Coin collecting dying out?

Ancient coin collection is an opportunity to experience and appreciate the art, culture and history of ancient civilizations. There is nothing like holding a 2000 year old coin (yes, ancient collectors actually touch their coins) in your hand and pondering the ancient Greek or Roman mint person who made it, the many people of that time who used it in commerce, and in some cases, the famous people who owned it along the way. It is a privilege to curate these pieces for what is indeed a brief period of time in their overall histories. When I get nearer to the end of my life, I may sell some coins here and there to raise money, regardless of profit or loss. For now, though, I collect for the pure fascination of it. Just my two drachms worth ….

 

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I don't think coin collecting is dying out. I thought that might be true a few years ago, but recently I've seen a lot of young collectors, so I have changed my mind. I joined a few coin communities on Google+ and I see posts from young collectors all the time. They are collecting coins that I would never have thought were collectible, like Lincoln Memorial cents, but they are collecting. Regardless, the kids are there and collecting. I don't think coin collecting has ever been hugely popular among youngsters, though. Likely because it is an expensive hobby.

 

Back when I was a kid in the late 70's and 80's coin collecting was not popular with kids either. Honestly I think it is just one of those hobbies most people pick up a bit later in life. For youngsters today its hard to compete with XBox, the Kardashians, etc. But I think there are still more collectors now than ever before.

 

Numismatics is like a yo-yo, sometimes up, sometimes down. Will it ever disappear ? Not in a million years !!!

 

There is a major difference between a hobby dying and people grumbling because they can not make a profit on it. Dealers who grumble most probably paid too much thinking they could turn it around for a quick profit. We term them 'former dealers'. If one of us has a hundred coins for sale and we sell the group to a dealer, he will break up the lot and try to make a profit based on the value he adds to the whole. Dealers who believe they deserve to make a fast killing while adding no effort, no common sense, no legwork and no experience seem to be the ones who grumble loudest. Some of them will slab all the $20 coins and wonder why they fail to sell for $100 each.

 

a real and honest to himself collector, collect ancient coins to get connected with the past, imagining and thinking, who made this coin, who hold it..in my opinion, new collector, should not to think about profit..to hold old roman coin in your hand, its big profit already..

 

I think many numismatists have a collecting life much like mine. I became interested in coins at a young age, around 9 or 10 with some old wheat pennies, buffalo nickels, etc. my grandfather gave to me. I bought what coins i could at a LCS with allowance and yard mowing money over the next few years. But, when I got my drivers license all that cash went to gas, insurance, car, etc. Then came college, so I kind of left the hobby on the back burner until graduating college and picking it back up. Even though I wasn't actively adding to my collection those years much, I did have free time to read about coins and research with the help of a very generous Interlibrary loan program!

 

Back when I was a kid (40-50's) I was thrilled to collect pennies. As a matter of fact, I just gave my Indians and early Lincolns to my 2nd Grandson. I first gave my Buffaloes to my first Grandson. They are both very happy with the coins.

What else is there to say?

 

My experience is more like Drawde's. Back when I was a kid in the 50's and 60's coin collecting was more popular with kids and was not an expensive hobby. I started by collecting coins from circulation. I had a lot of different cents and nickels but my half dollar collection was weak because of the smaller number of those I could afford to save on a quarter a week allowance. I sold/traded duplicate keys to get coins I lacked and was not at all embarrassed that my collection was not all mint state (we called it Uncirculated then). I got bored and started buying ancients instead when I got rich (translation: got a job). Those were not mint state either.

Collecting from circulation pretty much died in 1964 when everyone and his brother started taking 90% silver out of circulation. The days of finding Mercury dimes and Standing quarters died quickly. Now if a kid wanted them, they had to be bought at a store rather than snagged out of parental change. I had converted to ancients by then but I suspect that one change did as much to stop the flow of 8 year olds into the hobby as anything. Today, kids could collect State quarters that way but we tell them that they are wasting their time since they will never be worth having unless MS70 and slabbed. Not worth a quarter? That is rough!

 

When I started, I would go to the bank and buy three or four rolls of pennies at a time and search for wheat cents.

 

More Wheat than cents ?

 

I suppose collecting is somewhere in our genes. Think about all the kids that were out collecting Pokemon. It's quite different than collecting coins, but it fulfills that same desire to accumulate and build a set.
The internet has brought a lot of younger collectors into a field that was (and still largely is) dominated by old men.
When I was younger, to obtain coins I had to either go to a shop where I'd be looked at suspiciously or go to a show where I'd have to fight the old men with their handwritten want lists and sit at a dealer's table forever haggling over the price of a circulated Jefferson nickel. I never saw ancients at shows besides a few late Roman bronzes in the dollar bins, and I don't think I ever saw a medieval coin.
That changed with the internet.

 

My two cents worth ......

I started collecting when I was 7 years old (1960) and I thought "Man these other collectors are really old....."

I started vest-pocket coin dealing when I was 22 (1975) and looked around the room at my fellow dealers and I thought, "Man these other dealers are really old......"

I started dealing professionally, traveling to coin shows in my state (NH) and across the country when I was 26 (1979) and I thought, "Man these dealers are really old...."

