Coin Collecting Dying?

All hobbies worry about the older people passing with no new collectors coming on board. younger people get involved with hobbies, then as they grow up life gets in the way. College, family, raising kids etc. When the nest is empty the old hobbies come back into focus. I may be true that our youth of this day and age are not as big into collecting as they are playing with electronics, but the nostalgia bug eventually bites most people.

I think the hobby is evolving. Most buying and selling now happens online instead of at coin shops and coin shows. There are young people involved in the hobby, but they don't frequent brick and mortar stores as much as the older generation does. I also agree that there is a great interest in bullion right now. During my time working at an LCS, I've learned more about bullion than any other type of numismatic item. Some of our bullion customers have even begun to buy things like classic US coins and toned pieces. Unlike stamps, numismatics is nowhere near dying off.

You have to look at auction houses not only ebay. Example Heritage

with CoinCollector2012.

The Olympic 50p's, Beatrix Potter coins and A-Z 10p's have started a lot of new collectors off in the UK. There are two monthly coin magazines available in high street newsagents, after decades with just one. I keep discovering people checking their change for unusual coins.

I just hope The Royal Mint doesn't ruin it by behaving like Royal Mail. The British Post Office used to have a very sober, reserved policy of stamp issues with four or five sets of 3 or 4 stamps each year, well within the reach of schoolchildren. Now, despite (or because of) the reduced need for stamps, they issue sets of about 10 stamps every month, often with very high face values. Whilst they are trying to appeal to Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Rock Music fans with these thematic sets, in reality the only people who buy them are the declining cohort of elderly collectors who are trying desperately to keep their GB collections complete.

Not even close to dying . Evolving certainly .
With the internet and the ease of seeing far more
selection than ever , I would bet there are more collectors
these days .
LCS are fewer and fewer , and live auctions are usually
poorly attended these days , but good to great coins are
thriving .
It is adapt or die if you are a seller . I had a bricks and mortar
shop for many years , now we do a collector market one day a week
and sell mostly online . Never done better!

What confounds me is the continued collecting of gold and silver proof NCLT mint product, that has little prospect as an investment. When it comes to cashing these products in, the collector / investor is often in for a big and discouraging disappointment.
Perhaps it is the slick marketing.

The collecting of ancient coins will always be there, but
only a relatively small proportion of collectors acquire an interest in them, (includes me), despite the huge amount of scholarly research.

What IS helping to build young peoples' collector interest, is the
issuing of large numbers of commemorative coins into circulation, which can be collected by kids at face value. Even I have fun doing this, despite having a coin collecting hobby interest that extends back more than 50 years.

By far the biggest threat to the coin collecting hobby is the proposed introduction of a cashless society.

I suspect that coin collecting will die off very soon. I suggest you jump the gun now and send me all your coins now. This will allow you to have piece of mind.