So would anyone here accept or give payments in these? :-)
Meet my latest personal project (I admit somewhat inspired by Shire Silver).
Mostly due to curiosity (as I'm not a gold standard, pay-with-commodities fanatic) I've always wanted to find an easier way to use silver coins in regular everyday transactions. It tends to fascinate people, especially getting them interested in numismatics (I'm the kind of guy who will go out of his way to pay young clerks in dollar coins, $2 bills and halves when appropriate just to watch their faces shine with wonder :-) ).
It will also, over the march of time (barring what happened with aluminum), be a bit of a stay against inflation.
The biggest problems with spending old silver coins I've found, though are (in no particular order):
1) Simple ignorance about their history and value. If you leave them as a tip at, say, a restaurant, the waiter or waitress is more apt to think you gypped them and spend it at face than realize that it has more value than its denomination.
2) Authentication. How does someone know that it's not a fake? Not everyone has the time to do a set of diagnostics if they're paying for a cup of coffee. If it's a generic round or strips, it's not easy, and if it's something recognizable like an
ASE, it's too big.
3) Keeping track of what it's worth. Spot prices fluctuate. So it has been, and so it shall be for as long as there is a market.
4) Keeping track of the coins, themselves. A silver dime is worth over $2 (today at least) and it's smaller than a $1 coin. I'm a staunch advocate of the $1 coin, but I do prefer bills for larger denominations of currency.
With a smidge of technology and a pinch of librarian instinct, I think I've overcome those problems and if all goes well I might have some prototypes to test out locally in the next few weeks.
Basically the idea is to take silver coins (dimes at this point, as they are recognizable) that have no numismatic value over their intrinsic value (I repeat: NO numismatic value), authenticate them, and encapsulate them in these cards. Yes, this is sort of like what a
TPG does, but instead of aiming to certify its numismatic value and make it more liquid, it aims to certify its intrinsic value and make it more liquid.
(No I will NOT be certifying anything "First Strike" or other such ridiculousness. :-) )
The cards, themselves, have lots of information on the back about them in plain to understand language. This will include a quick FAQ about their value as well as history about the denomination.
There will also be a QR code to scan on a smart phone on the front that will take you to a profile page which gives you its values. I'm going to have listed melt, recommended trade value, and "buyback" prices I would pay to have them returned. I'm going to link in the Numismetrica database to calculate these values as well as keep the buy back and suggested trade a bit more granular than the real-time spot price so one can better keep the value in their head.
It'll also have a picture of the coin to help authenticate it with simple magnification, tare of the packaging, and if anyone reports back that they find a counterfeit card with that serial number it will display an alert with information on how to authenticate it manually (which is more than the major TPGs currently do when they know serial numbers have been compromised).
Also, since it's easy once there's a database already tracking these things, I'm going to put together a "my wallet" sorta deal where you can add QR codes you've scanned to a saved list that keeps track of their respective values as a whole.
I'll tell you how this experiment pans out once I get the equipment and get some out in the wild and also share about any patent filing comes along. :-)
In the meantime:
Thoughts? Comments? Fashion tips? Predictions?(And in case you're wondering, making prototypes for crazy ideas is what I do when I can't sleep at night. :-) )
Posted 08/26/2012 10:25 pm
