Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 66901, member: 57463&quot;]<b>For Love or Money?</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>We usually do not discuss this for a couple of reasons.&nbsp; Security is one.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Pride of ownership is another.&nbsp; For commodity coins, like the 1909-S VDB mentioned, the prices are pretty much the same for everyone ... except when they are not.&nbsp; We have all lucked out on good deals, being in the right place at the right time, having a dealer who knows your interests, cherrypicking, being first in line at the Mint, and so on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Prices change over time.&nbsp; Some things get cheaper: prices on numismatic collectibles have run up and then collapsed several times in the last 40 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then, you have the collector ethic.&nbsp; I am an ANA certified exhibit judge.&nbsp; At our conventions, we give awards for museum-style displays of numismatic material.&nbsp; The rules and the judge&#039;s guidelines lean against the person who walks into a coin store with a wad of cash and walks out with a rarity -- and no understanding.&nbsp; Anyone can do that.&nbsp; We give much higher marks to people who search, who study, who <u>create</u> <u>value</u> by adding knowledge to the material.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is hard for some collectors to understand.&nbsp; The famous 1804 Dollars are just &quot;novodels&quot; specially made coins for friends of officials at the Mint.&nbsp; The Russian imperial mint had a little industry of its own doing this and the word &quot;novodel&quot; is a Russian word that is applied to fakes like the 1804 Dollars, the 1913 Liberty Nickels and so on.&nbsp; What gives them value is the <u>writing</u> about them.&nbsp; Most collectors think they buy &quot;what they like.&quot;&nbsp; Actually, they buy what they&nbsp; know about.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>So, if you discover something in your pocket and you research it and write about it and show why it is special, you have <u>created</u> <u>value</u>.&nbsp; That counts for a lot in numismatics.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in