Is China an untapped market for selling u.s. Coinage?s

I am 100% with you. I see many posts on coin forums wanting coin prices to increase, presumably for what a particular collector owns. I want coins (including the series I collect) to lose value so that I can buy more with my budget. I have never understood the mentality of collectors who aren't liquidating their collection yet seem to prefer paying more.

And on a related topic, think about how US buying has inflated and priced out local collectors elsewhere out of their coinage they would like to buy. I am one of these US buyers but its substantially if not primarily TPG which has resulted in this outcome, just like with US coins. It's life but is that really good for the hobby elsewhere?

 

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I understand sir. I also understand India will most likely be next. In a few years they will actually have more people than China.

However, what data at all do we have of them having a specific interest in US coins? When previous countries industrialized and got richer, like Germany, Japan, etc. I do not recall seeing any huge demand for US coins from this newfound wealth. I remember seeing increased demand and prices of THEIR coins. Most people want to collect coins from their own country first. If I were a collector in China I would want to collect Chinese coins first, then coins from nearby countries that look similar to Chinese coins and had a shared history. I would probably stay away from overpriced countries like the US, Britain, and other very expensive series.

Again, I am a pragmatist. Its not the first time a large country has become much more rich. In the past this has never translated into increase US coin demand. Why are we so certain it will this time, besides wishful thinking? Maybe the beanie baby market will explode instead.......

 

There literally isn't a country in the world where the local population cannot afford to collect their local coinage at much higher prices in much larger numbers NOW, given the price level and supply. So more new millionaires is still irrelevant absent a cultural change except for pure random chance. If lack of money is the reason, why aren't more of those who can afford it doing so now? The reason is because they would rather spend their money on something else.

There is no comparability between art and coinage either, except maybe for a very low number of ultra elite coins (what most others term "trophies"). Most coins are mass produced while most art is not, certainly not high end. If Chinese or other foreigners pay a lot more for the coins at the very top of the preference scale, it will make no difference to others.

In at least some instances, I also don't see that the most expensive coins - especially US - are competitive versus non-coin collectibles either. As an example, the most expensive coins are in some instances within the estimates I have seen for Russian Imperial Faberge Easter eggs which are held in much higher regard except by coin collectors. No coin is in the same league to an object like that.

 

Whatever anyone here thinks, the TPG companies have thrown their lot in with the Chinese and other Asians: PCGS and NGC have performed their own "Pivot to Asia" with their new Submission centers there.

For now, the Chinese seem to be more interested in Chinese pieces from their own long history of minting coins. Will they be a market for U.S. coins? Only time will tell.

FWIW, World Coins and currency (including USA) are a popular collecting focus for members of Korean coin clubs...

 

The PCGS and NGC moves into other countries are primarily to capture additional volume of non-US coins, not market US coins elsewhere.

As for collectors buying coins from outside their home market, this is a universal practice, but only at nominal or relatively nominal prices. There is a difference between foreigners buying low priced US coins (as in up to the $100 or $200 price point in my last post) and the price levels implied by the OP. The latter has a probability of essentially zero except for "investors" who need a relatively liquid market of which US coins is by far the largest.

Consistent with the self evident lack of cultural affinity, in my observations, I have noticed only a very low number of series with universal or least widespread appeal. Examples include ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Judaica but even then, not to my knowledge outside the western world. Spanish colonial and British also have a reasonably wide appeal. German, Austrian and Swiss collectors seem to collect each others coins going by listings on Sixbid auctions, once again because of cultural affinity.

There are presumably others but the point is, outside of US buyers who collect from everywhere because the price level is much lower than for US coins, the percentage of non-local coins bought by others above (relatively) nominal prices is very low. Or if it isn't I am aware of no evidence to support it.

However, the difference between the series I listed and most other coins and series is that these specific coins have a universal appeal or a segment of other buyers which most coins lack. Like most others, US collectors are disproportionately US centric and in my experience definitely assign higher merits to any number of coins which no foreign collector ever would. This is especially true with the exaggerated emphasis on expensive coins which is disproportionately the result of minor quality differences reflected in the TPG grade which, aside from the value usually only paid by a US collector, either matter much less or not at all to anyone else.

With US coins in particular, unlike practically all others, the price level has also been inflated for so long that it discourages hardly anyone elsewhere from even bothering. I believe foreigners would show some greater preference for US coinage if they were a lot more affordable but the fact is, they are not.

 

On the not of the tpgs in China. Many collectors over there have cleaned their coins so many come back in detail holders. I wonder how many real trade dollars are still over there tho

 

I know someone spending quite a lot of money on US coins - and he's not an expat But I agree with what you're saying. US coins are for most European collectors/dealers I know just expensive world coins.

 

If the Chinese wanted US coins they'd just make their own.

Like they already do. They even make waffled half dollars to sell the a very gullible US mint.

 

China has a parasitic relationship with the USA, they must laugh at how gullible we are as a nation.

 

oh boy...

 

They're importing our jobs and our wealth.

According to at least one Chinese official the problem with the US is that it imports too much communism.

 

oh boy...