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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;S. Porter, post: 3196738, member: 86735&quot;]Collecting in general has a couple of big types --&nbsp; lifelong collectors (can become hoarding) and later-in-life collectors. </p><p><br /></p><p>Some lifelong collectors collect for investment, and some collect for fads (things with little value to people not in that fad -- beanie babies, wrist bands).&nbsp; But collect they must.</p><p><br /></p><p>The later-in-life collectors may be looking for a retirement hobby, or they might be be lifelong collector personalities who lacked the time or money when they were younger. They can create weird bubbles in valuation as they collect things to recapture their childhoods (e.g. muscle cars). But people often become more interested in history as they age, and some of them are attracted to items that show the flow of human history.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can reconcile everyone&#039;s opinions above pretty well if you divide coin collecting into types</p><p>1. Investment collectors of valuable metals (gold, silver) or rarities (low numbers minted, some error coins and some ancients).</p><p>2. Historical interest collectors.</p><p>3. Compulsive collectors (fill Whitman books, one coin from every country, 12 Caesars, every Roman emperor, etc.)</p><p>4. Recapturing childhood collectors.</p><p><br /></p><p>My guess is</p><p>1. will continue forever since the coins will always have &quot;melt&quot; value or &quot;fine art&quot; value.</p><p>2. will continue to revive the hobby&nbsp; a bit as new waves of older folk become interested in history.&nbsp; The supply of historical items is fixed and limited.</p><p>3. is hard to say. It used to be you would pick a topic to collect, then wander around to coin shops or coin shows searching for item that matched your topic. Now, you just click on eBay or an auction house or a dealer site, and you could complete most collections in a week with enough money.&nbsp; Now, to get that &quot;thrill of the hunt&quot;,&nbsp; you would have to be seeking something very specific.&nbsp; Will those collectors pick coins or something else?</p><p>4. will not be much of a factor since Milennials will have little attachment to coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, precious metal coins and fine art coins should stay attractive to those who can afford them, ancient coins should stay attractive to those who value history, coins with something that attracts the collecting urge (state quarters, errors, emperors) should stay mildly attractive, and normal US coins minted in the billions on low value metal should have almost no attraction to those who did not experience them as kids.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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