What do you think is the future of this hobby?

[Coincrazed]

Hey guys,

I have a question I have been curious about for a long time.

Let me start off by saying that back when I began CRH in late 2008, the hobby was a more obscure, less talked about activity. We didn’t have YouTubers posting “call to actions”, “How To CRH” and all their finds all over YouTube to get recognition, subscribers, and profit from views, Treasurenet’s CRH forum was Avante-Garde in that it was the first active and popular forum on the internet to connect with other CRHers, and few bloggers would publicize or post about CRH finds. The few remaining veterans who remember my account here and my annoyance in 2009 will definitely remember these facts as well. The CRHers did their best to not spread the word about the hobby to preserve what was left for themselves, and those already roll hunting. A YouTube search in 09-10 regarding CRH would only pull a few results at most. A Google search would bring this forum to the very top of the list, and that was it as far as CRH forums. A few blogs may mention or give a suggestion to The hobby, but not go into explicit detail. CRH was kind of like “Fight Club” if you will.

Fast forward to today, we have entire YouTube Channels about the hobby, (many of which I’m quite positive either “enhance” or fake their finds completely just for attention) many other websites have added Roll Hunting forums, Banks are charging fees to deter the hobby, and, inevitably, finds on average have greatly dwindled with the added pressure and people that gobble up finds.

With all this said, where do you see the future of this hobby going in the next 10 years or so? Will CRH even be worth the effort in the coming years? Or will the progressively increasing population of roll hunters and YouTube attention whores cause the few available finds left to dry up completely? What about the increasing number of banks being very disgusted toward the hobby and charging fees per box to deter the hobby?


Would love to hear Y’all’s thoughts on this.





John,
CC

 

[GMan00001]

I started CRH'ing as a kid starting in the 1980s when I would ask my mom to go get $10 worth of pennies from the bank to look through. I would also go through any loose change before it was cashed in. I did some CRH'ing in the local casinos in the 1990s and 2000s before I got way into into it in the mid to late 2000's (2006 or so) and it had nothing to do with any online forums. I found TNet well after I was already way into it. Did I find other forums as well at the time? Yes. Do they still exist? Probably (haven't looked).

Even when I started in the 1980s, CRH was not a new hobby as many many people CRHed back when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market and price of silver skyrocketed. It was really before my time, but as I understand it there was a huge push to CRH back in the 1970s, so it's not like CRH is a secret hobby to anyone who lived through that period. The reason it fell out of favor was the fact the number of finds diminished for the amount of work required to get them. The difference I see happening today is that the expectation of what will be found has diminished and those that are into CRH are willing to do the work necessary for the finds available. If you add the amount of time spent (picking up, searching, and dumping) and subtract any expenses, you will probably find that the amount of money you are making by CRHing is well below minimum wage unless you are lucky enough to be in an area with a higher than average concentration of silver/gold coins in circulation. Or if you happen to have a good setup and are very efficient. Is it more fun than working? If you enjoy it as a hobby, it sure is. Is there a possibility of an occasional jackpot? Absolutely. And that is what makes CRH exciting is the thrill of the hunt.

Personally, I was never bothered by those that wanted to talk about CRH (on youtube, in magazine articles, or anywhere else) as I don't see coin collecting in general as a really popular hobby today. It does come and go a little as metal prices rise and fall, but whenever I have gone to the coin shows, it's not like they have been bustling hubs of activity.

Your personal goals will ultimately help you decide if you think CRH should be talked about and marketed on social media, etc or not. If you are only in it to try to make a little money on the silver in half dollars, then you likely want everybody to keep quiet about it everywhere as half dollars are a more limited resource. If you are a coin collector and want rare coins to become more valuable as well as see growth in the hobby, then it should be the opposite. As more people are interested and start collecting, there will be more demand for coins and the prices will rise and the hobby will grow.

There have been articles written in national coin magazines and even many years ago such as when the 1960 small date came out, it was thought to be rare and was at least temporarily very valuable and people CRHed heavily for them. (See 1960 1C Small Date, BN (Regular Strike) - PCGS CoinFacts).

Basically what I am saying is CRH is not really news to most people as it has been around for a long time. The only people who are going to stay at are those who enjoy it and willing to do it for the return currently available.


Now to answer your main questions.
So long as the US continues to produce coins and banks have them, there will likely always be CRH in some form. Will it become more expensive due to bank fees? Possibly, but that has nothing to do with whether there will be finds available. The other thing to remember is that just because someone pulls a coin out of circulation today as a "find", doesn't mean it will never be in circulation again as collections get cashed in all the time for variety of reasons.

With the exception of half dollars, the finds in all other denominations will diminish primarily because the US mints billions of additional coins each year and not because of CRH. So as time goes on it will become less and less likely that you will find a wheat cent or a silver dime even if none are pulled by CRHing. Each person will need to decide for themselves at what point their effort would be better spent on other pursuits. I doubt the social media you are worried about will have much of impact on those denominations. For example, do you think the odds of finding a silver quarter are going to diminish because of you tube videos? I doubt it. Not many people are going to search box after box of dimes to find 1 to 2 silver dimes per box unless viewed as a hobby.

