Changing Face Of Coin Collecting

I've been collecting coins for 10 years and yes the grading finer points, die states, varieties and IDing fakes (or not) in this hobby are all still very daunting aspects. The dealers and fellow collectors here willing to teach and give advice, the chance to learn history through the older coins, and the chance to find that special coin that I'm taken with and didn't know existed before, is the reason I love it. I may be like an older collector but I definitely think there's a lot of us out there, regardless of age.

 

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I'm talking about the so-called "Gold Dollars", Presidential, Native American, Innovation, etc.

 

I understand, now. If it is a Gold composition coin, the requirement and accounting is the same, I think, whether it is stored in Ft. Knox or a vault under Manhattan (I saw the movie) or a secure US. facility, if not publicly disbursed.

If it is not Gold composition, then I don't know, because the Jesuits only care about Gold. It is what they do. I do know some of the darn Xavierians got their hands on some of those, though, and God knows what they will do with them.

 

Having been a CPA for over 30 years, I have watched over state agencies almost the entire time. I have found that even in state agencies, they are as honest as they have to be, but don't get caught.
I was told a story many years ago about a business executive determined that he needed an accountant. After several months of searching, he found 3 candidates, so he decided to interview each to find out what type of accountant they were.
During his interview of the first candidate, he asked him (or her), "How much is 2 and 2?" The first candidate answers with pride, "Four." the executive told him, "Thanks." And the candidate was ushered to the door.
The executive then interviewed the next candidate and asked him, "How much is 2 and 2." The second candidate proudly answered, "Four." The second candidate was also ushered to the door.
The executive was getting disappointed, but he had one more candidate to interview. As with the previous candidates, he asked the same question, "How much is 2 and 2?" The third candidate took a little time to think about it. He finally decided, "How much do you want it to be?"
The executive was so excited that he jump out of his chair and told the candidate, "You've got the job."
I have decided that coin collecting is similar to the answer of the third candidate. Each coin we have is worth what we want it to be. We do not need to worry about the grading and other collectors value system. Our coins are worth what we want them to be.

 

Being in statistics most of my life, I found the same thing true - what do you want the statistics to show?

 

I stopped collecting stamps when it took a full sheet to be a plate block. I think it was the 50 state flags. Proceeds helped me buy a house.
I still play with coins and have fun.

 

A coin with a poignant history, for those of you who may not know about the story of this coin or its owner.



And the story: The Gold Coin That Saved a Soldier's Life – KIRO 7 News Seattle

Not explained in the linked story -- the H.L. Hunley was the first successful combat submarine -- sunk a Union ship in the Civil War. More info on the H.L. Hunley: Overview - Hunley Submarine History - The Friends of the Hunley

 

I went to go view that coin when it was recovered from Captain Dickson's pocket. I love it when coins tell history.

 

In recent decades the USPS has put out over a thousand new stamps per decade. That would be over 100 new stamps per year. That doesn't count airmail. Very expensive hobby anymore.

 

I have been collecting on and off since the early 1950s. If i see something i like the looks of i keep it. I do have some collection of 1,2,5,10,25,50 cents and 1 dollars coins. The way i see TPG is that they are very good at telling if it is real or not. the rest is in the eye of the beholder. My old way of looking at coins is NICE, GREAT, and SUPREME.

 

The 1950-D nickel was hard to find because a couple of dealers were able to hoard a large portion of the mintage. One of them claimed he built a house from the money he made.

When I was a kid in the early 1960s, the 1950-D nickel retailed for $35 in early 1960s dollars. That would be $273 in today's dollars.

 

Just a thought from me, IMHO.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my Dad, soaking some stamps off envelopes and getting others through large and inexpensive lots. There were albums with inexpensive covers and often a bunch of stamps came with them. The contrast of the colorful stamps to the beige album pages was often pure eye candy.

Wow, were those stamps beautiful in comparison to many other objects in the daily world! Newspapers were black and white and the ink came off. If I am remembering correctly, even Life and Look magazine were mostly black and white. Television, at least in our house, was always in black and white.

The stamps came from places that were, back then, far away. "Hey Dad, what do you know about this country." Sometimes a stamp led one to the encyclopedia.

Much as I don't like the word "special" as much now since it suffers from "special inflation," stamps were special. Maybe even the word singular would apply.

There's so much eye candy in our world today that lessens how different stamps used to be from the other things in daily lives. Magazines became full-color and with great photography and design. The covers of books became more brilliant and with full-color photos splashed onto the covers.

And, of course, the phones.

Are these factors related to lessened interest in stamps? Well, correlation doesn't imply causation. But things are definitely different today.

 

My early life could mirror your description above. One difference, we didn't have TV then. Today most snail mail comes in the form of junk with a bulk rate printed on them. The next generation of potential stamp and coin collectors are too busy with cell phones and computer games. Stamps are very costly too. I could get a Plate Block of 4 for 12 cents at the PO. And, the postal clerk would hold some interesting ones for me. I think both hobbies are winding down. Sad.

 

We didn't know that. The only news we got was the radio and the newspaper. They didn't write about coins and stamps much. Special publications were very expensive.

 

Not at all, multi tasking is easy. They do however use those phones and computers to make their purchases or auction bids as opposed to driving all over to coin shops that may or may not look down on them for being younger

 

I think we may be talking about two different age groups, those that are too young to have resources to bid and purchase and those that do have and are already in the hobby. The younger ones may not pick up the hobby because their life-style is not conducive to encountering it.

 

We were talking about the same. People just always underestimate teens and forget that your grandparents were saying the same thing about your generation. It's the same cycle always, it takes money to collect and generally you have to be older to have money aside from all the tictok/youtube/streamer/podcast stars. You also spend a lot of time chasing partners as a teen.

The technology exposes them more than any generation in the past for them to pick up later on if they want which they will just like every generation has

 

OK, so with 6 children and their spouses, 13 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren, I am one of those stereotypical adults that underestimate the youth of today.

 

You can take it personal if you want even though it wasnt, but the fact remains that as long as collecting has been around the elder generation has said the young generation will be too distracted by something and not be interested. If forums were around a 100 years ago youd see the same thing.

However younger generations get older and get interested in different things different taste etc. We were all kids once than teens then adults. It's the same cycle. As long as there's not some economic disaster more than enough will end up being interested at some point in their life.

 

Well again, to keep things moving, I will declare you the winner in this test of opinions.