I really do love collecting coins and paper money, but ever since I've seen all the errors out there, suddenly EVERYTHING is special! ("It looks like Benjamin Franklin has indigestion," "Should that dot be on the penny?" and behind the guy at WalMart, "Whoa, sir, may you hold that $50 up again?" I get thrown out... not really), but you get my point-- I hope. Does anyone else have any complaints about our #1 hobby? :hail:
No complaint but I feel sorry for all the error and variety collectors. They must go crazy trying to keep up with all the old and new examples that keep popping up. But you have to admit that the statehood quarters and L&C nickels have sure added some excitement to that side of collecting. And now here come the presidents. Here we go again!
I collect errors and varieties but don't get caught up with this latest craze with the L&C nickels where every flaw recieves a fancy name on ebay and the claim made "Hottest new error find". I'll just stick to doubled dies and RPM's, OMM's, overdates and the like. If I find some of the others in rolls or change I'll keep them But I will not pay a premium for them. Most collects would, if you found a 3 legged buffalo (Nothing more than a over polished die) in a dealers junk box at a coin show I'm sure you would pick it up. Same here for the 'Speared Bison' nickel, I don't classify it as a true error but if I find one I'm keeping it. Don't sweat the small stuff and remeber its all small stuff!
I don't collect errors but have gotten some RPM's and wouldn't mind getting some more...I have one that is a R8...at least that is what the RPM book says...I don't know if that is right or not but I only paid I think $15 for it....ANACS MS64RED Speedy
Oh yes....I do have complaints--- HYPE is my number one thing.... And bad grading services are number 2 Clad Coins are about number 3 Speedy
Speedy, I totally agree with your complaints about HYPE and bad grading but what about clad coins? If the U.S.A. minted in silver and gold the coins would disappear around the world bad money always replaces good money!
Well you see I don't collect clad coins...or at least not much... I collect pre 1964 coins mostly and that is because clad coins just don't have any value really...I know that there are some that are really high in value but they just don't do it for me like a nice ol silver coin. Speedy
I get some odd looks from friends when I tell them that I am going to a coin show, and sometimes getting lots graded and into 2x2's gets a little tedious, but it is definetly worth while.
Young collectors like me have a disadvantage because gold and silver are high and all the good coins have been snatched up by collectors long before they were even born. There hasn't been any good coins in circulation since I was born basically. Everything is clad garbage and they are little more than tokens IMHO. The mint has not made a real coin since 1964. State quarters, mint and clad proof sets, westward journey, sackies, etc. are not going to hold their value like other coins. Once the hype does down, state quarters are going to be absolutely worthless. So many have been minted that it's too easy to put a collection together of moderns. It might be a good idea to put a collection away because who knows if they will have any value in the years to come. Based on experience, I have doubts that moderns will ever hold much of a premium. Sackies will probably never be worth more than $1. There are too many collectors out there and there is too much competition. My family started collecting coins back in the mid 1800's. If I had my Grandfather's complete colelction, it would be worth thousands. When I was a kid, my grandparents had barber halfs by the roll. My Grandfather was born in 1911, he collected and hoarded coins for years and years. When my Grandfather went on vacation, he came home to find someone broke in and cherrypicked his collection. His gold was gone and who knows what else he lost. Years later, I found his 'junk' coin collection which was about 70 ikes, 16 barber halfs, a morgan and a 1921 high relief peace dollar. The old coins are so collectible now because there isn't enough to go around to everyone. They were minted when the US population was much smaller. In the 1800's coins were minted by the hundreds of thousands or millions, now billions upon billions of them are minted every year. There simply isn't enough to go around. I don't see a future in US coin collecting. The only moderns I really collect are silver proofs and bullion coins. I have at least a 75% complete collection of kennedys, but I have not bought an album for it yet because clad coins really are not that interesting to me.
Pyrotek - It's all a matter of perspective. Silver and gold are selling for the same price that they did in the 70s and 80s. They are dirt cheap even though they aren't quite as cheap as a couple of years ago. You aren't at a disadvantage. You have an advantage in that the silver/gold coins you purchase today will probably appreciate much more than they did for the collectors of the past. A lot of silver and gold coins sold at multiples of current prices about 15-20 years ago. It may be true that the super high grade coins are high priced [I think collectors overpay for them], but there are numerous silver and gold coins in lower grades and even uncirculated grades that are highly collectible and far more affordable now that at times in the past. So get started before it's too late!