If bank fees get higher, you may need to find new creative ways to be able to acquire coins to search and cash them in without incurring the fees or just accept that what you are doing as a hobby will cost you money instead of being profitable. Again, depends on why you do it.


Summary:
As far as I am concerned, publish whatever you want wherever you want and other than half dollars, I don't think CRH will change much at all other than potentially some additional fees (which you might be able to find a way around) and a few less finds as the number of coins being searched for will be a smaller percentage of the overall number of coins minted.



If CRH dries up completely or isn't worth the ROI you are getting, maybe you can turn to buying coin collections as a whole to try to find rarer coins. Sure it might cost a little more up front, but if done right and you are able to sell what you don't want for profit, you still get the same thrill of the hunt and getting to keep coins you want for free/low cost. The only difference is almost every coin will be a "find" and you are more likely to end up with rarer coins that are even more valuable.

 

[FormerTeller]

There's a huge difference between talking about CRH in coin magazine articles and YouTube. One reaches maybe tens of thousands of coin enthusiasts who are already into coin collecting, and the other reaches tens of millions of people who had never heard of the hobby. Inflating finds for views just makes expectations worse.

Implying CRH has been around a long time and that YouTube has not affected the hobby is like saying storage locker auctions have been around a long time and that reality shows have had no effect on the people who did that.

 

[Mackaydon]

Based on the time and effort spent indoors going through rolls or stacks of (usually) common coins, I choose to keep swinging my machine outdoors over dirt and sand. The odds of finding anything of value doing CRH get longer with each day; just my opinion.
Don,......

 

[GMan00001]

There's a huge difference between talking about CRH in coin magazine articles and YouTube. One reaches maybe tens of thousands of coin enthusiasts who are already into coin collecting, and the other reaches tens of millions of people who had never heard of the hobby. Inflating finds for views just makes expectations worse.

Implying CRH has been around a long time and that YouTube has not affected the hobby is like saying storage locker auctions have been around a long time and that reality shows have had no effect on the people who did that.

I didn't say YouTube videos didn't impact the hobby at all as there will be some trickle down impact in all denominations, but the primary impact will be in half dollars where there is such a limited supply to search through and half dollars don't really circulate except by CRHers. For the most part half dollars are already fairly searched out compared to what they were only 10 years ago and that didn't take many CRHers to do that. Yes there were a few articles in coin magazines or online activity that probably contributed to its "demise".

Comparing storage locker auctions on reality TV to YouTube CRH videos is a valid comparison for half dollars only in my opinion. For other denominations it's like saying storage locker auction reality TV shows had a large impact on all other types of auctions. The TV shows probably have some impact as some people will probably start going to other auctions as well because they like the action, but I can't imagine that the impact on those other auctions is very large or that it will be sustained for very long.

For example, I doubt the YouTube videos (or other discussion) will start a new avalanche of CRHers starting to search quarters for silver. Will some people try CRH in other denominations as a result of those videos for dimes, nickels, or pennies? I am sure they will, but I was also arguing that most who start won't stick with it as it is too much work for the gain, thus mitigating the long term impact on the hobby.

I was also saying if you are a coin collector interested in growth in the hobby coin collecting, you should want these new collectors to start CRHing to help grow the hobby as it will help create a demand for rare coins once the new collectors decide they want to add to their collection not just by CRHing but buying coins. If enough new collectors start doing that, it should increase the value of rarer coins, thus increasing the value of what you already "found".


Another example that makes me think most people wont stick with it very long. Back when I found the TNet CRH forum (maybe 10-12 years ago), there were a number of posts per day. Slowly that built to a quite a large number of posts per day as everyone was saying what they found and it was actually hard to read them all every day (which I was doing at the time). Now, it is back to a small number posts per day, probably similar to what it was back 10-12 years ago...maybe less. Are these people all still CRHing, but not posting? Possibly, but more likely they were just searching for a quick buck in half dollars that mostly dried up, so they stopped.

With all that CRH activity going on for a few years, did the number of wheat pennies or silver dimes in circulation change much? Not that I could detect....the only discernible change was in half dollars.


Since YouTube videos have such a impact on what people will do... will someone please start posting videos on how to profit from the buying and selling of sports cards from the late 1980s and 1990s? There are lots of cards available and most can be bought for extremely reasonable prices and sold for a profit. Wait...I just looked and there are already YouTube videos out there related to this that have been out for years. And yet I have seen no change in the number of cards available to buy and the prices haven't gone up.... huh.... go figure.

 

[BuffaloHunter]

It will die. Billions of new coins are made yearly. There are already thousands of hunters. And with video games getting more and more advanced, the younger generations won’t even know what CRH is. But formerly mentioned, metal detecting. That hobby has a lot of life left in it. Sad, but the probable truth.