Does coin collecting have a future?

Hiddendragon nailed it. If people stop using coins, why would they want to collect coins?

I know people joke about people "collecting credit cards", but it might make sense that people will actually collect old credit cards in the future. Or old cell phones if those become the payment method of choice in the future.

 

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100,00 B.C:

"Grandpa do you think there's a future chasing the shiny things in the river?"

"Maybe not. They swim pretty fast. That's why you mostly only see young cave dwellers chasing the shiny things in the river."

 

Whenever this subject is again brought up, I cannot help but to think of how the number of younger members on this site should be telling to those who question the involvement of youth.

 

Ask yourself.....................how old were you when you attended your first Coin Show??

I was in my 20's. But, for me, that was meaningless since I didn't get "actively" involved until I was 54 and I could afford it.


Well, I thought I could afford it!

I know of lots of "active" collectors in their late 40's and possibly early 50's that didn't get involved until 2006 when the 20th Anniversary SAE Sets came out.

 

You mean like old phones or perhaps old Juke Boxes or maybe old player piano's?

There are literally BILLIONS of coins out there and they just are not going away in my or your or probably your childrens, childrens, lifetimes. And even if they did, folks would still collect them just because its M-O-N-E-Y!

I mean think about it, credit/debit cards are heavily used today yet, the Federal Reserve Bank continues to order RECORD numbers of US Coinage. This doesn't even address coinage of other countries which, surprise, surprise are collected more than US Coinage.

Folks should really look at the "big picture" instead of only looking at what's in their own backyards.

There are places in the world that do not have electricity you know.

 

My grandfathers collected, my mother collects, i'm 31 and collecting. However with this next holiday season i will pass on many old buffalo nickles to all the youngn's and hope to spark this hobby for a few. If they had never shown me their old collections i wouldn't have been curious. I'm sort of a new collector, but i have been collecting for many years. $2 bills, halfs etc. Because they gave them as gifts and said to me. "You hold onto this, someday you will thank me." The time has come.

 

Coin Talk has had running threads and polls on the ages our members and I was surprised how many folks were under the age of 35, a VERY good sign!

Nonetheless, in answer to the original question, I plan on living a bit longer and enjoying this (actually secondary) hobby of mine for 44 years since age 9.

 

Lots of good points in this thread. I'm especially reassured now that I've heard from a few long-time collectors that the average age of numismatists has been relatively constant over time. But to those saying that this website's large number of young numismatists is indicative of a larger trend, I would point out that an internet forum is naturally going to skew younger (no offense to the tech-savvy members of the older generation!).

I almost wonder if there's a natural transition of hobbies as a person ages. For teenagers, videogames; for 20-30 year olds, craft beer and fantasy football; for 40 year-olds, I'm not sure...worrying about 401k's?; and only after all that does numismatics generally come into play.

 

Why the hell does it matter if coin collecting has a future?

My wife would like to know.

 

The future looks pretty bleak, but if you give me all of your coins, I will do my best to get them into the hands of today's youths.

 

A lot of people branch off into other hobbies. Hobbies are also handed down. I started collecting baseball cards when I was 9 and then at 11 my grandmother gave me a wheat cent coin album but I didn't start collecting until I was 23. Even those help with the future of coin collecting. Back in the 80s it was all about trading cards then in the 90s comic books. I am a website designer and know of a few other webmasters that own coin sites. One is in their late 20s even. I've seen the market expand since the internet age not decrease.

 

Because we like circularity?

 

I actually logged onto eBay a couple of minutes ago and guess what I saw? Antique digital wrist watches. Yep.

 

I threw one of those into Charlston harbor in 1978. What a piece of crap that was. It had red digits that I couldn't even see when I was outside.

 

Haha! I bet that one took a lickin' but just didn't keep on tickin'. I feel bad for that poor old watch though all alone on the bottom of the bay dying to be a member of the Omega Elite.

 

After that I bought a Citizen that was still working 15 years later but the braclet kept disconnecting because one of the posts that holds the pin rotted out. That was a great watch.

 

With us now carrying our phones and using the clocks on those, I wouldn't be surprised if all brands of watches became collectible and increase the size of collectors as well.

 

They already do and have for some time.

I find it so annoying having to dig out my phone whenever I want to check the time that I am seriously considering going back to wearing a watch.

 

I'll be hanging onto my watch for now. Whenever I reach for my phone to check the time when in the car, I'm at risk of getting a ticket for operating a handheld device while driving.

 

Lol jello