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

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This is exactly what happened to me, but I was 35/36. I went back to my parents, home went into my old bedroom closet and the coin collection I had built up to age 15 was still there! Then that night my father gave me an old coin of pretty much junk silver and clad halves, and I started collecting again. In high school and college and starting out, coin collecting tends to take a backseat.

 

Typically they do This years Apollo 11 program was debated and passed in 2016. the American Legion debated and passed mid 2017. The 2018 programs were debated and passed in early 2016 and mid 2015. Now for next year they have only passed one program so far and they passed it in late 2018.

The problem is they don't want to be stuck with unsold coins so they only strike part of the authorized number, let it go to back order and the pretty much strike to order. And you don't want to do the pre strikes too early. Don't was to have to store them or worry about the tarnishing while they wait for the ordering period to roll around.

 

Well, I'm not having any jitters about the coins that I focus on: South Korean collector coin values are only going up...

 

I think coin collecting will come back - one the Yeti cooler and Lululemon hype ceases.

 

No one knows nor can anyone control what ultimately happens to this hobby. It likely won't vanish tomorrow, but it could vanish someday. What can anyone really do about it? And does it really matter in the end? If you enjoy the coins you have, great, then you have gained pleasure from your collection. Is there anything else to really measure success by in this hobby (for non-dealers, at least)? Whether anyone else enjoys it as much as you do is something you can't control, so worrying about it will just produce (more) ulcers. Enjoy it, don't worry about it and whatever will be will be. ¿Que Será Será?

 

Very fair concern @Randy Abercrombie . Some times it does make you a little down in the dumps. I'm 38 and feel like I'm on the lower of the age range when it comes to collectors in my area. I love reading these threads that are so involved with pages of responses and I feel that I miss responding to what I want to so I'll tag people here in this response as I read the whole thread. Great topic of conversation to the OP!
@John Skelton "Until they discover girls!" When we talk about younger numismatists we have to remember that not all of them are male or straight. The vast majority may be, however old stereo types die hard and we all must do a better job of reaching out to anyone who is interested in the numismatic field.
"oh, that's right, young people don't know what a paper is."
This is something we need to avoid as well. Young people, especially those who are interested in coins are smart enough to know that advertisements are in paper however the vast majority of folks use the internet so we must adapt and use all venues of advertising.
@Evan8 "I just have a hard time imagining myself owning million dollar coins one day because there is no more interest in coin collecting and they wouldn't be worth that anymore."
This is in no means a negative response to that statement, however if someone is a true collector, wouldn't it be fantastic to know that you hold a coin that is so rare even though it is not worth anything? That is a true collector to value the coin over the dollar amount it is valued at. All of my morgans and other coins could turn up to be worth nothing and I would still value them as a collector.
@CoinCorgi "The hobby will continue until the U.S. Mint destroys it by flooding the hobby with tons of crap." I would tend to agree with this. I hope the mint concentrates on genuine new coinage and allowing the numismatists to concentrate on those items. The current issues are worn out. Classic but worn out. We need new issues to keep the interest of new numismatists.
@Michael K "The State quarter program brought people into the hobby, but when they found out later their coins are worth face value, they lost interest" I agree and sad to say that those are not the people that are long term numismatically inclined people to begin with.
@Maxfli , didn't want to quote your whole first post because of the length of this but you are spot on!
@ewomack , I hear ya on the baseball card end. I loved that as a kid and I still have all of them. I was a collector so the value didn't matter as much as it was something that my dad and my brother and I loved. True collector regardless of the value but the market was flooded and thus I think has scene its day.
@Collecting Nut , I agree with the stamps comment. I look for stamp collections at garage sales. They are all still valid, most hold no value over face and you can still use them to mail things. Most times they can be bought WAY under face value.
@CaptainMK GREAT response to this thread. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Great!
@kevin McGonigal , Great response to this! Many things I like here. It sounds as though the way you collected is optimal. In change. In circulation. That would be fantastic now and also cannot be the way we do it now (although a limited sector may be had this way). I can imagine your sister coming home with that dollar. What a great way to collect!!! The ending paragraph is the eptimomy of what we need to figure a way around. We need to make it interesting for those who cannot afford to buy their collection and get them interested in this hobby.
@Terrifrompa , I am under the impression that they only released the 110,000 mintage of that set. If they release an enhanced reverse proof SAE, that is entirely different. Don't feel cheated.
@Jaelus "Right. That's the problem. They did have a century. They wastedmost of it. Just because waiting until the last minute is the status quo does not excuse it. It just means they are really bad at planning." I agree. We cannot keep the same pace we have in the past. The people at the helm are fine with the status quo and only using their time on planning to be reelected. They need to up the pace and move things along faster than ever to serve the people and not their reelection interest.
@WRSiegel , You sound like a real collector with that response!!!! Keep it up and pass on that way of thinking!
@tommyc03 "Maybe it would help if the next Secretary of the Treasury had coin collecting as a life long hobby as part of his/her resume?" I'll throw my hat in the ring! I even live close enough to commute!
I think this is the most engaging and interesting thread I have read here on Coin Talk in quite some time. Very entertaining and worth the read! Thanks everyone!

