I am one of those people suffering with the dreaded disease known as "Collecting", and I concentrate mostly on artistic avenues. Cameos. Wood carvings. Carvings from Bali in bone, antler and fossilized whale bone. Etc. I am new here, and seeking advice. This seemed like an active Forum with a lot of helpful people, so here goes... Coins frustrate me because I can never seem to find the right educational sources. I get caught-up in watching those "Coin Shows" on TV and then I check prices online - only to discover the shows seem to be way over-priced on every single coin they offer. Except maybe their sets which you can't often duplicate easily. So I do not understand the value of coins. This brings me back to my Number One Rule on buying anything "collectible": Buy what you like because you may have to live with it a long time. Indeed, most of what I've collected may never appeal to another family member if/when I try to hand them down. Selling anything is hard for me - like giving up a child! So I am always more attracted to the artistic value (to me) rather than any perceived "investment". But I know there's a limit to everything - and having sold art in a past life - I am well aware of "The Greater Fool Syndrome" of collecting. An item typically has a value only when you find someone else willing to give you that amount to obtain it. Which brings me to a series of questions I hope the members here can answer. Forgive me if I'm repeating ages-old questions that you may be tired of hearing. I have no desire to irritate anyone. 1) I stumbled upon several series of Mint of Poland / Niue coins, such as the new "Artemis" from their Goddesses Series. Love the artwork! But do these coins ever appreciate in real value? Buying them near Issue Price - can one assume they will rise over time? 2) In concert with that question, the one I really fell for was their earlier "Poseidon" issue. But I see it at $1400 to over $2000. Is this typical of these types of coins? I see it more as a "carving" or "collectible" - and not so much as a coin. But I don't know if Coin Collectors regard them, otherwise. 3) Do all of these "art" coins - I'm not sure what the collectors actually call them (Rounds?) - get laughed at by the Coin Community? An example might be Marriage Watches being sold on eBay. They look absolutely gorgeous, and are very expensive. But the true Watch Collectors scoff at them, while the people buying them pay crazy amounts to obtain one. Ten years from now, I wonder if these items might be laughed at as a nuisance niche market. 4) One big question - How often do coins match the crisp details shown in what I believe are renderings of an upcoming coin? All the art seems doctored. And when I can find an image of the actual coin, itself, I am often disappointed. Details just are not there. Facial expressions may not be as beautiful. Do those of you more experienced at this agree? I mean, it's a bit like looking at the graphics used in advertising the latest PC or X-Box Game - only to be frustrated that the actual game looks nothing like that. 5) Of course, I discovered these as I was pursuing information on Hobo Nickels, Hobo Dollars, etc. Wow! I'm amazed at the variety, but there are only a few artists that I prefer - Roman Booteen, Aleksey Soburov, and Howard Thomas (so far). But does the Coin Community write these off as "novelties"? 6) Finally, there are reproductions of some of Roman Booteen's work (The Trap, and Gold Bug, as examples). Does the Community feel that reproductions - even though they use real coins to try and match his details - are mostly worthless, in the end? I am a bit surprised that the individuals buying the true original even agree to such reproductions, but if they receive compensation it might be a way to actually pay for that original if all items in that series are sold. Thanks for any insight you can offer. I do realize I may have answered all my own questions with my reference to "The Greater Fool Syndrome".
From my experience, there are a few tiers of these art rounds. There's the Franklin Mint collector sets and such - usually sold either in a collector case or with pieces coming every month. These have near zero value. There are also plenty of smaller collector mints doing the same type of thing that are worth absolutely nothing. Then you have bullion art rounds, which can be collectible with some premium, depending on the source. Some even have series which can be quite popular - it is debatable whether these series will hold their premiums over time. Either way they are still bullion and hold their value as bullion. If you want to pay a premium for it, make sure it's something you enjoy. I have a few contemporary bullion art round sets myself, like the Zombucks and Privateer 2oz rounds, etc. They are silver rounds I like to look at and enjoy, so I consider I already got my money's worth, but so far they have held their value or appreciated a bit. My two cents. Also stay away from copper art rounds. You'll never get your money back with those.
I'm not sure I can help you too much, but I will say that a lot of us are rather skeptical of modern products, and/or reproductions. That said, there's a wide variety of us involved in coins, with different enthusiasms, and that's just fine! Welcome to CT!
First, welcome to the neighborhood @Guy Owen ! When it comes to artistic renderings, I'm a sucker for French medals produced by the 19th century masters. ~ Chris
First of all, welcome. For art lovers in coin collecting, there are a lot of different areas to look at. You mentioned many, @cpm9ball mentioned older medals. Medals used to be very popular, but have not been as popular for maybe 40 years now. I think older collectible medals could be a great fit for you. Buy a good book on the series, read about them, become educated in the market, THEN buy some. Another area not talked about that may be attractive for an art minded collector is ancient greek coins. They are literally miniature pieces of art, in very high relief. Some are even signed by master sculptors. I know its a lot of front, but I always found that going to a large coin show and seeing items in person is a great way to see what area of collecting "speaks to you" and what garners your interest. Just do not forget one critical step, and that is education. A good book is just as critical in coin collecting as any other collectible field.
