I was just wondering about a few things in the hobby currently and wonder if others will agree or disagree with me. First 2010 pales in comparison to 2009 as far as excitement goes. I think the '09 Lincoln Cent started it all off with the four new designs, commemorative dollars, and then the Chronicle Set. I remember all the posts about which designs people liked and those they disliked. Remember the prices those first rolls of the Lincoln Cent were going for initially on ebay? I would think they were probably the most flipped coins ever produced by the mint. Day of the Chronicle sale start the mint's computers crashed. It was the first year the ASE proof was not made, alot of collectors in my opinion rightfully so got very upset. Looks like this is going to be carried through '10. The ASE burnished dye (or whatever you want to call it) was not produced after only a three year run, and it looks as though it is going to continue in at least '10. There were also other things new like the '09 quarters and the changes to what we knew as the Sacagewea Dollar. There were also other things that didn't get made if I remember correctly in the gold coin arena. If they did get made the mintages were low and/or way off from their normal release dates. Then HSN sold thousands of coins stating the mint would not be making any more satin finish coins, stated there was a press release by the mint stating this that I could never find. Guess the mint changed its mind on that one. The '10 quarters are very ho-hum I think by current collectors, but more importantly new collectors as well. The '09 mintages on all or most coins for circulation were down compared to previous years. I may be wrong, but these low mintages resulted in many mre threads last year as compared to this year. Second thing I feel has changed are coin prices on ebay. I'm not saying a very good price cannot still be found on ebay on occasion, but I seem to notice changes. It appears to me the number of "Buy It Now" coins has definitely increased, I suppose this is due to ebay's increase in charges. Starting toward the last part of last year it really started to be noticeable to me a coin could be purchased for less from online coin dealers than ebay on a routine basis. Ebay is still the best place I think to buy a common coin to complete a set, say a '62 D Lincoln cent or whatever. Last year and this year as well PM prices have created alot of attention. What I notice about this is with all the attention to silver and gold an opportunity has evolved to get some non precious metal coins at very good prices, like Large Cents and Half Cents. I haven't had the opportunity to check how Buffalo Nickels and V Nickels are doing. One coin I have read about some in '10 that is quitely getting more attention than previous years is the three cent silver. I may totally or partially wrong on this, curious if others see it this way or not.
I suppose after the excitement of the Lincoln cent's 100th birthday last year this year may seem kinda boring. But, I personally think this years batch of quarters is nicer than last year's territory quarters. But, for what I collect, it has been a very good year. Guy
Also for 2009 a big fake coin scandal was broken up coming from china and canada... coing world features 2 8-10 page article about it.. also with the advent of the new cents the hobby was opened to new collectors all over ...
Don't forget folks, Lincoln material is always hot. I believe this year will be no exception. 11/18/10 Will see the release of the Lincoln Presidential Golden Dollar. I think it will be a hot commodity along the lines of the material of 2009. Also, this year has seen a fast buy-up of the Boy Scout Commemoratives as well. I think we are seeing less moving among older coins due to the flurry of new product coming out of the mint recently.
This is just a guess, but maybe the increase in BIN's on eBay is an indication that those sellers are taking a beating using the general auction format with minimum opening bids. Even one of my favorite sellers of French medals is using more BIN's with somewhat hefty prices. Of course, I can often make him a reasonable offer below his BIN which he usually accepts, but some of the pieces are priced way too high for me to even consider this alternative without offending him. Also, I think it's about time that the Mint consider a new design to replace the Kennedy half. After all, the Kennedy hasn't been released into general circulation for 10 years now. I'd really like to see them come up with an allegorical design reminiscent of the 19th century instead of using another dead President. Perhaps that would encourage the Mint to put more of them into circulation, since it has to be produced by law, rather than bagging most of them and keeping them in the Treasury vaults. Chris