Hey, I like tokens!!!! Better check the price sheets. You have to realize that a Sac dollar hasn't been released into circulation since 2001 and I know some of them, especially some proofs are bringing good prices. As a young collector I think you need to broaden your collecting interests a little. I think you are dwelling on the rare and expensive side of collecting instead of just enjoying coins as an enjoyable and exciting hobby. I don't collect coins as an investment but because of the thrill of finding good old coins still at reasonable prices and the history behind them. Who cares if modern coins are not rare and tripling in value overnight, it would be nice, but it's not going to happen, you just have to enjoy the hobby for what it has to offer. As far as I'm concerned all the old, current, and future designs are and will be pretty darn exciting and I have learned to totally enjoy and be thrilled with what I CAN find and not be obsessed with what I CAN'T find or afford. Just don't wait too long or you might just miss some great things that are happening in the coin world. Just look at the recent re-designing goin on, we may not like all or any of it but at least someone is finally listening and coin designs are changing. How long have we waited for that? Keep an open mind and don't dwell on the composition or rarity of a coin, just have fun and think positive. I think we all wish coins were still 90% silver, but that isn't going to happen again either!!
One thing you should also keep in mind is that the coins that are now worth hundreds today were worth only face value the few years after they were released. So really its hard to predict the future of coins untill years later when there is a demand. I think its a little cose minded to say there is no future in US coins... thats almost like saying there is no future in the stock market.
Not all the time....look at some proofs....1895 Morgan comes to mind...I don't think it took years for it to go up....I recall that in 1909 when the mint ran out of 1909 (Don't know if they were S's but they were VDB's) coins people started selling them that same year for $.25-$1.00....I think it was right at the first...people could go to the mint and get them UNC RED cents for face...but then they ran out I think just a few months into it...... Speedy
I have to disagree with most of this! To state that clad coins will have no value because the base metal is not rational. Base metal has never been the driving factor on big prices, rarity has, and there are a number of moderns that have a fair amount of rarity going for them, hence they have high prices. Collecting is not about bullion, but about condition and rarity. An old dime has a whopping 50 cents of silver, but if it was RARE and is in great CONDITION, it may be worth thousands. So, are we to believe that the difference in value of base metal of a half dollar on that dime is what makes it important and collectible? Makes no sense. Look around the clad world and there is a lot of conditional rarity, as well as relative actual rarity. Sac's are a great example! They are a circulating dollar coin with about 3,000,000 minted per year for the last 3 years or so. That is a rare coin by most any standard, and will become valuable over time. How valuable? Well, who knows, but early indications are that high grade recent years have tripled or quadrupled in value in a couple of years! Coin collecting will not go away, or even be damaged because of coins being clad common metals... that makes no sense. Some day, today's common coins will be the 100 year old collectibles. Remember, in the late 1800's a flying eagle penny was just common pocket junk. Not worth collecting right? No silver, no gold... just junk. Man, I wish I had a few dozen rolls of BU's today saved up by some junk collector!
I love silver and gold coins, but there is no objective reason why clad coins won't be highly prized collectibles in the future based on the factors discussed here by others. The one thing the modern coins have going against them is that there are more sophisticated collectors around with better methods to preserve large numbers of coins in high grades.
I was born in 1954 and all coins in circulation were 90%, except nickels and pennies. No one thought anything of it. Then came 1965 and the hoarders got real busy. So year by year the 90% stuff got harder to find. And that was the joy of going through pocket change. A lot of 90% still got found and the hunt was so much fun because I was finding actual "coins". Today I am 65 and still am an active collector. But I have to admit that as hard as I try I just can't get interested in clad tokens. I pick up a 90% and I have to admire it no matter the condition because it inherently has value, simply because it exists. I can look at a MS65 token anything and as beautiful as it is it simply has no real value. Today we could use buttons for money and the value would be the same. I feel bad for the youngsters out there who like coins but if clad tokens is what they collect, well that's not much of a collection. Enjoying pretty tokens simply because they are pretty is like going to the bank and asking for a roll of uncirculated tokens and admiring each on because it's pretty?? I think that's how we got Manhattan from the Indians, with some pretty beads and junk. If enjoying pretty tokens is fun for you then have a ball. But I pity those who never had a chance to experience the joy of silver floating around like air. Going to the bank and for $10 I got a roll of new quarters. Going through and pulling out the truly exceptional coins was a joy that so many will never know. And paying 25 cents for a BU65 quarter was very nice. Oh well, like George Harrison sang "All things must pass".
