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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;MentalVirus, post: 1471258, member: 33177&quot;]Sorry but in my mind that absolutely means it would have to meet or beat inflation.&nbsp; Or by definition, it has absolutely not retained it&#039;s &#039;value&#039;.&nbsp; Value is buying power, not a dollar amount.&nbsp; Fiat currencies will eventually always go to their intrinsic value which is pretty much zero.&nbsp; Some just do it quicker than others.&nbsp; Well if in 30 years, $670 dollars only has the buying power that $275 dollars does today then has it retained it&#039;s &#039;value&#039;?&nbsp; I think most reasonable people wouldn&#039;t have to deliberate very long on this one.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It is an interesting topic and ideas and good reading in this thread.&nbsp; Aside from amassing a pretty good collection of silver, both &#039;junk&#039; and collectable precious metal coins, I have looked elsewhere.&nbsp; Places other than the US.&nbsp; I think everyone is correct that demand drives the price or value of coins.&nbsp; Well where does that demand come from?&nbsp; Aside from very rare/expensive coins I personally think a very large portion of it come from the middle and upper middle class!&nbsp; This is were I imagine most of us fall.&nbsp; Well what is happening to the middle class in the US?&nbsp; And what will the size of the middle class be in 10, 20, 30 years from now?&nbsp; It appears to me that, for the recent past, the middle class has really been the ones getting the beat down.&nbsp; The wealthy are as wealthy as ever and our trend towards a welfare state and handout for everyone, including those that might just not feel like pulling their weight (also a growing segment of the US).&nbsp; Who&#039;s footing the bill?&nbsp; The middle class is taking the biggest beating.&nbsp; I think that alone has a possibility to cause some of the demand to go down in the future, at least from people with in the US!&nbsp; Hobbies like collecting SL dimes might not seem so important and &#039;fun&#039; of you can&#039;t afford to put food on the table, fill your gas tank or buy clothes for your kids.&nbsp; In fact things like this will also potentially cause more supply as people sell collections to make ends meet.&nbsp; Maybe this will all be a faded distant memory in 20 years but times are tough for a lot of people and it may very well get worse and last for quite a time.</p><p><br /></p><p>That brings me to my next idea.&nbsp; If demand is what drives the prices and the middle to upper middle class provide the backbone and majority of this demand, then WHERE is a good place to collect?&nbsp; Think of third world or developing counties that are (or have been) predominantly in poverty but are quickly and constantly growing economically?&nbsp; Don&#039;t these countries also have drastically expanding middle classes that all of a sudden aren&#039;t so worried about putting food on the table?&nbsp; That all of a sudden have something called disposable income?&nbsp; The capacity for people to become collectors is expanding quickly in some places while it may very well be decreasing here.&nbsp; Now one thing for US coins is that they are popular the world around and demand from these &#039;other&#039; places may very well maintain the prices of US coins and even help increase them over time, hard to say either way.&nbsp; But I will say that there are &#039;other&#039; places like this with coins that are relatively dirt cheap in excellent condition even though the have extremely low mintage&#039;s compared to what most here think are low.&nbsp; Major circulated coins with mintage&#039;s in the 1 to 2 million range, silver coins (non circulated) with mintage&#039;s as low as 800, 1500, 2000, 5000 are not hard to find.&nbsp; It does not take much of a demand increase (relatively) to create a very healthy return on your investment if you are talking about mintage&#039;s this low!&nbsp; Relatively modest increases in demand will send the prices through the roof.&nbsp; I know that Chinese coins are getting more popular and I suspect that this has something to do with it.&nbsp; I have other ideas/places and thoughts that interest me and that I keep an eye on.&nbsp; Some I genuinely enjoy collecting and might never get rid of but others I watch because I think there is a lot of potential in the future.&nbsp; And hey, if they are silver and you can buy them for not much over spot and they have relatively very low mintage&#039;s, how can you possibly go wrong?&nbsp; There&#039;s a good chance that silver alone will maintain it&#039;s value if not better down the road anyway.</p><p><br /></p><p>MV[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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