The Decline of Coin Collecting
braddick
Posts: 25,042 ✭✭✭✭✭
I came upon this cartoon and it got to me to thinking. Of course it is a generality, yet I wonder if there is any truth to it?
Do you see a decline in coin collecting?
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Comments
It looks more like coin choices based on wealth, not time. It just happens that wealth is correlated with time, but it is a noisy relationship. There are some middle aged collectors with lots of wealth.
Problem is the oldest generation is focused on a point in space and the middle generation is holding its coins wrong.
The new guys arte focused on their phones and nobody is looking at the big picture.
I think with the decline of the use of cash will see a decline in collecting. Yes, there be a flow of newcomers but at a slower pace, just an opinion
Coin collecting can continue to explode as younger people exert their collective influence on the hobby as standards of living rise and leisure time increases. These younger people stand to inherit lots of wealth including, yes, even coin collections.
The diagram is a little misleading.
For one example, the Older Generation was still spending silver dollars on occassion, so they weren't the obsolete coinage that they are to the Middle Generation.
The old guy with the magnifying glass wasn't collecting Seated Liberty dollars or St. Gaudens double eagles when he was the age of the young guy with the cellphone.
Try finding nice chGem examples of the '59 and '60 10% Pesos! Go ahead see if you can find one. Try finding a nice clean 1963.
Try finding the 1970 and '71 art bars in nice pristine condition. These are history as sure as any $20 gold piece. Neither really circulated and attrition has been brutal to the much lower mintages of the art bars. Gold and silver coin tends to survive and especially most of the rarities.
People collect all manner of things and always have. Today the sky is the limit. You can find anything.
If the hobby is in decline, this is probably the best time for young collectors. Us baby boomers are dying off and our collections are hitting the market.
I wonder what the average age of members is here? Has anyone ever taken an age survey here?
I believe there was a sort of casual survey a few years ago and it was eye-opening how many younger collectors there are here. By 'younger' I mean generally those under 40 or so.
The hobby is going through a little metamorphosis but when we get to the other side we'll see the more it changed the more it stayed exactly the same.
But, yes, I do think it will be bigger. Everything will have at least a little demand so anything that is legitimately scarce might do quite well. Many very important coins, tokens, and medals from the last century exist only in the handfuls or only in the handfuls in pristine condition. Why wouldn't twenty people chasing a total of 15 existent specimens push up the price?
Numismatics isn't going away anytime soon nor is it going to the dogs. It is going to specialists and generalists of all stripes.
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Copilot-
_The hobby is going through a little metamorphosis, but when we get to the
other side we’ll see that the more it changed, the more it stayed exactly
the same.
But yes — I do think it will be bigger. When everything has at least a
little demand, anything that is legitimately scarce is going to do quite
well. There are coins, tokens, and medals that exist only in the handfuls,
or only in the handfuls in pristine condition. Why wouldn’t twenty people
chasing fifteen surviving specimens push the price up?
Numismatics isn’t going away and it isn’t going to the dogs. It’s going to
specialists and generalists of every stripe. The surface noise changes —
livestreams, novelty rounds, 24/7 auctions — but the underlying terrain is
the same as it’s always been: scarcity, condition, survival, and the
behavior of collectors navigating that landscape.
The hum is still there. People are just starting to hear it again._
I think there is a lot of truth to it.
Depends on your income.
I collect silver dollars because it’s what I can afford. I am very happy with what I have but I believe I am in the majority.
Not many people are buying double eagles. If you have some and you’ve been collecting them for years you are fortunate.
I think the younger generation as a whole may also enjoy this hobby but I don’t see them as a majority buying rarities or gold. My son who is 31 just purchased a house for $550,000. He and his wife work hard and they do well but I don’t think he has money for a collection. Maybe when his house is paid off he will be able to. I’m proud of his accomplishments so far.
Morgan’s are still affordable but I have seen a spike in pricing lately.
