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 Replies: 21 / Views: 1,684 |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
Been to a few coin shows and talked to dealers over the years. It looks like times have changed.
In the past, dealers would have large varieties to offer at good price. (at down under). Numismatics were more affordable especially precious metals. International postage? You could buy huge pound lots over from the US and it wouldn't break the bank.
If I can recall correctly here are some numbers about 2 decades ago:
Silver: 5-7USD/oz
Gold: 500USD/oz
Platinum: 1000USD/oz
Palladium: 300USD/oz
I recall buying pound lot over from the US and postage was around 20-30 dollars. Today something of that weight might cost more than 4-5 times!
Getting back to topic - choices were more plentiful and there were more choices of precious metals. Fast forward today, you'd hear stories of dealers having to send precious metals to refineries during tough times. Some were in buckets, if not drums. Who knows how much were melted over time. Today's selection are a lot more modern mint base metals. Or if there are any precious metals, it's usually silver bullion and these are now kept in cases. Sometimes gold but not as vast choices as it used to be.
Sadly, it seems thefts are on the rise and local enforcements really don't care much or can't do much about it. I've heard of cases where dealers had to close down as they were robbed in their own shops (!) and now only do their commence online or give it up completely.
Even online commence are not cheap - with all the nonsense tax, tariff, raising prices, inflation, counterfeits, items going missing, etc, it's starting to seem like the good old days of collecting things on the cheap is over.
What is your experience like? Please feel free to share your experience.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
999 Posts |
Certainly the prices of silver and gold have skyrocketed over the past number of years. Therefore buying precious metals is more pricy.
Shipping prices pretty much increase every year. I know Canada Post and USPS have raised their postal rates by sizable amounts from even five years ago. Tariffs throw another wrench into it. Personally, I'm trying to avoid cross-border purchases as much as possible right now.
Not as many bricks and mortar dealers around, but lots of sellers online. Numismatic transactions are booming on Facebook. I still see good selection at most shows I attend. You can find some good deals if you hunt around a bit.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5177 Posts |
The price of gold and silver in dollars has gone up about 10x in the last 20 or so years. Unfortunately, my salary over the last 20 years for sure hasn't gone up 10x.  Result is that if I want to buy a precious metal coin (especially gold) I now have to plan in advance and make sure the money is in my account. It used to be that I could just buy a gold coin and didn't blink. Now, that is out of the question. |
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Valued Member
Italy
284 Posts |
This is such a broad question and its answers would need to be across so many aspects. For example:  The same people change over the years and so do their interests Different people collect over the years (new collectors join, old retire) Market change (metal prices is a good example) Culture change (do young people even care about coins) How we collect change (example: slab vs raw) Where we buy change (physical vs online) etc.. If we analyze the cost of the hobby alone, it is true that coin collecting is not a cheap hobby; prices and related costs seem to always go up. But so does inflation unfortunately and majority of people seem to be getting poorer for a variety of reasons. So what is it? Has the hobby become more expensive or risky or are we become poorer and perceive risk where before we didn't?  I'll see myself out |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Very good post!
I can't really comment because my collecting patterns and interest have changed a lot over 6 decades (!!! did I really admit to how old I am?), and been punctuated by long stretches of non-collecting.
The one trend I would comment on is slabbing. I haven't bought a U.S. coin in 20 years, but from what I see at foreign coin auctions, I believe there has been a strong increase in slabbing of foreign coins in the last 10 years (probably there is data out there somewhere to cconfirm or refute this). I would guess this is driven by increased counterfeiting of valuable foreign coins and the resulting insecurity of collectors to buy unless the coin is authenticated.
...and of course the aggressive marketing by TPGs of their services to capitalize on those fears (nothing like fear to drive buying habits).
Edited by tdziemia
09/11/2025 07:42 am
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Valued Member
Italy
284 Posts |
Quote:
The one trend I would comment on is slabbing. I haven't bought a U.S. coin in 20 years, but from what I see at foreign coin auctions, I believe there has been a strong increase in slabbing of foreign coins in the last 10 years (probably there is data out there somewhere to cconfirm or refute this). I would guess this is driven by increased counterfeiting of valuable foreign coins and the resulting insecurity of collectors to buy unless the coin is authenticated.
