Is coin collecting really a dying hobby? (No, it isn't!)

I've been hearing more and more from older coin collectors/dealers about how this hobby is a 'dying' one. To what extent is this actually true in your opinion? It seems to me that while more collectors tend to be older people, this isn't really evidence that coin collecting is on it's way out, since many start at various ages in their lives.

In my experience the vast abundance of coin grading companies, professional dealers/experts, numismatic materials online (such as Numista) and sales/auctions for coins both online and otherwise seem to suggest this hobby will be sustained for quite some time at least in the near future; it's at least as flourishing as any other niche hobby of the same scope (e.g. philately).

I think it is true that this hobby is dying. I buy coins very often at antique markets in my town which are held once per month....and sellers are really old people 50 +, and I have never seen there any young people buying and interesting about that. Also when I attended coin market and exhibition in Brno city with foreign participation, there were only very very old people 60 +.And anytime when I am get touch with any coin seller and collector he was not young. But I think that young people in today in general dont have any interest to collect something, they have computers and smartphones.But it doesnt mean that I am living in "stone age"  :D . I am IT systems engineer, 26 y.

I think some parts of the hobby are dying in todays time there is so much you can do but their are only 24h in a day.
Also the traditional places will not be frequented as much by younger people a bit like news ... the old people still watch TV .... I haven't switched one on since the mid 2000s ... doesn't mean news will die out it just changes.

I'm 26 years old and I plan to have this hobby until the end of my days.

24 here. But I agree, younglings just collect Pokemons.

Visit an ANA show. The number of dealers, educational exhibits, talks, programs, and youth would inspire you.

I disagree with it being a dying hobby. I can only speak for my local, Croatian, market and here coin collecting is very active, especially for ancient Roman coins.

There will always be people that are interested in history and, in my opinion, coin collecting is the cheapest way to collect items from historical periods you're interested in. Not many people can afford to start for example a medieval swords collection however starting a medieval coin collection is easy and affordable.

I wouldn't compare coin collecting to philately, philately truly is a dying hobby. You can get entire collection people spent a lifetime collection for less then the price of a average medium size silver coin. The Internet and modern communication that doesn't involve sending physical letters are the main reason philately is dying however coin collecting always had considerable advantages. Coin collecting covers a much wider time span then philately (ancient times, medieval times...), coins are (usually) minted in lower numbers and coins are made of solid materials and are larger then stamps making them more attractive.

Other then that many coins are made of precious metals so they'll always be worth melt value and as long as something has a base value that isn't going away people will be ready to pay a premium for it if it has a story behind it.

Because of the reasons stated above I think even if currencies become fully digital and no more coins are available there will still be coin collectors... however I do think if and when this happens banknote collecting will share philately's fate except for some rare, historically important, notes like for instance Confederate banknotes.

I think coin dealers are feeling the pain of the dwindling hobby. I don't think the HOBBY is gonna die anytime soon. Its just that in today's day we don't need brick and mortar stores to do coin shopping... So dealers and the old folks selling at flea markets are complaining. WE HAVE NUMISTA!

In my area it is not rare to see young collectors, by young I mean between 10 and 25 more or less. I am myself 19. However, it is true that most of the coin collectors are generally aged around 50 or more. Nonetheless, i don't think the hobby is going to die in a near future.

Aaron is right, there are more supply than ever before and that affects the price levels also. Earlier people sold inherited coins to coin dealers and they put the price tags. Catalogue said what the right level would be and buyers paid that. Now it is so easy to sell coins (via internet etc.) that it has risen the supply of every coin type.

Enjoy the hobby, abundant supply and decreasing prices, don't fear the future of our hobby!

The best thing we can do to keep the hobby alive is to share it. Don't hoard silently like a Scrooge. Encourage your family to participate and they will be far more likely to want to continue collecting. It's an odd and expensive hobby to just adopt in adulthood, but if the love is fostered early it will last.

Quote: "Choucas"​In my area it is not rare to see young collectors, by young I mean between 10 and 25 more or less. I am myself 19. However, it is true that most of the coin collectors are generally aged around 50 or more. Nonetheless, i don't think the hobby is going to die in a near future.

