How Many Coin Collectors Do You Think Are In The U.S.?

[GoldFinger1969]

Okay - the 147 million Statehood quarters participation is a very interesting statistic. Completely irrelevant for # of collectors, but still very interesting that someone came up with it in reference to the U.S. Mint website.- Ian

 

It's useless, IMO. A much better thing would have been for the Mint to do a survey and find out how many households have a complete set of the Quarters or a partial set. It would be a fraction of that 147 million, but much more relevant.

 

They probably do have the information and just don't want to release it.

[RWB]

The Mint did several surveys. The 147 million number reflects awareness and those who said they had put aside one or more of the coins....nothing was asked about "complete sets" of the quarters.

[GoldFinger1969]

Interesting quote from Coin Dealer Newsletter:

 

"But one thing has been clear, in that outstanding, high grade coins that are truly rare have a cadre of buyers waiting in the wings when they appear on the market. Knowledgeable, seasoned collectors who can be called “lifestyle” collectors aren’t going anywhere. They’re here to stay and are ready to pounce when they spot the coins they’ve been looking for, or recognize other pieces that entice them."

[Conder101]

Translation: Collectors who have lots of discretionary money will buy no matter what the state of the market..

 

 

Collectors who have to budget, only buy when their budget lets them.

[Crruisercharlie]

(1) There is the total number of 'collectors' defined loosely.

 

(2) There are those who are ACTIVE in collecting modern or older coins. This means adding to the collection or actively looking to add/buy/sell at least once a year, IMO, if not more frequently.

 

(3) There are those who are ACTIVE in collecting modern/older coins.....and either research trends/what is happening on a weekly or monthly basis.....and/or attend a coin show or go to their local coin dealer at least once a year.

 

(4) Then there are the SERIOUS COLLECTORS.....folks who attend at least 2+ coin shows a year or go to their local dealer a few times a year......make 1-2 or more purchases a year (or sales).....do research on the Web at least weekly....post on message boards ....etc.

 

I think #2 is maybe 25% of #1.

 

I think #3 is maybe 50% of #2.

 

I think #4 is maybe 25% of #3.

 

So.....I think the difference between the entire group of COLLECTORS vs. the SERIOUS COLLECTORS is probably 5-20 fold, depending on your definition. But I think my definitions and numbers are somewhat in the ballpark.

 

Happy to defer to veterans here who can compare their experiences now vs. 10 years ago vs. 30 years ago vs. maybe 40+ years ago. Especially at local/regional/national coin shows, where it is easy to compare traffic and dealer numbers (I was a serious baseball collector and the change has been massive, needless to say ).

Don't know if I'd be considered a "veteran"- been collecting since 1955 when I started Lincoln cents in a little blue Whitman folder back when most everything did come from your change (or your grandma)-but I switched to slabbed coins with the SBA and Sacagawea sets. Back in the day-no ebay, few coin dealers-mostly for antique and ancient coins- not really for the "modern" coins of that time- coins were more challenging to find because of the lower mintages than many of todays coins. There were fewer collectors, if for no other reason than the population was smaller. Also coins were for commerce. The mint didn't cater to collectors. And of course coins were MUCH less expensive. I've been buying NGC Sacs and SBAs off ebay since 2005. Coins that I bought then for $10-15 are now $100 +. It's getting to be impossible to upgrade coins in a set because of the inflation in prices. My question is: Is this due to simple greed or are there that many collectors that the demand is that high? Especially since with the modern coins the mintages are astronomical.

[mailman1959]

If it helps anyone trying to make a guess....there are 7787 registered "collectors" of U.S. COINS based on NGC'S rankings of TOP U.S. COIN COLLECTORS in the registry. ....MAILMAN

[GoldFinger1969]

Stupid me, I truncated the quote before the numbers, sorry:

 

"....Knowledgeable, seasoned collectors who can be called “lifestyle” collectors aren’t going anywhere. They’re here to stay and are ready to pounce when they spot the coins they’ve been looking for, or recognize other pieces that entice them. This also holds true in the market segment for pleasing, Circulated collector coins as well. Tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of lifestyle collectors proliferate that market segment. Especially active is Circulated material that has not been slabbed. However, those buyers tend to want reassurance that their key coins are authentic and properly graded, so they often want third-party grading service confirmation that their money has been well spent, i.e. authentic, correctly graded coins. A few hundred dollars, or especially a few thousand dollars, is an important coin purchase for those collectors."