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If everything becomes cashless

What happens to coin collecting ?

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  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭

    will not happen in my lifetime.

  • BroadstruckBroadstruck Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 26, 2019 6:44AM

    As long as you can still lick coins and they don't make them self-adhesive like stamps the hobby is safe!

    Oh never mind as people in this hobby do like stickers.

    To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
  • WalkerfanWalkerfan Posts: 9,748 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If it has any impact at all, it will be positive, as many people like to collect obsolete items.

    Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍

    My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):

    https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/

  • SoldiSoldi Posts: 2,177 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What's keeping you guys I threw all my cash away years ago.

    On a serious note; It's getting to be a real pain in my REAR going to the bank with more than ten thousand dollars lately.
    I mean a real pain in the arse!

  • HigashiyamaHigashiyama Posts: 2,279 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 26, 2019 7:18AM

    It does seem almost obvious to me that over time, in a cashless society, interest in coin collecting will diminish. I’m of course biased by my own experience. Many or perhaps most of us got our start pulling coins from change (or searching through rolls or our parents change). Even today, I wonder if it is as exciting as it was 50+ years ago, when small change actually bought something. When I got a very worn buffalo nickel in change, I had an important life decision to make: should I save it for my collection, or buy a pack of baseball cards!

    Higashiyama
  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It makes no cents to go cashless!

  • blitzdudeblitzdude Posts: 6,588 ✭✭✭✭✭

    evolution, coins will become relics of the past....oh wait they already are. lol

    The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
    BOOMIN!™
    Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????

  • jmlanzafjmlanzaf Posts: 36,681 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Who knows. Could be good. Could be bad.

    I'll say this: decrease in the use of postage stamps hasn't helped philately

  • kbbpllkbbpll Posts: 542 ✭✭✭✭

    Perhaps first we will go coinless. I was just in Laos and there are no circulating coins, it's all paper money. Their lowest denomination is 1000 kip, worth about 12 cents.

  • savitalesavitale Posts: 1,409 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Coin dealers will finally start accepting credit cards.

  • BaleyBaley Posts: 22,663 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If everything goes cashless,

    What happens to coin collecting?

    All coins become worthless and I start collectiing gem early Federal and proof 19th century gold.

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    China is practically already there and interest in coins is still growing.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • jmski52jmski52 Posts: 23,267 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I wonder if it is as exciting as it was 50+ years ago, when small change actually bought something. When I got a very worn buffalo nickel in change, I had an important life decision to make: should I save it for my collection, or buy a pack of baseball cards!

    In college, I sold my entire accumulation of BU cent rolls to finance something and for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Probably women and beer.

    Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally

    I knew it would happen.
  • WildIdeaWildIdea Posts: 1,877 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Anybody who uses CC or has a business knows that CC are far from hassle less. There is a fair amount of hardware issues as well as software problems and fraud not to mention fees. Up front it sounds like the convenience is worth it until you have to work through the issues as they pop up. Although one may become more popular, I feel a variety of payment/currency types is the advantage, not going all in on one type.

    How you pay at a restaurant, or a utility bill......I don’t feel this has anything to do with the desirability of rare coin collecting or how it will effect the rare coin market.

  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I wonder what will happen to pan handlers / homeless asking for spare change. It's probably already a thing.

    Will they have an ap? Google pay? Spare some bitcoin for a disabled vet?

    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • oldabeintxoldabeintx Posts: 2,443 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If everything is cashless, then everything will be electronic, hence knowable, hackable, and traceable, scary really. I'm of the generation that values privacy. My grandchildren may face this.

  • HigashiyamaHigashiyama Posts: 2,279 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BrettPCGS said “China is practically already there and interest in coins is still growing.”

    Yes, this is an interesting point. I definitely don’t expect the hobby to die; classic coins at least should always generate interest. There’s got to be a floor, for example, on the price of a 1795 eagle! Nonetheless, it sure seems reasonable to expect that the per capita number of collectors in the future generations will be less than it is among baby boomers.

