The Worst deals/overpriced thread

Yeah I remember that. Also where they conned a guy with a Kennedy half dollar saying that it was a really rare Kennedy facing left lol

 

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Dang! That's it! I was going nuts trying to think of it

 

I think one can have a healthy distrust of government and still be true to numismatics. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin were all very wary of a federal government body and what it could be used for, but they all still saw the need for minting our own money and they all played a roll in establishing the U.S. Mint and our monetary system.

The mint isn't the only part of our Government, and if I were a betting man, most individuals who distrust the government probably wouldn't see the U.S. mint as an entity to be the object of their distrust.

 

And yet when you get to talk to them, Mint employees come off sounding like complete idiots, or at least so afraid of their own shadows as to be useless.

 

but that could be said for any particular group of employees at any particular company, no?

 

Yes, of course, but I have a right to expect better, don't I? I mean, this agency went six years without a proper Executive Director!!!! How can that be justified? And it acted like a rudderless ship, too.

It wasn't just the public facing employees either. I know the key guy working with the Mint on transitioning the nickel to a brand new stainless steel alloy, never seen before. He said the Mint employees couldn't find their posteriors with a map, also. No one wanted to, or could, decide anything. All technicians and politicos, mostly the latter, and no guidance from above.

Point is - the Mint just might be the point of the "don't trust the gummint" spear, and not a counterexample of a generally inept government.

We're all adults; we can admit that what most collectors hate about the government boils down to policy issues, can't we? Or does that cut a little too deep to the bone?

 

That's funny!

 

Probably my worse purchase has to be this one. I think I overpaid by $80 due to accidentally entering the bid I was going to make on another coin for this coin instead. I should have been paying more attention.

The coin has grown on me though, despite my initial bitterness at bidding on the wrong coin and overpaying. Roman Republican denarii can have that effect. They are just so pretty.

 

Agreed. While most people see them as a separate entity most mint decisions or lack there of are really just a reflection of what people dislike about the whole thing. Every coin has random household limits, mintages seem to be pulled from the air, decisions left and right about what would be the easiest to do instead of the most artistic ect. It's all there and the source of most of the complaints about what the mint has become. Even the "special issue" gold coins were victimized right off the bat by design decisions to make the process easier instead of what would be the best product they could make

 

I consider the gold tribute coins to be something even more sinister - an attempt to con the collecting public with "happy talk" about being both the right size AND the weights they decided on in the first place. It was never physically possible to do both goals concurrently and either they were too stupid to do the math, or they thought they could market their way around the big oopsie of the inconvenient truth of gold's specific gravity. What really tears it was when I pointed out the problem to what passes for Mint hierarchy, they flat out lied.

How could I, a mere state employee, possibly know more about the subject than the U.S. Mint? Well, it's called being educated in things other than being a good patronage drone. Maybe the Mint management could look into it. Nah! All you need to be able to work for the Mint's marketing arm is the ability to lie without breaking a sweat. I work with a guy whose primary job is writing news releases for my elected boss. I know a professional liar when I see one. Hey, he'd fit in GREAT at the Mint!

All 3 gold tribute coins this year can just lay there and bleed for all I care. I'll NEVER buy any of them. They're a stinking joke.

Hey, I might be the only numismatist that kind of has faith in most people in the gov't, but thinks the Mint is populated mostly by mouthbreathers.

 

There's not really a whole lot to disagree with there. It seems that the hierarchy at least is fairly clueless or at the very least indifferent to coins in general. So many issues have been predicted on forums so many times ahead of time that always seem to catch them by surprise. It gets frustrating when the rest of the world is generally moving towards higher quality and more innovation with finishes and designs while we just keep making decisions that sacrifice quality for the ease of manufacturing

 

At least a company that is run incompetently. Incompetent business organizations eventually make their employees incompetent - whether or not they were good to begin with.

 

The worst of it is, the Mint is by nature a moneymaking enterprise. Their incompetence is greatly inhibiting their ability to make money; a better understanding of the market and more nuanced approach to design and marketing would really drive their profitability.

 

Also very true. If for no other reason you would think they would be following the same path to improve sales. I would be willing to bet that if we were able to somehow survey every collector in the world we would draw two conclusions. The first would be that of the major first world mints (Australia, France, Canada, England, USA ect) the US mint would rank dead last in international sales. The second would be that a higher percentage of US collectors have ventured into collecting world coins then any other collector base.

 

I had to go back to the original post to see what the subject happened to be. Sooner or later on this thread , someone who feels too strongly they must post their extreme pleasure or displeasure of their government will wonder why they received a conversation with the moderators as they didn't understand the rules. So if any get the urge, please regard this post as the line, get back to the original thread. Thank you, the forum.

 

I was hoping for people to gripe about the time they overpaid for whatever, but it definitely derailed a little bit...