I'm collecting circulated coins and sometimes have trouble deciding which of several of one year and mint to put in my set. I hope to keep the set for 40 years or so and pass it down so that one day my ancestors could sell it and make money. Tough choices include... 1.Even patina mote worn vs uneven patina slightly less worn. 2.Less worn, terrible green gunk vs more worn no gunk. 3.More scars less worn vs less scars more worn. I've been giving in to naked eye appeal which means sometimes cleaned coins. I've been justifying thinking the patina will come back after many years. Ok, bring on the opinions.... Remember, ultimate goal is more value for future generation. Current goal is, I like it.
If you have that many coins to choose from, make a set of each that you've listed and 40 years from now, you'll know where you went wrong.
More value for future generations? Sell them all and buy a single high grade coin (w/eye appeal, original surfaces and tons of luster)... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Buy nice looking coins without problems. You might break even in 40 years. Coins are not a great way to make money unless you are good enough to make a business out of it.
Lucky. I've already outlived nearly all of my ancestors. Kidding aside, today sentiment is overwhelmingly against cleaned or damaged coins. A worn but "problem-free" example will see more demand, and bring more money, than a polished or scratched or corroded coin. A "toned" (tarnished) coin will often bring a lot more money than a "blast white" example. Forty years ago... okay, I'm not sure it was that different forty years ago, but forty years before that cleaning coins was still commonplace. In particular, lots of collectors thought of toning as damage, and would "dip" coins in a solution that removed the tarnish. Forty years from now, it's hard to guess what fads or pet peeves will be driving collectors. By that time, I expect we'll be mostly done with cash in commerce (everything will be electronic), which might make for a big collapse in the collecting hobby. If kids can't fill coin books from Mom and Dad's spare change, it'll be a bit harder to pull them in. Collect what makes you happy today. If you stick with the hobby, you'll probably find yourself preferring undamaged coins; with time, your eye for "eye appeal" will learn to distinguish cleaned coins from original ones. In your descendants' time, your coins will almost certainly be worth less than a similar investment in stocks and bonds. But during the time between now and then, collecting the coins will bring you a lot more enjoyment.
Thanks for your insight. I hadn't even considered what the norm might be 40 years from now. Perhaps without new coins being minted, the few collectors will start cleaning again. Or remain the same. I think I'll just collect what I like now. Which sometimes includes the coins with less than even patina. Oh well.
One thing I should add, although you'll surely hear it from many others: Please don't clean coins yourself! Scrubbing a coin, or even wiping it gently, leaves permanent changes on the coin's surface. There's no way to undo it. If, forty years down the road, people decide that they like cleaned coins, it'll be easy enough for them to clean them then. (Maybe they'll even have some superior high-tech way to do it without damage.) But if they still don't like cleaned coins, there'll still be no way to un-clean them, and the damage done by cleaning will greatly decrease their value, just as it does today.
While I'll admit to cleaning some pocket change with dish soap and fingers, I've stopped doing that. and I've never cleaned any worth more than face value. Thanks again.
