It looks like Christmas might come a little early, for coin collectors anyway, thanks to an initiative to give away free coins nationwide.

Dec. 18 is designated Free Coin Day by Roundtable Trading (one of the organizers behind the Great American Coin Hunt in 2019).

Free Coin Day caps the Coins4Christmas week (both of which are being promoted on social media as #FreeCoinDay and #Coins4Christmas), which is scheduled for Dec. 13 to 19.

Rob Oberth, president of Roundtable Trading, credited fellow American Numismatic Association Board of Governors member Charles Morgan for the idea of Free Coin Day, as analogous to Free Comic Book Day, generally held the first Saturday in May, and which has been held since 2002.

“It just feels so good to hand out coins to people and make them smile,” Oberth said in a Coin World Podcast scheduled for a future episode.

The Free Coin Day initiative involves three fronts, with coin shops giving away free coins as the first front. Oberth’s goal is to get 100 or more coin shops involved nationwide.

In addition, on a second front, collectors and dealers are encouraged to give away coins on a person-to-person basis. The third front of the give-away effort is to place coins in Salvation Army buckets, with notes indicating why they are special and how the charity can tap into their collector value (instead of merely cashing in for the face value).

How shops participate, including what they give away and how they promote their giving, is up to each shop owner.

Oberth’s shop, Gold and Coin Exchange in Marietta, Georgia, will include a gold coin as one of its giveaways.

“The community gets really creative when they have some sort of inspiration,” Oberth said. “If we all work together to build these programs, the sky’s the limit. ... I just want to see the community take it and run with it and see what people can do with it ... and see what it turns into the following year, and the year after that.”

Connect with Coin World:  
Sign up for our free eNewsletter
Access our Dealer Directory  
Like us on Facebook  
Follow us on Twitter