"Fresh" coins?

Mark

I read statements from dealers and collectors that "it was a good show because I had 'fresh' coins" or "'fresh' coins are selling well" or "there were no 'fresh' coins". While I have my own opinion about what it means for a coin to be "fresh," what do you think a "fresh" coin is? And, how does a "fresh" coin compare with, I guess, a "stale" coin?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

abuell

The 'fresh' coins just arrived in the dealer's case. The 'stale' coins have been in that same dealer's case since the Nixon administration.

MacCoin

is a 2002 a fesh coin?

gemtone65

I think Laura Legend tends to use this jargon. I'm sure you'll hear from her soon. In the meantime, I suppose a fresh coin refers to one that hasn't been sitting in a dealer's inventory and or showcase for some time. Indeed, perhaps a fresh set of coins refers to an accumulation appearing for the first time at dealer's table.

These fresh pieces will attract other dealers' initial interest as typically they haven't been seen before, or offered for sale previously at fixed prices. This doesn't necessarily make them any more worthwhile than "stale" coins, however, the prospect that they might be appealing is what presumably makes them worth looking at for the usual cadre of dealers who attend shows on a regular basis.

ARCO

My feeling is that collections have an upper shelf life of 30-40 years depending on how long the initial collector lives. The collections are passed on to successive generations alas to be sold off as the heirs prefer the money for a new car or boat.

Grading started heavily in 1986 I believe going forward. That is just less than half the shelf life of the longest lived collections. By that scenario, perhaps half or so of the significant collections still held by individual collectors (lets say $5,000 or more in value) are still in the collectors hands, mostly unslabbed and raw from the days when that was the only way to buy coins.

I have always imagined that "fresh coins" were choice coins cashed in by sellers of a collection, submitted to the grading services for encapsulation and now available for sale to the coin buying public once again after decades in a private collection, uncleaned and unmolested.

Tyler

IrishMike

I think in todays market it has come to mean a coin that was last sold 3-4 years ago.

kieferscoins

Fresh can even be slabbed. A guy walked into one of our local coin shows with a binder full of first generation slabbed type coins (only wanting to sell a few). They were all PQ coins that have not been picked over by other dealers. Some were potential upgrades if resubmitted. I bought two and they are now in my set.

Cameron Kiefer

shylock

You can tell if an auction collection is truly fresh by taking a head count of the crackout artists in attendance, not that I would know who they are. The type of coins that create a bidding frenzy between prospectors and collectors. The way coins change hands today I agree with Mike about freshness dates getting shorter, and it's become a diluted term like so many others.

cladking

People are all different with different perspectives, desires, and ways to value things. Stale coins have
been seen by representatives of most every concievable perspective and have been found wanting or
too little value for the price. Fresh coins have not been "cherry-picked" by those who like varieties, or
strike, or color, or cleanliness, or rims, or centering etc, etc, etc. Usually stale coins tend to have a bland
sameness to them while fresh material will crack, snapple, and pop.