Really ? Where do you find them ? :o
I never met a coin collector who was younger than 30 in my area : most of them are in there 40s or retired.
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Quote: "edduns "The best thing we can do to keep the hobby alive is to share it. Don't hoard silently like a Scrooge. Encourage your family to participate and they will be far more likely to want to continue collecting. It's an odd and expensive hobby to just adopt in adulthood, but if the love is fostered early it will last

I agree!

While it is true that in general, coin collectors tend to be much older (say 50yrs+), consider that a lot of people only start collecting later in life when they have time and money to spare. I personally think finding a young coin collector has always been a relatively less common thing since decades (but definitely not a rare phenomenon).

At my local coin club meetings, I constantly see a couple guest attendees every month who have just started collecting. However, they are invariably 40years+

I don't think the hobby is dying. At the same time I don't think its thriving (though that depends on the country). I think its just paddling along. However, its definitely morphing from picking-out-of-circulation to more buy-from-the-mint collector types

It will die one day, like all of us will do...
But in the meantime we can enjoy it.

I don't think it is dying out but it is evolving.
True the older coin collecters are becoming less every year and with them the traditional style coin dealers.
Younger collectors are nowadays communicating, buying, researching online.

As for the prices, if you compare to 20 years ago they are increasing in value rapidly for scarcer coins.

In the HKINF, I collected (as I like to) 30 peoples' information on their approximate age:

Below 15: 3
15 to 25: 3
25 to 35: 4
35 to 45: 4
45 to 55: 8
55 and above: 8

It is true that the average age of the hobby is rising.

Also, the three below fiveteens are also the only three among the thousands in the venue.

However, it is glad to see that some teenagers (or young adults) have started to collect coins...

It is very true that a considerable amount of children these days prefer a hobby to "relax" rather than maintain, like Pokemon Go/SM. History is not the trend now, so they may not spark interest on coins. Gaming is the trend now.

It is a less popular trend, but I do not think using dying is appopriate

Hello,

I think that, just like exteme sports enthusiasts tend to be of a certain age range, so do coin collectors. That we tend to be older does not mean that the hoby is dying; it is just a characteristic of the hobby. So, as long as there are older people, the hobby will go on.

I would have loved to start collecting at a younger age, but I didn't because it was not a priority. Now that I am older, I have a little more time, a few extra cents, and less crazy desires...so, I collect coins!

I hope my kids appreciate and enjoy coins, but I rather they go out, scratch their knees, get tired from running and jumping amd pushing their physical limits while they are young. Then, when things settle down, have a little white start to show in their hair, then that's when I hope they rediscover the beauty of coin collecting...

Quote: "apuking"​I don't think it is dying out but it is evolving.
​True the older coin collecters are becoming less every year and with them the traditional style coin dealers.
​Younger collectors are nowadays communicating, buying, researching online.
​
​As for the prices, if you compare to 20 years ago they are increasing in value rapidly for scarcer coins.

​Yes, this is a big part of what I'm saying.

Referring to older coins, not the kind you can either pluck from circulation or buy fresh from the mint, the collector of those vintage pieces has always been a buy sell deal, and from what I see the market isn't declining at all; I always see dealers counting wads or sometimes literal suitcases of money at large coin fairs.

I honestly don't think coin collecting would 'die' or even decline if we took physical coinage out of use; if anything it could increase demand and interest in collectors old and new. The age thing isn't really true I feel; maybe I'm just speaking for myself as an 18 year old but the average age of coin collectors in say, 1950 was probably in the 30s at least.

Quote: "Cycnos"​

Quote: "Choucas"​In my area it is not rare to see young collectors, by young I mean between 10 and 25 more or less. I am myself 19. However, it is true that most of the coin collectors are generally aged around 50 or more. Nonetheless, i don't think the hobby is going to die in a near future.

