The Economy And Collecting

Nonsense, for several reasons

• If 99.9% of the 1944 LWC were melted, there would still be 1,435,400, triple the number of svdbs
• Long before that would happen, people would notice a scarcity of 1944 LWC and save them
• The ones that are left would be high grade, since the worst condition would be melted first
• There are both collectors and folks like you who would be saving them, for exactly the reasdon you're citing. Witness how many SC were saved in 1968 by folks figuring everyone else was sending theirs in--they're still worth little premium.

My problem or should I say dilemma, is not so much the economy as much as the lack of nice material that is available. Understandably so, most high end dealers and collectors are holding on to their quality coins till there is an upturn in the economy.
Fortunately for me I'm 90% finished my Collection and just hunting for a few dozen upgrades which will come in time, patience is a virtue!

Glenn

A local dealer always said you have to buy almost everything, because you never know what will become popular.

Buying and selling also follows contrarian logic. When are prices high? When lots of people are buying (so you should be selling). When are they low? When people are dumping (and you should be stocking up).

I began collecting coins when the economy began to go down (specially gold and silver coins); bullion at first, but then got hooked into numismatics to the point that I don't buy bullion anymore.

I think this happened to many people; they began with bullion thanks to the economic downturn, and then continued collecting numismatic coins.

biggfred,

Nobody is talking about LWC, I'm talking about silver coins and the article I had read had to do with soaring silver prices and common date silver coinage being lost to smelting due to the bullion value for these coins exceeding their collectable value.

I assure you, when silver was pushing $50, and it could reach or exceed that again, ... dealers were dumping the common date stuff in plastic tubs and they were destined for the smelter. These are the coins which some day may be hard to come by if the silver market and bullion prices go higher.

I don't think all these gold & silver shops which seem to be everywhere now are buying up old coins to start new coin shops anytime soon nor are the dealers buying the common date stuff to fill their cases.

For what it's worth ... the day copper cents are discontinued and the government allows its citizens to melt them ... the old common date LWC will suffer the same albeit to a much smaller degree since the spread is much smaller. Just my opinion.

I don't have very many expenses and have counted my blessings when it comes to my employment (12 years now).
In a nut shell, no, the economy has not affected my collecting.

gm-

It was just an example. The same could be said about nickels, where they made as many in 1964 as a couple decades earlier combined, or silver coins.

The gubmint melted hundreds of millions of Morgans, and there are still plenty of commons available.