Now I Am Getting Worried.... The Future Of Our Hobby

Well as far as the "Great American Coin Hunt" goes... I don't think it was that "Great". As most of you know, my son is an avid collector. He went to lots of banks with me and asked tellers if they had anything interesting. Not a single thing came of it. Didn't see anything in change from the stores either. I would call it the "Dud Coin Hunt"

 

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Yes. It would be rather obvious. Prices are set by supply and demand. If the bottom falls out of the number of collectors the demand goes way down, but the supply doesn't. If you have 10 rare coins and 50 eager collectors prices will be high. If you have 10 rare coins and only 5 eager collectors the price will be low.

As for the "great coin hunt" I HAVE seen people here and on other forums Posting old and obsolete coins they have found recently in circulation. When it happens though, for the most part no one mentions the coin hunt even though that is probably where they came from.

You also have to realize that probably 90% of the coins put into circulation were Wheat cents, older Jefferson nickels and maybe some buffalos, with and without dates, badly worn V nickels, and some low grade indian head cents. There were probably very few better coins or silver circulated.

 

The U.S. Mint has a long way to go issuing too many special coins. The Royal Canadian Mint has got the lead in issuing tons of stuff.

 

At the Chicago ANA show, over a 3 day period I saw about a dozen kids doing the scavenger hunt/learning types of activities that they set up for them and I saw about another dozen walking around with parents, but I wasn't there on the weekend when they'd be out of school and be able to go to the show. My daughter's high school doesn't have a coin club unfortunately but I wonder if there'd be enough interest.....

 

It was much more popular in the 50's, 60's etc.
Tastes change. Sure there are still youngsters who are interested in it, but
it's a very small demographic and it is a dying hobby.
LCS's keep closing and blaming EBay. So you say, well the hobby is still alive,
look at EBay. 99% of that traffic is only interested in making money. They don't
care about the hobby. The lack of older coins in circulation, and the movement
towards more electronic payments and less cash transactions doom this hobby to the dinosaurs.
Even your high end auctions, Heritage and million dollar coins, 90% of the time these people are looking to sell their investment in a few years at an outrageous profit. Evidenced by the fact that you see the same exact coins for sale every year for more and more money. That is not keeping the hobby alive as only the very elite can afford those coins.
The State quarter program brought people into the hobby, but when they found out later their coins are worth face value, they lost interest.

 

You're worrying needlessly, Randy. It's what happens when we get older and start having "intimations of mortality" (apologies to William Wordsworth) and fearing our collections will become unloved orphans after we're gone. I think Jason's observation is spot on:

And if I've learned anything in my life, it's to trust the old adage of "always follow the money"...

Where there's money to be made, there always will be people competing to exploit the opportunity. That rare million dollar coin @Evan8 is fantasizing over won't be any less rare 50 years from now.

 

Not even close. Check out someone like Isle of Man.

 

The Baby Boomer Generation is the largest population surge in US history. Which brought along the largest group of Numismatist with access to the largest amount of coins than ever before. In 25-30 years the BB generation will be mostly gone, with the exception of a few odd ball that did not Drink or Smoke.
All those BB Numismatist gone and probably 80% of all those coin collection they accumulated will change hands. The coin market will flood with nice coins, there will be less demand due to a shrinking population and the values will dip and the face of coin collectors will have changed. It has already started. The BB bubble is slowly popping.
The low end of those collection are all the nice 1960-70 cents that have come to market/circulation in recent years. Chicken feed. But I have gotten some for my album. Coin Collecting was so much different 40 years ago.
https://time.com/5485023/census-us-population-growth-2018/

 

The hobby is and will be fine.

 

I've said this elsewhere on this forum, but I don't think young kids at coin shows or even young kids collecting/not collecting makes much of a difference for the hobby. Kids have so many changes to go through from kiddom to adulthood that it's near impossible to say if exposure to coins at a young age will translate into future collectors. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.

I'm not really convinced that coin collecting is a young person's hobby anymore, honestly.

But when the old guys stop showing up, THEN the hobby is done for. If I ever see no old men at a coin show then I'll know something ominous has happened.

It would be nice to get more women, young or old, interested. I see far more of a gender skew than an age skew at the shows I attend. I see many many more more women at the rocketry launches I go to then I ever see at coin shows.

 

That 'tons of crap' is what keeps youg'uns focused on the hobby......Every FUN show I've gone to has had numerous youngsters attending. I feel we have nothing to fear regarding any demise of our hobby. Old guy go and new guys take up the slack........

 

You 'old' devil......

 

Isn't it the same thing that killed stamp collecting and baseball cards? Too much crap - to the point people gave up trying to get 1 of everything?

 

Apples and oranges.....the hobby thrives. This old fool continues to suscribe to mint issues. As a kid (sixties) longed for a resurgence of commems, but it never happened back in those days. It wasn't until the eighties that commems resurface. I was happy indeed when they were revived.....still am.

Modern 'crap' will lead young collectors to more classical stuff, as the interest in collecting grows. Can you say that about stamp collecting?

 

Frankly, I have no idea since I didn't/don't collect stamps. I guess it raises the question why didn't the "crap" that the post office put out energize the hobby instead of kill it?

Assuming that IS what killed it.

 

I venture to say that collecting stamps wasn't as wide and fulfilling as collecting coins. I also say (without given knowledge) that collecting stamps has a lesser history than collecting coins.

 

Fair enough.

 

Yup, I used to actively collect baseball cards and it was a joy and an event to attend the big shows.

Check this out:



What's scary is that same Parsippany, NJ PAL center is also the home to a monthly card show, which thankfully (for now) is still drawing decent Sunday crowds.

 

If 1986 was my first birthday..... that means 1985 was my birthyear...... that means I'm 34.....

I'll accept "you devil."

I don't think "old" quite applies yet.

Although I guess that depends on who you ask.

 

34? I can only wish. LOL