Now I Am Getting Worried.... The Future Of Our Hobby

They did them in gold because trying to make them in silver would have required new legislation to be pushed through a congress and Senate that were already gearing up for a presidental election cycle. Hard to push something through, But making them in gold they could use existing laws already on the books.

Hence the reason why there is some much interest in pushing errors and varieties today. Those CAN still potentially be found in change/rolls.

As mentioned they are doing it now, and they did do it in the early years of the state quarters as well.

The problem is if you don't have ANY limit you can have the problem we had in 1995-96 during the period of the Olympic commemoratives. Between those and the other commemoratives authorized those years we had 46 commemorative coins during that period. (15 in 94, 10 in 97, a total of 71 commemoratives in 4 years) That was one of the reasons the no more than 2 programs a year rule came about.

 

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Yes, that was my point. The mint was prohibited from doing it and couldn't make it happen. But making smaller poorly-struck examples in gold was not the right move either.

It should not have been a surprise to anyone that 2016 was the year that came immediately after 2015 and two years after 2014, if you catch my drift. Election year aside, this is for a centennial. They had a century in which to plan, and there is literally no excuse for what they ended up doing.

 

I had to take a look, because I bought the same Pride of Two Nations set. There's no photo yet of what the enhanced reverse proof silver coin will look like, but the same issue in palladium apparently has an obverse using the Mercury dime design. I wonder if the silver issue will use the same.

 

That would be great but I think they are just putting an SAE Maybe it will have a different mint mark

 

One problem with this question here, is a small and biased sample size.
You are asking people who enjoy the hobby, which is already a small subset of the population. And many want to fight for the future of the hobby rather than look at it objectively.
Times and tastes and fads and popular hobbies change.
Not that long ago bowling was incredibly popular. (50's, 60's, 70's) Now the people participating are 1/10 that number. More and more establishments have closed, with Bargain Bin dollar stores taking their place and the only bowling left for the most part are leagues.
One day in the future there will be no more coins. It could be 100 years from now but it will happen. Coin collecting will go the way of 19th century butterfly collecting as people will move on to other things. It's completely natural. Nothing lasts forever.

 

I'm not likely to be a buyer either way, but I'm at least curious enough to keep an eye out for what the design will be.

 

Things like this are seldom planned more than a year or two ahead. They didn't have a century, they probably dreamed up the idea of the centennial coins no more than two years ahead, and probably less. Most commemoratives are not planned more than two years ahead. Look at the Bicentennial coinage we knew the Bicentennial was coming for a long time, but the coins were authorized just 14 months before production was to start. The Peace dollar was conceived of in 1918, but no requested for design submissions were made until the end of November 1921 for a coin to be issued before the end of the year. Why didn't we get the S mint circulation quality ATB quarters until the third year of the program? Because no one thought or planned for them. No for the most part these things are planned at the last minute. This is also why some of our commemorative are late for the anniversaries they commemorate. The 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights was marked in the 202nd year. The 250th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson was marked in the 251st year.

 

That's our government! Leave it to the politicians.

 

Right. That's the problem. They did have a century. They wasted most of it. Just because waiting until the last minute is the status quo does not excuse it. It just means they are really bad at planning.

 

Why would they have planned for the centennial of those three coins? Do you think they should be sitting around now planning for the centennial of the Jefferson nickel or the Franklin half? How about the bicentennial of the Morgan dollar? Better get right on that it's coming up in just 58 years.

 

I'm not worried about the hobby, although I do think there could be a shift in what's sought after. Personally, I love modern coins, and when I begin completing US issues I'll likely focus on modern Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels, Washington quarters, etc. I'll collect an older series or two, but only based on which design I enjoy most.

Will

 

Nah I'm not literally saying they need to start planning 58 years in advance or any specific number. But the year of? Yeah that's way too late. The prior year is pushing it. Probably they should be planning 2-3 years out at a minimum to account for the speed at which these get approved. Ideally they should already have specimens struck the year prior to release.

In three years it will be 2022 - they should have already looked for topics to commemorate from 1922 and 1972 by now. History is not changing - the material is all out there. They should especially not be overlooking the history of the US mint and coinage.

 

Completely agree. Especially this day in age technologically, they can set a calendar reminder in their smartphones, have Alexa remind them...…..."Alexa, set a reminder for this day the year 2119 to...….."

 

I think it would really be great, and a boost to the hobby, if the Mint came out with some actual circulating coins for the commemoration of the upcoming sestercentennial, or as some like to call it, semiquincentennial. They've got about six years to plan for it.

 

Maybe it would help if the next Secretary of the Treasury had coin collecting as a life long hobby as part of his/her resume?

 

I'm an old yung-un in Eastern Washington and could so far only find one coin show per year? The majority of the shows are on the West Coast, nowhere here did I find a participant in the "Great American Coin Hunt" I'm disabled and can't travel to the coast and I don't drive . Most people use plastic money and banks seem to only have newer issues, and coins & currencies seems to be quickly becoming a thing of the past. I believe that I'm responsible for all of it, so I take full responsibility for the downturn in the hobby, lol. I love this hobby I'm just a little bit late @63

 

I think the biggest shows on the East Coast where I live are the Bay State in MA and FUN in Florida.

I'm unaware of any big coin shows in the NYC Metro area, though there are lots of weekly, monthly, and quarterly shows. And with auction houses like Stacks and other memorabilia dealers in Manhattan available to service the Big $$$ in NYC and the surrounding area, I guess anybody coming to NYC doesn't need to appeal to the general public.

PNNA: Peons Need Not Apply !!

 

I think smart, ambitious younger numismatic leadership in the ANA and other organizations is imperative. I think there is a lot of potential out there. I think the ANA is trying, but many state associations need fresh ideas.

 

The coin shows in my area do seem well attended. Two separate coin clubs sponsor 2 major coin shows per year and they both still seem pretty active. But they teem with the usual old men, some kids and very few women.

The video posted earlier discussing sports cards said that "the hobby has priced kids out" and that has always been true for coins, yet many kids persisted anyway. What kid can afford a St. Gaudens double eagle? I remember being frustrated reading Coinage as a pre-teen thinking that I'll never have any those coins that cost $100, $500, $1000, and the hobby still really showcases and romances these. But at the time I could still get some interesting things in pocket change, so I kept filling folders.

The high end part of the hobby will always belong to the older crowd because it takes real money to participate at that level. And it's really difficult to say if collecting pocket change as a child leads to a desire to purchase $1,000 coins later in life. But as physical money becomes less relevant over time, and it likely will, the low end of the hobby may find itself harder and harder to maintain.

 

The coin collection hobby leadership needs to accommodate the collectors at the beginner or more economic level and consistently spend energy on the "double gold eagle collectors" or the Laura Sperbers of the world.