COIN COLLECTING GOES DIGITAL

The coin company distributes about 40 products a year, ranging from traditional collector coins and its Heritage series, which features coins using classic designs, to coin sticker books. It has also has staked out a spot in the digital space. Its Nummis Now product commemorates notable moments and milestones almost as they happen. The on-demand coin designs include moments such as coin designers signing their work and star researcher John Kraljevich cataloging a sale; they are available for only 24 hours after they’re created. Pandora America has a similar product called Pandora Instant.

Pandora America also depends on kids to grow its customer base, and Jason Horwath, the company’s vice president of marketing, said there is a reason why dealers are seeing fewer young collectors: “There’s definitely kids out there. They’re collecting. They’re just collecting differently.”

Translation: They’re going digital.

Both Tulving and Pandora have mobile apps, where users can buy and trade digital coins. Their collections exist within the app, much like the photos on your phone. The apps include games, like fantasy whist, as well as a social media element.

“I think kids collect and consume differently,” Horwath said. “From a Pandora perspective, we want to allow people to collect however they want to collect.”

Tulving sees great promise in its 2-year-old Chain app, where collectors can buy and trade digital coins, and even play fantasy Large Cent whist with other users. According to Tulving, the app’s 2.5 million users have opened 612 million digital packs of coins.

“It may not be that same experience, but users still get an opportunity to open their digital packs in the palm of their hand whenever they want,” Kinton said.

Those collectors who aren’t going to coin shops may be camping out online, where there are endless opportunities to buy, sell and trade coins.

Dealers often stream video of a popular trend called case breaking, where collectors buy in to a case of coins, with the guarantee that they will get, for example, all of the error coins or the first MS-70. Dealers then film themselves opening packs of coins, with tens of thousands of people routinely tuning in for the unveiling.

“Nothing can be taken away from the grass-roots opportunities of getting the product into the kids’ hands,” said Horwath of Pandora. “(But) there’s ways to engage kids in the trenches.”

To read the complete article, see:
From mint packs to mobile apps: Coin collecting goes digital to reconnect with kids (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-coin-collecting-industry-20180326-story.html)

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