The Future of coin collecting
gashmios
Posts: 504 ✭✭✭
I am wonder, as we are moving rapidly to a future with minimal real money, how will this affect future coin collecting and prices. When people don't use coins (or even paper money), won't there interest decline?
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
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Some will like vintage coins more if they stop making new ones. But there might be less entry level newbies if there are no coins received in change to look through.
Mr_Spud
And then there’s this
Mr_Spud
we've been doing this for almost 2500 years, but if it comes to an end, that feeling of historical connection will be gone.
See - we can relate to this
Pride in one’s country and the courts, Congress and the Presidency is a major factor in attracting new collectors and retaining old collectors. Pride in one’s country’’s history, past and current..
I think that says it all, at least for the next 3 years.
think about how much more expensive Morgans are to Athenean Owls
I know what you mean. Just the other day my 5 year old grandson was watching C-SPAN Congressional Subcommittee hearings and "Papaw, I think I want to collect coins now!".
Because all those credit cards are stolen.
Throw a coin enough times, and suppose one day it lands on its edge.
That's odd because just this morning my 10yo daughter had her federal grant for her doctoral research revoked and made me drive her to Walmart to dump all of her wheat cents into the Coinstar.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
That is different. We were watching agility games when our boxer pup told us that she couldn’t wait to collect the youth sports quarters.
We are experiencing a cataclysmic event with what is happening with gold and silver.
Having seen this prior with the Hunt Brothers in the 1980's we have now greatly exceeded that.
The possibility of assembling a circulated set of Roosevelt dimes, Barber quarters, Standing Liberty Liberty quarters, Washington quarters, Walking Liberty Halves, Franklin Halves in albums is disappearing if not gone all together.. The future Numismatics will be left with post 1964 coinage, Lincoln cents (most likely post 1945) and whatever else if remaining.
How is the next generation going to move into 17th. century coinage with ought first experiencing the joy of collecting 18th. century coinage?
What?! Are you still all upset about the big storm that just missed the FUN show by 3 weeks?
What happens in 3 years that will decide the future of coin collecting?
Just for clarity, you are talking about coins from the 1600s and the joy of collecting coins from the 1700s?
Anyway, the hobby has survived many challenges - economic upheavals, wars, pandemic shutdowns, etc. I think it will survive without our commerce requiring coin exchange.
(edit to correct misspelling)
"She comes out of the sun in a silk dress,
running like a water color in the rain...."
Coin collecting will go on. To relate coins to coin usage is of little meaning. That would be like saying "We have electricity now; throw out all the candles." They just find a means of coexistence.
The real survival of coin collecting has much more to do with protecting the hobby's integrity. The real bedrock of coin collecting is appreciating History and the role coins have played in the past. James
If I just wanted to plug holes as quickly as possible…..I could complete a set of Roosevelts or Franklins in less than an hour with a laptop and a credit card.
Barbers and Walkers would be slightly trickier but I think they too could be done in less than a day.
I’m not here to be argumentative on any level, but I think it’s a bit hyperbolic to state the opportunity to collect material like this is “disappearing”.
Our hobby has endured ebbs and flows in every direction for centuries. A ridiculous run up in metals in late 2025/early 2026 will be part of the thousands of years old story of numismatics……but it’s not going to kill it. Neither is a US president that many Americans vigorously dislike.
(As an aside…..those who like to compare our hobby to stamps usually fail to acknowledge that postage came around less than 200 years ago while coins have circulated for 2500 years+)
I don't think the decline or even end of coin use in commerce need be that relevant.
I mean, think about it- people don't use flintlock firearms anymore, yet plenty of folks still like to collect those, for just one example. There aren't a lot of Ford Model T cars being driven daily, but plenty are in the hands of collectors. You get what I'm sayin'.
If anything, people's interest might even increase a little bit when coins become a thing of the past.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
When something goes away more people start collecting (and flipping) it .
