Bleak future for our pastime ?

The wife had me go with her to the grocery today, so while there I went to the samll bank inside and got 20 rolls of cents to search. The young lady working as head teller knows that I search cents a lot. She came over and asked me to look at these funny "black" pennies. She said "Have you ever seen anything like these ?" LOL Honest truth. I think she needed verification as to whether they were real coins. She had about 10. Of course I asked if she wanted me to take them off her hands. She said that if they were real, she would take them home and show her husband.

I explained how the steel cents were started because of the copper needed for the war effort and they were steel coated with zinc, magnetic, etc. I doubt she wanted that much info. LOL Might not have even know what WWII was ?

I really am having a hard time digesting this still. I mean, are we seeing the end of the Wheat Cent collectors coming on the scene ? Without popular breakout coins in the LM cents, is there any interest ? I mean in the heyday of the 50;s when everyone it seems collected something, was when most of us started, right ? Now it's investment grade and legacy sets. Dealers are folding up brick and mortar operations and going on=line. Nobody around here even stocks folders and supplies except for a single dealer with a couple of shelves.

Are we going the way of the "pen pal" days ? Just dying out ?

I am not around any young people at all, so really don't know what's happening out there so let me know.

gary

 

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Collecting is stonger than ever, it's simply evoled. Although brick & mortar and shows are around, it's big online, on sites like this and auction or sales. Hang around here to see what I mean.

 

With the economy as it is and unemployment skyrocketing, I'm afraid we're going to see a lot more "collector coins" in circulation. I've already cashed in two of my state quarter sets, my Ikes and copper pennies. If you tried to sell your steel pennies to a coin dealer, you're wasting your gas money. I have a hard time letting things like this go, but when you need food, you gotta do what you gotta do. Just like my stamp collection. I've got hundreds of pristine stamps from the early 1900s to the 1960s. The dealer wouldn't even give me their worth in postage for them. Now I use them to mail my letters.

 

This hobby (true coin collecting) is cyclic in nature. In the past 10 years the US Mint has flooded this hobby with collector coins sold by them at a premium and it is the secondary market who drives the economic factors. The ebb and flow has always been there, good times and bad...looks like it is a buyers market of late, the rare and coveted coins are still selling strong, the common collectibles not so well.

Plug in US Coins into the e-bay search, 447,510 listing pop up…either lots of sellers that need money now, or our hobby is alive and well. I contend it has peaked and fallen off a bit, but still healthy.

Happy Collecting

 

I clerk by my house recieved a half dime a 10,000 dollar coin as ten cents and HE LOST IT

 

Half dimes are rather common...

 

if it was an early bust half dime, either one of the "draped" or "flowing hair" style's, in MS it could go for around that much..

even the 1853-O seated "no arrows", can fetch into the thousands. never seen one personally over $5000, but then again never really had the money to look.

not plausible that an early bust in ms condition would find its way to the bank raw, but stranger things have happened.

just saying...

 

Hobby is strong. And as for worrying about the Wheaties...well a cent isn't what it used to be Now it's the Quarters that everyone saves...

 

Maybe ? But do the new collectors begin at the 25c level ? I mean, don't they still collect form pocket change ? I understand the mint would love people to. That's why there have been so many changes in design, right ? Not only State 25c, Presidential $ and Cents (LP's, shield, etc), even the lowly 5c has a bunch of designs now. Do people still collect circulated sets ?

 

Buy now! actually no.. don't buy.. sell all your wheaties to me!!!

 

Our hobby is alive and kickin' and even tho you may not run into any supermodels or superstars interested in collecting old coins who care's? I didn't get back into collecting coins b/c I thought it would rule the world or anything. The art and history involved in collecting old coins is enough to keep me interested! I think the ANA membership is still right around 33,000 or so, so if you look at those numbers nobody is knocking anyone's door to get into this hobby but that's alright. It's never been an attractive hobby, this hobby attracts but is not attractive! Any hobby that you can be passionate about and share with your family is a hobby we can be proud of!! To me it's always been about passion, "no passion, no life"!! that's my 2 cnts!!

 

That's ab solutely fantastic !

