American Pickers Don't Know the Values of Coins

Caught the tail end of an episode. They had a handful of small aluminum tax tokens. From Illinois.



They kind of look like the above. Really small and aluminum, usually they had a value of fractions of cents.

They kept calling it "fractional currency" and it was mentioned that it was "some of the rarest coins the US ever minted".

Fractional currency? Coins are not currency.

Most of these are worth 10 cents to 25 cents apiece, the ones above are anyway...and that's on a good day.

Then to really take they cake, they said "some are worth $25-$30".

The lot? $350 to $400.

Ya....right..

The episode was "trading up" if anyone wants to watch it.

 

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They never claimed to be coin experts. They are pretty knowledgeable about bikes and motor cycles. You also realize the show is staged.

 

I would like to disagree and say that coins are a form of currency (currency being a form of money). Like bkozak33 said, they are not and do not claim to be coin experts and maybe they meant few produced when they said rare.

 

I know they are not experts, however the girl "researched them".

 

Say what? Maybe you need to spend more time reading posts here than writing them. Currency is paper, coin, and ANY form of material used to pay or negotiate debt, trade, etc. Shells and rocks are currency for some.

 

Actually, it depends on the source you use. The U.S. Government (i.e. the treasury at http://www.treasury.gov/services/Pages/coins-currency.aspx makes it a point to say that The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces currency and the U.S. Mint produces coins.". But if you go to Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency you will find that says that "refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation, as a medium of exchange, especially circulating paper money. This use is synonymous with banknotes, or (sometimes) with banknotes plus coins, meaning the physical tokens used for money by a government.". Perhaps it's because "currency" is the medium of exchange, and if you can make an exchange in coins, then that possibly could be considered "currency".

 

Still, who the devil gonna trust a reality TV show to 'price' coins or currency.......

The General Public, 'cause that's who watches this senseless dribble.
When I think of 'picken' I think of this guy. He just lost his dear wife a day or two ago.

 

That is certainly a fun show and it's one of those hard-to-find-these-days shows that you can enjoy with the family. You've got to love some of the characters Mike and Frank come across in their quest for antique archaeology. I wouldn't pay much attention to the pricing on anything they find unless you are considering buying from them.

 

When you are dealing with the law Currency does not included coins. When it refers to currency it means printed obligations intended to circulate as money.

And the "US" didn't mint they tax tokens, they were produced or ordered by the states and from private manufacturers. The "US" not only didn't mint them, they tried to force the states to put a stop to them.

 

First off that and the rest of the job/bus shows, are unreality shows! I have a friend that was on that show during the 1st season. All the people on screen sign a non disclosure paper till after the show airs. Then they can talk about it. His segment lasted about10/12 minutes. It took 8 hours to shoot the segment. IT IS COMPLETELY SCRIPTED! all the B.S. Banter by the hosts and sellers are on cue cards.

They even went to his friend that sent his information in to be on the show. His part was to run them off his property! They even had the signage with them. They had somebody come before hand and check out what they wanted to buy so their "Research Department" could write the info for the banter. They also did it for the items they didn't want. Including the faux bidding. They also did the directing, Look surprised, angry, shake your head.

As to the woman working for them she is just the eye candy, to get people to watch and talk about her and her tat's. What research she may have did for them before the show was mostly on the net. Have you seen the adverts for their website store with a lot of repro stuff they sell. I would think they are making more off the stuff they sell online, then the items they are stocking their two locations.

It is no different than any of the pawn shows. Do you really think he would keep Chumly working all these years if he was really that slow witted and stupid! If you notice in the opening shots they show the store packed with tourists. and when they shoot there is very few people in it. Just like the incident with the young women they hired, That had Chumly drooling, They fired her and tried to make it a news story after they found out she was a P*RN actress! I don't think many people really thought, that the production company didn't do a background check let alone know about her acting before they hired her. I'm sure she is working and if she does any p*rn,in the future. The tag line on DVD cover will read. "See her as you never seen her on pawn stars!"

Does anybody really think that Hard core pawn, people can run a multi million dollar business with all that family crap going on. Last week the owner was on the local and cable news shows humping his book on making money. What they don't show on the show is it is an armed camp to get in the building with armed guards in lot, or it was when I was there with somebody a couple of years ago. And from the state of the area around its location it probably hasn't improved.

The storage space shows are are rigged, even the metal detector show Dig Wars is a bogus UNREALITY.
So it isn't surprising that they have no clue what some items are or what they are worth. When you use flea bay as a price guide, what can you expect.

Case in point a common arcade token from the Wednesday company, on flea bay it is listed as "Rare & Vintage" priced for a couple dollars to $9.99 It is neither rare or vintage! but one metal detector posted it and anybody else that had no clue followed suit.

You have to remember TV is the land of make believe, There is a disclaimer on almost every TV show ever made. It is for entertainment purposes only, in the fine print of the credits, speeding by!

 

*All TV shows are more or less staged;
*No big deal the pickers couldn't appraise correct value; they're pickers, not coin collectors/ numismatists; give a bunch of tokens to anyone, same would happen;
*Girl from Pawn Stars was never in any rated movies, just took few nude pics; she wasn't fired from the shop, owners offered her to stay;

Still love all these shows, lots of interesting items

 

BTW Dave Hester was just ordered by the court to pay A&E and their production company over $100k in legal fees after his lawsuit was dismissed recently. That "Storage Wars" has really laid an egg recently with their new characters - so it won't matter that they prevailed vs. Dave Hester.

 

I rarely argue anything you have to say, Conder, but this time you are wrong. Currency, by US law, is any form of money used to lawfully pay debt. I suppose we could delve deeper and assume the Constitution doesn't even allow for the printing of money based on Art.1, S.8, but thats beside the point.
http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/currency/
http://thelawdictionary.org/currency/

 

I rarely argue anything you have to say, Conder, but this time you are wrong. Currency, by US law, is any form of money used to lawfully pay debt. I suppose we could delve deeper and assume the Constitution doesn't even allow for the printing of money based on Art.1, S.8, but thats beside the point.
http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/currency/
http://thelawdictionary.org/currency/

 

I like those shows anyway... good mindless fun

 

Professional wrestling is real though...right?

Okay, in the back of my mind, I know that much of reality TV is staged. Regardless, I for one, still enjoy watching it (Am. Pickers/Pawn Stars) and being informed on a variety of unusual items that I would not normally encounter. For the same reason, I will occasionally watch Antiques Roadshow. I think it's cool to see the hidden gems that people have hidden away and are now collectable.

I do wonder if the people who pitched these shows ever knew how scripted they would become. I assume at one point the guys from AP and PS intended it to be legit, and little by little, the producers made their changes. *shrug

 

Oh well, the only thing I like about that show is Danielle and some of the signs they run across. That said, it is an amazing show in comparison to Honey Boo Boo!!

 

If I could produce one of these TV shows, it'd be called "Unboxings". A show were different people place orders for various objects (including lots of coins, paper money, bullion but not only those), eventually showing how they get them in auctions (bidding wars ), then receive them, unbox, and talk about each object for a minute or two. Interesting and educational.

 

What is amazing is that enough people will watch shows like HBB and that nasty family of Bruce Jenners ex wife daughters!

 

If these shows were not staged and edited, they would be incredibly boring and nobody would watch them.