I have been musing on the subject of coin investment and have encountered some thoughts which I would like to bounce off a few folks... Throughout my life I have been accustomed to using bills and coins as a means of conducting transactions. Indeed the feeling has been that coins have always been and always will be. However in the last twenty years I have used hard currency less and less, to the point at which now I rarely carry cash and even more rarely actually use it. I actually don't remember the last time I did. Probably once in March. And when I am at the grocery store for example, standing in line, I don't often see other folks using it much either. It seems natural to assume that as technology snowballs people will use less and less of it at an ever increasing rate. Could it become obsolete, or nearly so? Coins have been around for at least 2500 years but I am not certain the trend will continue. If so (not in my lifetime of course) what of collectors and collections? I probably collect coins because I have seen them all my life, they are a part of everyday life which connects me to the past in a most unique way. When I hold a 100, 1000, or 2000 year old coin I can get a sense of what the original owner must have felt like because I have lived the experience. Without that personal experience I probably would not have started such a hobby. How many others can relate to this I have no way of knowing. But if the core of true collectors diminishes and we are the heart of the investment market, what might happen to the value of my collection when I leave it to my nephew or grandchild? To me this is a sobering thought. As I begin my foray into what is becoming a most enjoyable hobby I am becoming compelled by the aspect of my stewardship of the coins which I hold while I am on this earth. But I am increasingly aware that I need to savor and enjoy them as much as I can each day. I can't really afford to buy a lot of coins, but there are probably a lot of collectors just like me out there who are doing what they can. I just hope our efforts mean something 200 years down the road. -Illya2
If you search this site for "Collectors and Investors" you will come up with 24 topics in .66 sec!!! Speedy
Thank You for sharing your thoughts & insights Illya2 I believe people collect coins for different reasons, history, beauty, to make more money, hording & some are simply born to it. And only they know why. But here in this recent "boom" it seems to me that most folks are just blindly grabbing as much as they can. It does my heart good to hear someone who's thoughts run parallel to mine.
At some point electronic money will have taken over as much as it can. There will always be some transactions that people will prefer to use cash for convenience or privacy but by this time cash might be so little used that it is simply eliminated. There will be some huge impediments to completely getting rid of cash; the market will always supply that which is in demand. If the government quits making money so they can keep closer tabs on what we're doing then a market will develope to supply it. This could be highly counterproductive since it would prove even more difficult to track without banks and the fed to monitor it. I do believe you're correct that we're headed in that direction and do believe that it will be the death knell fot the hobby, but it's likely much farther in the future than it would seem.
