"This Dying Hobby"

I don't think it's dying. Seems to be a lot of activity in auctions. Plus, there is a flood of new collectors buying at the top end of the market.

 

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I think this article ignores a lot of realities of the current market. For one, there seem to be more auction houses operating now than ever before. There are several aggregator platforms as well as venues like Vauctions, Agora, Biddr, etc that allow anyone to become an auctioneer and, consequently, we see a ton of small auctioneers selling the sort of coins you'd likely have found on eBay before. Look at how many people here participate in the AMCC and JA auctions in one way or the other. It seems to me it's far easier now to get average coins in a non-eBay auction than it was when I began collecting.

I'd also point out that while the author seems to want to blame social media for some sort of decline in collecting, Facebook is a massive venue for the sale of "average" ancients. You don't see much of the higher end on Facebook but neither do you on eBay. This may come as a surprise to some but many of the metal detector sellers have switched from eBay to Facebook because private Facebook groups offer a bit more privacy than eBay which is open to all.

There are also a lot of just average collectors selling their coins on Facebook because there is a massive audience and, perhaps more importantly, transactions can be handled without sellers fees and theres actual vetting in those groups. Fakesellers not only get banned but often blacklisted because people talk and names get shared often. There are multiple groups with >4,000 members and while there is certainly overlap I found well over 10k unique members when I used a tool a while ago to try and estimate how many people could potentially see a coin I posted for sale. I've bought nearly the same number of coins on eBay in my "collecting career" as I have Facebook and almost none of those coins were ever listed on eBay. I've sold far more of my collection on Facebook and Cointalk because, as mentioned above, the significantly lower fees make a huge difference in the amount of money that eventually makes its way to me.

Don't be so quick to write off the next generation. Collecting is changing, sure, but I think saying it's dying is alarmist and ultimately wrong.

 

I didn't know my blog post was being discussed here and just a few minutes ago I posted the link in another thread unaware of this one.

Anyway, time will tell of course. And, seeing that numismatics is my career and all, it's in my best interest for me to be wrong.

Rasiel

 

I've never thought about looking for coins on Facebook but oughta give it a shot. I joined when it was just for college students in '05 and basically abandoned it in disgust when all my favorite pages were banned for Wrongthink (I.e. actually being incisive and humorous) 3 years ago.

I haven't been around long enough to offer any reliable concrete predictions, but aside from the promising increase in exposure and thus interest in non-western countries, I'm quite certain that the genetic predisposition to collect (hoard resources) will exist until our species goes extinct.

I was a very inquisitive natural born collector, starting my coin and a half dozen other collecting interests at 5, and was entirely uninterested in television, video games and other frivolous activities which paled in comparison to the enthralling historical or geological effervescence of "old" things. I didn't choose to collect things or to be interested in their context or stories, it was an instinct as natural as water flowing downhill.

Being a "little professor" much more comfortable playing with my collections or picking the brains of knowledgeable adults than playing with my perplexingly simple peers is an obvious facet of the magnificent Autism Spectrum, and I'd bet everything I own that you glorious Autists are concentrated in the hobby to a remarkably greater degree than you are in the average population distribution.

This brings me to the point; Autism Spectrum "disorder" (lol) is being diagnosed at ever increasing rates, and regardless of the reasons (merely more comprehensive patient evaluations, toxins in foods and environment before and after birth, older women waiting until their eggs are overripe to have children, etc.) the fact is that the beautiful Spectrum is here to stay, so as long as interesting things still exist there will be people who naturally gravitate towards them. Many other acquisitive hobbies involve items that are more contrived and 2-dimensional, produced for the primary purpose of being collected. Such inauthentic and superficial realms won't last and certainly won't satisfy the self-respecting Autist, so there will always be some who dig deep and find ancient coins to be a pursuit quite superior to collecting anime figurines and waifu plushies.

 

US coin collecting is holding its own, but the US Mint is taking the wrong path in trying to entice young collectors with their gimmicks (2019W quarter) etc. What needs to be done is for avid collectors to start forming more collector clubs for young collectors and going from there. US Mint gimmicks are not going to increase or even save coin collecting as we know it.

 

If between 1 and 10 people out of every 1000 from my generation pick up collecting coins at some point in their life, the hobby will be fine. Many people pick up serious coin collecting later in life when they have money and are settled down. This is not unrealistic.

But it seems many of these individuals are more interested in dealing than collecting, so we might have another bubble if the ratio of dealers to collectors gets too high.

I also predict that ancient/world coin markets will become stronger as people become bored/pushed out of the US coin market. Like I was.

 

I do worry about other countries & the import restrictions. I wouldn't be surprised if more come about in the years to come.

 

I agree with @AussieCollector .....and as a collector in my early 20s, I am optimistic that there are other like-minded millennials!

However, in discussing the topic of collecting ancients with a few students and profs in my dept (Classics/History), I was surprised hear that many believe (like many other artifacts) collecting ancients should be restricted, as a form of cultural property. Obviously, I disagree....but I was still taken aback.

 

Good point! I could have afforded lots of coins from the Farouk Sale with today's inflated $$$$ in 1954. Today these same coins are going for 100X ++ (1954 prices)
Most high grade coins go way over estimates, in some cases, where slabbed coins are offered, the MS-66/67 go for outrageous prices (10X catalogue)
In one case, I got a coin from the famed Norweb collection. The coin hammered for $5500US! The original envelope from dealer (1958) showed the coin was bought back then for $35!!!!!! I would say that the hobby is TOO popular
John

 

Tell them that you need to confiscate any and all of their modern coins and cash that they have in-pocket, wallet, or home for conservatory reasons.

 

This topic does come up about monthly somewhere on the forum, like @Sallent said. I wish prices would come down... especially on large bronze provincials...

 

..if it is dying, its a long,slow and expensive death..

 

That's a large number. Be careful of what you wish for, if there were more collectors prices would skyrocket and drive many out of the hobby.

This has already been a trend for decades and will only continue in the future. People naturally get bored collecting the same coin just with a small difference with mintages in the many billions. I mean, really? Billions? Yep. Honestly their true value is just face. Anything over that is pure hype (well, in comparison to ancients anyway).

 

I’ve heard estimates that about 1% of the US population currently collects coins to some degree. This includes stackers, coin roll hunters, and those with tiny budgets. I think the hobby would still survive even at a tenth of that number