Is world coin collecting gaining ground in popularity?

I have noticed, or at least it seems so, more advertisements popping up in common numismatic periodicals that cater to the collector of a wide range of world coins. I noticed the same thing at the last two shows I have attended - more tables that were specifically aimed at world coins.

Around here, just as recent as last year, I was fortunate to find one table to browse that was NOT focused on US coins. Sure, a lot of dealers had their token binder or two filled with your low end pieces of misc. non-US stuff... but it seems like more room is being granted to the rest of us, lately.

Anyone else noticing this same thing, or is it just me? :rolling:

 

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I heard tell it all started in Utah!

 

Rick & Doug,

I think its a United Nations conspiracy to divide our nation.......

Seriously being relatively new to numismatics (less than 2 years) I was fortunate to have basically started with world coins (after my New Orleans mint Morgan Dollar collection) thanks in large part to Coin Talk. Of course now I'm deeply into world gold,( thanks to someone I won't mention by name ) . it also seems to me that world coin collecting is growing, of course I'm biased and it may just be the crowd I'm hanging with. I spend probably 80% of my time researching/studying world coins.

 

I hope not - there's already too much competition for high quality Meiji silver.

 

I think it is....at the last 2 shows I went to more and more world coins were poping out.
I'm NOT a world coin collector but I hear that at the banks up town they have been trashing all of the world coins so it looks like I might get to be getting them and saving them the problem of what to do with them.
In fact just on Monday I picked up 3 coins at the bank for nothing from 3 countrys....pretty cool if I say so myself.

Speedy

 

Coin collecting is the world's most popular hobby.It is even more popular than collecting stamps or soft toys (teddy bears,Steiff bears,etc.).

Aidan.

 

I may be wrong but it seems to me that Stamp collecting is dying or at the least on the downside. As for coin collecting, it is most likely more popular then even given credit to based upon the amount of people who save coins that they find in circulation can not really be counted.

As for World Coins being collected, I would think that as the disposalable income increases in other nations the more likelyhood that coin collecting for art sake or national pride would also increase.

As for gold coins, I have seen in the past year or so coins commonly gone up for sale that used to be rarely seen.
At least by my eyes. Is it that the demand has increased or the price of gold?

 

I've long though that Canadian silver dollars were a bargain compared to their US counterparts. The mintages are small by US standards and the prices seem reasonable for uncirculated coins. However, I've never found an internet dealer who seems to carry them, I'm not taking a run up to Canada to get them, and I always have it in the back of my head that they would be difficult to resell someday here in the US. So I've never started a collection of what otherwise would be an interesting series to me.

 

You know, the world population is increasing as well as our knowledge to numismatic materials are increasing too. Even in the case of US coinages, while some people I know don't actively collect US coins because of the price tags, I personally don't because they are way out of my price tag, that is if I want some nice examples.

 

The prices of Indian coins are rising day by day in India. I buy a lot of Indian coins from other countries as I find the prices a bit too much here.

 

So True as well, One Lincoln cent from a certain year and condition has more value then any of my individual French Gold coins!

A 1909-S VDB Lincoln penny (in MS-60), worth ~$1450?
http://www.coinfacts.com/small_cents...b_cent_rev.jpg
From a posting by coin forum member: wrucmike

 

Coins are usually cheaper where they are not collected with as much interest as the home country.

 

Remember what goes up... must come down. If what GD says is right and a considerable number of US collectors have been priced out of the market then eventually the market will notice as demand falls and the prices fall with them.

 

I agree with that logic for the most part.
But I think there will always be a subset of coins that will be considered "the must have coins of a collection" that will retain their value and go up as long as the economy is strong enough to support those hard core big money collectors.
Now I am no expert and would not know what that list might be but that list in itself might make an interesting posting to read.

 

As long as the economy holds them there then yes, but economies can have bad years too.

Some coins will always be popular and have demand (due to rarity or one off's needed for a type set or whatever), but if a price has been created 'artificially' (i.e collectors have gone into a buying frenzy due to hype and prices have skyrocketed), then even those coins will slide back down sooner or later when the artificial bubble bursts.* It doesn't necessarily mean they'll lose their popularity it just means they'll be cheaper as collectors have cooled off and come to their senses.

*Also note that often it might be that a price in a catalogue seemingly fails to come back down again, but it might freeze for a few years allowing inflation to catch up. (Which means technically the price has fallen in real terms).

 

Sylvester,
If you would indulge me, what would you deem to be the must have coin from hammered, non-hammered and imperial coins of the UK,British Empire or old England/Scotland eras?