​Really ? Where do you find them ? :o
​I never met a coin collector who was younger than 30 in my area : most of them are in there 40s or retired.
​​

​Well, at the monthly coin meeting in my town there is a kid searching for coins with his catalogue in hands, and a few people just older than me i think but i don't know them personally. Also in flea markets it is often the same people that are searching for coins. Some of them are below 30 (or seems to ! ) but again i do no know them personally.
Nonetheless, when i was at high school i never met someone in my school who was collecting coins. I'm now at the university and it's the same. However, i'm sure there are, they are just hard to find, i guess. Myself I'm not telling everybody that because most young people find that boring. They associate the fact that many old collectors are old and they consider you as old in your mind. (Uh, sorry for the "old" people who are reading this, I've got nothing against being old or whatever.)

In Japan - NO.

I have lived in Japan for a year and joined coins events. There are several young collectors walked in the events.
They rarely appeared in Numista. They may use Numista to store info of their collection, but they have their own hobby community and Twitter, which they use for swapping.

In Thailand - NO
I ever meet a Teen younger than me in a coin event. He was looking at nice Rama V silver coins (worth above $100) then he looked specimen banknotes then bought some (worth around $1000), while I bought several foreign coins which each worth under 15$.
There were two coin booms in Thailand and I think many young people have become collectors. (I also became a collector in the first boom. )

I don't know if the hobby is dying but it's sure dwindling, evolving too.

-In my city, not a small one, there is 1 coin shop and it's actually a stamp shop which happens to have a few coins, usually the latest series of euros.
-I tried to do the rounds of flea markets and there were in general no coins at all-mostly clothes, books and DVDs.
-When people I know learn that I collect coins they look at me like I'm a weirdo.
-With the use of physical money decreasing due to online/credit card/smartphone payments people are less likely to take up the hobby. How many of us became collectors because we found nice coins in our change, or because of exotic coins we got on holidays abroad?

On the other hand it's getting more professional, with companies grading millions of coins per year and every mint churning out tokens. I feel more people collect as an investment rather than a hobby.

Hello,
Collecting coins is not a hobby, it is a disease and its very contagious.
Nobody will invent an effective medicine for this disease for a very long time.

Iam with rysiek it is more of a disease than a hobby. But I think the younger ones just starting to walk may never use or see coins. So the bug can bite them. The hobby not dying coins are dying. And how you find them.

Here, I have never seen a coin collector under twenies - usually people get interested in coins when they retire.

I wouldn't say it's dying.

In fact, I constantly see people bringing kids with them to coin shows, and kids showing interest and asking questions. There is even a coin collecting merit boy scout badge, so I always see a lot of boy/girl scouts attending the two bigger semi-annual money shows here in Minnesota.

Also, many people get into coin collecting when they inherit a collection, and that usually doesn't happen until later in life.

Of course, dealers who specialize in more valuable coins won't see a lot of business from younger collectors who don't have a lot of money to play with, so I can see how they might form that opinion, but it's because these dealers only see one segment of the market, not because of the market as a whole.

Disagree,
Simply for the fact that many collectors around my area, including me, are young, I have seen some age 8, although collectors of commemorative coins that they get in change...
I myself started at age 10, and am still going now, although a long hiatus was made.
With Regards,
Theo

Thanks for everyone's input!

To me I think the argument that someone from a generation that never uses coins will not start collecting, is false. We could make the same argument for various other collectibles that regular people don't use on a daily basis but are still interested in collecting, for example military medals (like the ones on that other thread).

Maybe less likely, but who can say for sure.

It sure seems that way to me, at least here where there is only coin shop left and it only sells US. coins; and most people are older not a lot of new coin collectors that I see.

Quote: "ALLRED1950"​ Iam with rysiek it is more of a disease than a hobby. But I think the younger ones just starting to walk may never use or see coins. So the bug can bite them. The hobby not dying coins are dying. And how you find them.

I am 70. ​I started when I was about 12, but spent the coins for other things. In my 20s, I again began collecting world coins and never stopped to this day. About three years ago, I began collecting American coppers (which I could not afford in my younger years while raising a family), then changed gears. Now I buy coins I like and pay no mind to where it is from or what it is made of.
This is a sort of addiction which goes well with my love of history and doing genealogy. I know many people worldwide in their early 30s and beyond who are avid collectors and sellers.
There may be an ebb and flow within the hobby, depending on personal disposable wealth. Check YouTube and you find very young entrepreneurs buying and selling silver coins. There is one very young boy who started with a couple hundred dollars, now spends thousands, and will probably retire at a very young age. He is the exception, but good to see. I don't foresee a decline; just more innovative ways of collecting.

