How do you define dreck?
Colonialcoin
Posts: 673 ✭✭✭✭
Dreck to me simply put, is any coin that is overgraded be it raw or slabbed, as well as properly graded coins that have no eye appeal. Scratched up and harshly cleaned coins are included too. Doesn’t matter to me what the value is. I have seen horrible looking coins priced under $10 as well as five figure colonials that I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.
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Anything that bottom feeders like me like to eat.
Pete
I don't like or use the dumb word.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I’d say it must be defined individually. What’s one man’s drek is another man’s treasure.
Exactly. Why disparage coins that me be someone else's focus for any number of reasons?
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My understanding is that "dreck" is overgraded, low-end for the grade, messed with, or problem coins being marketed as "great" coins. I don't think the intent is to call inexpensive coins or even properly described low end or problem coins "dreck".
Non-CAC
Kidding but only half. A lot of coins like gold have been messed with.
Any coin that Laura feels is beneath her standards for likability.
Hence, the anguish and drama.
Accepting things as they are has help me avoid the ER.
For me, dreck is the sort of coin that no amount of money is worth the purchase because I don't like the way it looks...not even a little bit. It can be properly graded, over or undergraded, makes no difference. Some people like "Dogs playing poker" with a velvet background hanging on their wall...I do not.
If Dreck were wall art...
What I can actually afford.
When one considers any collectible coin from a circulated wheat cent on up as dreck, they have become jaded to the simplicity of a wonderful hobby and should move on to old Rolexes or shredded Banksy watercolors.
Defining dreck in numismatics is not possible. YOU may not buy a particular coin, but there are thousands on a much tighter budget that will.
So, the question would be what doesn't appeal to your numismatic eye?
Don't be a schmendrick. There is a collector for every coin.
Cheers
Bob
IMO, "Dreck" has a particular meaning. Someone "coined" that word originally. The first I ever saw it used was after I joined CU.
While I agree that we are all free to collect anything, in any condition, at any price (one man's coin is another's dreck); that should not change or the actual meaning of the word as originally applied. I suspect a major dealer came up with the word to describe a particular coin or type of coin. Perhaps members could nail this word down for posterity. Some posts above are similar so we must be close. So, without leaving any comments, would you all please take the time to define the word in just a short sentence as one that would appear in a numismatic dictionary.
Dreck: A coin that...
Actually, dreck is a Yiddish word for worthless.
Abi gezunt
Bob
@Outhaul replied:
Define Dreck: A coin that...
Actually, dreck is a Yiddish word for worthless.
But that will not apply (forget VALUE as it has messed up coin grading and will mess up any definition) because even a "worthless", beat up, parking lot cent is something of value - even as a "teaching coin!"
Well, when dreck is encapsulated in a respectable TPG holder, it's asking price won't be much less than the eye appealing beauties we all seek (that is precisely why it is dreck). Those on a budget still cannot afford it.
Dreck isn't worthless in my estimation, it is like having your pick of ladies at the Hawaiian Tropic swimsuit competition and then picking the the sixty year old lunch lady with the wart on her face and hair net that is serving lunch at the venue.
• Any common coin that has been whizzed, polished or holed. In addition common pieces that have huge rim bumps, large scratches, graffiti and corrosion would also make my list.
• I know that a lot of collectors love them, but I am not a fan coins that are in less than Good condition, even if they are rare and undamaged.
• New, non-contemporary counterfeits and coins that are altered to deceive collectors.
• In the grading realm, I am not a fan of over graded pieces where the level of mis-grading significantly increases the price of the item. Such pieces are traps for those whose grading skills are such that they are led into paying well over the current market value of the item if it were graded properly.
Although a number of people object to the term “dreck,” the older term “junk” carries an even more negative connotation in my mind. No one wants to be called a “junk collector” Yes, people should be able to collect whatever they like, if they have their eyes open to what they doing, so long as it does not injury other collectors. For example, I don’t think that anyone should collect Chinese counterfeits because buying those pieces only feeds a very evil beast.
One man’s “dreck” might be another man’s treasure, the treasure hunter should be aware that a great many people don’t share his passion, if he’s going to spend a lot of money on it.
Basically its a word used only to disparage things other people own or like .
I don't like or use the dumb word.
This
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Gem, Widget, Dreck.
Get out your green money and pay for your seat!
I'd ask for reconsideration. After all, a Dreck + is worth more than just a Dreck.
And lots of Gem is dreck.
I've never used that word. One reason is this post, nearly everyone has a different meaning for the word, therefore not reasonably used.
