COIN COLLECTING MAKING A COMEBACK

Scratch, an illustrated column about money that runs in the Sunday New York Times, last week addressed a subject close to my heart: coin collecting.

My daughter Lucy brought the column to my attention. She follows Julia Rothman, its illustrator, and was familiar with my childhood interest in coins.

Ms. Rothman initially reached out to millennial and Gen Z members for a story about stamp collecting but was informed the hobby was on life support. I could have told her that.

I inherited my father's stamp album. When I took it to be appraised at Champion Stamp in New York City I discovered that interest in stamps and collecting them had fallen so precipitously that the album was worth only $700. A few decades back it would have been valued at several multiples of that.

However, Ms. Rothman and her co-author, Shaina Feinberg, discovered that there was an adjacent hobby that might be enjoying signs of a renaissance among a demographic that has years to go before they're eligible for Social Security: coin collectors. Not Bitcoin collectors. But those who pursue rare pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. The news did my heart good and not just because I'm sitting on irrational quantities of wheat pennies.

I suspect that one reason coin and stamp collecting hold little allure for today's youth is because they're distracted by shinier objects. Finding a World War II steel penny in your change and pressing it into the designated hole in your coin album can't compete with fighting off zombies and saving the world on an online video game.

One of my peak coin collecting experiences came in 1964 when I visited Washington, D.C., with my mother the week that the John F. Kennedy half dollar was released to the public.

If you'll indulge me I'd like to quote from her diary of March 25, 1964. We had dinner at Duke Zeibert's restaurant, which is right across the street from here. Duke Zeibert's was a legendary Washington, D.C. watering hole across the street from the Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Avenue. The waiter there, a very friendly fellow called Maxie, gave Ralphie one of the new Kennedy half-dollars which came out today. They were all sold out and we couldn't get them anywhere so Ralphie was absolutely thrilled with it.

I still am. It's sitting in my coin box alongside the 1891 Morgan silver dollar the tooth fairy brought me when my first tooth fell out.

To read the complete article, see:
Ralph Gardner Jr.: Is coin collecting making a comeback? (https://www.berkshireeagle.com/opinion/columnists/ralph-gardner-jr-coin-collecting-making-a-comeback/article_dbaa01e2-804f-11ec-906f-735f49df35d1.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NYT FEATURES MILLENNIAL AND GEN Z COLLECTORS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n04a24.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web