There is no difference between something 200 years old and 2500 years old when the human lifespan is 80 years.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
The concept of value, in whatever form it takes, isn't going away. Combine that with a human's propensity to gather stuff and I doubt coin collecting is going away. What constitutes "a set" might change, but I think we'll see coin collecting around for quite some time...
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Some people have the personality that requires them to collect things. This will not change, although what they collect will evolve. Coins are fairly well entrenched in the Pantheon of collectibles, while things like beanie babies, phone cards, and pogs lived a short life as minor demigods.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Coins have made sense to more lifespans than stamps.
“Land of the free because of the brave”
“Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone”
In Deo solo confidimus
Member since 2026
Successful BST transactions with: Ted 1, JWP, bigjpst, Vetter, nickelsciolist,
We don’t exactly have to worry about this just yet. I fully expect circulating coinage to outlive even the youngest members of this forum.
“Land of the free because of the brave”
“Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone”
In Deo solo confidimus
Member since 2026
Successful BST transactions with: Ted 1, JWP, bigjpst, Vetter, nickelsciolist,
I would not think that is a certainty. I have grandchildren reaching their teens who have never handled physical money except to give for Tzadkah in the morning and for other religious rituals.
I had another child ask me how they can put the 20 sheckel note into the credit card machine.
https://papel.com.tr/en/blog/top-5-countries-with-declining-cash-usage-the-digital-payment-era
My stepson and stepdaughter (29 and 30 years old) LOVE my collection and the cool coins they get each year for Christmas and their birthdays. I started giving them bits and pieces about 10 years ago…. My stepson (finance major) firmly believes physical coinage will all but disappear in the not too distant future as crypto and credit cards take over our monetary system completely. The government hasn’t thought this crypto stuff out very well as a few of the trading platforms are just money laundering in disguise. Hard to collect taxes on money that can’t be seen or traced. 🤨
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A local coin shop near me pays 4x times face value for wheat cent lots.
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I have followed the market for vintage silver ingots over the past ten years or so.
It is apparent that new collectors are not coming from people finding coins in circulation.
The new collectors are "stackers" who have been branching out into collectible forms of bullion and coins.
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https://papel.com.tr/en/blog/top-5-countries-with-declining-cash-usage-the-digital-payment-era
That would be interesting because that is a completely different group of collectors than the historical Keenes Steakhouse coin collectors. And yet, NZ just announced they are ending the commerative silver programs.
Many of the Worldwide silver bullion collectables are desirable, artistic, and fun to have in the hand.
Definitely a large portion of the younger generations are lacking in the use of physical money. I’m 20 myself, but I’m a hardcore physical money user. I’ll use a card where it’s reasonably better to do so, but “cash is king” in circulation. Technically coins for me. I have observed a subset of my own generation who prefers cash vastly over cards. These are mostly also the silver/gold stacker type.
“Land of the free because of the brave”
“Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone”
In Deo solo confidimus
Member since 2026
Successful BST transactions with: Ted 1, JWP, bigjpst, Vetter, nickelsciolist,
There are places and cities I've travelled to that will no longer take cash
Brooklyn?
Amsterdam, among others. Only cabs and hookers will take your Euros in Amsterdam.
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Just about every store I visit takes cash, but some of them ask to see my cash card first.
No - Amsterdam does not take cash.. period. I've been stranded there with 700 Euros and no way to spend them - niether at the hotel or any of the museums or resturants. Not on the railroad or the public transport. It is all card only. This is not even worth debate or discussion
In Copenhagen it was impossilbe to either get cash or spend it
Also, venues like Citifield in NYC will not take any cash in the stadium. I can't speak for Yankee stadium or the Garden
Indeed We're seeing more and more of it, welcome to the future
Why don't you ask this question on the world coin forum? Since the examples that you are giving us are mostly outside the U.S.
Micah Langford - https://www.oldglorycoinsandcurrency.com/
Did they have correct change?
thecabs yes - the hookers, you've have to try yourself
And if your not happy, hmmmm?
That’s no ripost!
I would have said, “Yeah, but we could never work out the exchange rate.”