2 Fundamental Questions - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 9 / Views: 1,458
Kawliga Valued Member United States 212 Posts	Posted 10/22/2018 9:50 pm I'm a total newbie, was never interested in coins until 5-6 weeks ago when I finally got around to looking at my belated father's old jar of wheat pennies. I've become fairly obsessed since then (just ask my poor 12-year-old) and learned what seems like tons to me, though probably relatively little in the grand scheme. I can continue learning technical and practical stuff as needed, but I keep running into a couple of gnawing, basic, almost existential questions: Why is anyone willing to accept a pittance for a coin, and why is anyone willing to pay a fortune for one? My main hobby has always been aquarium fish, which has some parallels to coins, believe it or not. There is an aquatics-only, eBay-like auction site called Aquabid, there's ebay of course, and pet stores. I breed/raise/sell even flip fish (when my local store has stuff people can't get elsewhere in the US) and of course I am always on the hunt for good buys for myself. I have those two fundamental questions for the fish hobby as well, by the way. I can't understand someone taking just a few bucks to go through all the hassle of shipping live fish, after all the work already undertaken to raise them. I have done trades with other breeders, and I do sometimes sell culls to my local store for very cheap, but that's far easier than shipping and serves the vital purpose of clearing precious tank space and preventing unwanted pairings. But ship a bag of fish for a few bucks? No way. Nor can I picture myself spending crazy money to acquire extra special fish just for a display tank. I do spend what non-fish people might call crazy money ($40-50, 100 tops) for a few breeders, but that can be a wise investment if I succeed in producing offspring to sell. I also go to crazy lengths and risks to catch wild species, which is a lot like metal detecting for coins (I plan to buy a detector soon and I already know I'm going to love it). Meanwhile I have been shocked at how much people have bid on some of my fish, even though those people are not sellers themselves. And never mind the people bidding $500 for a single male betta. I just can't wrap my head around it. By the way, I also don't understand buying high-end clothing brands or diamonds, for that matter. Every reason I've seen gets a big fat "SO WHAT?" from me, though I wouldn't say it out loud. What nobody says is "I want to flaunt my wealth," and I find that amusing. So with coins, the thrill to me is the hunt. I mean an actual, physical hunt, not on a screen or through display glass. Even if the hunt is just keeping an eye on the ground or going through coin rolls, the skill/knowledge/dumb luck combination is exhilarating to me. It feels like gambling but with highly improvable odds and zero risk. I haven't tried selling yet, but if/when I do, I can't picture myself going through all the work of photographing a coin, posting it, communicating with the buyer if necessary, and then shipping it.....for as little as a buck. Several coins for several bucks, maybe. But why DO some people sell individual coins online for so little? Like my cull fish, I could picture it being worth a drive to a local coin dealer, with multiple coins to offer, but shipping one coin? And what compels someone to spend thousands on extremely rare coins? I can't even imagine myself keeping a wild-found coin if it was worth more than (say) fifty bucks; I have bills to pay, and fish to buy, ha. What might-would get me to keep a coin, even if pretty valuable, would be extreme sentimental value (like 'This is the quarter my parents both reached for on the ground, causing them to meet') or maybe a great hunting story ('I found this dime inside a dead fish's ribcage on the beach'). But what's the story on a buy? 'I wanted the coin so I bought it.' ? I always try to imagine what it's like after a rare coin is purchased, and I just can't picture anything I could identify with more than with Gollum holding The Precious (and it had magical powers). At least you can watch a fish swim around in a tank. At least you can go out and flaunt wealth with clothes and jewelry. So what does a rare coin buyer do with their coins? Report this Post to the Staff

basebal21 Bedrock of the Community 13014 Posts	Posted 10/22/2018 10:07 pm Quote: I haven't tried selling yet, but if/when I do, I can't picture myself going through all the work of photographing a coin, posting it, communicating with the buyer if necessary, and then shipping it.....for as little as a buck. Several coins for several bucks, maybe. But why DO some people sell individual coins online for so little? Like my cull fish, I could picture it being worth a drive to a local coin dealer, with multiple coins to offer, but shipping one coin? The vast majority of coins shops don't want things that are only worth a buck or two, they already have more than enough of that stuff and you might be lucky to get offered anything over face value. The low value sales you see are because they want to sell it and they either do that or they can go spend it or deposit it at the bank if its a US coin. Those sales have to go collector to collector and online is the easiest way to make that happen. Quote: And what compels someone to spend thousands on extremely rare coins? Their love of the coin. Quote: So what does a rare coin buyer do with their coins? Admire them, look at them, study them, share them, show them off, love them, enjoy them ect. Report this Post to the Staff
