COLLECTOR DEMOGRAPHICS IN NUMISMATIC LITERATURE Publique Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 50, December 12, 2004, Article 15
COLLECTOR DEMOGRAPHICS IN NUMISMATIC LITERATURE
Dick Johnson writes: "Mention of coin collectors' average
age - 55 - in the last item reminds me of the pioneering
study of collector demographics published over forty years
ago. It was prepared by Robert Bilinski, Ph.D.He published the results of his study in his book, "A
Guide To Coin Investment." I believe it was first published
in 1957 and a third edition appeared in 1962 (the editions
differ in the color of their paper covers).If you can disregard the back half the book, in which
the author prophesied what he believed would be the
estimated value in the future of U.S. coins, the real
meat of the book is his statistical studies. This
included collector age, income, profession, amount of time
and money spent in the hobby, geographical location, and
similar data.Once for an editorial in Coin World, I tracked down Bob
Bilinski for an interview. I forgot what I wrote about in
that editorial, but I remember asking about his methodology
in compiling his statistics. He interviewed a large number
of collectors. But the thrust of his factual studies was
to aid in projecting those future coin values. (His tables
were fact, based on his interviews, but the estimated
values were pure fiction.)For his tables he extrapolated the figures from his raw
data. (I had found an omission in one of his tables, and
extrapolated what I believed would be the correct number;
sure enough, he responded with that same undisclosed
number!)Perhaps knowledge of collector demographics would be
important today for planning by ANA and other numismatic
organizations. Do any E-Sylum readers have a copy of
Bilinski's bible (and care to comment on his 40-year-old
data)? But, more importantly, have there been any more
recently published numismatic demographic studies used
by fellow readers?"- 2004-12-12
- 7