'It's a wonderful hobby, it's been going on forever': Over thirty coin dealers take part in Cambridge Coin Show

The Cambridge Coin Show is back in town this weekend.

Around 30 coin dealers set up shop at the Cambridge Newfoundland Club Saturday to display their collections to avid coin collectors from across the region.

“I started doing this when I was 15, sort of hustling back and forth, and it turned into a full time job,” said dealer, Todd Sandham. “I just got out of control, I guess you could say. I've gone to this show for over 30 years.”

Continuing on the 22 year tradition and legacy of the Cambridge Coin Club, the Waterloo Coin Society began hosting the Cambridge Coin Show in 2014. The society says support for this popular spring event will help to grow their membership, promote and introduce new collectors to the hobby and serve residents of all ages across Waterloo Region.

“This an opportunity for coin and paper money collectors, and collectors of all other sorts of currency, to come out and see a number of dealers,” said co-chair of the show, Brent Mackie.

“We have 52 dealer tables here today and about 30 something dealers where you can buy, sell, trade, appraise coins, paper, money, tokens, metals, all sorts of banknotes. We see it as a valuable way to keep the hobby alive and to give people something to do to help them grow their collections, maybe sell off some stuff.”

New for 2024 are medals celebrating Waterloo Coin Society's 65th Anniversary, available in antique silver and antique brass finishes.

“We've been going strong for 65 years,” said past president of the Waterloo Coin Society, Tony Verbruggen. “We're one of the longest serving, healthiest, largest coin clubs in Ontario.”

With over 170 members, the society says coin collecting certainly has become a valued hobby for people of all age groups.

“It's a wonderful hobby,” Verbruggen said. “It's been going on forever. It's the king of hobbies, and the hobby of kings is coin collecting.”

“It's kind of neat to buy these things, understand the history of it, and then, you know, pass on what I know to the guy who actually ends up perhaps owning it for a little bit longer than I do,” Sandham said.

Verbruggen said he had noticed a rise in the number of people dabbling in coin collecting during the pandemic.

“A lot of people were at home with their collection or they had a box of stuff in their attic and they were home and with nothing else to do. So they're going through that and trying to figure out what the value was and what they actually have.”

Verbruggen encourages people who want to start getting into the hobby to consult the society or other experts in the field.

“Trying to identify these things can only get so far on the internet and a lot of the websites are really not reliable and they kind of inflate prices. So if they want to actually learn what they have and what the value is and the story behind it, they need to come and talk to people who know about it. And when you come to a club like ours, there's somebody who knows a lot about something and there's a lot of pooling of that kind of knowledge, which is really important for the hobby.”