What Is Future Of Coin Collecting ?

I got into this racket when I was 4 or 5 , I was hiking with my parents and found a 40's silver quarter, and have always thought about how many could be hiding under floor boards of old saloons, I love spending hours hanging out in a coin store, looking for that one special piece I dont have yet, I don't mind dropping a spare couple thousand for the right piece. Ive told some of my close friends I collect coins the reaction is always the same "oh neat"
When I show them high grade teens .50 they are not impressed by the high detail, or the fact they are worth thousands of Dollars. more of a reaction of "you paid how much?!?!"
I don't often sell, nothing that actually has value to my true passion 02-10 .25
I don't hear or see young people buying high grade coins, or spending a whole pay cheque on a 2,000.00 .25 piece, I guess we are out there since I'm only 35
but I think I'm like a 1880's Red Cent few and far between .
I don't Collect because some day Ill make a few bucks, I collect because when I open my vault I can get lost for hours.

I agree that people might lose interest once they get rid of physical money. However, the Canadian mint likes to put out a lot of collectibles made of silver and gold. Is it possible that people would keep collecting silver rounds or other types of tokens?

I look in most coin shops and note what is on display, and compare that to 50 years ago.

THEN:
1. There was no new NCLT mint product on display or to be bought.
2. There were few, if any books on World coins, the notable exceptions being Friedberg and Yeomans
3. It was some time into the future that Mints around the World would see the large commercial opportunity to make new NCLT for the collector market.
4. The then current modern coin price guide catalogs were fairly modest in size and the rarer and slightly 'off the beaten path' coins, such as fractional gold, was only rarely published, this information only found in museum publications.
5. Bullion coins consisted of common date U.S. gold, and sovereigns.
6. Ancient coinage numismatics was supported by good research, but the information for these was only found in public libraries or museums. Such books could not be bought in coin shops, except by special order.

NOW:
1. New NCLT mint product in most coin shops makes up perhaps 80% of what is on display.
2. Krause World Coins covering the last four centuries is a great help to collectors of World coins.
3. Mints around the World now very strongly market their product potential collectors. A lot like this sort of modern product, most traditional numismatist collectors which are in a significant minority, show little interest in this material.
4. Information on U.S. fractional gold, patterns etc., is now much more easily found in modern numismatic publications.
5. Modern bullion coins are now easily available to this type of collector.
6. Good information on ancient coinages is now easier to obtain through a number of books published in the last 50 years, but the greatest advancement in this area of numismatics is in the development of electronic data bases.

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The development of coin forums such as the CCF has led to the dissemination of numismatic information, to the benefit of all who are interested in numismatics.