I don't get it..What's the point of buying

Hobbies are meant to be fun. Looks like some people don't get that. I think too much of coin collecting has become about making a profit.

I can't stand toned coins but I don't come on this forum saying how buying toned coins is for morons. To me a star should be assigned to a coin straight from the roll not a coin baked, kept in a bank bag or put in cardboard.

 

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Otherwise, they are too much like work. Anybody want more of that?

 

Which date?

 

I only buy low balls if it's old and expensive. I never buy fine or good grades.
It depends what kind of collector you are, if you don't want to bust the bank, get lower graded coins.

 

If you check Ebay in 'Completed Listing' you will find recent examples of 1881s PCGS MS66 coins selling in the $225 range. A little research on you part (look up Lowball Morgan prices) will take you to PCGS articles showing sale prices in excess of $550.00 for P01's. The PCGS POP Reports show over 13,000 1881s, PCGS graded Morgan's in MS66. Those same POP Reports show a grand total of 2 (Two) 1881s Morgan's in P01. Here is a quote off the PCGS article regarding another P01 Morgan also with a POP report of only 2, "This 1897-S Morgan Dollar graded PCGS Poor 1 sold for $565 on November 2010. The same coin in Uncirculated PCGS MS63 grade sells for under $120. And there are many more PCGS Poor 1 examples in the market realizing even more." There are at least 7 dates that are 'Unique' (POP 1), I am sure they would trade well into 4 figures.

 

WOW!, A scrap silver coin for $550 What should I do with my MS63 93-S?

 

Out of curiosity, I checked out the PCGS coin price guide (which should be taken with a grain of salt, of course) and for at least two of the dates the most expensive circulated grade was PO01. While I think it'd be cool to collect the really low graded ones if they were cheap enough, I think I might choose an AU58 over a PO01...

But it would be kinda neat to own the sole PO01 for a certain date I must admit.

 

Put it in your pocket and in a decade or two you will have a REAL coin.

 

Even more so if you picked it up for melt!

 

The quicker method would be rubbing my 1895 PR dollar against my 93-S for 10 hrs a day. How much would a P01 95PR and a P01 93-S fetch in an auction?

 

It seems to me that there would be a lot of ways to accelerate wear artificially so that no one could tell the difference. For example, you could put a coin in a cloth bag with other coins and then put the bag in a tumbler. How would that be any different than coins wearing against each other in somebody's pocket? In any case it would be easier to recreate than toning.

Toned coins have been popular for a lot longer than lowball coins. If toning could be easily recreated then somebody would have been doing it by now. The lowball craze seems to be newer, with a smaller subset of collectors. If it becomes more popular I could see a lot of newly created "lowballs" coming out of the woodwork (or rock tumbler...).

 

Give both coins to SuperDave, he can fix them. He can put em' in his paint shaker and you can post both of them tomorrow on Ebay.

 

Perish the thought!

 

Any early P01 gold commem should fetch a million bucks!..

 

I guess the real part I don't get, because lowball is merely a subset of it, is doing coin collecting for ANY competitive purpose, aka registries. "My set of so-and-so's is the whatever-est set ever assembled." So the heck what? The jabronie who first turned collecting into a competition is the guy whose neck I'd like to wring.

 

Although the word gamification may be relatively new, the concept has been around as long as I can remember: turning an activity into (or adding to an activity) a game component. Both as a way of adding an additional component, and forcing a degree of focus.

 

I have never found collecting (mostly) small round pieces of art to be missing any worthwhile component, and a near-death internal injury experience a bit over 5 years ago provides all the focus I'll ever need or frankly want. For me, it's never been about having what the other guy doesn't have and/or can't get. In my view, that's already sick enough. It's about challenging myself and my son to think of ways to enhance the process of the hunt, and establishing relationships along the way. It's the only part of my life I allow to get all "Kum By Yah".

 

Yeah, well, that's pretty much unique to you, Kurt. Thankfully (at least in part )

The fact is that the incredible success of the registry programs - despite an overall decline in hobby participation (any hobby) - says gamification has become an important part of the hobby.

Otherwise, why would the lowest pop and highest pop coin sell for such premiums over the n-1th?

The beauty of a hobby is that YOU (or I) don't have to "get IT" (for various ITs) as long as we allow those who do get "IT" to do "IT".

I do think low-ball is somewhat manufactured... my primary interest is in circulated coins, but I strongly prefer natural circulation wear, vs. pocket pieces or casino usage. I want my 1872 3 cent sliver business strike in XF45 not MS68. But hey, that's me.

 

I'll tell you guys, if coin-collecting were like this when I started, I'd have never started. I'd have said, "To hell with this, I'm getting the hell out of here."

 

Pretty much my view of life