Collecting Bags Of Current Issues. I Don't Get It.

Avid slot machine players (though I'm not sure if the one-armed bandits take coins (or if they have "arms anymore)?

Yes, some slot machines still have arms. Very few take coins anymore. Usually the older machines. Like you'd find in a downtown Las Vegas casino.

And IF that is the reason they buy these rolls and bags, why not just go to a bank a buy a roll of plain old quarters for $10? You can buY two rolls of Sally Ride quarters for $36. Or, you can just walk into any bank in the country and say, "Can I have two rolls of quarters?" and they will give them to you for $20. THE SAME AS FACCE VALUE!

Well, I buy bags or rolls of things like the American Innovations dollars the same reason that Littleton Coins does. To find high grade examples for slabbing & future sales before they are searched by others. The rest I sell locally a bit over face or deposit into my bank if they are too marked up.

Let me try again then.

Silver coin used to be saved as specie or as backing for paper money. There was a time that if a bank issued a dollar then they had to have a dollar in silver to back it. Now days if the banker can prove he ever saw a dollar bill he can issue ten dollars. If he actually has one or can show a one dollar debt he can issue 50 of them.

Many bags of silver bust half dollars fresh from the mint sat in vaults for decades to back currency. This is why we have nice XF and BU bust half dollars today.

Today we live in a consumer society where everything just gets used up and thrown away except the stuff that starts out as an inferior product and goes straight to landfill.

The mint practices FIFO accounting which means coins in storage the longest are the first to be issued. There is no mechanism to save modern coins for future generations. It requires somebody to actually set them aside or there will be none.

All over the world modern coins issued in the hundreds of millions are being discovered to be rare in pristine condition and due to massive "consumption" they can be elusive even worn and beat up. Try finding nice attractive Soviet 15k from the '60's and '70's. These very common coins command high prices because nobody collected or saved them so now they are rare. Try finding a nice XF 1971 US nickel. a hundred million were made and placed in circulation. Now they are consumed. You might find a '71 but it will be heavily worn AND cull.

This is why a few people buy bags and some of those who do just save a few nice examples and spend the rest.

the bags and rolls are still available.

I must have bought the last roll last week. Why? Because I collect coins, have eclectic tastes, and local banks generally don't order a lot of dollar coins so if I want a chance of un-gleaned BU coins I don't have a lot of options I do not consider it an investment.

I generally do not collect most dollar coins but I like this particular design.

If I had more disposable income, I would buy the dollar coins, save the nicest ones and spend the rest. If you like the coins, you are spending a smaller premium to obtain them than buying most other products from the mint.