is eventually going to rip or get damaged. The first thing you will want to check out is the booklet entitled “Welcome To Coin Collecting”, it might be small but it is jam packed with vital information for those who are just starting out with coin collecting. It covers the history of coins, how to determine a coins worth, various terms that are used, condition of coins, mint markings and how they are used to determine a coins value and how to properly clean and preserve your coins.
One extremely important thing to keep in mind here is that the coins that were released were from different mints. Let’s look at 1999 for example – Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut all had special coins released for the occasion – one from the Philadelphia Mint and one from the Denver Mint – so be sure to check the coins closely so you are getting the correct one for each of the spots. The books we were using previously only had one spot per State so when I opened this book and saw that there were indeed different coins released I was pretty shocked. The coins pop into the heavy cardboard slots easily and they do stay in place, even with a lot of opening and closing – we’ve yet to have a coin come loose. The outside of the book has the name and years it covers in silver ink as well as a nice rich design on the front cover. Other years are also available so you don’t have to worry about having an unorganized collection.
Other items that are included in the box are: a nice replication of the Declaration of Independence, Statehood Quarter collection sheet so you can easily keep track of the ones you has as well as the ones you need, a schedule of approximate release – not exact dates but a listing of the order in which they will be made available. There is a plastic proof set that’s nice for kids to have but in theory, it’s useless since once you get the quarters in your hands, they are already in circulation and not true “proof quality”. You also get twenty cardboard quarter coin holders, these are great if you have other quarters that are in great shape and you want to hold on to them or if you are lucky enough to get a few of the double stamped ones. The large color map shows year by year breakdown of when State quarters will be released, from years 1999 through 2008 – the folder is laminated and folded in quarters [no pun intended] but if you lay it out on the table for a few days with heavy books on it, the creases come out. The last and possibly most bizarre item in the set is the stickers of each of the state flags. For some reason a few of the boxes have two sheets in each – oh well, more stickering fun I guess. They show each state flag in full color with the name right under it. This is a great learning tool but seems a little out of place in this kind of element.
The Bottom Line
I am really impressed with all the items that are in this set. So far the brood have really enjoyed using them and I am sure that when my two older boys come home from school they too will enjoy transferring the coins from the older books into these. For the price of $3.00 it is a definite steal – even with the suggested retail price of $5.99, you can’t go wrong. The only possible down side to the set is that the provided book is only for the first three years however the other years area available as part of a set or can be purchased separately at most coin and collectable shops. This will help your child establish a good foothold in the history of the United States and help them learn about when the States were inducted into the union as well as other odd bits of information that are included in the set. I like the fact that the book that comes with this is standard – simply put – it is the same as other Whitman coin books so you don’t have to worry about it sticking out like a sore thumb.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2004 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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