Interesting Conversation With A Local Coin Shop Owner!!

thanks paralyse, great post - though I'm not sure any one under thirty has ever admitted to collecting coins. Not sure about the lack of cash transactions hurting the hobby. I mean, does anyone get very excited about modern clads?

Different area of the country have different situations. by me we have a minimum of 3 coin shows a Month within about 15 miles of me. One of them usually has about 80 to 100 dealers. That one gets so crowded it is difficult to walk through the aisles. Gets me mad when a pile of people stand around a table so I can't see what is there. Of course that is what makes these coin shows so great. Lots of customers. At that show a kid of about 20 or so opened up a stand selling coffee, donuts, etc. He told me he sells over 7+ boxes of donuts almost as soon as the show opens.
Seldom see any really young kids there but once in a while some parents do bring kids. My Daughter in law wants me to bring her and my grand daughter to one of these shows. And at this show, and a few others, I sometimes think the world has gone completely slab happy. Some dealers have over half of their coins in slabs. There are always a few bill selling dealers and always bullion sellers but coins are the largest sellers at the shows I go to. As I said, so much depends on where you live.
Recently on a TV sort of news program they discussed how in China a really large amount of people have gone to all plastic instead of cash.
Not to change the subject but on a recent TV program, the entire program was about the famous 1933 Double Eagle.

Paralyse, thanks for a very informative though sobering read. I certainly wish I had taken up the hobby as a young person.

Just Carl, I think I saw that episode. I think it was NCIS: Los Angeles.

Thank you for the report.

Been giving this topic some thought tonight. The world is changing before our eyes. I don't believe the hobby is in danger of extinction, but the brick & mortar LCS certainly has had to adapt. Several big factors at play here. One factor is the world monetary system, specifically the Western govt's amassing massive debt and the steady devaluation of currency during the past fifty years or so. Contributing to this was the US coming off the gold standard in '71 and the coinage act of '65 which eliminated silver form the business currency. Over time, this has encouraged the push towards bullion stacking at the expense of numismatic collecting, to some extent. Govt. coins are no longer precious metal, even the penny is no longer copper.
Combine this with the explosion of the very media that we are currently enjoying. The internet has seriously cut into all brick & mortar retail business in the past 20 years. The LCS used to be the place to go, not only for the coins, but for numismatic information and camaraderie, so to speak. That has become far less so, to the point that the local LCS, in order to survive had to become more of a pawn style operation and bullion retailer.
I'm just glad I'm not a stamp collector! But that's a topic for another discussion thread.

I caught the coin bug 5 years ago at the age of 30 from buying bullion at my LCS. It's been 3 solid years since I've bought bullion and currently I'm slowly putting togeather a mint set of Liberty Half Eagles from all 7 or 8 if you include west point, and a 20th century type set 1900 to 64. 2 years ago I joined a coin club and since then I've become more involved with the club. Next week another member and I set up a presentation of US coins to show to some students at a grade school here in town. I asked if I could go simply to help grab at least one students attention in hope for helping our hobby out. My other hobbys are skateboarding and snowboarding and used to compete in both when I was younger. This may sound cheesy but if I can add some coolness to the presentation then ill be stoked.

Very good read.
I live in southeast Alabama.
The closest coin shop is 33 miles away and they have very little and
act as if they really don't care if you come in .
Now we have two pawn shops in my town and four in the town 33 miles away.
There again they all say theres the coins if you need me call me.
The closest show to me is once a year at 120 miles away.
Been there done that, way to high.
The same way with coin shops, they have to pay the rent on that building
and they want to make it off each and every customer.

a lot of good post here.