    By the way, what are the Chinese collecting? Both Chinese and Western coins? Ancient Chinese coins? High grade modern Chinese issues? Greek and Roman coins? I’d be curious if PCGS has identified any clear collecting trends in China?

    Higashiyama
  • fcfc Posts: 12,793 ✭✭✭
    edited July 27, 2019 7:07AM

    @Soldi said:
    What's keeping you guys I threw all my cash away years ago.

    On a serious note; It's getting to be a real pain in my REAR going to the bank with more than ten thousand dollars lately.
    I mean a real pain in the arse!

    Yup. I experienced it myself. Not only depositing but changing small bills to large. Try doing that twice a month for 6 months and you will get a call from the bank even if only 4 to 7 thousand.

    With inflation now days how can 5k be considered a lot of money? Many people make that in 2 to 3 weeks. They are keeping a close eye on cash. As inflation keeps taking place, in a decade or two, that will happen to more and more people who prefer cash.

  • mustangmanbobmustangmanbob Posts: 1,890 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Huge difference between cashless and coinless.

    Or maybe not coinless, but that coins have no real "value" to society, so why would significant number of people collect them?

    Roll the clock back 100 years. 2018 minimum wage was 21 cents an hour. Largest circulating coin: $20, so almost 100 hours of work, very significant.

    Now, minimum wage is $7.25 (Federal). Largest circulating coin 25 cents, so about 2 minutes of work.

    If the $1 $5 and maybe the $10 were whacked, and replaced with coins, then they would start to be significant again.

    But maybe we will go the other way, and replace the 25 cent with a note and even the 50 cent with a note, drop the 1 cent, and leave just the poor nickle and dime left. I see this type playing out in other countries I visit, and the upshot is that coins have less and less to do with commerce.

  • bigjpstbigjpst Posts: 3,181 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Weiss said:
    I wonder what will happen to pan handlers / homeless asking for spare change. It's probably already a thing.

    Will they have an ap? Google pay? Spare some bitcoin for a disabled vet?

    @Weiss said:
    I wonder what will happen to pan handlers / homeless asking for spare change. It's probably already a thing.

    Will they have an ap? Google pay? Spare some bitcoin for a disabled vet?

    Since cellphones are now one of our inalienable rights as US citizens free cell phones are handed out with free data plans. Mostly in lower income areas. So google pay or something similar for panhandling isn’t that far off I suppose.

  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,615 ✭✭✭✭✭

    An end to all debts public and private. We'd all be rich. No more debt. No more bills. Hooray.

  • ShadyDaveShadyDave Posts: 2,217 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @fc said:

    @Soldi said:
    What's keeping you guys I threw all my cash away years ago.

    On a serious note; It's getting to be a real pain in my REAR going to the bank with more than ten thousand dollars lately.
    I mean a real pain in the arse!

    Yup. I experienced it myself. Not only depositing but changing small bills to large. Try doing that twice a month for 6 months and you will get a call from the bank even if only 4 to 7 thousand.

    With inflation now days how can 5k be considered a lot of money? Many people make that in 2 to 3 weeks. They are keeping a close eye on cash. As inflation keeps taking place, in a decade or two, that will happen to more and more people who prefer cash.

    Sounds like you need a new bank...try a local credit union. Financial institutions are only required to report transactions of $10,000 or more to the Us Treasury through a SAR(suspicious activity report) and are also required if they think you’re being sketchy IE trying to layer money. So either the tellers at your bank are jerks or they think you’re doing something suspicious. With credit unions, you usually have access to better rates, more personal service (and when you get to know them they tend to treat you better) and your money actually gets used in your community.

    Going back to OPs topic:
    Unless every American is offered a FREE bank account, and I mean no fees or monthly minimum, forcing the country to go cashless will be deemed unconstitutional as it would disproportionately affect poor people.

