Friday Evening Post: mintage figures and pop reports.
keets
Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
How well I remember when most of my collecting habits were based on published mintage figures. If an issue had a small known mintage, it was rare or scarce no matter how many existed. And who knew how many existed, anyway? All I knew about coins was what I read in books, magazines and dealer lists. No internet, shows were few and far between and shops weren't much better. My main outlet was the kid 2 houses down that got me started and the school coin clubs that put the "geek" name-tag on you if you joined. We could pedal our bikes or convince our fathers to get us to the shop but shows were an impossibility. In a nutshell, I was pretty much at everyone's mercy with regards to what coins I could buy and what kind of price I should be paying. Grades, don't even get me started.
Things changed very quickly in the last 15 years. With the advent of grading services and published records of what they have graded, a different light shines on the known survivors of many issues. Coins once thought of as common really aren't, and some seen as extremely rare are more common than known. Pop reports may be inherently inaccurate, but they at least serve to show a dispersion rate of survivors as time passes and submissions either pick up or slow down.
For me, a pop report tells me what kind of grade i should be able to locate a coin in. If I pay attention to a certain series, I should be able to understand how successful other collectors are in finding coins in the same grades I'm looking for. With Jefferson's, I've learned which coins I should try to "make" and which ones i'll have to buy. I'm also able to know when I should pass on a certain coin because another at a better price will probably be found. Sometimes I'll see a coin that is priced below what seems reasonable for it's graded pop and I'll buy.
Anyway, it seems that with the additional information that is available today I have a better chance of locating coins I want at more favorable prices. Better in the long run than checking a red-book for 12 months!!
Al H.
Things changed very quickly in the last 15 years. With the advent of grading services and published records of what they have graded, a different light shines on the known survivors of many issues. Coins once thought of as common really aren't, and some seen as extremely rare are more common than known. Pop reports may be inherently inaccurate, but they at least serve to show a dispersion rate of survivors as time passes and submissions either pick up or slow down.
For me, a pop report tells me what kind of grade i should be able to locate a coin in. If I pay attention to a certain series, I should be able to understand how successful other collectors are in finding coins in the same grades I'm looking for. With Jefferson's, I've learned which coins I should try to "make" and which ones i'll have to buy. I'm also able to know when I should pass on a certain coin because another at a better price will probably be found. Sometimes I'll see a coin that is priced below what seems reasonable for it's graded pop and I'll buy.
Anyway, it seems that with the additional information that is available today I have a better chance of locating coins I want at more favorable prices. Better in the long run than checking a red-book for 12 months!!
Al H.
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Comments
that was what my reference to the reports inherent inaccuracy was about. all-in-all, i think the negatives such as that are far outweighed by the positive aspects. at least for me.
from what other members post, unless you willingly send in the inserts of coins cracked out, the report lists them as extant.
al h.