THIS has been my biggest problem. What are the better books concerning coin collecting? I cannot seem to find anything that is not tied to a website trying to push specific "special buys" on me -- which is like a dog chasing his tail when I do not know what I'm doing. Is there a Bible, of sorts, for new collectors? Hopefully, which explains what to watch out for by way of mistakes? I imagine myself like a deer caught in headlights whenever I watch those late night coin shows on stations like QVC -- much like those watch shows that push watches that the "collectors in the know" would never touch. I imagine most of you see the same guys hawking coins like that and just grin. I do try to check the claims but it's difficult. I do get the feeling from these replies that the intrinsic value of the art coins is purely the value when melted down. So a 2-oz Silver Coin of .999 purity becomes about $37 - and they are asking $250 to $2000. The "art" value is the difficult part. I have lots of art pieces no one else desires, or understands. Would most of you say: "If you pay over spot price for the alloy, then the real worth beyond that cannot actually be known." Assuming, of course, that no one tracks such values of these art coins. Maybe someone does (other than each owner). Thanks for the Replies!
First, I would never entertain any offer from tv. To put the coins there, they have to mark them up DRAMATICALLY. You will ALWAYS get better pricing from dealers. Second, if you are interested in a particular series, ask here on CT if someone knows a good reference book. You are asking for an overall book on "coin collecting". Someone may have a suggestion, but I do not overall. You can educate yourself by reading lots of posts here. As a perspective, I used to collect US coins, and now ancients. I have about 1000 books about coins in my library. I have nowhere near as many as I need, but ancients are like that. You may fall in love like @cpm9ball with 19th century French medals. I am sure there is a good book about those. As for art bars versus melt, it depends. Some art bars are collectible, others are not really so they go down to their intrinsic metal value. I am not up on that market, so you would have to ask others. However, some do have pretty strong markets, and there ARE people here who could help you if that is your interest. I know quite a few people on CT collect silver art bars from the 70's, one specializes in Coca Cola ones if I recall. I bet you there is a book that covers the topic. Like I alluded earlier, HUGE field. You can and will get lost if you look at "everything artistic" because nearly everything in numismatics is artistic. Look around, see what really stands out to you, and start reading posts here and asking questions is the best advice I have sir. Btw, another area, if you like art, is to search "conder tokens". They are tokens made in England in the 18-19th century. Full of artistic beauty, hundreds of designs, and many references covering them and relative rarity. If I pursued coins more for artistry than history, I would be drawn to them.
If this were the case, then wouldn't you expect that a Renoir or Degas or Michelangelo should only be worth the cost of the paint and canvas? Of course not! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ~ Chris
The “Art Coins” made by foreign mints (like the Mint of Poland, Perth Mint, CIT, etc) can have a strong collector base (usually not so much on forums that are more US focused or classic coin focused). There are many interesting designs and plenty of areas to collect. Prices can be all over the place (from more affordable to ultra expensive) and second market value can be equally variable. Many don’t hold their value over the long term (there are cases where some have increased in the short term but then dropped back to issue price or lower after a while). Part of the reason is that there is just too much supply. At one point (around 10-12 years ago) there were only a few major series, but with their success many others joined the bandwagon and began making their own. A great example is the Mongolian Wildlife series. It was fairly unique and well received when it started in 2007. The first coin even won the annual Coin of the Year prize. The market value shot up from an initial $75 to several thousand! With the success came many spinoffs (similar looking coins from other mints) as well as counterfeiting. This coin still holds some value but is well off it’s peak years (now they go in the $300-$500 range). Many of the following coins issued in this series (it was still going into 2019) have really dropped off and can now be had in the $75-$200 range (which is less than issue price for some of them). here is a link to the Mongolian coin I referenced: https://www.coin-invest.li/coins/gulo-gulo/
In general, I would say that various Art Coins can be great to collect. I would suggest to do some research on the ones that interest you and see what prices are like now (compared to issue price and compared to other series). Sometimes a series can appear to be hot, but it might just be hype since it is newer. Other times there can be sustained value. Remember that profits are never guaranteed with any coins and to only spend what you are comfortable with (if you can’t afford to see the price go down, then you really should not be buying/investing in these coins). Edit: another question was how close are the coins to the pictures. I’d say the renderings you see are often the best case scenario and the coin will not look exactly the same. Some can be a bit disappointing but most are very nice in hand (at least in my opinion from the ones I’ve seen in person or owned).
Thanks to all the Replies. All good advice. I think I've pulled away from this idea for now. There are a few that I really do like, but some of the prices are very high. The Roman Booteen reproductions have me a little baffled, too. The "Gold Bug", for example, started off with a 22kt gold inset accent, but it was later switched to 24kt and I see most ads are simply repeating the write-up in the original release announcement (or so it seems). But the bidding on these types of coins - and the Mint of Poland itGoddesses Series (much less the previous God Series), in particular - do, indeed, go all over the place. I think this hobby might just be too expensive for me. But thanks to you all.
