Coin World reports US Mint ready to jump the shark... :)
BackroadJunkie
Posts: 3,745 ✭✭✭✭✭
So, Coin World published an article yesterday...
coinworld:U.S. Mint announces plans for circulating rarity
The Mint held a numismatic forum on Oct 17.
I think there are many of us here who have said the Mint does not intentionally produce artificial rarities. Until now.
U.S. Mint officials are keeping a tight lid on details surrounding the bureau’s plans to create a numismatic rarity to be released into general circulation in 2019.
and
Ryder did not elaborate further about the circulating coin, concerning the denomination, composition, mintage or how the “rarity” would be introduced into general circulation.
And colorized coins? If you're worried that the Mint will become the next RCM or Perth, have no worries, because they might actually be selling joint products with other mints:
Ryder said the Mint is looking at producing and issuing colorized coins, as well as offering multinational products, packaging items manufactured by other countries under partnerships with the Mint.
(I'll post the "Youth Initiatives" in @kudbegud's thread...)
Read the article, just have something soft to hit your head against. Of course, some probably actually want stuff like this. More power to ya'. Just be careful what you wish for... 
Comments
Yep....felt it coming. Last couple of years, I've cut down on my mint purchases. This year, I cut back on all but a couple items.
Next year, likely down to 1 or 2 things, for our collection (not counting any potential flippies), at the most.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
Interesting article, thank you for sharing !!!
A circulating "rarity" would be great for the hobby. It gets people looking at their change. Remember the excitement in the general population over the first State Quarters?
So what you are saying is................ it kudbegud?
GO GO Mighty Minters!!! Coins for kids. Woo Hoo. That could be good to seed interest in this hobby.
And the new rarity coin is coming, but we can't tell you anything at all about it. You won't even know when it has arrived or when it has been spent. Where will it end up? In the Smithsonian?
And the new dollar coin that will drag on till 2033. How innovative. Each coin will probably be available in at least four different finishes to really push the envelope.
It really sounds like the mint is going to dive headfirst into more "gimmicky tricks for coins"
When all else fails, double down on what you're doing.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
What does the modern quarter (the highest denomination that is really used and 1/29 of the minimum hourly wage) teach youth about coins? Coins are worthless.
Isn't it obvious to everyone. If you want to get young people interested in coins again there needs to be coins of value that actually circulate. It's that damn simple.
Sounds like the mint May have a plan too create excitement about coins, it should be good for the hobby unless they release say 25 into circulation and then a few months later offer them for sale at $99.99 unlimited mintage, in special packaging of course.
I have no problem with our hosts getting rid of the Disagree button, but here is a good example of why we need a "SAD" button. I has a sad.
I am betting it circulates around the puck.
They’re going to sneak some into circulation and colorize a few thousand, too.
The Mint, and their associated advisers, are not innovative at all and will never achieve anything beyond the mundane and cartoon like efforts already underway. No doubt they will simulate some of the efforts made by other mints and the 'Innovation' dollar series (already a failure) will drag on - an interminable, lack luster effort in extreme boredom. Any real suggestions for products/coins that may really excite the public, (and those would come from outside the mint), will be quashed by the narrow minded bureaucracy. Sometimes we must face reality, even as depressing as it sounds. Cheers, RickO
Hopefully the rarity will be the one and only Shield Cent with a 2019 date and it's last cent ever to be struck by the US mint..
We are missing a golden opportunity if we don't have a forum pool to guess:
1 - The demonination
2 - date first one is found in circulation
3 - knee-jerk reaction high value of said coin
4 - year end value of said coin
Physical money is dying! The U.S.S. Mint is sinking!! Quick, rearrange those deck chairs!
Coinlearner, Ahrensdad, Nolawyer, RG, coinlieutenant, Yorkshireman, lordmarcovan, Soldi, masscrew, JimTyler, Relaxn, jclovescoins
Now listen boy, I'm tryin' to teach you sumthin' . . . . that ain't an optical illusion, it only looks like an optical illusion.
My mind reader refuses to charge me....
The Wikipedia definition. Spot on.
"Jumping the shark is crossing the point at which something that was once popular no longer warrants the attention it previously received, particularly when attempts at publicity only serve to highlight its irrelevance."
Coinlearner, Ahrensdad, Nolawyer, RG, coinlieutenant, Yorkshireman, lordmarcovan, Soldi, masscrew, JimTyler, Relaxn, jclovescoins
Now listen boy, I'm tryin' to teach you sumthin' . . . . that ain't an optical illusion, it only looks like an optical illusion.
My mind reader refuses to charge me....
Every member of congress will probably get one.
I knew it would happen.
What we need is for the US Mint to create commemorative coins celebrating a "grand humbug" or fake event, the coins should have an odd non-coin shape and a strange design and mysterious inscription.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Nooooooooooo!
