Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 20454, member: 68&quot;]The most exciting thing about coins to me is their ability to pass from person to person randomly.&nbsp; They pick up little signs of their travels and travails as they go with each exchange sloughing off a little more metal.&nbsp; They can get &quot;stuck&quot; in a piggy bank or behind a laundromat washer for years and then resume what they had been doing.&nbsp; Each coin has many tales to tell about where it&#039;s been and how it got there.&nbsp; It tells about the entity which issued it and their stories taken together tell about what people are doing.&nbsp; It is these coins which are most exciting and which make the best collections for me.&nbsp; The greatest thing about US (and Canadian) coins is that they circulate unimpeded. There aren&#039;t large numbers of people grabbing out one of everything.&nbsp; There aren&#039;t many people saving &#039;68-D quarters (or &#039;91 Can. quarters) because they aren&#039;t often seen.&nbsp; My favorite collections of these are in the finest grades largely because they are more attractive but also because it is only in the higher grades that the coins are scarce or rare usually.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>This doesn&#039;t mean I don&#039;t like or collect the NCLT issues. I do.&nbsp; Some of these are made in small numbers and are very beautiful.&nbsp; They often commemmorate important events or fit in with a collection theme.&nbsp; I just don&#039;t feel compelled to collect one of each of these like with the circulating issues.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s curious just how ignored the circulating coinage has been&nbsp; throughout the world for the last half a century.&nbsp; It&#039;s not only collectors who hold these coins in utter disdain, it&#039;s also been the mints and the authorities which issued them.&nbsp; This attitude has led to the creation of large numbers of rarities and it is an attitude which has yet to be completely dispelled.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Mints could do far more to promote the collection of circulating coinage.&nbsp; My mother remembers a pamphlet she got with child rearing tips when my brother was born that suggested getting kids interested in coins.&nbsp; It can&#039;t be located but she remembers it was the GPO and she encouraged&nbsp; him to collect.&nbsp; I merely followed in his footsteps.&nbsp; While this sort of program may not be indicated the mint could at least make all the coins available for sale.&nbsp; Other than in the mint sets they just don&#039;t sell circulation cents and dimes at all. They don&#039;t offer any folders or albums except for the special issues, despite the fact that the private sector didn&#039;t offer albums either until just this year!&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There are lots of things the mint could be doing and lots of very inexpensive quality improvements which could be made to facilitate or encourage people to collect.&nbsp; When you consider the high face value many people would accumulate then one has to believe it&#039;s in their self interest.[/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