Gimmick coins in this month's World Coin News.

Am I the only one who doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the contents of this month's World Coin News. Here is a sample of the "coins" described therein.

A half ounce silver 50 cents colorized Daffy Duck from Tuvalu.
A heart-shaped gold-plated silver 10 Yuan from China.
Four colorized 50 pence Beatrix Potter characters from Britain.
A diamond-studded 10oz gold coin from Australia.
A domed one ounce silver $5 from Australia.
A totem pole shaped "coin" from Palau.

Who here really thinks of these are coins? To me a coin is something to be used in commerce, usually a flat disk but occasionally polygonal. None of the above would ever be considered as something to be used for a purchase and none of them is commemorating an event. They are nothing more than expensive trinkets designed to dupe people out of their hard earned real coins.

 

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How much you want to bet the premiums are?

 

there are so many suckers out there to buy these kinds of coins. they might be interesting to certain people for something different. the thing I have a problem with is the outrageous prices they put on them.

 

whats crazy is that they have buyers for these kinds of coins!

 

You only have to look as far as the coins offered on eBay to see silly, gullible people paying top dollar for crap.

 

The coins you mention always remind me of Elvis plates or Elvis painted on velvet.

 

They're coins and people do enjoy them and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

Your definition of coin must not coincide with mine. What word do you use for "overpriced trinkets put out by government bodies to fleece people of their money"? Oh, yes! I remember: lottery. Not much difference.

 

Those are collector coins - not issued for circulation of course but for, you guessed it, collectors. Obviously some, or many, people like them. Austria for example has a series of €3 collector coins depicting animals that glow in the dark. Gimmicks, sure, but judging by the long lines at the mint HQ in Vienna, they hit a nerve. The good thing is, nobody "has" to collect such pieces ...

Christian

 

So you are in charge now of what people are allowed to collect and enjoy?

I just choose not to be demeaning to other collectors for what they enjoy. It's getting rather old seeing people demeaning others every day for what they enjoy to collect

And yes they're coins whether you like it or not

 

The first sentence in the Wikipedia entry for Coin:

A coin is a small, flat, (usually) round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government.

 

Note the word "primarily" and have a look at the rest of the text. Sorry, I don't quite get your point - are you trying to suggest that governments should stop issuing collector coins because you dislike all or some of them?

Christian

 

No reason to stop issuing them. Just don't call them coins. I'm okay with coins which genuinely commemorate things, that's been happening for millenia. But Daffy Duck? You have to draw the line somewhere.

 

Do these coins hold any kind of value over time? They have zero appeal to me.

 

They all hold value over time it’s just a question of how much. Some have actually gained value and some have stayed about the same but not very many of them ever fall so far that they turn into pure bullion.

It seems that generally the early coins in a series do the best where by the end of the series it’s either the themes that people are meh about or they’re just kinda burnt out on it in general

 

Believe me, the pieces you list in the initial post are beyond my personal line. But where one draws it, that is an individual question or decision. For some, even the last couple of US presidential dollars are not "really" coins, as they were made for collectors only. Others will argue that, with a little bit of good will , you can use them to make payments.

Many "coin issuing entities" have become pretty good at marketing and selling collector coins that are quite (or absolutely) unlikely to ever show up in circulation. And many or most mints are supposed to generate a profit. Besides, there is no strict dividing line anyway: The proof version of a "regular" coin cannot be had at face value but will usually be accepted at stores etc. while a silver collector coin issued at face will not.

Here in the euro area we have a fairly clear distinction: There are circulation coins, commemorative (€2) coins, and country-specific collector coins - see here (PDF). And yet even some €2 commems are issued in surcharged coin cards only.

Some "odd" collector coins, be they from Canada or the Cook Islands, have interesting new features, and we may consider them to be designers playgrounds. Some features (Germany for example has a series of collector coins with a translucent color polymer ring) may even make it to "regular" coins one day. Others will continue to be gimmicks.

There is that good old saying about somebody's trash being somebody else's treasure. Again, no strict dividing line.

Christian

 

the vending machines at my walmart store takes dollar coins.

 

Different strokes for different folks!

 

Back when such machines were installed or modified, there was some hope that the US might one day have circulating $1 coins. Same with USPS and public transport ticket machines. And since the specification of the current NCLT pieces are still the same ...

Christian