 

The big show in NYC is the NYINC, an international coin show. It's held in the Waldorf Astoria every year right around the same time as the Winter FUN (the first weekend of January). Often, it competes with FUN... Many would prefer that they were the week after FUN, so that international dealers could attend both. Anyways, if you like non-US coins, this is the place to be.

I keep wanting to go, but I never do. New York City is the singular most disgusting place I've ever been on the Planet Earth, and I have absolutely no desire to ever step foot in that putrid cesspool ever again (and I've stayed a week in post-communist Addis Ababa Ethiopian refugee camps. They were nicer than New York subways). Besides the location, I'm sure it's a lovely show. Every year I buy coins from the auctions.

 

Physics, I'm not into international coins.

BTW, Rudy Giuliani cleaned up alot of NYC. Although the current mayor is determined to go back to the 1970's.....

 

Without getting into politics, I visited NYC in 2014, well after Giuliani. The place was disgusting. When I lived in Louisiana, I saw ROUSs in the swamps. I'll swear I saw bigger in the NYC subways.

And, if you aren't into international coins, the NYINC won't do you much good.... Perhaps consider some shiny yellow foreign coins?

 

While I admit that my characterization of young people drop things when they discover girls was sexist, I was thinking only back to the time when we ascribed that reason when we didn't know better. I should have remembered that not everyone shares the same orientation.

As for the paper remark, no, I think that still holds true. How many young people do you know who do subscribe to a newspaper? I worked with them for the past 12 years, and every one of them got the news from online. I do agree we need to use the internet to promote the hobby. I get emails from PCGS all the time, but that doesn't help the local scene. How do you let others know there is collecting activity going on in your neighborhood? Where can you put up flyers? Do you display signs outside of a coin show letting others know what's going on outside?

One thing some of you might consider is your local cable provider. Some cities require cable companies to provide a public access channel where the public can come into a studio and do their thing. That could be a platform to challenge YouTube.

 

I had to laugh when I read your response. I didn’t mean an actual physical subscription to a newspaper ( that’s the part that made me laugh because I did write this) that comes to your door rather using the online version of the paper. Yup. It’s engrained you n my head paper but it’s mostly all online lol. Still local though.

 

Don't laugh, we still get physical paper delivered to our door. USA Today, 5 days a week and Detroit News Thu., Fri. & Sun. No joke!

 

It used to be so much fun finding a special coin in the change a person accumulated during the day, The problem now is that bank tellers and store owners are looking for those coins that used to promote good things among the hobby. I was in a bank about 6 months ago I cashed in some old American 2 dollar bills to get rid of them , and I all most started a fight among the tellers as to who was going to get the bills . Not the public but the tellers themselves. I left there thinking that was a mistake I should have given them to a bunch of kids in hopes it may spark some excitement in them to start collecting. So trying to find a special old coin or bill in change now a days is nearly a figment of your imagination. 99.9 % of these do not make it past the bank tellers , store owners , cashiers that in the know . This part of the hobby unfortunately has gone to the money changers. We all know what happened to the money changers now don't we ? Dillan

 

Are you on Instagram? MANY YN’s are very active there. NGC’s Instagram page just recently surpassed fifteen THOUSAND followers. There are plenty of YN’s out there. They just don’t usually hangout with or where the older folks are.

 

That is a relief. No, being an old guy, my social posting is pretty limited..... To CT.

 

I bought some food at a nearby cafeteria today and the cashier gave the person in front of me her change and said "there's some really old penny in there" and handed it over to her. I was not in a good position to intervene, unfortunately. It was probably a wheatie, I'm guessing.

So it can still happen, but very rarely these days, it seems.

 

My son gives his daughter pocket change. When she (10 years old) gets enough she rolls it and off to the coin shop we go. She buys 13 p's and 13d's. Of each new coin that comes out. At family-friendly gathering all her cousins bring their books and she sits with them and adds to their books. This has been going on for 5 years. Parks,halls,beaches and a wedding. With 13 grandbabies. Thats alot of birthdays too. They all dig it. And even the older ones take part. Think about it. Thats alot of kids and parents taking an interest in Capri's adventure. Sorry to say we don't do half Kennedy's but quarters and down. We all know what UNC. coin are also. Cuz to her their all uncircullated. Hang in there Randy

 

My son was a nickel. Wasn't funny.

 

Cable is quickly headed into obsolescence as well. Most (larger market at least) cable providers are giving you tv content over your internet connection anyway, and charging you extra money for it. You can already stream most shows over the internet, and the proprietary content you get over the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, etc. are superior to anything you lose by dropping "cable". I haven't had cable service in many years, and as far as I am aware, all my friends in my area have gone the same route.