In a distant future without money: will numismatic hobby decline?

guess I was hiding underneath an ASE in 2012/2013.
Wish our banks would stop distributing them now.

 

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I agree with all of that, but it's just one more type of "never the twain shall meet" segmentation that's the story of numismatics these recent years. There is no "coin market". There are several, and their intersections are too few. Very very few of us can handle both the online world and the ANA monster convention world too. Both segments seem almost oblivious of the other.

 

Coin World just addressed this issue in their Monday morning brief.

http://www.coinworld.com/videos/201...cw_editorial_monday-morning-brief&utm_content=

They believe collecting is in decline due to younger generations lack of disposable income due to higher costs, college debt, and declining wages. Fewer will have the money to spend on a pure collectable, yet those that can afford it, may gravitate toward collectable bullion due to the bullion factor for a diversified portfolio.

Also, did email kill stamp collecting or was it a flood of high mintage stamps that did not hold their value?

 

Agreed, but that is what it is. You can throw a horse into a flood and it still won't drink unless it's thirsty.

All it takes is a few who can see the larger picture and have the sense of commitment to the future. I can't help but think those few exist.

 

Newspapers and coin collecting have been dying as long as I can remember. I think coin collecting is fine. It's certainly doing better than newspapers.

 

Well, we sure know that coin collecting newspapers are hurting.

 

The local newspaper in my hometown is actually booming. The owner just bought the Village Voice at a firesale rate, though. They're (the local paper) expanding their reach through regional editions that are biting into the Philly and Allentown markets, and they have designs on the state capital in Harrisburg. They invested in extremely high-speed German-made presses about a decade ago, and they are feelin' frisky.

 

Yup, I'm right near the "digital divide line" where I've lived. My high school was just adding computer courses (DEC PDP-8E), and my college had NO computer or IT classes whatsoever ..., THEN. My understanding is that for-credit courses began about 5 years after I graduated and a computer-related major took about another 5. Meanwhile, I was writing code for Commodores in the 1980's. I also took COBOL and RPG-II courses on my own.

As for "online", I was an early subscriber to CompuServe.

 

I wonder if the mints of the world will keep producing commemoratives even if standard coinage disappears. If people keep buying them, why not mint them? Or perhaps all coinage will go the way of many modern dollar coins: minted exclusively for collectors? Perhaps new coins will exist only for collectors?

In any case, if circulating cash vanishes the hobby probably won't vanish with it, but it will likely contract. One major way that new comers find the hobby is by serendipitously spotting something unusual in their pocket change. Then they look it up, research it and find this entire world that no one around them seemed to know existed. Without the constant flow of change passing hands, interest in coinage could very well falter. It will likely become even more niche than it already is. But it will likely always have at least some practitioners. Unfortunately, the fewer people buying and selling a specific thing the lower prices tend to go (this doesn't hold true in every case, of course). Modern coins, of which countless billions already exist, probably won't fare well in such an environment. After all, it's not hard to find a decent Roman Coin over 2,000 years old for $50 - $100. Commonly minted clad moderns, with some exceptions, will probably hold little value if the market contracts too much.

But no one knows the future, of course. We can only guess and speculate. Which seems to be fun, regardless of the fact that no one know what they're talking about when it comes to the future.

 

I think what will kill the coin hobby is the excess of circulating commemorative coins. The state quarter program was great, but then the Mint had to add the Presidential Dollar program, the Lewis and Clark nickel series, and the National Park quarters. This is why I'm so burned out.

 

Do what I do. Ignore them.

 

Since Treasury is the only profit producing Dept in the Govt. they'll be very reluctant to let go of the Goose...I suspect they'll try to keep this balloon up in the air for as long as there's a Nat'l Debt! Think it'll be around a while? LOL

 

The hobby is already in mid-swirly, going down the drain. Denial won't save it. Only a middle class with 60's - 80's style disposable income will.