bullion round collectors
pruebas
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I admit to watching a lot of YouTube. There is a bunch of good content available (together with a whole lot of junk) and I can multitask while watching.
Anyway, over the last few years, I am simply amazed at the volume and enthusiasm in the (mostly silver) bullion collectibles market. Specifically Mexican Libertads, but I think it exists for Maple Leafs, Britannias, and probably others too. Graded, raw, and OGP.
These collectors collect (hoard?) "rare" Libertads and obsess over varieties and packaging. And they discuss collectibility and market topics just like we all here discuss classic coins.
It seems a lot of the market activity in this area happens on Instagram, of which I am not a part, but from what they say in their videos the prices can be quite high and climbing.
Is this a good thing for numismatics in general? For classic coins in particular?
Will a subset of them ever move into collecting ancient or other non-modern coins?
Is this activity just the numismatic equivalent of meme stocks?
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I know several collectors who got their start from Bullion. I can't speak to its popularity but the aspects you are highlighting are some of the same reasons we collect coins. Trying to understand the market and pricing on bullion is very difficult for me. As with everything it generally follows the demand. Plenty of incredibly scarce coinage with no significant value due to lack of demand. There's a lot of bullion but if you have a lot of demand.
I think it's a positive personally. I don't know what a normal progression into the hobby is now. It becomes more and more difficult to find significant things to collect out of pocket change and I think generations of collectors got their start that way.
I wouldn't get into bullion and personally detest it. That doesn't mean it's not good for the hobby though because my opinions are my own. If it makes people happy then so be it. Maybe a few of those people will try our side of things sometime.
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The best collecting goals lie right on the border between the possible and the impossible. - Andy Lustig, "MrEureka"
No judgement against bullion collectors. They are as enthusiastic and OCD as the rest of us collectors. And at least they are not into Pokemon cards.
Younger collectors can start with state/parks quarters and other circulating commemoratives. But yes, that makes sense that new collectors start with bullion. There is certainly greater possible appreciation with bullion.
I got into coins via bullion, but not in the manner described.
Post financial crisis I thought gold and other metals would run. I also like palladium as an industrial metal with upside.
Around that time Bing was launched and they had a partnership with eBay on searching through Bing and then buying on eBay for a ridiculous 8-10% cash back.
So I started buying palladium Pamps for below spot. Eventually I looked into the quasi-numismatic coins like the Chinese low mintage bullion series from the early 1980’s.
My mom was living in Atlanta at the time and I visited her and we hit Stone Mountain and Dahlonega, and I was hooked. Sold the palladium and bought an 1850-D $5 in P45 and the rest is history.
Latin American Collection
Bullion is the door to numismatics.
Also the door to "Fiat money and its backers are gonna collapse and I got my silver and gold and guns and canned beans and I'm ready!"
Buy the dip!! Or just jack some catalytic converters...
All kidding aside, it can only be good for numismatics. As @Boosibri attested to, it's a natural gateway to collecting REAL coins.
I will say, though, I hate artificial collectibles of any sort. Finding minute differences between amongst modern perfection and making those noteworthy/valuable is one step off a pyramid scheme. No one's into it for nerdy collecting purposes... it's all about investment/gambling.
Have you all noticed the 50+ lots a week of modern Brit-trash bullion that Heritage has been trotting out for months in their Weekly World auctions?
I am a fan of Libertads. I gather those in the context of my 1984 collection and I plan to get ALL the varieties and mint errors I can get. This is a NGC MS65 roll end toner, it was waaay over the silver price of course. (my pictures)
Coinsof1984@martinb6830 on twitter
I think you are correct. Like any other form of cherrypicking.
I wouldn’t call it trash. The level of workmanship is quite high. But I do get tired of seeing the same coins every week. They seem to have an endless supply.
I think they run them because they’ve got a dry consignment pipeline for the weekly sales.
I do believe the Royal Mint has now surpassed the Royal Canadian Mint and the Perth Mint in the volume of “stuff” produced.
Never collected rounds but I once had 23 100oz silver bars in my safe that I bought at $5 an ounce. Sold them all at 3X my purchase price. Obviously, that was awhile back.
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I for one hate it, my searches for "Charles III" used to be so much easier, now I have to go through pages of the material that you speak of.
I like to keep a little bullion but I wouldn't have any interest in actually collecting it.
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Hardly, the original Morgan Dollars released in the 80's were little more than bullion sales. If anything, modern bullion coins (though never intended for circulation - like proof coins) are more "real" than the tokens in circulation masquerading as coins.
Anything that makes people want to own coins, and want to look at coins and study them, is by definition "numismatic" and therefore "good for numismatics". It might not be the same kinds of numismatic items that you or I are interested in, but "numismatics" is a very broad church.
Yes. As a general rule, a small minority of colelctors do shift their collecting interest between the numismatic planks. A small subset of people interested in US coins might become interested in world coins, for example, and bullion coins are no different in this regard. How big the subset is, only future history will be able to tell.
Some might get into bullion, only to find that the designs for bullion coins were copied from older circulating coins, so become interested that way. Some might get into it from the monetary history angle - people used to use silver as actual money but don't anymore - and thus obtain an interest in those monetary objects.
As mentioned, I would consider bullion coin collecting just as much a part of "mainstream numismatics" as collecting Spanish-American dollars or ancient Roman denarii. The "problem" that these collectors have is finding a place to discuss their hobby that isn't flooded with the we-hate-the-government-doomsday-prepper crowd, so the two groups can become kind of conflated in the eyes of outsiders.
As for the question on whether it's a "bubble" or not, I have always considered it somewhat odd that many people who consider themselves "mainstream coin collectors" exclude bullion issues from their definition of "coin". Bullion coins are just as likely as circulation coins to suffer from errors, varieties, scarce date/mintmarks, etc.. So as time passes and early bullion coins become "classics", I see no reason why interest in them (and therefore value) would not increase.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.