    Like other have said, I wouldn’t want to rely on our (the US’s) electrical grid to ensure that we can facilitate commerce. I lost power for nearly 10 days during the October 2011 snowstorm in Connecticut and businesses grinder to a halt. That turned me into a “prepper” after not being able to access cash since ATMs we’re down along with everything else. Now I keep an envelope of small bills on hand for when the next extended outage happens.

  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Then I would lodge a strenuous objection with Satan. :)

  • HigashiyamaHigashiyama Posts: 2,279 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @mustangmanbob said “If the $1 $5 and maybe the $10 were whacked, and replaced with coins, then they would start to be significant again.”

    Yes, if we had one, five, and ten dollar coins, the purchasing power of our coinage would be similar to the situation 50 years ago.

    In Japan, a 500 yen coin is widely used-about the size of a half dollar and worth $5. Two of them will buy quite an acceptable lunch in Tokyo.

    Higashiyama
  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 8,783 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 27, 2019 7:58AM

    Numismatic investment is one of last bastions of financial privacy. Cash is king at money shows.

    Cash = privacy, freedom. Cashless = corporate establishment slavery.

    A future where humanity is spread across the solar system / stars will be based mainly on cash. The absurdity of electronic cashless postulated by the establishment will not work across vast distances. Most likely the medium of exchange will be the gold Solar and its silver sub denominations(100 Solar 1 oz gold coin). There will still be e accounting systems bank acts, etc. mainly for valuation of land on individual worlds. An accounting system will need to be setup for valuation of worlds, moons, asteroids.
    How much is Titan (with all its liquid methane) worth?

    Investor
  • LuxorLuxor Posts: 521 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Unfortunately, collecting coins is already a dying hobby, with or without a cashless society.

    Your hobby is supposed to be your therapy, not the reason you need it.

  • GazesGazes Posts: 2,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Luxor said:
    Unfortunately, collecting coins is already a dying hobby, with or without a cashless society.

    have no idea why you spend time on a coin forum. You have nothing positive to say about the hobby.

  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've been looking all morning for a CryptoStar machine. :p

  • LuxorLuxor Posts: 521 ✭✭✭✭✭

    have no idea why you spend time on a coin forum. You have nothing positive to say about the hobby.

    Just stating my opinions gazes.

    Your hobby is supposed to be your therapy, not the reason you need it.

  • LanLordLanLord Posts: 11,723 ✭✭✭✭✭

    All we need is one sigificant digital meltdown and the cashful society will be as live and well as the vinyl record industry is.

    Vinyl certainly has many people jumping off the digital ship, not everyone, but many.

  • BLUEJAYWAYBLUEJAYWAY Posts: 10,109 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Isn't Gov't spending already cashless? From what I read all they have to do is enter the amount into a computer and it is there. There is no physical transfer of hard cash.

    Successful transactions:Tookybandit. "Everyone is equal, some are more equal than others".
  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BrettPCGS said:
    China is practically already there and interest in coins is still growing.

    It's somewhat amazing. When I go to China, the US feels very far behind....

    When you go to restaurants, menus are all on your own smart phone and you pay by using the QR code at your table.

    On skyscrapers, they have night time, moving light shows that are coordinated across multiple buildings.

    Things I never see in the US....

  • kbbpllkbbpll Posts: 542 ✭✭✭✭

    @Zoins said:

    @BrettPCGS said:
    China is practically already there and interest in coins is still growing.

    It's somewhat amazing. When I go to China, the US feels very far behind....

    When you go to restaurants, menus are all on your own smart phone and you pay by using the QR code at your table.

    On skyscrapers, they have night time, moving light shows that are coordinated across multiple buildings.

    Things I never see in the US....

    The downside to that is each and every purchase down to the menu choice going into their "social credit" system.

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @kbbpll said:

    @Zoins said:

    @BrettPCGS said:
    China is practically already there and interest in coins is still growing.