TNG Bedrock of the Community United States 10284 Posts	Posted 10/22/2018 10:15 pm Like your fish, some coins are more beautiful or rare than others. Coin collectors vary in why they collect and what they collect. We don't all fit in the same fish bowl. Some chase after any particular coin just for the hunt. Whether to complete a set or for prestige, to resell at a profit or invest in hopes of a future increase in value. Some people could care less about selling or how much they cost. Some get into microscopic varieties such as doubled dies or re-punched mintmarks. Others could care less and just like them just because, no special reason. In the past year or two I switched over to medals from coins and learned a lot about history. I can relate to your love of fish, we had tanks of all kinds as a kid. It was cool to raise even the fancy tail guppies. Neat watching them born alive and grow. We got pretty good at it and certainly there was always an exceptional one that stood out from all the others. Why do people even go fishing? To catch the big one. If you love to collect coins, I don't think there is any particular reason. A lot of us have some kind of nostalgia or sentimental connection as to why we started. Could be Dad's old jar, could be wondering just who could have handled that old Barber quarter? What could it have bought back in the late 1800's? If you have the bug, you have it and if you don't well, then you don't. Edited by TNG 10/22/2018 10:16 pm Report this Post to the Staff
MikeF Pillar of the Community United States 3479 Posts	Posted 10/22/2018 10:23 pm It's the same deal with coins. For collectors who collect rare coins the thrill of the hunt if the best part. As a coin collector learns and becomes more advanced, finding the examples with superior eye appeal adds another challenging layer to the pursuit. But most of all, for early US coins, it's the history of the coin and date that makes it so interesting. Oh and coins don't die. Fish do! Report this Post to the Staff
Kawliga Valued Member United States 212 Posts	Posted 10/23/2018 02:48 am Ha, fish certainly do die, including ones who haven't returned any investment by making any babies. But just the potential for them to is what makes it worthwhile to me, and sometimes it's actual income well beyond overhead. I guess I could see that happening with coins too, and some people buying them for that reason. Report this Post to the Staff
DrDarryl Valued Member United States 434 Posts	Posted 10/23/2018 07:33 am Quote: So what does a rare coin buyer do with their coins? I specialize in U.S. Mint medals. I'm more of a numismatist than a collector. I study the history of the medals that I acquire. Most of the medals I collect have not been properly documented by the collector community. As a result, I take pride in the original research findings that I make and share it with the collector community. The physical hunt for a medal is thrilling, but I get more satisfaction in finding/documenting the lost history of the medal itself. Below are snippets of a paper that I wrote for a recent ANA exhibit. I defined a new category of U.S. Mint medals and established numismatic identifiers for five of the six U.S. Government agencies. I "numismatically" appropriated the research findings of the Assay Commission (It's a U.S. Government agency) that was an outlier that now fits in with the U.S. Mint manufacturing triad. The last image sums up my research findings. This paper is actually copyrighted and is to be in a chapter of a book I'm writing. Here is a website about the U.S. Mint medal series I established. https://potus-sgm.com/ (Yes, it is possible to discover an entire U.S. Mint series.) Pride of ownership is great, but imagine the feeling in having your numismatic book in two Presidential Libraries as a numismatic reference. Report this Post to the Staff
scopru Pillar of the Community United States 5029 Posts	Posted 10/23/2018 07:52 am Interesting parallels between fish 'collecting' and coin collecting as you outline them. Quote: So what does a rare coin buyer do with their coins? The definition of rare can be a very subjective thing. But some do that same you thing you do with fish. Buy and sell. Others do as you mention - use the coin to show their wealth. I myself, take the same path as DrDarryl - although on a much lesser scale - and study the coin/token/medal and history associated with it. Most of all I enjoy my collection. Report this Post to the Staff
just carl Bedrock of the Community United States 20753 Posts	Posted 10/23/2018 12:56 pm Quote: So what does a rare coin buyer do with their coins? 1. Hides them from kids in the family that would take them and spend them 2. Send to a company that puts them in a piece of plastic and charges a lot to do that too. 3. Tells their husband or wife it was only a dollar. 4. Puts them in a safe or safe deposit box so no one sees or steels them. 5. Joins a coin club on line so they can photo them and show them off. Report this Post to the Staff
Kawliga Valued Member United States 212 Posts	Posted 10/24/2018 08:54 am I really appreciate all these replies, yall! But just carl......marry me, ha! Report this Post to the Staff
Finn235 Pillar of the Community United States 6130 Posts	Posted 10/25/2018 10:22 am My primary draw to coin collecting is the sense of permanence that comes from coins. Fish live a few years up to a few decades (unless we take the 'Hanako' story at face value.) Humans live about a century. This coin was made before Socrates was even born: And I can virtually guarantee it will see many more owners after I am dead and gone, hopefully for another 2500 years. They also give us a direct window into a time that would be lost to us, if not for the coins. They give us the names of great rulers who never found their way into the history books, provide affordable pieces of art of people who lived centuries or millennia ago, and can be used to refine, test, or expand upon what the history books tell us. Not to mention, a lot of them are really pretty! Report this Post to the Staff
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