I decided to purchase some mint and proof sets for friends of mine who do not collect and basically have no interest in collecting coins. I thought it would be nice to give them the coins from their birth year so they can hand them down to their children. Has anyone ever done anything like this? If you have, do the people you give the coins to usually think it is a cool thing or do they seem to be not interested? Just wondering!

I've done similar things. I got two little cousins hooked on coins by giving each of them an old Æ Byzantine Follis for Christmas.

One of my uncles did that for me and my brother and sister. It helped cement my path towards collecting but it had no impact on my siblings.

I did this for the kids. Birthyear mint sets, they really like them, but don't seem to be collecting. Good idea though.

In general, I have had success with kids but not adults in this area.

i give folks proof SAEs as gifts ... i'm pretty sure i haven't recruited anyone this way, but they definitely get an interested glimmer when i explain that the obverse is a classic design that used to be in people's pockets before the Powers That Be decided we all needed dead presidents instead.

I am turning my nephew into a coin collector!!!!

That's one of he reaasons i had started. My parents had gotten all of us kids a silver dollar the year we were born, when i saw all of those coins i started collecting circulated coins. Gifts from my family, all of the coins my grandparents had stashed in jars around the house really started me on collecting

Not just for birthday years, also city and state stuff from the Mint's com. section--give them a little hometown memoribilia.