Do you miss the old days?

I'm talking about a time when...

The only people who had access to the Greysheet or COIN DEALER NEWSLETTER were Coin Dealers. This publication started as a Bid/Ask reference for dealers only, not the general public or collectors. This was originally a guide for dealers to use to buy and sell to each other and the public. I feel making it a publication available to anyone hurt the hobby.

Collectors were able to trust a dealer to grade a coin correctly and charge a reasonable price for the coin.

So-called experts and dealers did not push coins graded by a company owned by a dealer and helped the new collector learn to grade coins for themself.

A person would not give advice as if an expert when that person had only been a collector for a few years. It takes many years handling coins to know anything... period! I have well over 30 years in the field and am still learning.

If you remember the old days (20-30 years ago) please add your comments.

Ben

 

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I've only been collecting for about five years, but I think that the internet has hurt the hobby much more than the greysheet. Due to bad experiences on the internet (ahem...no pointing fingers) with buying and selling coins, I think many people have decided not to get into the hobby. My 2 cents....

 

The internet has helped alot of people too....if not for the internet alot of us wouldn't know each other and we wouldn't be here talking about this topic either.

Speedy

 

True Speedy, the internet has also helped very much, it's just a matter of postive vs. negative.

 

True, true.....

Speedy

 

Ahh, but if it weren't for the internet, I would not know you fine folks.:hug:

 

Actually, I still buy coins from dealers, with whom, I've bought from for years.
No picture, just the dealer's description, and his word that what he is offering is what I am buying.

Never felt a need for a price guide. If I felt the coin was worth what was being asked, then I would consider buying it.
If not, and I still was interested, I would propose a counter offer.

It is sometimes amusing when youngsters talk as if they have years of experience.
I tend to ignore advice given by those that have only been in the hobby for a short time.

Many, if not most, are well intentioned young folk, who just want to be part of the group.
Nothing wrong with that.

 

I am still a relatively young collector at 25. Already I have seen a big difference in the relatively few years I have been collecting compared to what it was like when I was a young kid.

It was still possible to get decent coins from circulation in the 1980s. When my parents owned a restaurant in the early 90s, they routinely found silver in their register. Wheats were extremly common and it was still possible to pull mercs, indian heads, walkers, and SL quarters. Those occurances were very rare, but you might find an IHC in a box of pennies once and a while.

Now the chances of finding something interesting in circulation is slight to nil. I found a total of 4 silver coins from circulation last year which is well above the average.

I think the whole coin collecting industry is a farce and it has been too commercialized for my liking, especially when the TPGs are setting the prices.

 

The internet introduced me to the hobby so I have nothing but thanks for that - but I also am the kind of person that goes out of my way to educate myself on a thing and learn fast from my mistakes. I'm no expert on coins but I am one on the internet. *grin* I've been navigating it's fine waters now for over ten years.

 

I believe the "good ole days" are a complete myth! Sure things have changed over that last few decades, but I believe that for all the things that are "worse" now there are comparable things that have improved.

 

As to youth not really knowing to much, that depends on the youth. Age does not the expert make. Some youngsters take the time to read, read, read and study. Many older people are at times to impatient to learn something new. My grandkids can hook up any computer. Again that all depends on the subject, the youth, the elderly that is to be compared. For example the doctor that a few years ago saved my life with a new procedure in cancer treatments was in his twenties. A coin dealer I mostly buy from at coin shows is also a rather young person in his 30's.
Myself, yes I really do miss the so called good old days. I was around when my favorite coin was new. The 1943 Lincoln Cent. I collected about 26 rolls of those things and lately I'm wondering why. I still remember the 1916D at the local coin shop for $1.50. I bought a lot of them but remember that $1.50 was a lot of money then. Gas for your car was abaout $0.23/gallon but who had enough for a full tank? No one knew enough about coins to be a collector. Stamps were kind of the biggy in our area of the world. The worst thing we did with pennies was to play a game called lagging. A group of kids (now called gangs) would stand on the sidewalks and pitch pennies toward the second crack separation in the sidewalks. The nearest coin would win all the rest. We probably dented many valuable pennies back then. Indian Head Cents were also common in change as well as buffalo Nickels. Mercury Dimes were the only thing around. But who could afford to save them. Also, I had my youth, health, lousy grades in school and lots of fun.
AHHHHHHH yes the good old days. If only we had money enough to enjoy it all.

