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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 18405, member: 68&quot;]This is truly a world wide phenomenon.&nbsp; People all over the world simply quit collecting new coins in the latter half of the 20th century.&nbsp; The exact date varies by country and perhaps the only exception is Russia.&nbsp; Even here though there are many dates of the Soviet coins which are extremely difficult to find.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In England there was a huge drop off in saving new coin in 1920 when the sterling coins ceased and the coins became only half silver.&nbsp; Finding these coins in high grade (even XF) from the early and mid-1920&#039;s is extremely difficult.&nbsp; Prices on these coins has begun to reflect the difficulty.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>New Zealand makes a very interesting case study for the entire trend.&nbsp; Here the silver was dropped from the coins in the late 1940&#039;s and the new coins were made of cu/ni which no one bothered to save.&nbsp; Despite having the same very attractive designs as the silver issues, virtually the entire mintage was allowed to wear in circulation for a couple decades.&nbsp; Most of the few coins which survived were saved inadvertantly in mint sets or year sets.&nbsp; Now, despite having higher mintages and not containing silver, these coins usually sell for much higher prices than the older coins which really isn&#039;t bad when you consider that there still is very little demand for them.&nbsp; The even newer NZ coins may in many cases be even scarcer.&nbsp; The decimal coins were also ignored but the government did make significant numbers of mint sets.&nbsp; These sets contain very well made coins so the very few collectors who desired decimal coins normally would buy these.&nbsp; Unfortunately many of the varieties do not appear in the sets.&nbsp; In some cases these varieties account for the bulk of the mintage but finding them in uncirculated condition is a virtual impossibility.&nbsp; The president of the largest NZ coin collectors club said several years ago that &quot;the rarities of tomorrow are in circulation today&quot;.&nbsp; ...and this same is true in country after country.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In many cases these coins have been destroyed by the issuer after many years of use.&nbsp; Millions of old coins are destroyed every day to make appliances for the Chinese markets or as alloy to make stainless steel.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>...Nor is it as though the US coins are any different.&nbsp; There are dozens of really great coins in circulation which simply don&#039;t appear in mint sets. Some of these were scarce enough that it&#039;s entirely possible that not a single example survives in uncirculated condition.&nbsp; An entire run of great quarter varieties from 1977 to 1984 from both mints doesn&#039;t appear in mint sets except for one single year (&#039;81-P), and it&#039;s scarce in the set.&nbsp; Still even today, with modern prices seemingly so &quot;crazy&quot;, there aren&#039;t people scrambling to assemble sets of these coins.&nbsp; Rare modern coins sell for a tiny fraction of what comparably rare old coins sell for.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Indeed, many of the rarities of tomorrow are in circulation today.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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