How Many Collectors Of Can. Coins For Circulation?

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Group 1 guess is 50 percent if not higher. I would say that many people set aside coins that stand out to them.

Group 2 guess is 1 percent.

Group 3 guess is 1/10th of one percent.

Punman
a well designed poll would most likely get better results than for members to elaborate the ifs and buts.
in a poll everyone stays anonymous.
Perhaps if you would define the 3 groups, or maybe make it into 4 for a poll, the results would be more indicative of the way it really is.
what most of you have totally forgotten, or purposely ignored, is that we have a very large oriental population who uses expensive items such as expensive and rare coins as a way of saving and protecting. They believe in that, but they never tell.
In your original post you wrote Canadians collect Canadian coins. However, some posters seem to have missed that little fact and are trying to include or reference it into the US. Americans, Orientals and Europeans have different attitudes, reasons and approaches about "collecting" coins.
if you do the poll, perhaps you want to incorporate a question WHY, someone collects? investment? just for fun and hobby without monetary consideration? or other reasons.
The results could be very interesting and more accurate.

As a non-Canadian I'm not allowed to comment, but I will anyway. :) I think you're missing a fourth group. People who have a collection but don't collect. Call them the "inheritors". Grandpa maybe was only a type one, or perhaps a knowledgeable type one, and/or someone in a fortunate position with access to circulation. Passes off the coins to the grandkids many decades later, and many decades after that, there they sit, in a box under the stairs. I guess maybe I'm blurring the subject matter, from "who are the collectors" into "where are all the coins". From personal experience I would say that there are a large number of people with coins who aren't actually collectors, who probably have fairly valuable coins they don't even know about, and who not only haven't looked at their coins for 30-40 years, they may not even know precisely where they are. Yes, cousins, I'm talking about you. I'm guessing this group is the most profitable for the coin industry. Eventually.

I know only about 40 Lrg Cent variety collector across Canada were a small group, any of you small cents collectors come to the Lrg side

Almost everyone I know very well has saved a coin from change or was given something by an elder as a gift or whatever.
Kept for whatever reason as special.
Collecting coins from change to give to someone else who collects even makes that person a collector too.

Fixguy, I would love to Help you sort...If you allow me to pick

Punman, interesting thread. I think your numbers for a Canadian collector base, are too high. The attendance at coin shows and club clubs probably reflects a much smaller collector base.

A few comments:

By your criteria, you would have to remove Canadian collectors who collect, ancient and world coins (sometimes, that is up to 50% of the collectors who visit my table at a bigger coin show in Toronto or Montreal).

What about Canadian NCLT collectors? Many of the RCM products exceed $100 in price, but that is a whole different coin market.

The majority of collectors I know, who would be "type 3" collectors, are what I call "reclusive" and "closet collectors". They don't participate on coin forums and rarely even visit coin clubs. A poll here would show biased results in that category.

$100 is not a lot of money anymore (anyone who puts gas into a larger SUV knows this). I would wonder if a better threshold would be a > $500 ceiling? I see a lot of buyers spending $100 to $300 on ICCS coins at Canadian coin show or auctions, but I see much fewer spending $500 or more coins...