What Are Your Coin & Coin Collecting Pet Peeves?

Aren't you afraid of being bludgeoned by wooden stakes from recently obsoleted political yard signs? Or maybe copies of Atlas Shrugged?

 

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I'll take my chances. Investment misinformation and myths affect all markets more than we imagine. And it doesn't help me and thee's returns one iota.

 

The term "intrinsic value" makes some sense, at least in certain situations. After all, several countries issue silver (and, more rarely, gold) coins at face value. But of course, if I pick, say, a €20 silver coin up, the silver in it does not have a value of €20 at the time of issue. So people may want to know "what's in there" ...

This "fiat currency" talk sounds like "car with wheels" to me. Sure, there was a time when the value of a coin - except for small change - was determined by its gold or silver content. Even then, the purchasing power varied widely.

But I agree, in a way gold and silver are plain commodities, with values being results of market transactions. And especially with the growing influence of ETF investors, prices may go up and down even faster these days. People in countries with relatively unstable or fragile currencies may well have reasons to say "In Gold We Trust" but it would be naive to believe that the value of platinum, gold or silver could be something autonomous ...

Christian

 

Christian,

The central problem is that the concept of intrinsic starts to break down when you examine it closely. At the end of the analysis, there is no intrinsic value to anything. All values are subjective choices and preferences by human beings. Just because Patrick Heller of Michigan has deluded himself, in my view, doesn't mean he gets to speak for my set of subjective valuation judgments. Also at the end of the analysis, demand is all about formal, informal, or even accidental "marketing". It's all about saying the right things to get the other fellow to want something, and in the case of gold in particular, something with next to zero practical use that can't be substituted by another substance - it's all emotion in disguise.

 

this:

using:

plan·chette
planˈSHet/
noun

1. a small board supported on casters, typically heart-shaped and fitted with a vertical pencil, used for automatic writing and in seances.

when you mean:

planch·et
ˈplan(t)SHət/
noun
a plain metal disk from which a coin is made.


What do you say, Doug?

 

The Ouija Board thingy? Wow.

 

surprising, huh?