Now I have been in this business for 39 years (1979-2018) and I think, "Man I am really old...... But I will be in this business as long as I can. It is still my hobby, my life's work, my passion. But now at coin shows, the other dealers are mostly younger than me. The majority of customers I meet are younger than me. The majority of people selling me coins are younger than me. That is the circle of life in the coin business.

People will always be attracted to the history of coins, to the allure of owning these pieces of history, or by the profit motive. Whatever entices them to buy or collect coins is fine. I will tell you what I have told, dealers, collectors and investors for decades - buy what YOU like. Collect what YOU like. Invest in what YOU like! And you will be happy owning it for all of your days.

Working at APMEX, 225+ strong, I am the oldest person here. That fact makes me happy because there are so many young people here learning about coins and starting to have their own experiences in the coin hobby/business that we love.

Coin collecting/dealing will be here in the future, though this business may change because of technology. Whether this is your hobby or your business, enjoy it! It's been a great life for me!

Thanks!

 

In the several decades I have been attending shows, I have come to expect dealers in ancients to be grouped together in one corner of the venue sometimes labelled 'Ancients and Foreign Section' and sometimes not but we know where they are. When the doors open I, and those of my ilk, race past the sellers of nickels and find what we can in our corner of the world. If primarily US dealers happened to have a few ancients, I might well miss them just as you would miss the US coins that an ancient dealer happened to have. I believe adjusting such matters is part of what goes on at shows before shows open to the public. I do occasionally overhear a person asking for something modern in the ancient section but I do believe that sellers with good stocks of both might be better off buying two tables where each of us might see what we came to see. Long ago I gave up going up and down each aisle asking for ancients only to get a blank stare or the standard line, "I have a million of them but did not bring them today."

 

The attendance at our local Coin Shows indicates that we see an added interest in asking q's and buying at a higher rate compared to a few years ago when there was a lull in interest at the shows. I think that ON -LINE buying is helping the hobby out a lot including some interest by a few that are investing in it.
However Coin Shows are a far better way to gain interest than ON Line , there are some real non-reliable dealers on there -So beware..

 

I stated this in a message I sent on a different thread yesterday but I don't mind saying it again here. If anything coin collecting seems to be growing fairly rapidly. From what I've seen is that many older collectors and younger collectors are active in different mediums. Not many young collectors are on cointalk or facebook or the other coin forums, however if you were to go on Youtube or Instagram, almost every collector you meet will be young. There are even young people beginning businesses and actually learning how to strive in the market at very young ages. The same cannot be said about coin shows or coin clubs, sure you will find the occasional 16 year old but still, many older collectors are used to the ways they met back in their day, by meeting in clubs or discussions. Even online forums seem to be an "old" thing for newer numismatists. One could be safe to say that at least 90% of Cointalk members are above the age of 25.

Earlier today I conducted an instagram poll on age, asking if the viewer is 18/younger or 19/older. I'll do the same on Cointalk in a second. But here are the results for the IG poll.

 

I know I'm old, not just because of my age, but because I do use any of the social media other than old fashioned emails and on-line coin forums. I cannot see any use to me in using the other media.

 

There were no coin shows that I know of in Britain when I first became interested in Roman coins in 1938. I actually first collected cut-out photos of coins - I think the only source for obtaining actual coins in Britain at that time were the Bazaar and Exchange and Mart Publications although I never purchased any coins via them. I bought my first Roman coin in the United States at Joske’s of Texas Department store in San Antonio in 1951 - an Augustus Lugdunum altar As. I attended my first coin show in San Antonio that same year. I have attended numerous coin shows - mostly in the western U.S. - throughout the years since and have enjoyed the camaraderie and face to face discussions immensely. I no longer attend coin shows due to my age associated disabilities. I do not think the interest in collecting Ancient coins is dying out.

Added via Edit: I have purchased most of my Roman coins online for the past several years - just a few at coin shows.

 

I love your story. Really shows how this can be a lifelong, rewarding hobby. I haven’t been to many shows but have enjoyed speaking with dealers and other collectors.

I incorrectly assumed with was the hobby of elder statesmen but realize it’s something you can get more excited about as you gain wisdom and disposable income.

 

Thank you, @Johnnie Black. I should add that WWII really played havoc with hobbies such as coin and stamp collecting etc. - at least it did in Europe for obvious reasons. For six years (1939 to 1945) it seemed most youngsters I knew were involved with replica model soldiers, aero planes and battle ships. They were not available in shops - everything was committed to the war effort in Britain - so we cast thousands of our own lead soldiers using homemade plaster of Paris copy moulds. Hand painted them too - it is a wonder we all survived those molten lead fumes, asbestos fibers and lead paint! Collecting shrapnel from the streets after Air Raids was a wartime hobby also for school kids - made good trading fodder! The aftermath of WWII seemed to have a liberating effect on all leisure activities including such things as coin and stamp collecting in general. For me, that was the start of my dedicated Ancient coin collecting and it has remained one of my favorite pursuits to this day. I hope Ancient coin collecting does not die out.