Canadian Vs American Approach To Collecting NCLT Coins Compa

Yes you should read the craziness that occurred with the gold Kennedy release at the Chicago ANA show a couple years ago, dealers hiring homeless to stand in line to purchase besides HERTIGAGE BOOTH of million dollar coins.

Hi Pocketchange. Yes you are correct. In a nutshell..... The reverse proof Coin & Chronicles set was indeed a hot commodity for the first 2 issues. The Truman and Ike sets had a mintage of 17k because the US mint thought that would be enough.

They thought this because the C & C sets started in 2005 with John Marshall, 2006 Ben Franklin, 2009 Abe Lincoln (popular with the 4 new 2009 cents just being issued), 2013 Teddy Roosevelt (popular on the secondary market) and in 2014 the Franklin Roosevelt set. Most were set at a 20,000 ish + or - mintage and the Franklin Roosevelt was still available a year after issue on the website. So they figured 17k was a good number BUT they did not consider the fact they were including a reverse proof Presidential dollar that could only be found in these new sets. The Truman sold out in around 7 minutes as the limit was 5 sets per household and the Ike sold out in about 15 minutes as they reduced the household limit down to 2. The Kennedy set at 50,000 was available for a couple of months. The Johnson set was later released at 25,000 and one more set out later this year.

I don't feel the need to pay 2 x or 3 x issue for a MS70 as I am just happy with an unslabbed NCLT coin. But there are some collectors that are willing to pay the high premiums o "get the very best" coin available. I respect that but I am happy with 3 or 4 new different coins of some kind v/s 1 "perfect" one for the same amount of $ spent.

As for the Home Shopping Network...they do sell coins and have a following but they charge SO much more that the coins can actually be bought for. I have never watched it.

Coinfusion, your description illustrates a big difference that I notice between Americans and Canadians and that is the value placed on their respective history. There's many reasons for that I suppose, the main one being as Canadians no longer have any connection to the faces of the British Monarchy.

A recent example illustrates Canadian/RCM marketing tactics compared to, for example, that of a US series featuring historical American leaders:

Canada: Pure Silver Voyageur 2 oz Gold-Plated Coin



Neither the effigy of King George V nor the year 1935 are the focus - instead it's promoted for its reverse design and bullion content. Not that the Voyageur doesn't have a historical element because it does -- but a great deal of history has happened since traders/explorers and First Nation guides paddled up and down rivers in a canoe. The canoe theme was already historical in the year 1935.

In general, honouring Canadian history through celebration of past coinage cannot possibly highlight specific eras in the same manner that our American cousins can do. Blame it on the Queen of England!

We put people on our Canadian coinage as well:-)

Perhaps in Canada we've redefined the word "commemorative". Referring to Charlton, it appears the first time Canada stepped aside from traditional NCLT that honoured national or historical events began in 1995 with the launch of the Discovering Nature Series, ending in 2000. The 92.5% silver 50c was reintroduced and the theme of the series began, "to commemorate birds that are native to Canada". In 1996 more "commemoratives" - "little wild ones", followed each year by "best friends", "ocean giants", "cats" and finally "birds"... Once the door is opened, it seems it's never going to get shut.

Unfortunately, it's not just Canada. It has gotten to the point that many collectors, regardless of location, consider almost every coin not minted for circulation to be a "commemorative." As someone who focuses on collecting honest-to-goodness commemoratives, it always tweaks me a bit when I see coins with random themes such as animals or flowers or some other generic topic referred to as commemorative coins.

Commemorative coins are those meant to recall or celebrate a significant person, place, thing or event and their issue date is supposed to coincide with a meaningful anniversary date for what is being commemorated.

I consider coins issued to celebrate a country's flora or fauna or general topics such as its weather, the stars in its sky or its scenic landscapes to be "topicals" (as are similarly-themed stamps) or "thematics" rather than commemoratives.

I get the feeling, however, that this trend will be almost impossible to reverse unless the mints of the world change the way they refer to their new releases.

In terms of US commemorative coins, the reason is simple. Most of our coins commemorate the accomplishments of significant individuals/groups from US history. Because of this, including people in the coin's design is a natural choice.

I wish the use of allegory was more prevalent, but as the coins are meant to be fund raisers, their designs need to quickly resonate with the general public in order to sell and "familiar" scenes of people generally accomplish this.

Of course, not all US commemorative coins sell as well as their sponsors hope for but the reasons for that are multi-faceted and best left for a separate discussion.