Demise of numismatics

Certainly, if they never leave the community they will always be thought of as worth that since no other sets of eye would ever see them to see if something has been missed. I'd bet @Insider has some fakes in his collection that he could sneak past local auctions not that he would

 

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Bravo!

 

Exactly. The simple truth that some don't realize is that collectors no longer need a local shop, or a show, or a coin club. Why would anyone want to go somewhere and spend their time and money getting there to feel unwelcome? The attitude you speak of is very prevalent which is why all the physical coin events always have the same accepted demographics. Collector demographics as a whole are very very different than what you see in person and that won't change as long as that attitude persists.

Really in the end it's the show or clubs loss we can find most of what we need online or communicate with dealers online where our age will not be looked down upon. We actually have a lot more money for coins since we don't have to spend any on flights and hotels to go to shows

 

Good for you. You should! But my having raised a 22-year-old son who ALSO loves numismatics (but real hardcore scholarship in it isn't YET his strong suit, but he IS the ANA's youngest current certified exhibit judge [European coins]) gets me, FINALLY, some advantages. One is that I CAN and DO take his 22-year-old noggin to national shows. We're planning the F.U.N. January trip now.

By the way, both @baseball21, and @CamaroDMD, my son is 22 and he somehow manages to fit in with the coin show and coin club style just fine. Maybe it's YOU that are the problem, eh? He's CONSTANTLY online but he never would want to do numismatic dealings there.

 

edired This is an area that has some of the main numismatic experts in the nation. We have several Farran Zerbe Award winners and we are the U.S. hometown of Classical Numismatic Group. Here and London. We are "the" U.S. epicenter of numismatics. There have been more than seven "named collection" sales out of this area in just the last few years - and NONE of them had slabbed coins UNTIL they were prepared for the "Idiotarium" that is the Internet.

Oh, I do have one local buddy whose lifelong specialty in U.S. coins IS fakes. It's his thing. Fakes and rare Civil War tokens.

 

..or much more likely, ADDED. That is the typical attitude around here about Internet dealers - they are largely, and based on my experience, correctly, regarded as con men. The buyers at the sale tomorrow would mostly rather buy a raw coin locally than a PCGS coin online. Including me.

I send coins to NGC, LOTS of them. LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of them. Most of them purchased raw from local Pennsylvania auctions. Now, I'm picky, but I've NEVER had one "details" graded or come back fake. Not even one, ever. Most come back higher than my guessed grade.

 

I would rather go to Berlin.

 

Yup, me too. Bucket list.

 

I will. From where I live (Western Germany), Paris for example is closer than "our" capital - but for the World Money Fair I usually go to Berlin. Actually it's both a little sightseeing and a little coin-seeing, hehe.

Christian

 

Just shows how misinformed your group is about the internet. The vast majority are honest. It's also a lot easier for someone to see through nonsense than it is at a shop or show

That's gotta be one of the only times anyone has ever referred to middle of nowhere Penn as that. There's either some chest pumping going on here or if everyone really does share they know everything there is to know attitude then all you did was convince me things are slipping through from time to time. That I know to much for it to ever happen to me attitude is exactly when it does. Coins are no different than everything else in life, no one is right 100 percent of the time

 

I've got two 'registry's' with PCGS, but I use them for more of a 'cataloging', tool rather than competition to see who has the most money to get the best of the best, sir. It's a lot easier to look up the registry set, which keeps things together a bit more neatly than my spreadsheet.......

 

It's a small percentage of coins that are just flat out mistakes in first tier holders. Those would be subject to the guarantee as they weren't the initial submitter if it was a label error, but it's much harder to over grossly over charge someone by a thousand or thousands with the slab than it is without.

I’m sure you can find examples of it happening, but compared to an all raw coin environment it’s much harder for those shady dealers to operate with graded coins

That does sometimes happen. If you did a full history of some of the coins in the upper level ones some have been in others before.

 

Perhaps the INTERNET causes some of the confusion as to market size and collectors. Some dealers have adapted well, and see activity from stores both landed and Internet. Just as Amazon has diminished many retail stores, the coin activity on the Internet may also. There is little doubt, current coinage is less interesting in many ways. Foreign issues, many which are old and historical could be a new area for US collectors and dealers. If we try to stay in the same place we were 50 years ago, yes the markets will diminish over time.

 

My name came up. There is a lot of truth posted on both sides.

I don't enjoy reading about the accomplishments of "chest-thumping" old men. So, all I will say is this:

@baseball21 is correct: I have some fakes in my collection (US and foreign) that have been certified as genuine in the past. Possibly 20% of the counterfeits and altered coins that should not fool a TPGS are deceptive enough to sneak past local auctions "raw."

 

But, Is buying Mint products true numismatics?

 

Yes coins are coins. They don't have to be old to be collectable or enjoyable. Every coin was an ultra modern at one point. Some of the high grade classic examples we have today are because of collectors at the time collecting moderns, the same will hold true in a few hundred years for the current moderns.

 

I don't think a fellow can go wrong getting high grade low mintage, but to each his own.


James S