    It's somewhat amazing. When I go to China, the US feels very far behind....

    When you go to restaurants, menus are all on your own smart phone and you pay by using the QR code at your table.

    On skyscrapers, they have night time, moving light shows that are coordinated across multiple buildings.

    Things I never see in the US....

    The downside to that is each and every purchase down to the menu choice going into their "social credit" system.

    I thought it was more social media posts in their version of a Twitter that was part of the social credit system. What you eat goes into that as well?

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,419 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Luxor said:

    have no idea why you spend time on a coin forum. You have nothing positive to say about the hobby.

    Just stating my opinions gazes.

    I'm all for everyone stating their opinions and all that. but what's the motivation? I mean, I could join the Barbie Doll forum and explain why they don't appeal to me, but why would I? OK, bad example. Barbie Dolls are actually pretty cool. But you know what I mean.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,419 ✭✭✭✭✭

    To answer the OP, it's possible that the removal of coins from circulation will reduce our tendency to collect by date and mintmark, because fewer of us will develop that habit as kids. But I imagine that much of the interest lost in date/MM collecting will be rechanneled into other (more interesting) ways of collecting coins.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • air4mdcair4mdc Posts: 938 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Soldi said:
    What's keeping you guys I threw all my cash away years ago.

    On a serious note; It's getting to be a real pain in my REAR going to the bank with more than ten thousand dollars lately.
    I mean a real pain in the arse!

    Doesn’t 10K throw the red flag up for the IRS? Just curious.

  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 8,783 ✭✭✭✭✭

    People start collecting credit cards?

    Investor
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,733 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Soldi said:
    What's keeping you guys I threw all my cash away years ago.

    On a serious note; It's getting to be a real pain in my REAR going to the bank with more than ten thousand dollars lately.
    I mean a real pain in the arse!

    That's funny.

    I can't get anyone at any of my banks to even pick up the phone.

    I guess they're too busy calling people who haul in coin and working for the government.

    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 23,850 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Vintage credit cards are collected.

    Some interesting comments.

    First of all, h e l l will freeze over before our country goes down the path of being cashless. Inasmuch as I would to argue it was something never contemplated by our founding fathers, the better argument is merely that it is unconstitutional in so many ways that the idea should never be seriously considered... Unless the big money center banks get their way. The US economy does not need a New wave in fees that will create a whole new cottage industry predicated on leeching more money out of those that can least afford it while branding the concept as the convenience of having some card or whatever to purchases crap that most just simply not needed in the vain efforts to keep up appearances.

    Coin collecting will survive a cash and cashless society (not sure how the rest of the world may view the question...). But there will be fluctuations in interest and valuations and that comes with the territory in anything worth owning.

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • lkeneficlkenefic Posts: 8,575 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Cashless is inevitable. The people that own everything want to know how we're spending our money. Case closed. Knowledge is power and our handlers have all the power...

    Collecting: Dansco 7070; Middle Date Large Cents (VF-AU); Box of 20;

    Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
  • GazesGazes Posts: 2,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have posted this elsewhere but a few comments:

    1) I don't see cashless in the near future. There is a strong political feeling among some groups that cashless favors the rich and discriminates against the poor. Stores that have tried to go cashless in cities have felt strong pushback. Not necessarily my view but many believe cashless is prejudicial against some groups.

    2) I don't think numismatic's future is contingent upon coins being in circulation. Gold coins are not in circulation and they are coveted by coin collectors. Old cars don't resemble anything like new cars (i.e technology, computers, performance, etc) but the collectable car market is very hot. Many other examples.

    3) I listened to someone say recently (I wish I could remember who and where) that to increase coin collecting the focus should not be on YNs but on 40-50 year olds. In no way was he against YN programs and education but I believe he correctly pointed out that might be the best target audience to increase collecting. Can't hurt to try something different.

    I have very few worries that coin collecting will remain a strong hobby going into the future and I think it has a lot more upside than downside.

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