I realized that aside from some 2018 halfs I bought for a project I have not yet made my normal annual purchases. The mint is already making itself irrelevant to me....
Bring back the silver trime and silver half dime. I'll be hooked for awhile.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
$5 coin - Bimetallic - Thin outer ring of .9999 fine silver - inner core of Sacabuck composition - Classic Liberty on front - PC ClipArt on back - Mintage 10,000
AND/OR
20 cent coin coming back, Cupro-Nickel clad reeded edge. Classic Liberty on front, hashtag on back - perhaps #
Mintage: 10,000 - 1,000 to be colorized in completely random fashion
Either or both will be released into circulation through normal streams of commerce.
I thought they did that with the Wisconsin Extra Leaf Quarters!
Ready to jump the shark?
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
Who will get the first one graded?
LOL. It KudBeExciting. I'm not sure most of us would care. And when there are 100 other newbies on here posting value questions on their pocket change, some people are going to lose their minds. But, I don't think it could do anything but help the Hobby.
I think the only thing that keeps buying from the Mint is hoping to win on the speculation of the secondary market. No real collectors of the tripe.
We need the disagree button back.
If you are talking about rarities, "xoins of value" circulate for about 5 seconds before people hoard them If you are talking about higher value coins like a $2 or $5 coin, those don't help collectors either. The face value is then too high for people to set them aside.
Hey, it does nothing for me but maybe the plans will stimulate some new youthful interest in collecting.
Face it. The Mint is in the marketing business. If you don’t like the offerings, leave them on the shelf (like many of us already do, apparently).
That is actually my point. You could buy something with a buffalo nickle when they were produced. Even when I was young you could scrape change together and do something with it (paid for food and gas more than once). You can't do that any more unless you are talking a lot of change. And even if you do that you look like an idiot if you try to buy anything over two dollars. Don't believe me, try it and see how the cashier looks at you. It doesn't have worth, it's a pain in the..........
But if you gave a child a $2 or a $5 coin they would hold on to and think about what they could get with it. They would know that it had value and would want to get more like it. The coin to them would have real world value because it does.
Simple put:
Modern coins= I hate these things in my pocket, car, purse, etc. I dislike even more saving them for just shy of forever and then taking them to bank to get a whole whooping twenty bucks.
Coins in the past= I can actually buy something with this so I'm holding on to them. If I get enough of them I can go to the bank and walk out with a cool twenty dollar bill. Which will pay for a pretty great weekend (I lived on the cheap).
It's hard moving forward from the familiar cent, nickel, dime and quarter. But half of them already cost more to make than they are worth. My granddaughter loved looking at coins with me when she was little. One day she happily brought me a quarter she found because she knew it was a treasure. That was right up until she asked me what she could get for it. Now I can say she no longer likes to look at coins with me. Sure the ones I have are worth money, but anything she can find won't even get her an ice cream cone. So why should she care.
Just to make sure I have beat this horse to death. If circulating coins aren't worth anything tangible except in bulk payments, we should just try to get young people excited about collecting bottle caps (which would actually be a cool hobby).
Perhaps inspired by the Mac Coin phenomenon? I think it's a great idea if it can be pulled off at a scale of magnitude to not just benefit a few collectors. To not be totally obvious, it would have to be some slight modification of something commonly circulating -- if the goal is to attract more attention to coinage.
"Rarity" implies very limited mintage sufficient to bring extra value. What numbers are we talking here, 100k? 1 million?
Perhaps P.T. Barnum on the obverse and an upsidedown shark on the rever....oh! wait, mint already did that one.
RWM, I agree in principle, but with things like the 'smart' cards-which I despise-we won't even be able to use the slugs the mint now produces. I just don't see anything of value that can be minted that will actually circulate and stay in circulation. If any coin produced for circulation had an honest value, they would be plucked out of circulation as fast as they were in 1965. I was just a kid in 1965, when LBJ gave his spiel that 'the new coinage will circulate alonside the old for years.' I didn't believe him even at a tender age, but indeed was surprised at the warp speed the silver coins left circulation!
RVM: I completely spaced on the idea of larger denomination base metal coins. I live abroad, and every country has larger denomination base metal coins that do circulate widely and freely. Just need to rid ourselves of the PC'ness in designs and I believe people would love to use them, as well as collect them.
A circulating numismatic rarity?
Must be an (intentional) error coin of some kind. Three examples, more could follow:
1 - Wisconsin extra-leaf quarters
2 - the Sac / Wash mules
3 - intentional non-mintmarked coins
The most disguised circulating rarity would be one hiding in plain sight.