What I kind of was trying to point out was; This head teller didn't even know about the 1943 steel cents. And she actually works around money. Without people who are like yourself that care about coins enough to be able to identify them, where will we be ?

I mean there are 300 million of us and maybe 50-60 thousand people who collect ? It might be higher ? Do Scouts still have Merit Badges for Coin Collecting, even ?

It is possible that living here in the southwest, we have a large immigrant population that does not know our coins or coin history. Or even care ?

But I think we need to fuel the desire of new collectors and try and attract more people to it.

Just a thought.

gary

 

Yeah I agree with you totally! All someone has to do is get some rapper like Snoop Dog or somebody to do a video every now and then with Morgan or Peace Dollars in it and our hobby will be promoted!! If I only had some pull!!

 

I have to agree with 10gary22 about 90%. I does seem people are less interested in collecting coin. All my friends know nothing about them. Went to a small firehouse annual gathering of four or five dealers and not one of them knew anything about my 1999 WAM.
All the jewelery shop is coins to melt not to collect except when the exceptionally rare one shows up. No ethics there. I am just finishing up 16 Whitmans and three danscos for my friend. He knows nothing about them but I'm trying to educate him. His collection is about $900 AND HE WANTS ME TO BUY THEM SO THAT THEY'LL GO TO SOMEONE WHO WILL APPRECIATE THEM. I was strictly a lincoln cent collector but after the last few months I'm into Buffalo AND Jefferson nickels, Mercury and Roosie dimes and Washinton quarters. I haven't bought a brick of lincolns in four weeks. It is hard work but very enoyable too. I having fun helping others evaluate their coins. I do tell them it is strictly my educated opinion on what I report to them. In the collection THt Ijust finished were: Wheat cents:
1922-D 1920-AU
1924-D
1931-S
BUFFALO nickles: (3) 1913 MS grade, 2 type 1's and 1 type 2.
1926-s 1914

ZEKE

 

As long as there are collectors, there will be a coin collecting hobby. I definitely agree that the hobby has evolved over the last few years though. The internet revolutionized the hobby, much as it has almost every other business. It costs far less overhead for a dealer to do business on line, than in a brick and mortar operation.
Coins lend themselves quite well to buying/selling on line, as you can post a good photo that gives a buyer as reasonable shot at guestimating the grade/condition of a coin. And you can ship coins rather inexpensively.
I often wonder though, if the internet has taken away some of the more social aspects of the hobby, there was a time when you could actually talk to someone face to face about coins, that's still possible, but I think, increasingly rare. Even that void is being filled by technology, just look at this on line forum as an example!

 

I think the hobby is being suppressed by the economy right now, which is forcing a lot of marginal coins back into the market either at shops or directly into change and it is forcing a lot of coin jars back into circulation. I haven't seen so much BU 60's 70's and 80's stuff in my change since the early 80's. Better stuff is also being drawn out, but it is being bought at reduced prices and sold at reduced prices. Just watch ebay and watch some marginal AG/G or damaged key date coins. The are bringing a fraction of what they would have 3 years ago. As financial situations get better you will start seeing these sources dry up. Personally I am taking advantage right now and buying every great quality thing I can get.

 

After attending the ANA show in Boston I have to say that I am more excited for the hobby. There were a ton of kids running around the show with their parents looking at coins. I have to say that was very encouraging. I think the hobby is alive and well... but I guess you get that feeling in a couple of rooms with 800 dealers and a multi million dollar auction going on.

 

Yes. We're changing with the times. Social Media is the new "pen pal". That's a good thing; people are more in touch with more people than ever.

No. Why so negative ?

Yes, yes, yes.

Things are different, not dying. The way to die out is to refuse to change in a rapidly changing environment. We're not dinosaurs.

The coin hobby is adapting to the Internet Age. Yes, there are large numbers of people who are able to buy and sell without a storefront. Where is the negative in that ? There are still storefronts; the internet has augmented them, not replaced them. What's wrong with having more options ?

 

$44 million auction... with some very strong prices. For the first time in years, I was shut out. Threw down many bids, won zero ! Ouch.

For those who say prices have fallen through the floor, I issue this challenge : Show me where you buy great coins at low prices. Stop talking and SHOW ME.