Why Did Baby Boomers Collect Coins Compared To Later Generations?

Neither my parents nor my grandparents were collectors. All grandparents were young adults for the Depression, and too old to serve in WWII, but of course they lived through ration stamps and victory gardens. Most coins from the grandparents' generation were keepsakes/heirlooms from their ancestors - a small number of early-mid 1800s coins. A few "circulating" coins were also kept, likely after no longer being current - a few well-circulated Morgan and Peace dollars, a Barber dime, etc. Nobody had the money to just stick into a coin board for fun. Coins were money, not "collectibles."

One grandfather kept a $5 Indian and a bunch of crisp 1935 $1 silver certificates, both probably as a hedge against the transition away from currency being directly backed by silver, and the ban on owning gold. Which is surprising considering he was a railroad worker and putting that kind of money aside during the height of the Depression must have been painful.

The other grandfather had the good fortune of being librarian at the Chicago Tribune, and his predecessor had people all over the world mailing him coins. The guy died, but the coins kept arriving for several years. There were likely also war correspondents returning from assignments overseas, bringing various 1940s world coins back to Chicago to pass around. Hundreds of them. Grandpa passed these out to his grandchildren shortly before he died, and that initiated my interest in the hobby as a 13 year old. I was also around after the transition away from silver coins happened in 1964, and everyone was still pulling silver out of their change into the early 70s when I had my first jobs involving cash.

I'm not sure how your emphasis on "easy credit" fits in. My "disposable income" phase didn't begin until way later in life, and my collecting was dormant for decades, other than keeping coins found in change or on my travels. My kids have very little interest in it, other than the greed factor of knowing they'll get all this stuff after I'm gone. My collecting choices are shaped by the extreme frugality of my parents and grandparents. It's a hobby, for disposable income for enjoyment and not monetary gain. While my kids don't have any interest in it (yet), they also spend their money wisely, and perhaps later in life the hobby will catch on for them too.

We collected coins for very simple reasons .
1. You could get really interesting stuff out of
circulation for face value . Example I had two
paper routes and loved collection days . Out of
Change and roll hunting put together a nearly complete
date set of Canada 50 cents dated from 1900 to 1966.
All for face ! Sure some were ugly but they were there.
2. Way less diversions back in the 1960s. The cancer
we call Social Media , cell phones and the like did not
exist .
3 . Young people back then were far more industrious and
inquisitive .
Lots of other reasons I am sure ..?

one big factor for the boomers was silver. many pulled silver coins out of change in the late 60s. when the hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market in the 70s they all made a mint. many of them flipped that money into the collectible coins they actually wanted. then collectible coins exploded in the early 80s and they made a mint again.

What started me collecting coins was when the 1972 Lincoln Cent doubled die was discovered. It was a big deal.
Everybody was checking their change. I was in born 1963.

I'm pretty frugal. I'll always choose the cheapest option available, whether it's food, clothing, outings, etc. Like TimNH said, I can't imagine spending a lot of money on a vacation or experience that's only momentary (for myself). The money I spend is never coming back.

My excuse for being willing to pay the right price for a coin is with the assumption that it won't lose its value, or at least hopefully maintain most of its value. If I'm lucky, the price my coins sell for might go up. Each coin I add to my collection gives me an opportunity to study the people and culture that produced and used it. I'll read books, research articles, newspaper archives, etc. on the general events of that time. I'll also try to imagine how life back then may have been different for those who used these coins, and how their lives differ from mine today in 2023. Simple things, like what kind of 'beds' did they sleep on, what food did they eat, what clothes did they wear, how often would they have bathed, how did they get around, were these people monogamous or polygamous, what religions/faith did they believe in, how dangerous was their society, what was medicine like, what jobs did they do, what was it like experiencing slavery, how did they understand the conflict/war of their time, etc. There is SO much to learn from one coin, it's astounding.

The only conclusion I've been able to draw from all this fantasizing is that everyone at one time thought they, their values, their culture, their country, etc. were the most important or significant in all the land, and that their values and way of life would live on and be remembered forever. But, as many of these coins prove (to me at least), time moves on, people and societies change, and those moments in history simply become forgotten memories, only to be resurrected from my drawer every few weeks when I look to appreciate the pieces I've been lucky enough to acquire.

I guess that makes me a War Baby.
I was born in 1941 just after Pearl Harbor.
Heck, there wasn't much left of 1941 "just after Pearl Harbor".

The US was just trying to come out of the 1929 Depression so most people did not have enough money for anything except day-to-day expenses.

I actually started as a kid with my Grandmother working to fill an old blue Whitman with Lincolns pulled from circulation; like others my collecting stalled and restarted around important times of my life; had very little "disposable income" working my way through college and my Mechanical Engineering degree. I remember trying to survive once on pretzels and beer, but that is another story...

I became involved in early large cents in early 2000 and joined EAC; at the height of my "disposable income" but little time due to a career in automotive parts manufacturing. I focused on 1794 large cents by variety, but recently sold that collection.

My income level changed significantly with COVID and so has my focus- more involved in counterfeit research and writing which fills much of my "spare time" now although I am dabbling in Vermont coppers as well.

A side note, my kids are terrified of my collection, as they won't be able to tell "Live or Memorex".

Totally a "boomer", born in 1955...