Recently i was at a gas station and was handed an Indian head penny in my change. I saw it when she handed it to me as i have a habit of looking at my change. I asked the young lady behind the counter if she knew what she gave me and she said no, it is the wrong amount? I said no and showed her the Indian head. With a clueless look on her face she said "it's a penny." Well that experience along with others that has be thinking younger people are not concerned with the value of coins and currency. What do you think?
well I think i'm young enough to say, "absolutely not!". in my case at least although my entry into this hobby was a pretty precipitate one, encouraged by none other than yours truly haha. I haven't received any older coins for my change at all so I suppose at some point they must have been removed from circulation over here. But your in good luck anyway. congrats! if they'd circulate the coins from that same era, which would be the straits settlement ones for Singapore. i'd remove them all from circulation in months if I could!
Coin collectors in total only make up a very small, even tiny, percentage of the general population. So of course only a tiny percentage of people, young or old, would even know what an Indian Head penny was. To them a penny is a penny. Are there young collectors out there ? You bet ! But in the entire history of coin collecting the young have always only been a small percentage of the total number of coin collectors. And that has never changed. The percentage numbers have remained roughly the same for as long as this country has existed. And based on that history I doubt they ever will change.
Doug is right. People in the 70's were writing articles talking about the death of coin collecting because no kids were involved. I was kind of miffed since I was a kid at the time. Anyway, the progression has always roughly been: 1. Some young kids like coin collecting. Many do it with Dad, and like shiny pieces. 2. Puberty happens, cars happen, college happens. 3. Around 25-35 life is settled down, (usually) the guy looks around, finds or refinds coin collecting, and there you go. Same old pattern. Yes, there are some who collect all of the way through. I started when I was 5, but admit between 15 and 20 girls were a heck of a lot more interesting to me. Some like David Bowers even become dealers as a kid. However, the basic pattern has always been collectors get involved and serious around 25-35 on average. If someone tells me there are no collectors below the age of 40 then I might worry. Coin collecting is a terrific hobby for kids, I am a boy scout merit badge counselor. It teaches economics, history, geography, etc. However, how many kinds in the hobby I simply do not believe is a barometer to its health.
I'm 25 and I've been into numismatics seriously for a few years. I went with my father-in-law and his 9-year-old son to a coin show last weekend. We met Ken Potter and got a signed copy of Strike it Rich With Pocket Change. I think he'll probably grow up in the hobby with experiences like that.
I think it happens a little later Chris. Things for me didn't start settling down until I hit 50........
This sounds like me. Around 10 years old, my Grandfather gave me a few silver dollars and I helped my Dad fill out Whitman folders. At age 12 I won 4 bicentenniel Ikes at a picnic (swimming races). Didn't think much about coins again until mid-40s.
I tend to agree with this (although I am probably one of those rare "young collectors"). Coin collecting is an "old man's" hobby (not to make that sound bad) but there are a number of factors for it. First off, it's quite expensive and young people lack both the financial backing to do it. Secondly, it takes a lot of study and many young people simply don't want to do that. As people age those things change and it becomes a more interesting hobby I think. That said, I don't see an issue with the number of young people in the hobby. It seems to be as it has always been...and I don't see that changing.
Somewhat like other poster's perspective, I would guess that you'd get the same response from the vast majority of adults. At least in my case, I didn't appreciate collecting and the associated history (i.e., where has this coin been/what has it seen?) until well into adulthood. This is despite the fact that my father was a semi-serious collector. I would guess there's a fair number of younger folks today that have no interest in the hobby now but will get hooked at some point.
i never gave coin collecting much thought until i was nearly 30, when i started working at a bank. a bag of $30 in wheat cents was cashed in by a customer, and i felt the urge to snatch it up because i remembered my grandmother kept wheat cents when i was a kid in the 80's. i would have to echo the other thoughts in this tread about young collectors. it's not as important to (pre-)teens because i don't think children appreciate the historical significance of such a thing. or they're just too pre-occupied with everything else to notice.
Or their dads overdo it and start storing every coin they find in 2x2 slabs and the fun is sucked out of the hobby.
what do you consider young for coin collecting? I'm 26, and I have yet to meet anyone in my area who collects coins even close to being as young as me. I feel the hobby is not very big where I live. The only place I meet anyone is auctions, and I find the majority are retirement age, and are usually not from this area. There aren't any good coin shops, mostly just antique shops where someone is selling a few coins way overpriced in a case full of ceramic clowns. If it wasn't for Cointalk I really wouldn't have anyone to talk to about coins. At least no one that would be able to have an actual conversation about it.
At 26, you probably fall into the "young" category for this hobby. You've "seen the light" before most. Welcome to the Forum!!
I am 30 and getting into coin collecting more and more. Also collecting paper money. I was working the other day and a teenager paid with a silver certificate dollar. I was like really I wonder if he stole it from a parents collection or something. I on occasion get $2 bills in and just recently got a 1930s $100 bill in very good shape . Let's just say I exchanged them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Kid's aren't into these kinds of things. I've brought 2 of my friends into the hobby but their not really "as involved" as me because they have other things to do that they consider more "fun" and "worth their time". Back then they didn't have all these videos games and entertainment gadgets so more people could take time and use coins as a hobby but now their are a lot of gamers instead of numismatics