 

On the positive side, I think the incredible amount of information available for free or for a fee today makes collecting intelligently far easier today than at any time in history. The competition added by the internet also seems to have made coins more available and pricing more rational. It' still possible to overpay or get cheated, but probably less so for anyone careful about it.

On the negative side, it is far more difficult to put any sort of decent collection together out of circulation coinage; partly because armies of collectors instantly remove anything of quality from circulation and partly because the US Mint basically produces slugs masquerading as coinage.

All things considered, times have probably never been better for collectors than NOW.

 

Times may be better for collectors now, but I would have been a collector anyway even though the information wasn't freely available. It is a family tradition to collect coins, my parents and grandparents got me into it at a very young age when coin collecting was still something that wasn't as mainstream.

I had a lot of hobbies that were kind of rare for a kid my age as well. I had a computer at my house ever since I was a toddler. I grew up building them, fixing, and playing with them. When our family first got a computer, less than 1% of the population had one, could afford one or even wanted one. My parents had a computer store in the early to mid 90's. I don't mind that it's commonplace for computers to be around, it actually helps me because computers have been able to advance much quicker and I have more people to talk to them with.

Coins on the other hand, are a bit different when it comes to the hobby. There is only just so much to go around. I for one, think there are too many cooks in the kitchen. I do enjoy the company of fellow collectors. I also enjoy the wealth of information I have found on the internet and the freedom to search for any coin in the world on my computer. It has never been easier to buy the coins you are looking for. That is if you have deep enough pockets.

 

There are a lot of we slug collectors having a hoot. While circulation was stripped of anything of much interest back in the mid-'50's and even the common coins were gone by 1970 there has never been much interest in the slugs that replaced them and the rare slugs circulate alongside the distressingly common slugs. Oh sure, if you collect these you're just a slug collector but trying to put together complete slut sets might be nearly as much fun as coin collecting. Best of all is that those outside the hobby don't know they're slugs so you can still claim to be a coin collector or even a numismatist.

While I specialize in the quarter sized slugs there are still slugs that are the same size as most of the old coins and they're all fun to collect.

It's probably slabbing that has killed slug collecting. When they first started slabbing coins they refused to have anything to do with slugs. Then when they started registering sets they refused to register sets of slugs. Now days they'll grade and register them but it leaves no inexpensive slugs for new collectors. Where does a newbie get started? What we need is a series of circulating slugs in a convenient size to get people started but this may be little more than a pipedream. Even were it to come to pass there would be those who would point out that they're still merely slugs and collecting them will never make anyone a numismatist. It's so ironic that real coin collectors believe that it's the grading companies which have created all the very high priced slugs when very much the opposite may be true.

I'm with GDJMSP, these are the good old days. They're good old days not only because we'll remember them this way regardless but because there are so many good things going on and so many new people enterring the hobby. They are good old days because we are currently defining the future and the how coins are discussed and traded on the net. They are the good old days because the next generation of collectors are sharpening their teeth and learning what's necessary to be a numismatist (or a slug collector). These are the good old days because future collectors will look back and see the myriad opportunities to make fantastic collections that most overlooked because they were too close to the trees to see the forest.

 

I remember the old days well,Keep in mind that the grades were in general and "SLIDERS" were commonly sold as UNC. and your AU you sold was down graded to VF!!I like the gradeing standard these days, but the MS-60 to higher grades get out of hand.The gradeing books are great, everyone should use them to see. Keep in mind that some of you complain about "Slabbed coin grades" but the year and die used for that coin are fully known by the graders!,Example.. I have a 1833 Bust quarter, it is known the die was rusty and had pot marks, also the reverse was the 1834 B2 variant, also known that the strike was blurred or weaker on some areas,(strike, not wear!) so mine was graded AU-50, but looking at it you would think EX-Fine!!. so I like the system today way better than the "Good Ol Days".Slabbed coins also keep some dealers from the chance of down-gradeing you!!.

 

Have been collecting for 40 years....these are the "good old days"..!!

 

Well

Clad coins generally have less value than slugs...