To my mind numismatic now becomes "older" but it is true for all our life as well. A serious coin collecting is rather expensive hobby now. My budget of previous year reported I had spent near 70 000 EUR for coins. I don't think I was able to spend such amounts per year 10 years ago. Everybody finds own hobby for his/her soul once a life but he/she need to have a substantial income level before. Only a few people can form a real coin collection before 30-35 years old. I don't think a boy searching a box with "10 cents per coin" stuff is a numismat...but he is on the right way ))))
I'm really happy my 22 years old son started to collect notes and I help him to make a right purchases to avoid my first collecting step's mistakes. My dream is to leave my collection to him (or his children).
And the last thing I'd like to admit. The number of high quality coins on the market decreased in last few years.
I'm looking for 2 rupees coin from german Africa in at least XF condition for the last 3 years. And I didn't see anyone. 5-7 years ago it was rather available on the market but I was not able to pay its market price at that time.
So I don't think it is a dying hobby.

Quote: tolnomurMy budget of previous year reported I had spent near 70 000 EUR for coins. I don't think I was able to spend such amounts per year 10 years ago. Everybody finds own hobby for his/her soul once a life but he/she need to have a substantial income level before. Only a few people can form a real coin collection before 30-35 years old. I don't think a boy searching a box with "10 cents per coin" stuff is a numismat...but he is on the right way ))))​

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 No offense (because you don't even seem to grasp how condescending you are), but you're the perfect example of someone who can and probably does turn young people away from coin collecting when they experience that snobbishness and haughtiness in coin fairs or shops, and what I meant when I said the hobby is getting "more professional".
 Most people do not earn 70k € in several years, let alone can afford to spend that amount on coins each year - whether they are 15, 25, or 50 years old. That doesn't mean their collection is not "real". To me a boy searching a box with "10 cents per coin" stuff to add to his collection of world coins that he'll look after and at for years is better for the hobby that someone who only buys a 5000€ coin because they know they can sell it for 7000€.

Quote: "BryanJ"​

Quote: "tolnomur"My budget of previous year reported I had spent near 70 000 EUR for coins. I don't think I was able to spend such amounts per year 10 years ago. Everybody finds own hobby for his/her soul once a life but he/she need to have a substantial income level before. Only a few people can form a real coin collection before 30-35 years old. I don't think a boy searching a box with "10 cents per coin" stuff is a numismat...but he is on the right way ))))​

​​
​ No offense (because you don't even seem to grasp how condescending you are), but you're the perfect example of someone who can and probably does turn young people away from coin collecting when they experience that snobbishness and haughtiness in coin fairs or shops, and what I meant when I said the hobby is getting "more professional".
​ Most people do not earn 70k € in several years, let alone can afford to spend that amount on coins each year - whether they are 15, 25, or 50 years old. That doesn't mean their collection is not "real". To me a boy searching a box with "10 cents per coin" stuff to add to his collection of world coins that he'll look after and at for years is better for the hobby that someone who only buys a 5000€ coin because they know they can sell it for 7000€.

​Well, you are partially right and I often buy items to invest money if I think it is undervalued, but I don't call it a "coin collecting". It is an investment for me for sure. But in such a case I simply exploit my experience and my skills in numismatic to make a good investment. And it is not always profitable.
At the same time above mentioned is not my hobby. Collecting for me is an intention to get as much HIGH GRADE certain coins from specific countries or in specific themes as possible, rather than to store all available for me coins in a "collecting box". In other words, collecting for me is a process of extending and improving a certain set of coins according to specific rules. Yes, such collecting is really expensive and you can be disagree with me. It's OK. Somebody likes football and plays it but other likes football and watches it on TV. These are 2 different ways to realize this hobby (football). So likely we consider and realize our hobby (a "coin collecting") differently.

Quote: "BryanJ"​-When people I know learn that I collect coins they look at me like I'm a weirdo.
​

​Unrelated to the little disagreement above, but;

I find this point strange, do people really think of coin collectors as weirdos? When I tell people I'm a collector, it's at worst an uninterested 'Oh, that's nice!'

