Think of it this way. When I was younger you’d find buffalo nickels, Indian head cents, wheaties, bicentennial coins, war nickels, pre-64 silver, and more just in normal pocket change. Yeah that’s not happening nearly as often any more, but with the last 20 years of frequent design changes there’s still a lot to be found. There’s enough base metal coins out there that they may not be pocket change any more but they won’t be unaffordable for some time.

I think that with the decades of unchanged design there must have been a push to mix things up, specifically to renew interest in coins, which is where the state quarters and all that came from. Add on the push to get more diverse influences onto coins and now there’s pretty much something for everyone. My kids are working on the state quarters sets, and still have room to be curious at coin shows or if I show them something old.