So, I joined my first Coin Club, yesterday. How many of you belong to a local Coin Club? Do you regularly attend the monthly meetings? Do you get value from being a member? I attended a meeting from another one a week ago, and will attend a meeting from a third, this coming Thursday. Hell, I might just join all three, for kicks and giggles (it's only like $10 per year)! So, I'm trying to figure out the value of the coin club. I'll have to go to more than one meeting from each of the three clubs, here in my area. I noticed that the average age of club members (at least at the two I've been to, so far) is about 70+. That doesn't seem to bode well for the longevity of the clubs. What have you noticed in your clubs? Is the average age getting up there, to the point where you see the club dissolving sooner rather than later? Do you get a lot out of being a member and attending the meetings? What is the future of coin clubs?
Yes, I attend monthly, and we are gaining new younger members. Our show and tell is superb with the showing of coins I will never own. Advice from senior collectors is invaluable and free.
Which club do you attend? Living in Idaho myself, I'm only aware of the SICC. Are there any others I should be made aware of?
We don't even have that many coin shows here never mind clubs. We do have a Metal Detecting club, however. Average age for that?
Local club, average age 50+ maybe 60. We have auctions where members can sell up to 15 coins a month with a 5% buyers fee. There are a few younger members but they don't always attend. One younger kid comes with his parents, spends his allowance... funny thing is if he bids on a coin others don't bid against him. That's not good for the seller but we learned early not to start your coins too low.
Our club (of which I was president for three years) recently caught the attention of a local metal detector club. These new members are much younger than the "existing" members and represent a bright future for the club. The club just had its 38th coin show.
Yeah I'm a coin club member and I attend quite a few meetings, yes we are a bunch of older coots but there are younger members who bring their kids so there's a mix of ages. The benefits for me is I get to sell coins and we have an auction so sometimes you can buy stuff on the cheap. We also have a raffle, you can win a gold coin or other coin prizes plus we put on two coin shows a year, so there's never a dull moment.
I joined my first club in 1963 at age 11. On average members were 60+. In the 1970s the average age was 60+. In the 1990s the average age was 60+. Same in the 2000s. Today, the average age is--you guessed it--60s+. Same thing with coin shows. The average age of attendees never seems to change.
I am a member of multiple clubs but only attend 1 regularly. I am an officer in that club. As others have mentioned, the average age of members is pretty high. We lose a couple a year but those are replaced with members that are "slightly" below the average age. Many people don't have the disposable income until later in life, so it makes sense to me. We do have some youth members but they don't consistently attend. Our educational program this month will be done by our most active YN.
From the two clubs I attended, and your description of your club, it seems they run sort of similarly. Start at 7:00pm. President talks. New business. Old business. Treasurer report. Discussion about the recent show (one club just had one over the past weekend). Giveaway drawing to members. Open discussion. Show and tell. Adjourn. Chit-chat, if you wish. Everyone gone by 9:00pm. I would like to see younger members, too. So far in the two different club meetings I've attended I seem to be the second or third youngest (at 58), with one or two in their mid-30's, at both clubs. Most of the members in both clubs looked to be 70-90. I'm hoping the third club (I will be attending tomorrow) will hold more promise of a younger crowd. It's the largest of the three clubs in my area. I'd hate to see these coin clubs dissolve, and not have any.
Yes similar but our auction is fairly eventful depending on who's selling and what they have and we also have the coin prize raffle and there's always a gold coin giveaway to the big winner and that's 1/10th gold every two weeks!
One good thing about 70+ old members is their knowledge of numismatics that they share with the members.
I belong to a local club which was established in 1955. We have about 70 or so members of which about 45 to 55 attend each meeting. We meet twice a month. Obviously the age skews upwards but we have an active YN section. We aren't all old geezers, a fair smattering of folks in their late 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. We also sponsor a once-a-month coin show at a local civic center. We also have a booth at the two FUN shows. The usual raffles, giveaways, auctions, show-n-tells, once a month formal presentations. We also allow our dealer-members to set up shop at the back of the room at the regular meetings. Dues are $25/year. What do I get out of it? Well, it's a social affair that centers around a common interest. I also learn about all kinds of things that aren't my particular collecting interest. Plus, you make friends. One of my buds met through the club it turned out we shared some friends and acquaintances and interests from 40+ years ago including our old interests in motorcycles and British sports cars but our paths never crossed back in the day. It also gives me a way to contribute something to a common cause. If you join a club, the benefits should run both ways - give as well as take. Plus it gets me out of the house twice a month much to my wife's delight.
I quit any local clubs. They all came with some really bad members. They only joined the clubs to rob and cheat other members.
I'm hoping to have similar experiences to yours! I attended the third club meeting last night. It was larger, with a somewhat younger crowd. Good to see younger people attending, for the future of the hobby. Also, there were three people there who I met at the other two clubs! Actually, one was the President of this club. I enjoyed this one. They had the usual business reports, giveaways, and a one-coin auction. But, this one also had a presentation by Mark Ferguson about Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the process of creating the General William Tecumseh Sherman memorial in New York. It also included some history of his life, and one of his modelers: Helen Farnsworth Mears. Mr. Ferguson wrote about it, here: https://www.pcgs.com/news/it-took-a-team-of-sculptors-to-produce-the-saint There were a number of people selling and buying others' coins. There was even a kid selling some of his coins. Pretty cool to see. On top of that, in June, the ANA President, Tom Uram, will visit and give a presentation! Pretty cool! I think I may have found the right one for me. I hope to make some friends there, and learn from some, and share any knowledge I might have! And, I hear ya about the wife being delighted to get rid of me for a while! LOL!