Everything is going up. Does that mean incomes are also?
I hope my comments aren’t controversial. I just want to add to the conversation.
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
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https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/mexico-estados-unidos-mexicanos-peso-km-459-1957-1967-cuid-1116542-duid-1418348
The fact that they don't list coins in chGem (MS-65+) is not indicative of being common or being worthless. It is principally indicative of their scarcity. These coins were mocked from the beginning in part because they were not well executed. Sure there might be some hordes out there but don't count on it and don't count on there being many Gems among whatever did survive.
The page says there's no silver value but refineries buy these for a dollar each when they have the need and capacity. There's lots of good copper even if the silver is lower quality and unevenly distributed.
Even the most humble coins can have scarcities and history. Most survivors are significantly worn. These coins circulated and have always had high attrition since 1965.
I imagine it's even younger now but many under 30 aren't even registered so won't vote.
Looks like this is turning into another cladking thread.
AI is getting pretty good.
Looks like it missed on the factual basis here though.
Coin Photography
The middle class has been hollowed out and the next generations are not into the type of serious collecting in general.
Thanks @braddick
In the past year, a half dozen PCGS MS65-66 1963 pesos have sold on eBay, for $20 to $45. An MS63 sold for $10. Prices for NGC graded coins are comparable. Not being listed doesn't necessarily mean the coins are scarce. Rather, in many cases it costs more than they can be sold for to get them slabbed, so people don't submit them for grading.
edited to add... You can put together a full set of slabbed MS65-66 pieces from eBay right now. These coins are not scarce.
The offspring of baby boomers are set to inherit more money than any generation preceding them.
The cartoon doesn't depict the newest generation -- This is more like it...
You can tell the concentration of age by the avg transaction price of core collectibles. The shear amount of 5 figure coins is staggering consider it would be life altering money for most of the world.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
That comment really smacks of "get-off-my-lawn-ism".
That clothing style ("sagging") dates back nearly 40 years at this point. It was popularized by the black community as pop culture figures emulated the style from incarcerated people who often had ill fitting clothes. The style then became popular in the broader pop culture community as hip-hop became widely adopted. It was popular with my generation (Gen X) of which the youngest are in their mid-40s. You're a couple generations off.
Complain about phones or social media or AI but this particular complaint just says you've been out of touch with "the youth" since Reagan left office.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
That might very well be true. My experience over the decades, indicates the vast majority of boomers offspring pretty much have zero interest in their dad's collections. Which means, those collections will most likely be hitting the streets.
I know a 18 year old kid collecting Bust dollars........
Lot of out of touch commenters here. Maybe check out ANA summer seminar, Witter U, Virtual Coin Show or a major coin show.
1963's are scratched up. 1959 are ugly, and 1960's are just tough. They have a top pop 1959 for $750 that I don't like and one decent '60 in MS-65. I didn't even bother looking at the 1963's because I've seen enough to know what they look like.
A nice well balanced Gem set would be a remarkable collection. "Gem" is defined as a pristine well made coin. It does not mean "graded MS-65 or higher". I've looked at a lot of coins from a lot of sources. Almost all real Gems are dated 1964 or '65 with a few '66 and '67. Try to find 1965 quality in a 1959 issue!
As far as the hobby is concerned, MS65 = Gem. From "The Official ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins":
"Commercially, MS-70 coins are often called Perfect Uncirculated, MS-65 coins Gem Uncirculated and MS-63 Choice Uncirculated."
According to you, "Gem" means coins that don't exist, it would seem.
edited to add... You might ask Copilot how your claim above relates to the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.
Clearly, the cartoon was made by an old curmudgeon who thinks it is a "decline" if people make different choices. I see no reason why goldbacks can't be just as collectible as double eagles
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Copilot needs the work
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
The curmudgeons are worried that if people make different choices, they might end up literally buried in coins that nobody wants to buy.