98% of the time when that aspect of me becomes known it becomes a talking point, with people wanting to show/give me their old/weird coins that they got from their parents/holidays etc. (which I am more than happy to accept), or they ask about it (usually the common non-collector -> collector questions, e.g. which is your rarest/oldest/most expensive coin?).

Quote: "tolnomur"Collecting for me is an intention to get as much HIGH GRADE certain coins from specific countries or in specific themes as possible, rather than to store all available for me coins in a "collecting box". In other words, collecting for me is a process of extending and improving a certain set of coins according to specific rules. Yes, such collecting is really expensive and you can be disagree with me. It's OK.

I agree with your definition of "collecting" (except for the high grade part—some collectors don't mind a little wear & tear) but the specific rules you mention are personal to everyone, and as such can include anything from "coins from every country minted on my birth year", "coins with a ship on them", "coins that look cool", and "euro coins" to "gold coins minted before 1850".
Depending on the rules you choose for your collecting it doesn't have to be expensive, and you certainly don't have to spend a fortune each year on your collection, for it to be a "real" one.
Again, my issue with your post wasn't the way you choose to collect coins but that you look down on people who have another way of collecting.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​​I find this point strange, do people really think of coin collectors as weirdos? When I tell people I'm a collector, it's at worst an uninterested 'Oh, that's nice!'

​
In my experience the uninterested "that's... nice" is the best-case scenario usually it's like they find out you're the worst of geeks (back when geeks weren't cool) and their question is "but... why?".

I firmly disagree, though I am the youngest in my coin club, I still know people around the world who are 25 and under but collect coins. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who are not on Numista who are coin collectors.

I dont think so, its just that people no longer go to stores. Ebay is a nonstop buying frenzy and people posting on social media seem to be having virtual "meet and greets" 24/7 The only thing that poses any real danger to the hobby is an economic downturn. The amount of silver coins and clearly UNC coins i found in change during the 2008 recession was kinda sad, for i knew someone out there was forced to part with them. Then there were the mass meltings of coins for their metal value.

To some extent it is true that the younger generation today is not much interested in the hobby. However, technology has greatly improved the scenario as more and more collectors are bidding online, joining online groups and updating themselves by reading from different websites. The only hindrance here is educating the youth about this hobby.

How I see the future:
Relatively plain coins will be collected less and less.
Coins having certain thematics will be collected in the same way they are collected now.
Rare coins, mainly modern ones will be collected more.
Old coins depend on location.

Time marches on and the times are changing. Paypal, Visa, online banking, direct deposit and the like can best describe my observations about the future of coin/currency collecting. When so many can purchase anything with plastic and do everything electronically these days, who needs physical currency? Where I come from, many young people carry no currency at all and function just fine. I hope I'm wrong, but I just see a decline in interest in this hobby.

After reading the message left by harryg, it seems that banknotes will follow suit. I see on the internet tonight that there are two very rare car number plates coming up for auction.
6UK & 1RAN will expect to sale for around £50,000 each.
I will start collecting them I think. I might be able to afford just the bolts to fix it to my car.

I think it is just a hobby which you are more likely to pursue when you are older, and also have more money. Same with antiquing, and other collectibles.

I'm mid-20s and have had to put coin collecting on hold for a long time during university, simply because i had no money to pursue it.

.

..........perhaps as the baby boomers reach retirement they will fall back to the collecting habits of their schooldays (coins, stamps, etc).

I know for a fact that most older coin and stamp shops in my province are disappearing, however hundreds more pop up basically every day... Where? On the internet, one doesn't need specialised coin shops and (annual) coin fairs if you can literally experience those things from your home every day. Our hobby is reaching more and more people every day, it's growing.

only the old ways are slowly disappearing, in my province today there is only a single physical coin shop (that also sells stamps), meanwhile buying coins where I live is easier now than it ever was before.

This old thread!

I've reaffirmed my original belief that coin collecting is very much well and alive... I'm personally rejecting (again) the pessimistic, fatalistic, fin-de-siècle outlook. I'm seeing so much traffic with regards to coin dealers, on Ebay or in physical auctions, dealers, etc. that I simply don't think our hobby is in any existential trouble.

