Amber Bennett, the youngest member of the Cherokee County Coin Club, and Alma White, the club’s oldest member, show off some of the more impressive items displayed at a recent club meeting. Since 1990, the organization has grown from only four members to 103. (Ledger photo by SCOTTBAUGHMAN)

Ledger Staff Writer

Leroy Earls holds an 1890 Liberty Head Dollar in his left hand. It’s part of a 4-coin set for sale at a recent meeting of the Cherokee County Coin Club.

“You sure you can’t let these go for $30, Frank?” he offers to Frank Blackwell, who’s sitting across the table from him at the Blacksburg Public Library.

“I’m selling them for $35, but for you, Leroy, I can do $32,” Blackwell responds. “And that’s as low as I’m going.”

Earls hands over some cash and stacks his new ‘Morgan’ Liberty Heads together with a rubber band in their protective cases. The coins are named after the man who originally designed them, decades before either Earls or Blackwell were born.

The history, and the bartering, are par for the course at the bimonthly meetings of the Cherokee County Coin Club - a steadily growing numismatic society that’s been meeting at the Gaffney and Blacksburg Public Libraries since April 14, 1990.

“The club started in 1990, but I didn’t join until the next year,” said Donita Braniff, who serves as secretary and treasurer for the group. “We really just love to get together and talk about the new coins we have or a good deal we found. All our meetings are pretty laid back and I think the highlight is the raffle we have each time.”

Coin Club meetings have no agenda, and members are usually conversing about rare finds or wheeling and dealing to add to their collections.

“Oh we don’t just buy and sell, sometimes we’ll trade coins with each other, too,” said Jodi Wiles as she produces a small folder to show off to Earls. “This is my commemorative presidential portrait mini-coin set from the Franklin Mint. They do a lot of these special collections, but these I thought were really nice. Each one is a little smaller than a dime, it’s silver and has the face of a U.S. President on it. I’ve got all of them up through Ford, so I need to find the rest sometime.”

Wiles started her coin collecting about five years ago and is now one of the club’s most active participants.

“It’s kind of hard to explain why I like doing it,” she said. “My daughter has been coin collecting since she was 3 years old. A lot of the coins are very beautiful in their own right. I guess for me it’s the thrill of getting that great deal on something, you know a real bargain. A guy named Tommy came in here one night and showed us this gold coin from the 1800s he had bought off a guy for $80. Frank looked it up and it turned out to be worth about $500 to a coin collector. That is amazing, we all live for that kind of find.”

The door prize for Tuesday night’s meeting is a .999 sliver medallion from Disney’s movie “The Lion King” and several other prizes are available for ticketholders in a separate raffle. Membership in 1990 was only four people but the 2005 roll has 103 names.

“I’m here because I have five children in the club,” laughed Alexandrea Bennett, the 2004-2005 president for the group. “Benjamin, Stephen, Hannah, Sarah and Amber are our younger members and they’ve been at it for the last eight years. My kids go to competitions all over the state and in other states. Last year we had winning entries in South Carolina’s competition and Tennessee’s. You don’t have to live in a state to participate, you just have to be a member of the society in that state to compete. Benjamin collects error coins, ones that have defects in the casting or dyeing process, and he won with that exhibit. One of them collects all Australian money, one Canadian money and Hannah collects only statehood quarters. She did an exhibit about the original 13 colonies this year.”

Across the room, Leroy Earls looks over his ‘Morgan’ Liberty Head Dollars again.

“The goal is to get one from every year the coins were in circulation,” he said. “When would that be, Frank?”

Blackwell looks at the ceiling and thinks a minute. “Morgan dollars were 1878 - 1921,” he responded. “So the whole set, in a good condition, would be worth about $3,000.”

Earls puts the coins back in his pocket, looks out across the room full of his coin club friends and smiles. He knows he’s been lucky to stumble onto such a rare find.