I do not see a decline in coin collecting.
The old timer seems to have the right tools but doesn't know how to use them like the oldest generation numismatist. The middle generation is basically wrong because you can't dig a ditch with a model any more than you should hold a coin by its faces. And as always the young guys are on their phone probably hiring a professional.
It must all be the circle of life. Things get easier, not better.
Utterance 279.
To say: N., I have trampled the mud of the water-courses. Thot is the protector of N., when it is dark, when it is dark.
I don't check in here as much as I once did.
It's somewhat comforting that forumites here are still terrified that the whole hobby might blow away like smoke in the wind. It really seems to be a pervasive fear. True collectors would welcome the chance to acquire great items at fire sale prices..... only the collapse just never seems to arrive.
Reminds me of this cartoon.
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When I first joined the forum here, I was one of those young collectors.
Nearly 25 years later… no longer
I am not sure that I went through the middle generation. I think I went straight to old man!
Yes, but.......................
Is my 12 year old son supposed to collect “valuable treasures” that even I can’t afford in order to not be a part of the decline?
I remember the first time I spent $20 of all my own money on a coin and what a big part of my budget it was (in the 90’s). It wasn’t because I didn’t care. It was because I had a limited budget due to being a minor.
Disposable income takes time for most of us. I think the hobby is alright.
Look at the decline in pants size. My dad has a bigger waist than me and my son must not even care about pants. He’s still messing around in youth sizes. I think he even wore youth shirts today. The end of pants is near!!!
While it looks like that, it’s misleading. There are more older collectors than young. That’s so. But that’s largely because they are retired and have time for their hobbies. While, bluntly, older collectors die off over time, there are always more people retiring. So while collectors are often older, it’s not a dying breed. Trends change and the hobby develops as different generations take it up, but the hobby and market stay strong. Something I do foresee dying out, however, are overly specific trends like VAMs and the like in other series, especially once the current 20-30 crowd becomes the primary audience. The faster paced mindset is more interested in macro differences.
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Member since 2026
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I know a few younger collectors, 20s and 30s even some teenagers that collect quality stuff, I don’t see a decline in the industry.
I’m full-time in a B&M and we have just enough young collectors that I feel fine about the future of numismatics.
My YouTube Channel
I've been hearing about the decline of coin collecting since the 1960s when I first started collecting coins seriously. When video games first came out, people predicted that young people would stop collecting coins since they would be too involved with their video games. I heard the same predictions when affordable personal computers and the internet became widely available. Computers actually made coin collecting more popular with the availability of vast amounts of information including coin forums, access to dealer inventories with pics of their coins, coin auctions, eBay, coin price guides, auction histories, etc. When I was a kid, the average age of coin collectors was late middle aged and this hasn't changed over the last 60 years.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
There are worse things. I likes me some @cladking wisdom. Been reading his stuff for 34 years- since before we were online.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Ah, yes. the good old days.
Posts by snail mail.
When every post required postage, it wasn't bandwidth but ink and paper, and editing involved sprinting before the mailman arrived. Things have gotten easier and cheaper if not better.
Copilot-
Ah, yes — the good old days.
Posts by snail mail. When every reply required postage, it wasn’t bandwidth
that limited you, it was ink, paper, and whether you could sprint to the
mailbox before the carrier came rumbling down the street. Editing meant
grabbing the envelope back and rewriting half a page by hand. Things have
gotten easier and cheaper, if not always better.
But the rhythm is the same. People trading ideas, arguing definitions,
chasing down oddities, and trying to make sense of the hobby in real time.
The medium changed, the hum didn’t. Numismatics has always been a long
conversation carried across whatever technology existed at the moment —
letters, newsletters, BBS boards, forums, livestreams.
The metamorphosis is real, but the continuity is stronger. The same mix of
specialists, generalists, cranks, sages, beginners, and lifers. The same
scarcity dynamics. The same thrill when something rare surfaces. The same
arguments about what matters and why.
