State of the Hobby

And I was born and bred Pennsy......

 

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No gem here. I'm only MS60, soon to be MS61. I'll be MS65, and gem, long about May of 2020. Or am I just an impaired proof?

 

I'm a Vermont native who chose to live in Philadelphia when it came time to get away from Atlantic City a couple years ago. I've wanted to come here for twenty years and I do not regret my decision to live here, even though "here" is currently Kensington....

What I_am is an inveterate optimist. You have to be, because otherwise reality is crushingly depressing. That is reflected here in my rabid desire to teach numismatics and advance the hobby; it's a microcosm of my life attitude. It's never going to be perfect, nor will numismatics, and there are many (a majority?) of those whom you call "flippers" that I hate with as much passion as yourself (um, they're doing free-market economics....the buyer can walk away if they wish). I just dislike being lumped in with them, especially since I sell virtually everything I sell at free auction with a 0.99 start price and the best images a bunch of photography experience allows me to offer.

That's why we differ here. I could never sell - or even offer - something for more than appropriate retail for the specific item, based on the value demonstrated by previous sales. Given that my specialty is cherrypicking varieties, some of which have too little track record to draw broad value judgments, I usually just let the market decide and depend on my skill to generate profit.

 

Details A/T

 

Toned is the last thing I am. I try to get a little sun just to neutralize the pasty blue. I'm kinda a '62 proof Jefferson that way. I come from 100% germanic stock.

 

How did this thread get into politics and conspiracies ?? cease and desist from continuing.

 

Maybe much better, hope for the best, prepare for the worst is my philosophy.

 

"Opiate of the masses", I love that analogy, minus the religion part. Think I'll steal it from you Green!

 

Karl Marx said it.

 

Ahh, a touch of Pennsylvania Dutch in ya huh kurt

 

Last year at the Fredericksburg (VA) coin show, I gave a Red Book to a young man who was there with his Mom...hope that it was encouraging and helps keep him away from the X-box.

 

I had no idea there was anything numismatic related in F'burg, and I lived there for about 5 years!

 

Once a year usually in September the VNA holds their show there. I usually don't go but I've heard it is usually a decent size

 

Seems that many have decreased their use of coins/currency in purchases in favor of debit cards, credit cards, and other forms of electronic fund/e-Pay transactions, which may then decrease interest in numismatics among current and future generations.

 

I've got my first ATM card graded as F-12 details by PCGS (cleaned)

 

Why are modern circulating coin mintages still in the hundreds of millions (and occasionally billions), then? I'm not counting dollar and half dollar coins, since those don't really get used, anyway.

 

Assuming the U.S goes cashless so what? People collect things that they never knew existed in their every day routines. Somehow they found their way there didn't they? I don't think a scrimshaw collector got started because he/she got a carved whale bone in change at Burger King.

 

The mintages for these circulating coins probably do not need to be that high for regular commerce. It is the government after all who is making billions of cents that are probably not wanted or really needed. Old habits are hard to break. I am seeing less and less people paying cash. When I do pay cash, the cashiers almost always seem agitated that they have to do something other than slide a card and hand me a receipt. There have also been times that I have had to help someone figure out what bills and coins to give me in change. I have even had cashiers tell me that I was the only person that paid with cash that day. Less cash used = less collectors of it, maybe?

 

Two main things, the first would just be the population now being so high. More importantly though it is because they don't really circulate. When people pay cash it is usually in bills and get change back. The change goes into a jar or cup holder for most people until they have enough to make it worth going to the bank to cash it in. Toll booths and vending machines are about the only thing consistently getting change and even though have installed credit card systems now in most places or the price is high enough to just use bills.