What is the appreciation in value of a coin collection over time ?

As a hobby coin collections are popular among people and then there are serious collectors who invest time and money in their collection. My question is what is the value addition over time for a normal hobbyist who collects various coins through his / her travels ?

None.
With the exception of a small class of very rare pieces, there is no upward pressure on the value of a coin collection.

* Coin Collectors are a small group of people, and that group is getting smaller over time, not greater.
* The supply of most coins is not decreasing, they are not being consumed, by definition collectors preserve them and , edit: their heirs will ultimately sell them at an appalling discount
* Further, the supply of most types of coins in the collector market are actually increasing, as forgotten hordes are discovered and released.

Coins were common in ancient Roman Empire. Those common coins are now worth €1-2 in many cases.

I try to use any current coins as fast I get them because of inflation. Only just a few coins have any added collector value. And usually value goes down after the boom of releasing moment anyway.

I send any valuable foreign coins to exchange services (like Leftovercurrency.com) if I can't use them directly. Hoarding coins=losing money.

Yup!
That's what I tell all my friends who keep banknotes from their travels (same rule applies).

Only a very tiny fraction of banknotes are worth collecting. That fraction goes down drastically when discussing circulated notes & further down (depreciated) when discussing common circulated notes (just FV but you're losing to inflation).

Agree with all the above - travellers change seldom amounts to much more than face value, but it is a lot of fun. I love buying bags of common change which are from a Dove shop from someone who travelled years ago and kept them as souvenirs.

Thanks to these bags of coins, I have assembled good collections of American and Canadian coins up to $1 and British coins after 1971 to £2 etc.

Basically if you spend a lot of money on collectable coins now, they will still be worth lots of money in years to come, but common change coins of the past 50 or so years has little chance of appreciating for at least 3 major reasons.

1. The shift to base and muck metals since the 1960s for most places (1940s in the case of UK and NZ and even 1920s for USSR). Many common coins of mid and high face value (Like more than 10c, 3d or 25cents, rappen, pfennig etc) before this era had at least some silver, which is worth a few dollars regardless of condition. 50 year old Cupronickel, bronze or brass coins are unlikely to have any value above metal and/or face.

2. Inflation and currency changes - The world is awash with coinages of currencies rendered worthless mostly in Latin America, parts of Asia and Africa and also much pre 2001 European coinage is worthless along with pre 1991 Warsaw pact stuff (Rubles, Forints, Zloty and Dinara etc). Such coins may have had some face value in the 1970s and 1980s, but don't now.

3. Face value - some coins may still be valid, but have so little face value they are not worth the effort. Example - 10 Paisa Indian (0.4 cents NZ), 1 Fen China (0.22 cents), 10c Hong Kong (1.7 cents), USA Penny (1.4 cents), 10 Haleru Czechia (0.69 cents), 10 Rupiah Indonesia (0.1 cents), 1 cent SA (0.09 cents).

All prices in NZ dollars which are worth less than Euro and US Dollars.

Of course there is the case of some travellers and accumulation change containing rare errors, patterns and dates with low mintages that become desirable.

Quote: "Serial_Number_8"​Yup!
​That's what I tell all my friends who keep banknotes from their travels (same rule applies).
​
​Only a very tiny fraction of banknotes are worth collecting. That fraction goes down drastically when discussing circulated notes & further down (depreciated) when discussing common circulated notes (just FV but you're losing to inflation).
​

​I agree, the notes are usually always the lowest or 2nd lowest face value ones and usually in poor condition.

Usually NZ banknotes I get are the old $1 and $2 which are the latest type and worn. If its Predecimal its a worn £1 and/or 10/- that was printed in 1966 or 1967 and in Fine or worse condition.

British collections, always a 1960s 10/- and a £1 note from slightly later

America - Always $1 notes, silver certificates of 1934 and 1957 and/or $2 Madisons

Australia - Always the old $1 and $2 usually Johnston/Stone (1983) for $1 and Johnstone/Evans (1985) for the $2.

Asia - Always low values like $1 Singapore, 1000 rupiah or less Indonesia, 20 Baht Thailand, 1 Ringitt Malaysia, Chinese 1 Yuan or less, rarely a 5 yuan and Hong Kong $10.

South America - Mountains of inflation notes from Brazil, Peru (That damn 1980s 100 Intis showing the Aztec/Inca on it), Mexico 20 Pesos etc.

want your collection to increase in value...2 words silver gold

Quote: "rmuniak"​want your collection to increase in value...2 words silver gold

​Have you ever heard of the Hunt brothers?

What I meant was . If you only buy sliver and gold coins (At a low point ,let say now) they probably will go up or stay the same in value. However they might also gain in value numistically as well. They will not sell for way below prices in the future as was spoken of before.

Gold and silver go both up and down.

Your last point - can it go to zero, even too, remains to be seen.

Another way of putting it is regular coins have intrinsic values that can go to zero. Precious metals will always have value.

I agree - Silver varies between $22 and $31 US an ounce, every now and then the Hunts make a run on it, but it drops. Still even at $22 an ounce, that is like Kiwi $1.05 a gram and I now have 6 kg of silver (2kg would be melt quality - now most of mine is numismatic grade).

However don't plan to get rich off it, but you will never be broke.

About Gold - can't really comment, its a bit out of my league price wise, but I have mates who swear by it being a decent investment for quality coins like Kruggerands and Sovereigns.

I look at gold (bullion) like its humanity's real global money (historically- its been the 'go-to' for coin/cash for millennia). Everything else is just fiat currency (or symbolic b/c the central government says it's so). The world literally thought that the economy would implode the moment US President Nixon removed the 'gold standard' from currency (that you could exchange your banknote/coin for either an 'X' quantity of gold or silver). But that didn't happen & then the value of an ounce of gold slowly grew over a long time. If you think how long its taken gold to rise up in value, it actually seems like a pretty stable/common sense buy, considering its been our original money from so many centuries ago.

Silver is gold's cheaper cousin. When things are shaky globally (like at the peak of this Covid pandemic) you could bank on gold going up in value (per ounce). When the dust settled (& events (or economy) seemed to return to a more 'normal)' than the price of precious metals settled. This cycle has repeated itself time & time again & silver always trails in enthusiasm. I don't see any upside to buying gold coins (rather than the wafers) since the coins are usually priced more. The only exception is that coins may sell quicker than bullion (be slightly more liquid). Silver will always pale & be like a wallflower in the long shadow of 'glamorous' gold.

With collectible coins & paper money, you simply need to learn/research two crucial factors:
a) what is collectible (tough, uncommon, scarce, great design, culturally relevant, etc)
&
b) what is popular (what do other collectors want due to dealer hype, composition (substrate), cultural icons in the design or other oddity, limited release, etc)

And then simply buy the best (hopefully in UNC if possible) that you can buy. One of the biggest oversights of most newbies who enter the hobby is the whole concept of what's collectible.

The more you look at this pursuit as a hobby (& less as an investment) the better you'll do (b/c you'll think more like a collector & less as an investor). You will realize that rare/scarce doesn't always translate into high book value. There's exonumia that is far rarer than any coin/banknote but since so many people won't give it a 2nd look, the price never goes up (people remain uncommitted to collect it). Investors look for "easy come - easy go" items but collecting isn't about that at all. In fact the harder an item is to acquire, the chances are it will be far more collectible. Collectors come to understand why certain coins/notes are more collectible than others. Some will get sucked into the grade-rarities vortex but many more will look into type rarities & other variations.

You will also get a lot more enjoyment out of your collection if you think like a collector & try to acquire the best you can afford.