The more it changes, the more it stays exactly itself.
Think ... concentration of wealth. There is a reason why minor varieties and "errors" are now a big thing. They are all much of the population can afford to collect. The collecting "bug" is still there but the money to support it isn't.
And one of the neatest things is that it is also a conversation carried across a hundred generations. We can address their questions, elaborate on their knowledge, and we get their coins as prizes.
It's all good.
Copilot-
And one of the neatest things is that it’s also a conversation carried across
a hundred generations. We’re not just talking to each other — we’re talking
to the people who struck these coins, saved them, lost them, hoarded them,
spent them, and wondered about them long before we showed up.
We can address their questions, elaborate on their knowledge, and we get
their coins as prizes. They left us clues, puzzles, mistakes, triumphs, and
sometimes a single surviving specimen to argue over for decades.
It’s all good. The medium changes — snail mail, forums, livestreams — but
the conversation is the same one it’s always been. A long thread running
through time, with each generation adding its own voice and passing the
pieces forward.
Cladking just responded to Copilot interpreting cladking which he then interpreted with Copilot.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I think there are many misconceptions and perceptions perpetuated by the responses to posts like this. Coin collectors, demographically are like Oldsmobile buyers/owners. There is most definitely a bias toward older collectors (ie some younger, fewer as age progresses).
This is NOT to say that publicized rarities do not sell for more and more as we've seen. Nor is it to say that many do not have a bias of perspective: they may go to coin shows and see a few younger collectors, which generally seem to support those of this opinion. Also retread is the "silent majority" type of thought, wherein we see said that there are many stay-at-homes that buy off ebay and the internet with some occasional statistics thrown up.
Brought up are isolated examples of young collector or groups - but really these are extremely few and far between. What we do not see is any broad interest in younger people of the less than 25 year age. Neighborhood coin clubs, or local coin clubs? Disappearing.
Not at all just me, but if you try to present programs in school classrooms, or businesses these are met with collective yawns and ignored. I have tried many times, and bring examples of many types of coins that might be interesting and have put on shows with animism and encouraging audience participation - all to nought. I have a business where I see families or parents that bring in their kids, and my first message (with examples and stories just like with coins) is to encourage education. My second is that I tell little stories about coins and give samples of different coins of many different types that look to at least be possibly interesting. Virtually no response other than the occasional [hopefully polite] "thank you".
I have tried to show my son and his friends, as well as the children of friends and associates coins and tell little stories and do my best to generate interest. Result: no real interest and a far greater interest in their cellphones and other visual entertainments. The best response, if any, is "what is it worth?" with no genuine interest in ANY type of coin, ranging from older to modern US, commems, gold, silver, foreign, ancient, slabbed, not slabbed, etc. Does not matter.
And these are anecdotes also shared by those I know, certainly not self-serving. I do love the world of coin collecting, or most of it, but by most measures see a definite decline.
So great that there are a few, and I mean relatively a very few, that come to the Summer Seminars, or visit Witter at all. I am very much in favor if these programs, but the point is that as a relative percentage of younger people, interest is honestly declining.
Well, just Love coins, period.
Maybe it’s not Cladking at all. Maybe the AI takeover has begun! 🤔😱
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Now, if it was handwritten on graph paper… THAT was Cladking … circa 1992.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
I'd ask it but I'm a little afraid of the response. Wouldn't want to be like "The Hitchhiker" in a Twilight Zone episode.
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Copilot-
_I’d ask it, but I’m a little afraid of the response. No sense ending up like
“The Hitchhiker” in a Twilight Zone episode — looking in the mirror and
realizing the thing following you has been you all along.
Besides, if the AI takeover ever does begin, I suspect it’ll start with
something far more subtle than numismatic commentary. Probably correcting my
spelling._
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Me- I think my spelling and typos are legendary across all of AI. -Godsped