Insert witicism here. [ xxx ]
This totally ignores my counterpoint. Only Scrooge McDuck hoards money for its intrinsic value. That is not collecting. How many people collect $100 bills or $500 euro notes? Almost no one. In fact, they discontinued the $500 euro notes and $500 bills for lack of interest. They SPEND it because it CAN buy something.
I have coordinated the RJNA JUNIOR coin club for 20 years. Kids collect what they find interesting: state quarters, president dollars, coins with holes in them. Damaged coins cause more excitement sometimes than gold. Yes, a lot of them want to think their collection will be more valuable 25 years from now, but that is true whether they have a pile of wheat cents or a pile of silver coins.
I think it grossly misunderstands why kids collect to tie it to intrinsic value.
A $5 circulating coin would NOT be collected by kids. Their parents, unless well off, wouldn't even allow them to or encourage them to just because it IS too much money.
Even more simply put:
What do you think would interest more kids (and possibly adults): a one cent piece with animated pop culture characters on the back or a $5 coin with a dead President on it?
I say, let'r rip! Go whole hog! Don't hold anything back this time! I want it all! Come on, Mint - make this a time to remember in the annals of coin collecting history!
I knew it would happen.
A CIRCULATING rarity???
The Mint tried hard NOT to have that happen for all these years. Collectors are going to go bonkers. Everyone will need one for their "whatevers". Coin Chaos will ensue!
As to what it will be........if it is to be a CIRCULATING rarity, it will have to be different in some way from a regular issue.
My first guess would be a West Point Mintmarked specimen.
My second guess would be the next new quarter reverse. It would be readily identifiable and could be minted then stopped at any given quantity. That might be the easiest way to pull it off.
It is quite an interesting proposal. But I don't like it at all. It throws sand in the face of everything that Mint attempted to prevent from happening in the past. It will succeed in providing interest, for sure.
As to the KIND of interest.............I guess we'll see.
Pete
What will be the strategy to get them through the banks? With the no edge lettering dollars many were sold on ebay by bank clerks.
The hobby of paupers happens when their change is too much for a king
Very well said, my friend.
Pete
That is partially my point. How many of them will actually get out and circulate? I think a very good percentage will get scooped up after they are identified.
Me thinks the scramble will be epic.
The ebbs and flows of this Hobby are nonetheless very interesting.
Pete
Yep. They laughed at my plan to have stores put the CASH registers in easy to get to places and put the credit card counter (SINGULAR
) out back next to the dumpster.
Adding of course the REQUIREMENT that anyone not knowing how to USE their card ....or.... getting it declined, would have to go back to the end of the line.
If the mint really wants to sell all its products they need to just offer one rarity in each of the products they sell. Like Wonka's Golden Ticket. The temptation would be from the fullfillment workers not to lift them before they are shipped. But the rarities probably would not be shipped that route anyway.
Box of 20
If in general circulation the bank boxes would all be sold out from the banks. Get them before they even enter circulation.
Box of 20
I love the idea. Pump a little life into the coin collecting hobby. Something that can be found in change by anyone.
New coin values? How about .10, .50, 1.00, and 2.50.....every coin we have is now worth ten times as much. Dollar coins become Ten Dollar coins. Even with that increase, I don't think that it's the right ratio to keep up with inflation, but change would become quite a bit more valuable! I think we would have to charge coins value up by 30 x to get back to where we once were. I remember when a roll of Lifesavers cost a nickel. A Coke from a vending machine was a quarter. It was common for people to pull up to a gas station and ask for $1.00's worth of gas.
Only Scrooge McDuck hoards money for its intrinsic value. That is not collecting. Kids collect what they find interesting.
I have to agree here, collecting isn't what can you purchase, but what is cool or rare. Or to get a series of something, or have a mixture of all types.
Oh well, at any rate, next year should prove to be interesting. When does the mint post their new offerings? Watching for a schedule from @BackroadJunkie
How about a 2019-S VDB wheat cent?
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
All they have to do is release some of the S uncirculated quarters into the bins and have them escape into circulation. They already are only doing about 925,000 of each uncirculated quarter design with an S already. That would get everyone interested in the quarter program again. Meanwhile people can still buy some from the mint directly. That way the bank tellers and coin flippers can't corner the entire market on them.
Frankly, I don't anything will ever bring back circulating coins as we used to know it. I can't recall the last time I used a coin to pay for something. The last time I used currency was a week ago when I put a $10 bill into the office MegaMillions pool. The last time I wrote a check was several months ago when I paid my lawn guy. Otherwise 99% of the time it's Apple pay with 1% of the time a credit card. And since I am nearly 70 years old and am an ardent coin collector, though I sincerely wish otherwise, I think the odds of "convincing" younger, non-collectors to use coins is a fool's errand and is never going to happen.