Will New Coin Collector Numbers Plummet As We Move Away From Cash Transactions?

The OP's question is a fair one, and has implications about the future of Canadian numismatics built into it.

It would be interesting what views leading Canadian coin dealers (such as Calgary Coin), may have on this subject.


There will always be a hard core of collectors, but the softer outer shell of collectors will most probably be thinner.

My first love is ancient coins, but (and since this is about Canadian coins),
I see a parallel with inasmuch that there will always be a hard core of those collectors who have a wider interest in Canadian history.
That history can be illustrated with the hardware that can be provided by the tokens, gold and silver and bronze coinages of the past, and the numismatic research that is associated with them.

Modern proof gold and silver coins not so much.
The collectors of these will form part of a different collector base, which I think will be smaller than now, with the advent of a growing cashless society.

An associated group of collectors will be those love searching for variety and error coins. However, if coins are no longer made in future decades, the challenge to search for new discoveries will not exist.
That will be sad, because it is out if this group that most new collectors are born.

In both the U.S. and Canada, I feel like the trend is toward marketing NIFC pieces rather than promoting circulating coinage. However, that takes away the "thrill of the hunt," which brought many of us into the hobby to begin with. That change likely accounts for generational changes in numismatics, probably for the worse in the long run.

I personally think the PM coins will remain collectable, especially the older ones. And I have nothing to base it upon, but I have a feeling the majority of worthless clad (especially modern) will fall by the wayside as people realize most modern clad coinage will only lose value. Nowadays I see modern collecting as abut the fun whereas it used to be about fun and investment (when silver was not so hard to find in circulation).

I also feel a big crash will one day come to the slabbed coin market b/c of the lack of legitimate and verifiable methods being used. It has created an entire market based on opinion that is changeable...sort of like a house built on sand. But it is the most profitable way of conducting business. All of the grading companies paid big money int he 90s to develop a scientific system back in the 90s that they claimed eliminated the human error from grading and gave the one true grade of a coin. No doubt falling profits from the re-slabbing game was instrumental in them returning to the present system they have used ever since, and which they had called error prone when promoting their computer systems.

So as the system sits, it could crash when enough people decide they want something verifiable, and want the coin hobby to come back into the 20th century (that is not a typo) once again.

I think top grade coins will act as an inflation hedge. Mediocre stuff will get melted as it has for a while. The world population continues to grow as does that of Canada and there will always be people who want the best.

I'm not sure Robert is the best one to reference here as he is closing his doors in July still as far as I know. That being said he is still going to be at the shows regularly, but sticking to higher end coins rather than the lower end bread and butter that has always been the majority of his stock.

I think there will always be demand for the higher end and more limited in supply items of the past. I don't collect anything after 1967 (when the silver disappeared) and I tend to mostly ignore anything post-silver but I'm sure even higher end examples there will retain some value. I think SP, PL and MS examples in top pop or nearly top pop grades will always have an audience. I think unless you're talking about Victoria and maybe some Edward/KGV era coins a lot of the low- and mid-grade coins will eventually drop off in value.

Really until George VI there wasn't truly high volumes of anything put out other than the 1935 & 1936 dollars, so it stands to reason that there won't be a lot of new discoveries of anything 1936 and earlier to come out and disrupt that market. At least I don't think so! Specimens and high grade MS up to 1936 will always be scarce and valuable imho. 1937-1952 KGVI specimens are relatively scarce as well other than 1937 matte. 1953 QEII specimens can be a challenge as well. 1950's PL's in high grade tend to be few and far between and very collectable. Even the lofty graded 1960's PL's fetch a pretty good price and likely will continue to, although we all know there are a LOT of PL sets in original packaging being opened up that will continue to increase the supply there.

All this is part of the reason I changed what I'm collecting a few years back, and I'm happy I did. Having high grade specimens and PL along with some older MS type coins makes me feel a little more insulated from potentially changes to coin collecting in the future.

I do see a new generation of people in their 20's leading the charge to keep the collecting of Canadian coins vital and active, and I have some hope that the younger folks coming in well help boost popularity in new ways in the future. Let's encourage them and help them make coin dealing a viable business for them for decades to come. Quality over quantity though! :)

Just as an anecdote without factual basis, here in the US at least I perceive that a lot of people still "save" coins without necessarily being collectors. I almost never see the 2009 Lincoln cents in change, nor the 2022 American Women Quarters. People put them aside. Aren't there also a lot of recent Canadian issues that quickly disappeared from circulation? Some of those savers will turn into collectors.