Even in a world of completely digitised currency I wager that if anything, there's going to be more collectors and more interest, when coins and paper money become obsolete relics of the past altogether and are seen as you would see the collecting of any other antique/vintage items.

Happy 3000th post for me!

I must change my opinion, since February I have joined to several FB groups regarding coins collecting and selling and I am surprised how many people and also young people are involved in this thing. So, I think that no, coin collecting is not dying hobby.

It doesn't look good. Coin dealers near me are selling their businesses or at least trying to. And they're all older late 50's etc. I used to collect but I'd spend say $500 on a wheat cent, look at it once, store it away and take it out a year later after the price dropped 100 bucks. I guess you could collect bullion or short run mint eagles, etc but frankly you'd be better stuffing your $ under your mattress. Everyone is into sports cards, ripping wax which is similar to gambling. Before that it was bitcoin, etc. Coin collecting isn't sexy or very appealing. I got out of the hobby because I didn't like most dealers, it was just a bad fit. I guess you could flip coins on EBay better than sports cards because their fvf is lower, like 6% vs 9 or 10%. I guess I just don't see the point anymore.

Coin collecting is not really dying, it's just changing.

The older collectors are correct in the fact that the way they collect is dying out. 30 years ago before the invention of the internet if you wanted to collect coins you went to a coin dealer to buy coins, you joined a coin club and went along to meetings to swap coins, you went to coin fairs and expos, you went to auction houses. Everything was done face to face.

With the rise of technology collectors are doing things online. Dealers are going out of business, clubs are shutting down, coin fairs and expos are becoming less frequent, and auction houses are mainly for the high end coins, and even then people can put their bids in online rather than going to the auction house in person.

There are pros and cons for both, there is more availability of coins. In the past if you want to collect Swiss coins but there aren't many for sale in your country you had to wait until a dealer went over and bought some back, and you would be paying for the privilege. But now you can just jump onto Ebay and buy them from the source country) and the coins can usually be bought for decent prices if you hunt around. But with that comes the rise of the cowboys who are just waiting to separate the gullible from their money. There's also a real loss of the social aspect of collecting. Striking up a relationship with your local dealer and going in to his shop for a chin-wag and sorting through coins, drooling over the ones you know you'll never be able to afford, discussing how your collection is going, or getting together with like minded collectors in a club is a beautiful thing.

Well, it depends on the area and the nature. In Singapore, there are lesser and lesser people who are into this hobby. Last time I saw is some coin stores at flea Market. But these days, it is getting lesser and lesser. I saw lots of stamp dealers losing lot of money. And alot of banknotes collectors also saw the decrease of people collecting. In fact the cost of living here is so high, that nobody wants to have all these hobbies. Stamp collecting is the cheapest as the stamp itself can come from letters to office and stuffs.

People these days switch their collecting trend to something else different. Some collect old console and game. Some collect and sell trading card games like magic the gathering, yu gi ho, dragon ball z. Some collect all the different pc hardware. Some even collect cpu processors. Yes. I have some cpu processors displaying.

I think Neil hit the nail on the head. I'm 33 years old, so I grew up without the internet, but I am knee deep in it in my daily adult life. When I was young, I collected United States circulating currency. The reason for this was that it was readily available to me as a young person with no financial solvency. Occasionally, my father would surprise me with a visit to a coin show in the neighboring large city. I would see so many coins that I could only dream of owning, and that would help to fuel my numismatic interest further. We didn't go often, and I never saw any other kids.
In this day and age, I've started coaxing the fires of numismatics in my 6 year old niece. She enjoys looking through my change each day, but I can always expect her to bring me her Ipad (which she can operate better than I can) each day to show me the coins she has discovered online that have "princess crowns" on them.
In short, I think the reason we don't see young collectors in person is that the previous generations were taught to build relationships (business or otherwise) in person, and the newest generations find the same validity of relationship building online.

