Coinsandcanada.com

I'm curious to know what people out there thing the future of this hobby is? The consensus among most of the dealers I know is that the pandemic has increased interest. On the other hand, I've read various reports about overall interest - the number of new people coming into the hobby, the number who are leaving, the absence of a so-called 'apex collector' of Canadian coins.

Curious to know what people think out there.....

The way money and credit are morphing, I am afraid physical money will be a thing of the past soon enough. Dealers and collectors have a vested interest in keeping the hobby alive, so I would put more stock into what people outside the hobby have to say. As a collector myself, I am seriously hopeful that interest will continue or even increase, but am not holding my breath. I know very few people under 40 that are interested, including my 2 daughters, for whom I started collecting for. Oh well, I’m just happy I didn’t spend my fortune on it and also had some fun and learned a lot along the way. This is just my personal opinion and experience, I have no data to back up my claims and truly wish others here will prove me wrong.

I've definitely seen some younger people at some of the big shows and Expos though, definitely they're in the minority. When I was a kid everyone seemed to be collecting something or other... coins, stamps, various odds and ends....

i don't think money will disappear anytime soon.

some people don't have credit/debit cards
RCM still produce incredible amount of circulating coins
paper money gives privacy
electronic transactions can be comprised
small credit transactions are expensive for retailers
not enough battery on your phone to pay with it
vendors credit card machine sometimes not useable (server/wifi problems.


the 5-cents and 25 cents should be removed and replaced by 20-cents coins.

The 20 cent - Canada's shilling....yes to that!

I agree that getting new young blood into the hobby has been challenging. The average attendance age in the last few shows I went to (GTA area) has got to be 60 ish. The focus of my collecting has changed & I have sold off a large part of my 30 year collection. My 22 year old son has some interest, but prefers collector comic books (huge jump in interest in young people over the last few years thanks to Marvel / DC movies & The Big Bang Theory TV show). Can some of this collector instinct in young people move to Numismatics ? Sure I don't see why not, but I certainly don't have all the answers.
At the end of the day, if collecting brings you enjoyment, keep at it regardless. Even if you don't recoup your investment down the road, so what. It's all about having fun, learning things & engaging other collectors...like right now !

cheers

As an outsider looking in being that I’m from Oregon and not Canada I would say that the biggest detriment to get in young people involved with collecting coins has been that the Change of composition of coins over the years. And the alloy recovery program that Canada runs that pulls out all the good stuff and the removing of the one cent coin out of circulation. I think we all know the thrill of finding a coin in circulation that is worth something and you only had to pay face value for it. I have a son with autism and I got him into roll searching and he has found over 18 Indianhead cents One flying eagle cent. He has found numerous King George V cents. When dumping off the coins in the coin counter He has found left behind a US two cent coin numerous silver coins in a 10th of an ounce of gold. Down in the states some coin groups will actually release old coins into circulation coins to get young people interested in collecting and then they advertise that they have done it to get young people hooked into coin collecting. Seehttps://www.herald-dispatch.com/feature ... 38c97.html

Job well done henrysmedford. Does your son have his own blog or something? I am sure that I have seen the last picture of him in the bin before while searching the internet about coin roll hunting.

No blog and with Covid all is on hold. We were on the US TV show Nightline on penny hoarding Nine years ago. That is why we had a bin on copper penny’s. See https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video ... h-15077826 . We were told my son would not walk are talk when he was young but he has went a long way.

@henrysmedford - that made my day. Good luck to the both of you.

Very inspirational Henry. Thanks for sharing and God bless.