Does coin collecting have a future?

It's a well-known fact that most coin collectors and coin dealers are older men. Go to any coin show, and odds are most of the people there are going to be in their autumn years. Young numismatists are a rare sighting. I've been in the hobby for roughly a decade, so I don't have a great amount of perspective here—has it always been this way or has the average age of collectors increased?

And if numismatics has become an older man's hobby, do you think the market is going to experience a fall-off as older collectors age out? Or has the rise of internet sales and eBay (at the expense of B&M shops) revitalized the hobby?

 

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*ahem*

 

From what I've heard a majority of coin collectors have been older folks, but never doubt that there will be some YNs and younger people in the mix too.

So yes I'd say that coin collecting does have a future.

 

I think everything has it's own comeback but maybe this hobby is taking a little longer... I guess you could be right because when I was in highschool, I didn't know anyone that collected (other than myself) and I graduated in 2011. I think It's just because nowadays, everyone too "busy" watching tv, playing video games, or is on facebook.

 

Yeah, yeah, don't forget the girls (The Penny Lady anyone?).

 

Hello! I am a YN and this is definitely not a passing hobby for me.

 

We have plenty of YNs on this forum (myself included). Yes, most well-known coin dealer are older folks, but at one time they were young, correct?

The whole argument of "the coin collecting hobby is dying out" has been around for half a century or more. If anything, there should be MORE collectors in the future, because buying, selling, and researching coins has become exponentially easier with the invention of the internet. I don't think the hobby has anything to worry about in terms of dying out.

 

Future? Yes, as long as none of us die off.

 

The demographics were the same 40-years ago, too, when I was in grade school.

 

As long as there are coins available and buyers willing to buy them (regardless of price) then coin collecting will always have a future. At least within the next 10 or so generations.

If for some unknown reason governments of the world stop producing coins, there will still be those of strong financial position that will have an interest in coins and collecting coins.

For whatever reason, we're born the the inherent desire to collect stuff. A lot of stuff and I don't see this changing short of genetic engineering in which case we'll all be worker bees anyway...............

 

I know, as am I, but in relation to the amount of older people, we definitely are in the minority.

 

Does physics have a future? When Sir Isaac Newton published the Principia, London was a town of 600,000 with a median age of about 22. Infant mortality aside, few people lived past 35. When I was a teenager in Young Americans for Freedom, liberals made fun of "horse and buggy conservatives." Of course, today, you would need a lot of disposable income to afford to keep a horse -- and you could make a good income as a ferrier, making horseshoes.

Forgive me for being pompous (a noun goes with that as a cliche) but my master's (2010) is in social science and I assure you that Jane Jacobs was dead on when in The Economy of Cities she blew Peter Schumpeter ("creative destruction") out of the water by citing example after example of old forms and old ways that continued via change so that ultimately, George Selgin of the Austrian School of economics could write about The Birmingham Button Makers who created the first truly modern coinage.

I predict - I have predicted - that in the future, people will collect collections: meta-collecting. "Oh, I have a complete set of Michigan Blueberry Seeds.... Oh, I have a complete set of Peace Dollars...." We see this already in the "Registry Sets."
("Oh, look, I have a set of registered coins!")

It has long been true that the serious collectors in numismatics have purchased other people's whole collections running into the thousands.

Numismatics has the same future as horses... or cars... or airplanes... or radios... or Rock 'n' Roll...

 

I think collectors have been having this discussion for the past 6,000 years, straight.

 

They only have to break the plane, (evil snicker) and they 're ours.

"Relax said the night man, we are programed to receive, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." Hotel California-Eagles

 

I have been collecting since my freshman year in high school. I go to coin shows regularly and there is several young people with there father and or grandfather. I think that its in a bit of a slump.

 

The fact of the matter is that young people don't have as much disposable income to spend on coins as older folks do. Many of us start out in the hobby at a young age but either taper off or leave it completely when we start families and careers. Later, when we're in a better financial position we get back into it again. That's the way my collecting life has been. I never sold my collection or lost interest in the hobby, I just didn't have the means or time to pursue it seriously. These things go in cycles as most things in life do.

Bruce

 

Volante, "you" are the future of our hobby. It's great we have a virtual community here, but make the effort to share your passion with non-collecting friends and family who are curious.

 

I agree. It is mostly older people who have the time and money to devote to a hobby like this, especially collecting the serious coins that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Many people, men especially, seem like they are always drawn to collecting one thing or another, and there will always be some who turn to coins. It may not be common - you might not know anyone else you interact with in your daily life who is also a collector - but there are still plenty of us out there.

I do wonder though as people turn more and more to electronic payments and move away from cash how that will affect the hobby. I can see it going both ways. 1. People don't use cash and coins anymore, so they don't get interested in collecting them. 2. People don't use coins and cash anymore, and they see them as a quaint and interesting relic of earlier times like Indian arrowheads or antiques and that draws people to them.

 

i`m going to a show on friday, at 42 i might be the youngest one there! hope not