Jim
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There is only one meaning for the word; the Yiddish definition. Anyone else's definition is bupkes.
Looking for one ........
It can always be used as a horrible example.
@Colonialcoin said: "Dreck to me simply put, is any coin that is overgraded be it raw or slabbed, as well as properly graded coins that have no eye appeal. Scratched up and harshly cleaned coins are included too."
@Connecticoin said: "My understanding is that "dreck" is overgraded, low-end for the grade, messed with, or problem coins being marketed as "great" coins."
@BillJones said: "Any common coin that has been whizzed, polished or holed. In addition common pieces that have huge rim bumps, large scratches, graffiti and corrosion would also make my list.
In the grading realm, I am not a fan of over graded pieces where the level of mis-grading significantly increases the price of the item. Such pieces are traps for those whose grading skills are such that they are led into paying well over the current market value of the item if it were graded properly."
I've posted some significant comments from this thread. THANKS, we are making progress.
IMHO, counterfeits, fantasy, and reproductions already have terms that define them. Perhaps overgraded coins might also be eliminated but I don't know.
PS @BAJJERFAN said: "It can always be used [described] as a horrible example."
It's the part of a ship sailors walk on....?
Added hint about meaning: The dreck also prevents sailors from falling into the bilge.
Well, I am attempting to define "dreck" as I understand it's use of the term by @Specialist
If you insist on a single definition my opinion is this: a coin that is beneath me.
I’ve heard dreck used before in other venues. In wines they say plonk. It means the same - something that is beneath me and my tastes.
Even overgraded coins can be non-dreck depending on the coin and cost. But even this depends on perspective.
Why do we have to define it every six months? The definition has not changed.
Deck is in the eye of the beholder.
I like and collect proof Franklins, including those in the attached photos.
Some may view them as Dreck. Not me. I view them as very eye appealing widgets.
What so you?
I would guess because of the non-fun FUN report from the originator of feared Dreck.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Even a fugly coin. Peace Roy
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Because some peeps continually insist on getting their panties in a wad over what they erroneously perceive to be an elitist slant to the word.
I
any kind of DRECKS and there are not necessary beneath me 
"That coin is icky".
Do we now need a numismatic definition of icky?
Because, you know, "One man's icky is another man's gnarly!"
A coin that's been to more coin shows than most dealers have been to.
@RYK said: "Why do we have to define it every six months? The definition has not changed.
Possibly because I'm an ignorant old guy and I wish to see a short definition that I can use/explain to others who are at my level of ignorance. It seems to me that if this has been explained in the past, I should have looked into the archives. Sorry. Color me lazy/busy. As I wrote, I first saw the term used on CU. It may have been used by @specialist.
Several posts in this thread are similar. I wish you would have added something more useful to me like your definition of the word.
Thanks in advance.
I did define it in the concurrent thread about dreck. My definition was widely acclaimed as the definitive definition of dreck.
Let me rephrase the question: why must define “dreck” multiple times each day?
There has been an established taxonomic hierarchy for generations.
Gem
Choice
schlock aka "stuff"
dreck
scheisse
And of course it's judgmental and elitist
Straight-up over-grading is not enough. An original coin over-graded half a point is not dreck
I believe you are confusing it with the POOP dreck.
But that could be even worse.
Colonel, may I ask, sir, where in this taxonomy does the “widget” fit?
The only thing I'd define as dreck are mutilated parking lot cons. The rest have their place in collections of all kinds.
I disagree. There is a quarter on the floor of my daughter’s car that looks so disgusting that nobody wants to pick it up to spend it (let alone collect it).
I so like.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
A very large part of my collection at one time or another would have
and still fits the definition of dreck or widget. Regardless of the definitions,
in my book they are demeaning and insulting.
Maybe I meant to say "ballast" -- the place Navy guys stored Philippine gold on the USS Trout out of Corregidor Island (in Manila Bay), 1942.
The definition for dreck is:
1 excrement, dung
2 worthless trash, junk
Yes, that means you are literally calling coins poop. In a numismatic sense it is generally used as a device to destroy the perceived value of someone else's coins.
Having spent several decades in this hobby, I have never encountered this term anywhere else. I believe most of it has come from one source.
The term is used to disparage low level coins. I do not use it, since I do not want to offend collectors whose coins may be of such quality that others may pass over. I respect all collectors and will compliment their collections that they worked hard to get, and are usually proud to display. Cheers, RickO
I thought dreck was those silly little green stickers some collectors like to put on the slab.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
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