Where Do You Draw The Line ?

Modern = any coin newer than me!!!

For me a modern coin is a "type" that is still made and used in circulation. So a Silver Roosevelt dime, I would still be modern. A Mercury dime I would consider old, as they are not in circulation.

So Kennedy half dollars are modern and Franklin half dollars are old. Susan B Anthony dollars are old, LOL.[:p]

Ancient coins are ones that are not dated, so I bunch up the 1500 coins in with them as they have no date.

Modern coins are somewhere after the start of World War I
So 1914 or 1915 or thereabouts

I should have added as far as goldcoins is concerned

There was a confluence of several factors which came together in the
1930's which fundamentally changed the way that collectors pursued new
coins. In those days mosy collectors added new coins to their collec-
tions with each new date. Collectors didn't necessarily set aside lots
of brand new coin but they did collect the current coins just as collec-
tors had for 2500 years. In 1929 the stock market had crashed and large
numbers of people lost their jobs. This actually gave rise to coin collecting as a past time for large numbers of people. Previously there
had been no mass market for coins. There were few coin clubs and no week-
ly papers or even folders and albums. B Max Mehl had been working for
years to popularize the hobby and now there was a new coin board for the
legions of unemployed to try to fill. New issues were not only being set
aside in large numbers but people paid a lot of attention to mintages look-
ing for coins which would se scarce and gain a premium.

The depression also had the effect of putting a huge brake on commerce which
meant fewer coins had to be produced. This became especially apparent in 1931 when the San Francisco mint made a paltry mintage less than two million
of cents. These languished in storage because there was little commercial
demand. Eventually an individual offerred to buy the entire mintage for
an investment. The mint was outraged that they would strike coins for in-
vestment and changed their policy to not strike very short runs. In the future they would either consolidate mintages or forego them altogether to
avoid low mintages. All of the coins from this era were set aside in rolls
or bags but some are relatively scarce because of lower mintages or because
collectors overestimated the number being saved.

This changed in 1965. The interest in new coinage and availability of rolls
going back to the 1934 had combined with a vastly improved economy and huge
numbers of young new collectors to create a "bubble". People were setting
aside massive amounts of new coin in the belief that the new collectors
would someday demand the coins. Prices of recent coins were balloning and
some people grew wealthy supplying these markets. At the same time the ex-
panding economy was pushing up the price of an important industrial metal;
silver. There was widespread public hording of the silver coins and coin
collectors were blamed for the resulting coin shortage.

The mint and congress took numerous steps to discourage collectors but the
need to remove silver from the coinage may have been sufficient in itself.
There was actually a bill in Congress which would have outlawed coin col-
lecting. The mint froze the dates, removed mint marks and suspended both
mint and proof set production. People quit saving coins. Indeed, they not
only quit saving rolls and bags they quit saving coin altogether. There
are numerous 1965 to date coins which won't exist at all in uncirculated
condition because people didn't save coins. There are no rolls and vir-
ually no singles of coins like 1969 quarters or 1973 dimes. If you see
one of these it's a virtual certainty that it came from a mint set and this
is far more true if you see a roll. Many modern coins do not exist in mint
sets and hence do not exist in unc.

This was not a local or national phenomenon. The high costs of prosecuting
and then rebuilding after WWII led to massive inflations worldwide. There
was also a huge population explosion as economies resumed a peace time footing with very large numbers of young adults. This drove up the price
of silver and drove down the value of money almost everywhere. On country
after another abandoned precious metal coinage starting in 1947. It was
the early '60's before they began falling like dominoes. And in nearly
every case collectors simply ignored the new coins. Many of the rarest
coins will be coins struck since 1950.

There have been explosive price increases in the modern markets since
they were discovered by the masses in 1998. While speculation probably
is not a big problem, sometimes knowledge and the ability to find coins
are problems. When a common modern starts getting graded there is a ten-
dency for people o overpay simply because they don't realize the coin is
common. This eventually results in what looks like a huge price decrease
as later examples are sold for far less. It would really be more accurate
to say the first examples sold for too much. These coins can be easily
avoided by not being the first to buy something and studying the coins a little beforehand. Be this as it may, the simple fact is that rare moderns
are doing as well as ever while the run of the mill stuff is beginning to
firm after a one and a half year weakness. Common stuff that will not seem
nearly so common if the demand ever materializes has in many cases plummeted.

One can define terms anyway they choose but to recognize a minor change
like the mint not making small mint runs anymore and ignoring the biggest coinage change in history like the removal of silver just doesn't seem
to be effective communication. I would use the term modern for post '64
coins and ultra modern for post '98 coins.

Cladking

Thank you for the great article,, Great reading !!

Rick

Cladking, Thank You for a well written an insightful article! Do you write for a living? If not,I think you could!Mike

More terms? You know, I really have a hard enough time remembering the ones that we already have
Seriously, thank you cladking. Your post was very informative, and a pleasure to read.