Has anyone done a poll on here as far as gender and age goes???

I'm not too worried about the future of the hobby. I'm 48 and male and I have been collecting continuously for over 37 years now. I joined my first coin club in 1975 when I was 14 and the youngest member in the club. We had about 100 members and about 40 would show up at each meeting. The average age was about 55 years old. Most of the members who were there when I joined are dead now, but the club still has about 100 members with about 40 showing up at the meetings, and the average age is still 55. And this isn't an isolated case. When I moved to where I live now back in 1989, I joined the closest local club. They did a survey of their members that year. There were 105 members and the average age was 55. We surveyed the club again last year and the average age has gone up. We now have 150 members and the average age is 56.

A 90% older 10% younger split isn't too surprising since the people who come in as young kids typically only stay in it for 3 years or so before girls, cars, school, career, and family get in the way. But then once the kids are out of the way and they come back in they are in for 30 years instead of 3 so a 10 to 1 ratio could be expected.

I wouldn't say ruin, but it will put a hold on most of them for many years.

 

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I'm a 24 year old male, I've been collecting since 1997 or so.

 

Im only a young collecter!I have collected Canadian Cerrency like the Millennium Quarters,Lucky Lonnies,2010 Quarter Collection and lots more! I have just really got more intrested into coins this summer and have been starting to put more money into collecting just lately. The more coins I get The more I get interested!

 

does anyone have any tips or pointers for a younger collecter?

 

35 - Male.

I do have to say I am surprised at how many under 30 there are that have posted so far.

Now how many of those under 30 collect gold or are interested in collecting gold?

 

Have old relatives that like you that collect coins.:hail:

 

51, male, married for 27 years, have 1-son & have been collecting for 43 years.

I have found that most women do not have the collector gene required to be a coin collector. There are a few wonderful exceptions but not enough for the plethora of males in our hobby.

I sometimes have this conversation with the occasional parent. I ask if they have a daughter. If the answer is yes, then I tell them that they should have her take a class in coin collecting. The next time you are at a large coin show, look out over the bourse floor. At a large show, you might see ½ billion dollars and maybe 500 people. On a good day, 15% of those people are women. If you daughter is going to fall in love with someone, then it might as well be a rich guy on that floor with all the millions of dollars.

My friend in Hong Kong has a son & a daughter. He tells me that it is more important for a girl to go to college than it is for a boy. He says that if a girl works in a restaurant, then she will fall in love with a waiter or a cook. If she goes to college then the probability exists that she will fall in love with a college boy. (Of course, the same thing can be stated for the son but it is a man’s world out there).

Very best regards,
collect89

 

If you have ever thought that it would be cool to own something ancient or medieval, don't just assume that it's out of your price range. I collect mostly ancient Roman stuff, and I've never spent over $30 on a coin. If that's still too much for you, then here's an entire thread about ancient that were purchased for under $10. If I had known that they were this affordable, I would have started collecting ancients much sooner.

 

ok thank you Gao

 

:kewl:

 

Read and learn about the coins before you buy them. We all have learned the hard way and wasted our money. So basically...buy the book before you buy the coin.

 

32 male, been collecting really for 3 years.

 

Yes, buy books. I had probably collected for at least 10 years before my coin collection was worth more than my numismatic library.

 

That really depends, If you don't have a steady income then getting money is not the easiest task. I'm 13, to young for any "formal" job, and don't have an allowance (even if I did it would not be an hourly amout, more like $2 or $3 a week). I get my money by mowing in the summer ($15) and shoveling in the winter ($5 or $10). I'll stick to buying good MS-64 slabs occasionally and finding face/free coins from circulation and metal detecting.

I'm really trying to be a smarter collector so I can cherrypick what I can afford (MS-64) with high details. What all YN should learn early is that the number on the slab doesn't matter, its what they think of the coin.

To the new numismatists, what I have learned is to buy the books before the coins, do as the dealers say not as then do, buy the keys before the set, and look at quality not quantity.

 

Those are pretty wise words. I agree, every grade has certain coins that stand out as superior. Pick a grade range that is affordable and hold out for those superior coins.

 

You certainly' don't sound 13! You know a heck of a lot more about coins than when I was 13....bravo
:thumb:

 

Nonsense. That guy obviously just wasn't interested in taking on an apprentice. I'm 27 and I got a job as a numismatic assessor a few months ago. My previous experiance of commercial numismatism was limited to haggling dealers at coin fairs and shows.
What you need to do if you really want to work in the industry is to find a coin dealer who would be willing to train someone up from the beginning. Unfortunately, you will find that a good many dealers are either A) tightwads and/or B) simply cannot afford to take on a trainee. But this is not the case for every dealer.

It helps if you have a history degree, but I imagine that just having a reasonable degree in something vaguely relevent, an interest in coins and some demonstrable knowledge and enthusiasm for the hobby, that should be enough for the right dealer. Everything else you can learn on an entry-level salary whilst you accrue knowledge and experiance. If you really want this kind of job, keep searching and keep trying. If you and the dealer can get to know each other beforehand as customer and client, even better...:thumb:

 

Interested? Certainly! Able to? No way. I would love to be able to get some gold coins, but they are just out of my price range.

Now, if they can be convinced to make gold coins the size of a grain of rice, THEN I'll be all over it! :kewl:

 

The old why are there no women coin collectors question.

Coin collecting is a relatively solitary hobby. Sure you can meet with your cronies and tell stories at the coin store and share a bottle of pop but for the most part, coin collectors are solitary, socially awkward folks squirreled away in the basement or spare room. They weren't athletes in college, they were on the AV squad or just geeks. They spent more time studying and learning while the cool popular kids were out and about.

Women like to go out. Women hate sitting at home in the den or basement looking at little round pieces of metal and trying to determine if that is mint or post mint damage. For the most part, they could care less...so they are out riding around with the popular more socially adjusted men and boys living life.

It's just the nature of the beast.

Since the state quarters, you are starting to see more men with money get interested in collecting. They don't really know what they are buying but if its in a slab and has a 69/70 on it, they will pay good money for it. These are mostly your aging jocks and former cool kids who want to hop on the coin/bullion bandwagon.

Ofcourse the aging cool kids, who have never studied coins, are coming to the socially awkward geeks to buy coins from and theses socially awkward coin guys from long ago are gladly accepting the aging popular kids money and using it to what? ...buy more coins for themselves.

Karma is wierd...or maybe not so much.

 

The reason I mentioned that is it is never too early to start studying gold from a numismatic stand point. Then when you have the means you will know exactly what you like and want to collect.

This may include buying books, getting books on loan from the ANA, looking at gold with a studious eye at coin shows etc....