Will Collectible Coin Prices Continue To Rise?

As with all collectibles, prices will go up or down depending on what happens to be popular at the moment and/or hype for various things or series. Coins have a 2000 year history of being collected so I doubt that will stop, but there is no guarantee that prices will rise and even keep place with inflation. If you collected during the 50's and 60's you saw prices pretty much stay flat for twenty to thirty years. In the 80's prices went crazy, in the nineties they fell and many still aren't back up to the 80's levels. Collect because you enjoy it. If you make money that's great, if you don't you still had years of enjoyment from your collection. (By the way, just because you are able to sell something and get back more dollars than you spent on it, that doesn't mean you actually made money. When time value of money is figured in a lot of "profits" evaporate. Oh and don't forget the 28% capital gains tax you owe the government on any dollar amount increase between what you paid and what you sell it for.)

Classic, highly collectible coins generally hold their value against inflation. Except for certain spikes, it would take the same number of hours of average pay to buy a 1909-S VDB cent now as it did 25 years ago.

Some coins shoot forward. Chinese silver is a prime example. It was apparently considered uncollectible junk a few decades ago, but now many of the coins fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars. Likewise, some mint sets will skyrocket if a certain event puts an otherwise obscure country in the spotlight.

Modern coins follow a boom-burst pattern. The March of Dimes set last year went from an issue price of $60 to an ebay price of up to $500, then crashed back to about $90. Some people made bank, and others got burned. I hate to say it, but when the good Queen Elizabeth II kicks the bucket, there will be a CRAZE to assemble "classic" coins with her mug. 1950s/60s former colonies in particular, I bet.

At the same time, I could easily coins generally trending upward over time, especially older silver and gold coins. I don't view it so much as something that is an investment, but rather something where if I don't start acquiring some of the pieces I want sooner in my life (late 20s atm), they're going to be unreasonable to attain by the time I'm 40, let alone older.

I've mentioned this before. The next time you watch that show, listen carefully. Note how they say STUFF like "At a good watch auction" or "At a specific knife auction" or At a decent Painting Auction", this COULD sell for about XXXX. Or "I've had a similar one at my store and it went for XXXX" If you listen carefully, you would notice how they sort of protect themselves from over stating. There have been many people contacting them saying things like I couldn't get a fraction of what you said. Naturally they can always say we only sorts of guess. And yes prices on stuff at those shows goes up and down just like anything that does not have a set value.
Coins are like that. No manufacturing possible price tag.
If there was you would see a 1916D Mercury dime with a tag connected saying $XXXX or something like that. Just remember as long as there are collectors of coins out there, the prices of coins will basically only go up, up, up, etc. However, if the Mints continue to flood the market with STUFF, we could loose a lot of potentially new collectors.

The furniture thing is just an example of changing tastes within the newer generations...Grandfather clocks...Sailing ship paintings may be dropping in value but vintage wristwatches are still cool.Just musings on the popularity of the coin collecting hobby. The internet has changed everything of course as it's easier to surf the net than to visit dealers in various cities when things were actually "rare".

I wonder if all the posts about furniture, paintings, watches are getting off the point.

It's very difficult to measure return on investment except in monetary terms. Generally, I think the prices of coins haven't kept pace with inflation, EXCEPT where demand has soared.
There are many more collectors of US coins than there were when I was in my 20s, prices have gone up immensely.
There are more collectors in the emerging economy countries, eg China and India and prices have gone up in real terms.
Prices have dropped in real terms of many common medieval and ancient coins due to the number of finds made by metal detectorists, mainly in Europe (including the UK).

However, if you consider return on investment in intangibles, pleasure, socialising, education, knowledge, wisdom, health, etc then it might be very high, as it is for me.

My increasing knowledge about coins not only gave me pleasure but counteracted the dismal experience I had of school. I've met many interesting and some influential people through numismatics, I gained the confidence to study history at University even though I dropped it at high school, I used numismatics in my thesis and now I write about history.

There's also the chance, as happens occasionally for me, that your knowledge of a particular series enables you to buy a coin at a fraction of its value.

A good example, Finn.