The Coin Collecting merit badge Pamphlet You Need

When I joined the Boy Scouts in 1977, I decided to make one of my merit badges be the coin collecting merit badge. I did my scouting with the motto: “I am a scout, I do my own scouting”. This was not unusual for the time, as most boys were taught that they were “boys” and that being a member of a scouting organization was somehow better than being anything else. I was given a coin collecting merit badge pamphlet for my first meeting as a scout.

My coin collecting merit badge pamphlet consisted of this sentence: “Do your own thinking, and then let your thinking do what you want.” I read that in its literal form, but I wanted to make sure that I understood it the best I could before I went on to do my preparation work. I did not go into the details of what “doing your own thinking” meant, but I did understand the basic premise. “Doing your own thinking” means getting your ideas out into the world where others can see them. Preparing mentally and learning to accept things as they are is the first step to success in coin collecting.

The next thing I wanted to be sure of was that I had a workbook and not some loose leaf paper with some pretty illustrations of coins that no one had ever seen before. It was just a waste of time. I brought along the coin collecting workbook and sat down at the table with my workbook. I told myself I was prepared, that I had the information I needed, and I would not make any foolish mistakes. I passed my coin collecting merit badge pamphlet to one of the older boys and he quickly put it down, tossed it in a waste basket and walked away.