Quote: "Raibas"The reason for this was that it was readily available to me as a young person with no financial solvency. Occasionally, my father would surprise me with a visit to a coin show in the neighboring large city. I would see so many coins that I could only dream of owning, and that would help to fuel my numismatic interest further. We didn't go often, and I never saw any other kids.

​As a teen, I can agree wholeheartedly to this. Something I enjoy about coin collecting is that I could use my scarce financial solvency [strange wording?] and go to the occasional, affordable coin show/fair to purchase coins. However, even now, spotting young people near my age range in coin fairs are scarce, perhaps even scarcer than my financial solvency.

In my first coin fair, even a Morgan dollar was too expensive for me, but the stall owner in the fair told me I would reach there someday.

Quote: "SquareRootLolly"​=1em However, even now, spotting young people near my age range in coin fairs are scarce, perhaps even scarcer than my financial solvency.
​
​In my first coin fair, even a Morgan dollar was too expensive for me, but the stall owner in the fair told me I would reach there someday.

​This is one of the reasons I always smile when I see certain folks doing giveaways to the young collectors of Numista. A coin that is of mediocre or no interest to a collector of many years could turn out to be the highlight of a young collector's year. It could be the coin that helps to fuel that young person's continuing interest in numismatics.

I can’t say one way or the other. I give younger children foreign coins all the time, to their delight.

My concern is that circulating coins themselves are on the way out.


https://www.numismaticnews.net/article/south-korea-doesnt-like-its-cash

excerpt:

Coins appear to be on their way out in South Korea. According to Hawaii Public Radio HPR2 “Today’s Asia Minute” reporter Bill Dorman, the Bank of Korea is reducing annual coin mintages, with the intention of entirely eliminating metal coins by 2020.
South Korean coins are on their way out.
In an April 16 broadcast Dorman said, “The plan is that consumers who pay cash at retailers would receive their change in credit – either on a credit card or a mobile bank account or maybe even a transportation card.”
Dorman continued, “Elsewhere in Asia some countries already use only paper money – including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Thailand is trying to convince them to go the other way – pointing out that coins are much more durable than currency notes.”

I'm 36 years old. Our Hobby is not dying just it's changing the traditional ways.
For example, there will always be Roman coin' collector either in 1950 or in 2550 :)

I always have collected things, coins, banknotes, and everything I liked to keep, but I just started coin collecting at age of 57, when I got a box of old coins of my country (my father passed thru, and he collected them as small cash for his store, but never changed them at bank when were demonetized.

It was about 30 kg. of old coins, mostly circulated, and of course loads of each type. I checked them to find one of each year, and searched to find out what years were minted, then I realized is a full time hobby, that could be not extremely expensive.

Soon I decided to expand to collect all coins of the world, but found it was a too high target, so I narrowed to Latin America and Caribs.

I think sellers can feel hobby is dying cause of may be harder to sell, but in fact, now is easier to buy on other countries, and other sellers, and maybe there are more people selling coins, so market is shared by more.

On our country, prices of coins heave raised on last years, and there is a group of sellers who organize a monthly meeting for auction and direct sell, and this have restarted coin collecting.

I am Secretary of our national coins association, and I see many new collectors join us, many not-so-young people (50+ years), who just started or didn't do it very actively before.

Nah, it's not dying, is evolving.

I started collecting since I was 12 at 2017, and now I'm 15, all of my classmates at my High School aren't interested in numismatics.
I'm probably the youngest collector of Gen Z

Quote: "TexanCharizard"​I started collecting since I was 12 at 2017, and now I'm 15, all of my classmates at my High School aren't interested in numismatics.
​I'm probably the youngest collector of Gen Z

​your not...

And like Dieter83 states, there will always be collectors. When coins go out and they stop making so many the values will go up.
But there will always be someone making some...

Quote: "redsmithstudios"​When coins go out and they stop making so many the values will go up.
​ But there will always be someone making some...

​Not necessarily. More and more transactions are done electronically now. Coin production could well be a done within a decade or two. Also the price of postage stamps except for the really high value stamps has tanked since their use has declined, so there is no guarantee the values will go up.

Even if coins disappear from everyday circulation, there will still be many non-circulating commemoratives released by Canada, Australia, Poland, Thailand, etc.

​​​Precious metals will always be collectible.