Creating A Monopoly On A Coin? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 10 / Views: 1,736
greenprint Valued Member United States 477 Posts	Posted 05/01/2016 10:06 pm Does anyone know someone who has done this? I see some really low mintage "special bullion" that has like low mintages of like 2000 or even 500. I was wondering that with such a small amount it would be feasible for someone really wealthy to purchase all or nearly all of one coin of this special limited mintage types bullion as soon as they are made available creating a monopoly on the particular coin. Does anyone know of this happening? I don't have the finances to but would imagine someone has done so in the past. Report this Post to the Staff

BuckeyeCoinGuy Pillar of the Community United States 711 Posts	Posted 05/01/2016 10:09 pm I think it would kill demand for the coin. Instead of having one of X number of a rare coin, you'd be one of Mr. X's suckers. I have never heard of it happening honestly. Report this Post to the Staff
John1 Moderator United States 56855 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 05:18 am Quote: Instead of having one of X number of a rare coin, you'd be one of Mr. X's suckers. Mr. X's suckers...AKA The mint John1 Report this Post to the Staff
january1may Pillar of the Community Russian Federation 5172 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 05:19 am All five known 1913 nickels were at one point bought by the same person, so there's that. But I agree, I doubt it would be easy enough (and the owners of the last few remaining examples would probably try to protect their coins), and it would definitely kill any demand if it does happen (though it might really inspire demand for the last 10-20 coins that weren't yet bought by that one guy). Report this Post to the Staff
Biedercoins Pillar of the Community United States 1601 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 08:58 am Quote: 1913 nickels The Liberty nickels? They're split up now and the last one to sell went for 3.5 M, so is the price only because of it's rarity or did the former "monopoly" have a role in the price of the breakup? I don't know; just hypothesizing. I don't even like Liberty nickels. The most painful parting of my money was to get an AU 1909 to fill that year set! Report this Post to the Staff
amida17 Pillar of the Community United States 4897 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 09:05 am I could be wrong. I remember reading that the distribution of some of the classic commemoratives to certain dealers at the time created virtual monopolies? Ping Commems....surely he would know.... Report this Post to the Staff
jpbone Pillar of the Community United States 1959 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 12:03 pm I've heard that many many of the 1815 capped bust halves were owned by one person which drove the realized prices up. Not sure if it is true, but I heard this from two separate coin dealer sources. So, there is that. I don't remember the guy's name. Report this Post to the Staff
ErrorCoins222 Pillar of the Community United States 1699 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 5:04 pm I've heard it happening with some varieties and some medals/tokens. The sac/quarter mules come to mind as well. Interesting topic! Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16810 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 9:18 pm Supply and demand comes into play here. As a coin becomes rarer and harder to get in the marketplace for whatever reason (and a monopolizer would be just such a reason) the price goes up, making it more expensive for the monopolizer to continue. But by far the biggest obstacle to the monopolizer is the nature of the coin collector: a percentage of them, at least, want to hold onto their coins because they actually like them, and won't sell them to the monopolizer no matter how much money is being thrown around. The monopolizer will therefore have to outlive and outlast all the hard-core collectors who own one of the coins and refuse to sell, and wait for their collections to come through as estate sales. As stated above, it's far easier to gain a monopoly at the point of initial release of the coin, the dealer-distributor end. Especially for coins issued under some kind of cozy deal with a coin dealer, as happened several times in the US classic commemoratives, for example, or that guy who pocketed all the surviving (stolen) examples of the 1933 double eagle. And such monopolies are usually founded by coin dealers only temporarily, in order to maximize profits when sold. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
silverai Valued Member Canada 117 Posts	Posted 05/02/2016 9:38 pm Bitcoin is just like that. The creator own large % of the "coins", other people "mine" the remaining "coins". You can create another bitcoin scam and repeat the same pattern. Report this Post to the Staff
Chute72 Pillar of the Community United States 1314 Posts	Posted 05/04/2016 1:53 pm I've come close to doing it with certain VAMs. Report this Post to the Staff
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