New Topic - Young People In The Hobby

I am not sure which post you are referencing in which this subject was discussed- so if I say anything that was already discussed, please fee free to skim through it and move to the next post.

I am not sure if more or less young people are entering the hobby because I am not that involved. I do feel that I know of no one young who has any interest in the hobby. That does not mean they don't exist-- they just are not in my circle of family and friends.

I am certain when I die my coins will be sold. That is fine with me, I am not bothered by the idea. Different subject.

For young people, I would certainly believe there are less entering the hobby.

I assume that the Statehood Quarters and all the other things the mint does to utterly annoy me are probably (possibly) good for the hobby and have generated some interest in younger people. If the appropriate number of them stick with it, then it may continue on for a few more decades.

But I take a pessimistic view overall. The issue is relevance. What you collect usually has to have some sort of trigger for you-- either you have a personal connection or a memory. Maybe not, but often.

I see the things people don't collect any more and reflect on what killed those hobbies. You can make all sorts of speculations on what killed stamps, baseball cards, glass bottles, and endless others.

In short, I don't know.

I will give one opinion I hold strongly- right or wrong. This is taken from my own observation.

More people collect something they can connect to (not all). Sure, some people collect ancient coins. But not nearly as many collect ancient coins as collect Roosevelt dimes. And I don't think it is only supply...but familiarity. Sure...I may have to buy an uncirculated 1946 S dime if I want one-- but I am very familiar with the dimes as a whole.

I don't see nearly as many people collecting V nickels or Buffalo nickels as Jeffersons. And Buffalo nickels are not a hard collection overall. Same with Indian cents. Although it is a harder collection-- I don't see as much interest as them as I did in the 1980's, as an example.

I firmly believe that interest in Indian cents, Buffalo nickels, V nickels, Liberty Quarters, etc. will go the way of other even older series. Only die hard collectors will go for them and the supply will increase over time more than the demand.

I would guess- to a kid starting coin collecting today- they would not have nearly as much interest in anything they can't relate to at least somewhat.

So as cash becomes less and less used on a regular basis, perhaps the younger people will have less and less familiarity and connection, and less and less will collect.

I had a garage sale the other day...nothing was priced in anything other than 25 cent increments and amazingly although I made $800, I did not end the day with a single cent, nickel or dime. No one paid with anything but bills or quarters.

Hi crazyglue,

Thanks, lots of great insight, also, bit of a coincidence between how we both started collecting, you were given a bucket of wheat pennies to sort - in my neighbourhood I found a shoebox of about 500 pennies, took them home, sorted, and it began my collecting in the hobby...
So possibly we should hold a contest of some sort, where a young person wins a good quantity of coins to sort through and let them discover the hobby as you and I did...
Also good point on familiarity with collecting, I think you are right, for a lot of people collecting is ephemeral, taking them back to a certain point in time

twoods and doubleeagle59- it does appear we all got started in much the same way.

twoods- that isn't a bad idea about a contest. I don't have a lot of canadian coins except a few olympic silver commemoratives my Mom gave me many years ago. I do have a good pile of tokens (mostly american) I could donate.

My father is in his eighties and still collects coins. I am one of five children and two of us collect. I have three adult children and one is really into it, another who dabbles in currency collection. The other not.

I wonder if there is a correlation between a child becoming a collector if a parent or close relative is. Maybe many young people are not interested because the parents were not either.

I think part of my early interest was from being in the Scout movement and needing a hobby to get my collectors badge. I don't see as many children in Girl Guides and Scouts as there used to be. There are more activities and pastimes out there to syphon off a child's time and money than in years gone by it seems to me.

I have a granddaughter almost six. I recently got her a blank album for nickels. She comes over about once a week and I give her a nickel every time she visits (I keep track of what years she is missing). Will she become a collector? I don't know. She does like to go with me to the bank to get rolls of coins to roll search since she knows they have a candy jar at the bank!

To be fair though, I was there on a weekday. Maybe the kiddos showed up on Saturday when school was out.

A lot of antique & collectable segments are a lot worse off than coins. I go to a few estate auctions and the average age has to be 70+. Nobody wants their deceased relative's collection of Hummel figurines.

A lot of younger coin collectors these days never set foot into a coin shop or coin show so they are harder to see and count.

Joe2007 - You might be right about younger collectors. I know there are tons of them of this forum alone.

Great job raising awareness Dustin.

I have been going to coin shows for nearly 40 years and even back then in my 20's most customers / dealers were white men 40 and up.

There is a lot to learn just to become an educated collector but especially a dealer today with more counterfeits showing up all over the place. The education you would need to be a successful dealer doesn't come in a few years unless you start VERY young.

We have some promising YN's here in the forums that may make a great dealer before their hair turns gray