COINWEEK - New vs Older Collectors

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I bemoan fewer kids because I think it is a hobby that starts young, lapses, and then restarts later in life when there are fewer family pressures. Many of us return to the things that interested us in our youth, we just do them on a different scale or with more intellectual pursuits in mind.

Fortunately polyester leisure suits, disco balls, and pet rocks are no longer around or I am sure we would see one or two at shows from the retro crowd.

 

Excellent points. I spend a lot of my time on the VAMworld site where the average age is a good bit higher, so my view is probably skewed.

 

Yeah, I am 133 yrs old now, lol

 

Interesting you said that. I am threatening to live to 130. My wife wants to kick out around 110. So before she goes she is going to pick out a 100 year old trophy bride for me.

 

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While I think this is true, I also feel like the kids are, in a way, being primed to develop "the collectors gene". While showing/explaining what I was doing to an 8 year old his quick response was an excited "cool like Pokémon, you got to get them all in all their versions".

I know, I know, we can all collectively groan about Pokémon now! But the thing is, the kid started "collecting" coins all on his own. Just modern pocket change but still. He saves them, looks at them, compares them. When ever he rides the subway he wants to put bills in the machines to get presidential dollars back. Every time he sees a coin older than 2000 he's convinced he's found "a really old one"

Now admittedly, he not nearly ready to do any research or real studying and has the briefest of attention spans, but he'll get there, I'm just letting him get there at his own pace.

There's hope out there, I think we just need to let the youngin's and the not so youngin's get there in their own way.

 

Definitely class of '11, but kind of a little reverse of the last point. I buy the coin to become the slab. And I admittedly started as an investment, until I realized I couldnt sell any of the coins!

 

Some more:

'75ers: started with Bicentennial stuff.
'86ers: started with the American Eagle program.
'99ers: started with the State Quarters program.

 

class of '64 here.

 

and yes, I hate moderns.

 

I didn't start collecting til last year but I fall into the class of 2011. Buying silver when it was at $14.00 an ounce kickstarted my interest in coins. I thought I would just invest in silver but I got mesmorized by some of the coins at the shops I was getting my bullion from. I joined a coin club and have been on the run ever since. Between this site, my coin club, and coin shows I have learned a lot. My collection is pretty humble still as I only buy modern 90% silver Kennedy halves and 40% Silver Ikes. I have my eyes set on Morgans but want to learn a lot more before I buy anything over $100.00. I have brought my 10 year old niece and 8 year old nephew into the hobby also. It started with me buying them ASE's then they started collecting their own. They both are Junior members of the coin club and attend it with me regularly. I think the seed has been planted for them, as they have there collections and love showing it off to family members. When they get into their teens they may loose interest for awhile but then come back to the hobby later I hope.

 

Interesting read. I also consider myself a hybrid. I don't collect anything 90s and later unless it's a variety, error or has some special toning or meaning. I do play with silver from time to time, but I separate that from my actual collecting interests.

 

Couple of points about being a '64 that don't apply to me personally (although I know many people to which they do apply).

First, I never collected out of the circulating coinage of the day--that was merely the money I used to fund my collection.

Next, I don't hate moderns. I don't even dislike them. I'm simply not interested in collecting them for the same reason that I didn't collect from circulation back in the '60s.

 

I actually like modern gold. The Gold Buffalo is one of the best in my opinion, and I did the First Spouse series. I liked the First Spouse more at first but it became a burden because of the size of the series and it curtailed any other collecting I could do at the time. But the Gold Buffaloes continue to be a nice series with a reasonable number of issues each year. Gold and Silver commemorative coins hold no interest in my world.

 

True for many of us, but once the seed is planted I know a lot of people who cycled back into the hobby. It is a great way to learn history and it stretches the mind.

 

I never seem to fit any categories.

I pre-date the "class of '64" by several years, never collected pennies as a youngster, and never pulled silver from circulation until 1969 when a built in profit began. Of course, I've been a huge fan of watching moderns since 1965 and a huger fan of collecting them since 1972.

But these new collectors are visible if you know where to look. They are going to transform the hobby in just the next ten years and stand most of the markets on their ears. Nice coins will do well and mundane coins may lose almost all their demand. I can't imagine a F or VF 1936 buffalo nickel having very much demand, at least compared to the massive supply. Coins that were in circulation when the "class of '64" came around are just going to be too plentiful for the new market. Any coin that is extremely common is likely to suffer in the new enviroment.

But great coins will "always" be in demand.

 

that's because your best friends are "ancients"

 

I would agree, to put the group of collectors into two simple categories is a bit of a stretch. Especially without hard data to support the claim (I'm a business systems analyst...I need to see numbers).

If I had to choose a category, I'd go with an 11 (bought bullion as a hedge) who morphed to a 64....books, experience, knowledge and educating yourself can do wonders to a hobby! I would love to collect pre 1900 US mint medals, though they are a bit out of my income bracket! Now copper cents (pre 1959) are king to me...

 

While the classes of collectors is a reasonable grouping of the largest groups, many evolved with the changes. It is true, growing up with silver coins, neat Mercury dimes and such, made collecting rewarding, if for no other reason the beauty of the coins. The local coins stores often had few new pieces to offer of the old coins, so, collectors drifted or paused in collecting. EBAY in the 1990's was a place were estates and liquidation by individuals created an exciting and new access to fill collections. I remember staying up to the wee hours at night ti finish an auction on West Coast time. As finances have allowed, I could enjoy three cent and two cent coins, varieties and some newer modern coins. One grows with this hobby but you still have roots in favorite areas to collect.