...and of course the aggressive marketing by TPGs of their services to capitalize on those fears (nothing like fear to drive buying habits). I might be able to comment on this point, as I am from one of those country which is slowly migrating to slabs (with much complaining from the average collector). The reason is greed, only greed!  It is undeniable that slabbed coins fetch much higher premiums when sold. So all good coins are slowly getting slabbed because sellers and auction houses want to maximaze gains. They do despite the fact that most collectors pretty much hate slabs (with a passion). The reason is simple: coins should be touched and studied and slab prevent that. Also, there's the common saying that we were collecting coins the "raw way" for literally thousands of years so why change?  Authenticity is not an issue as collectors pride themselves from learning to discern fakes or using "real" local experts instead of TPG experts. Also there's always some examples floating around of slabbed fakes or incompatibility with the Sheldon scale and other international systems. Don't get me wrong, I know very well the goods aspects of slabs but most collectors (in my country at least) see them as something useless made in USA to squeeze more money out of collectors. Speaking about slabs in my country is like speaking about cleaning coins with a brillo pad!  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19110 Posts |
Along the lines of Monty Python.... Always look on the bright side of slabs...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Quote:Authenticity is not an issue as collectors pride themselves from learning to discern fakes or using "real" local experts instead of TPG experts. Also there's always some examples floating around of slabbed fakes or incompatibility with the Sheldon scale and other international systems. I think authenticity IS an issue because new collectors do not want to invest the time to learn enough to avoid fakes (the paths that you mention). I think this is not only an American phenomenon. And I think U.S. collectors of foreign coins do not want to invest the time to learn the many different grading systems in use in various countries (is BB in Italy the same as TB in France and III in Poland?). So they prefer to have a slab with a Sheldon grade even if such a grade is meaningless for many hammered coins (for example MS grades for coins with weak strikes where 1/3 of the legends can't be read), and even if the coin costs 25% or 50% more than a raw one.. In the end (whether we like it or not), there is a new service industry (slabbing) where global demand is increasing, and the end result is to make coins more expensive to collectors. If enough collectors decide the "value added" by slabbing is not worth it, they will stop buying slabbed coins, and that indutry will die. But I don't think it will happen. Edited by tdziemia
09/11/2025 10:07 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17879 Posts |
I've noticed big changes in the UK since I started collecting. Over here the emphasis is much more on modern coins, with the issue of 50 pence coins for the Olympic Games in 2011 starting many new collectors. The YouTube sensation 'Christopher Collects' would have been unthinkable a few years ago... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv...hPhPCLjz1d8QSomething else I've noticed is a much greater interest in errors and varieties. In the 1970s most UK collectors were happy just to put aside one example of each coin from every year, and people who studied coins under magnifying glasses to see if the 'I' of 'Elizabeth' pointed to a dot or a space in the denticles were considered rather eccentric, and even major errors were just considered as oddities, of little numismatic interest. Sadly this new awareness has also led to lots of ridiculous postings of non-errors like the £2 coins with the 'edge legend the wrong way up' on ebay. Overall, though, I'm rather happy that the hobby seems to be undergoing a revival, with plenty of young people interested, and even some women! Most newsagents stock two monthly coin magazines, whilst back in the late 1970s you'd find it hard to track down the dying 'Coin Monthly' unless you were a subscriber. Edited by NumisRob
09/11/2025 11:33 am
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Valued Member
Italy
284 Posts |
Quote:
I think authenticity IS an issue because new collectors do not want to invest the time to learn enough to avoid fakes (the paths that you mention). I think this is not only an American phenomenon Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that slabs' benefits far outweigh their issues. But I am probably an exception to the more common opinion that slabs are not helpful to avoid fakes for faked international coins and are just a "fad" that will die out. Examples of slabbed fakes that I saw recently discussed in message boards in my country: by ngc https://www.ngccoin.uk/certlookup/8.../NGCDetails/ (confirmed fake recently made in China) by pcgs https://www.pcgs.com/cert/83216269 (obvious fake)  |
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Moderator
 United States
187472 Posts |
I have had two reasons for buying slabbed coins after resisting for many years... 1) When I decided to build a higher grade secondary Eisenhower dollar set to compliment the one I had in a Dancso album, I considered different options for how to collect and store it. Bobby got me started by selling me two Ikes, one PCGS and one NGC. I settled on building a PCGS set. It was easy to assemble and store the set. A third set in NGC is not out of the question.  2) When I needed to buy higher value key date coins to fill holes in Dansco albums, it was easier to buy-n-crack those coins in slabs. Years ago it seemed like raw examples were plenty, but as many have settled into the "necessity" of slabbing these coins, I had no choice but to fall in line and questioned every raw find, "Why is this not in a slab?"  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5177 Posts |
Slabs are also more sturdy than 2x2 coin flips.
I had several instances where heavy and large silver coins had to be removed from the album because the 2x2 was falling apart under the weight of the coin. Those coins are now in slabs.
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Valued Member
United States
216 Posts |
Quote:
It is undeniable that slabbed coins fetch much higher premiums when sold. So all good coins are slowly getting slabbed because sellers and auction houses want to maximaze gains. And the slabbing companies. They're the ones who found a way to monetize the hobby, and people have really bought in to it. Heck, even Nintendo games and Legos are slabbed nowadays. The monetization of everything is a big cultural change in my lifetime. Quote:
I think authenticity IS an issue because new collectors do not want to invest the time to learn enough to avoid fakes This is cultural change beyond just numismatics. Don't worry about investing time or effort in something; just throw money at it! (Hmm... maybe this is related to the monetization comment above.) Related to this, I'll add that society not reading is a big change. A majority of the coin ID requests in the medieval/ancient forum here seem to be people just wanting a quick answer with no interest in references or context... and I imagine dealers are seeing a lot more of this now than in the past as well. Edited by samoth
09/11/2025 7:39 pm
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Valued Member
Italy
284 Posts |
Quote:
Related to this, I'll add that society not reading is a big change You hit the nail in the head. Can we all imagine what's going to happen down the line? First we unlearned how to write with PCs .. later how to read as everything online is pretty much ready to be consumed. Now with AI .. we will probably just unlearn how to do research or be critical or think for ourselves. I find AI soooo scary .. not for the kind of scenarios we saw in movies in the 90ies.. but because we are at risk of developing such a huge portion of society being completely dumb and acritical.  Am I too grim? |
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
375 Posts |
I must admit I don't like slabbing coins and never have. Storage is important though, and I sympathise with the member whose large coins escape from their 2x2 folders. What I've done about this problem is buy a nice little aluminium case with trays in and put the coins in capsules in the trays. Problem solved, and I can get at the coin easily if I want to take a close-up photo of a detail for any reason.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
@samoth, good points in your post.
I was trying to think of an ex-numismatic analogy to slabbing and came up with home security systems (which also didn't exist when I was a kid but are now ubiquitous).
It's an industry based on fear/insecurity. For numismatics it's both the fear of counterfeits and the fear that your item will retain less value if not slabbed.
Here's a thought ... if more collectors want unslabbed coins and there are fewer of them available, guess what would happen?
Edited by tdziemia
09/12/2025 07:34 am
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Replies: 21 / Views: 1,684 |
Posted 09/10/2025 9:15 pm
