Now I Am Getting Worried.... The Future Of Our Hobby

I been here going on two years and every time a thread like this comes up, I was the first to preach on how the young numismatists will keep this hobby alive. Several things are worrying me now. I do have a tidy sum of cash tied up and don't want my wife straddled with a safe full of boat anchors when I leave this party.

We do have a number of wonderful and active young numismatists here on CT. But we also recently had the Great American Coin Hunt. I don't recall seeing one youngster posting his prize catch. And I know in my area alone there were numerous treasures placed for YN's to enjoy.... Post after post after post is the same, "Is my doubled ear Lincoln worth lots of cash"? That's fine. I know every wheat cent I found in the sixties was the most valuable coin in the world..... Thing is, I don't see these folks coming back with any further interest.

This last year, each time I go to my dealers place it looks like a Geritol commercial. I am not seeing any young folks trading with my dealer. I give away lot's of no-date buffalo's to youngsters. These days the face I see is not one of wonderment... It is more of a "What The Heck" look.

I don't know..... Talk me down here y'all. I am not wanting to feel this way about our hobby.

 

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The Fairfax Coin Club has a very active young numismatist program - one of our board members is specifically a YN coordinator. We run YN auctions, trivia, work with local scouts, and have other YN reachout. Aside from these programs, we probably have close to 10 YN members in the club; some are the kids of other members who collect too, others are interested kids whose parents do not collect. In my Hungarian club, one of our members has a couple young kids with excellent collections.

 

QDB relates in one of his books that this exact same concern was written in an article in the Numismatist in 1913. I can't remember the exact article.

What I'm saying is, people have been saying this for over a hundred years. We're still going strong. The hobby just tends to be older - kids don't have the income to sustain a collection, and other interests are more important. People tend to come to this hobby later in life, because that's when they have income and time. That's just the way it's always been.

People like me who started when I was 1 year old and haven't really stopped since are very rare (33 years later).

 

I have been to my monthly coin show twice so far, and each time I have seen young people there. Sure, they may have come with a parent and not interested themselves yet, but at least they are exposed to what there is available. In fact, the first one I went to I actually saw a young boy of about 12 talking to a dealer about a coin he was interested in. At that show, there was a total of four children going around to the bourses.

I don't think you should judge how many young people are in the hobby based on the participation you see here. Maybe someone who has been to ANA shows or the FUN event can comment on the presence of young people at these events. I think there are more out there than we know.

 

In 1970 I started a coin collecting club in high school along with the help of my science teacher who also collected. It went over very well and we had around a dozen active students involved that year. I also did a feature in the high school newspaper on stamps every two weeks which was well received. Around ten years ago, I approached a teacher about doing a coin club and she showed no interest saying it was now all about sports and that it would take time away from that. I had even enlisted the aid of a few coin dealers in order to acquire coin folders and other supplies. One dealer was willing to help. The others just said no thanks. Not sure what is really happening. I guess cell phones and video games are still the main player in extra time with younger folks. It is a conundrum. It's not one I have an easy answer to.

 

And then there are the "silent" collectors,those who do it but may not take part or even know about coin shows or clubs. Promotion is the key here. It's like getting into chess; many know how to play, but don't do tournaments or join chess clubs, but they still play.

Until they discover girls!

 

That's a great idea, and I wish I had done something like that, but I was a chess fanatic in high school and ran the chess clubs. Still, the idea is to have support and promote the heck out of it, be it coins or chess.

I can't remember how I learned about the monthly coin show in my area, but it led me to coin clubs and auctions. A lot of it really is keeping your eyes open to ads and notices in newspapers...oh, that's right, young people don't know what a paper is.

 

I loved the extra ciricular clubs. I also was in our Chess Club, the Astronomy Club and Model Car Club.

 

I'll be simple, just because you don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

Well if in the next 40 or 50 years, if the hobby is pretty much done for and I'm still alive, I will gladly name myself ANA president lol.

However, if the hobby does go kaput, do my chances of owning things like a 1909 VDB MPL, a 1793 chain cent, 1907 high relief double eagle, etc, get better?

I just have a hard time imagining myself owning million dollar coins one day because there is no more interest in coin collecting and they wouldn't be worth that anymore.

 

One of my other expensive hobbies is woodworking. The same concern arises from time to time in the woodworking forums, that there seems to be a dearth of interest by younger people, and that the clientele at the nearest Rockler or Woodcraft seems to be old guys standing around drinking coffee. I think there's a considerable bit of confirmation bias going on--we see the things that back up what we believe is true and overlook the things that don't.

There are young people involved in these hobbies. Possibly not in numbers matching the older ones, but I agree that having income and time to spare has a lot to do with it.

I'll bet I could find similar conversations in amateur photography groups as well. But I can't afford to visit those groups.

 

Jason, wasn't that the coin you swallowed and your Dad had to wait for your next BM to get it back?

J/K!

Chris

 

Hogwash. There isn't a lack of utes getting into it. There were dozens of boyscouts at the last show I was at. They nearly outnumbered us old white dudes.

The hobby will continue until the U.S. Mint destroys it by flooding the hobby with tons of crap.

 

HAHAHA, no. This one would have been quite difficult to swallow! My grandpa gave this one to me on my first birthday:

 

Uh-oh. So maybe another six months, then?

 

They literally said the same thing in the 1940's and 1950's with all of the commemoratives. The hobby survived.

 

It did survive, perhaps because they stopped minting commemoratives for awhile.

 

If you don't buy it they will stop minting it.

 

The major difference between now, and back in the day, is the plastic. With the use of debit, or credit cards, much less change is even used these days. Could that have some effect on collecting coins ???
The newest phones, or such seems to be the highest priority anymore. My local coin dealer has stated that only a few youngsters come in, and he's the only one in town, except the "we buy gold" jewelry store, which is a poor choice for buying or selling coins, due to lowball offers when selling to them, and retail prices when buying from them.