Demise of numismatics

This has been discussed before but this may be a different way of looking at the subject.

Philately (stamp collecting) has nosedived over the past 20-30 years mainly, in my opinion, for two reasons, 1) due to the fact that few people use stamps any more, decreasing their exposure to the product, and 2) the excessive issuance of multiple stamp types (scores each year) that few could fully keep up with.

Numismatics may be going the same direction for the same reasons, 1) decreasing numbers of people use cash in place of credit/debit cards, rarely coming into contact with actual hard cash and 2) no one who is a collector can possible collect the total number of very expensive products put out by the mint today.

Stamp collectors have been people whose lives paralleled the common use of stamps. This number is decreasing every day.

Coin collectors typically have been the same type - people in whose lives cash was in common use.

Maybe in the future there will be collectors of various credit and debit cards (fidemists?).

 

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Is this forum in danger of untimely demise? How many blasted posts appear here everyday? I think the 'hobby' is safe.......

 

Gold and silver has been and always will be collected. Numismatics will never die.

 

Numismatics is and has been in a slow decline for the better part of three decades. There has been a more recent Internet-fed rebound in recent years, but the quality of the collecting, evidenced by poor skills and judgment of the modal Internet-bound collector, bodes ill for the hobby's long-term health.

Essentially, we've already died but have refused to fall over yet. Ask around. So few people understand ANYTHING about coins and money, and most of what they think they know isn't true anyway.

 

Most of what those guys think don't amount to a hill of beans anyway.......

 

Everyone talks about the demise of stamp collecting. One question I have been wondering about is, how much has the price of classic stamps actually declined? By classics I mean stamps that were made before stamp collecting became a major hobby. I’m guessing that would cover the mid to late 19th century. I know that the later issues can barely be given away for less than face, but surely the rarer issues have held some of their value?

 

Um the Inverted Jenny comes to mind, but really, it's the only stamp i know of that has value. But I know nothing of stamps too.

 

Just yesterday I gave a high school buddy an ancient coin as a token of gratitude for a favor he did for me recently. He went bezonkers when he saw it! He couldn't get over it. Never expected to hold such a thing in his hand. Couldn't wait to show his oldest daughter who is a university professor of something medieval. She might become interested in collecting, too. It might be 'contagious' like that. We could go out and spread it around and make sure everyone catches it! And there seems to be no cure! Mooohahahhaa.... (Ooops! Sorry...Was that the dark side slipping out?! Oh dear!)

 

Stamps are stamps are stamps.

Yeah, we use those boring cents, nickels, dimes and quarters. Big deal.

But do stamps have the equivalent of pre-1933 gold coins, large cents, silver dollars and countless other varieties? I don’t think so.

There are plenty of interesting coins to collect without even glancing at the expensive junk the Mint puts out now. And that’s just US coins. There’s a whole world of world coins going back to ancient times.

So, even if there has been a slowdown in coin collecting, I think comparing this hobby to stamp collecting may be an apples-and-oranges comparison. For reference, compare the action on this site to its sister stamp’s site.

 

The TPGs have made a commodity out of numismatics...

 

It really feels like some collectors really want collecting to fail. I will never understand why there is always talk going on at forum or another about how the hobby is doomed and failing. I know some of it is people hoping to drive prices down so they can buy more but still.

Anyway for the question trying to use stamps as a comparison has been done a million times but stamps were never as popular as coins are in the first place. The high end ones are doing just fine it's just that no one here pays any attention to them. A stamp sold for $9.5 million in 2014 as one example.

Regardless there shouldn't be comparisons with stamps, they're two entirely different things.

Not really. We know much more now than we did three decades ago and numismatics improved when Breen stopped writing books and letters. We've even had some great rarities come back to light in that time.

Not at all. The modal internet-bound collector is no where near the schmuck online forums try and present them as. There are some just as there are in coin shows and shops, but the average one knows what they're doing.

It seems to always be the ones that largely avoid participating in the internet market place that think the internet collectors are clueless. The hobby has a bright future of people collecting what and how they want.

 

It was always one. The TPGs just make it harder for sellers to rip people off

 

Operative word, "people." Collectors don't get ripped off because we know what the hell we're doing.

 

No one knows everything about every series nor are they perfect and never miss anything. Yes collectors did and do get ripped off by people. If someone thinks they know everything they'll get ripped off at some point too with raw coins

 

Keep thinking that.

 

Just proving my point

 

Keep thinking that, too.

 

Just facts. Anyone who thinks they're so good nothing could ever get by them will have something get by them. If you think you've never missed anything than you almost certainly just haven't discovered what you've missed.

 

I didn't say that, you did. Look, have it any way you want, it's no skin off my back.

 

Demise? I think not ! I'm speaking from a U.S. numismatics point-of-view. Read the 2016 U.S. Mint Annual report. https://www.usmint.gov/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2016AnnualReport.pdf

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