Do you consider MODERN commems to be coins?....poll

topstuf

Like in REAL coins? Nobody ever spends any but the Washington half.

TUMUSS

That's like asking are any PROOF coins real coins? OF COURSE

flaminio

Right -- are proof coins real coin? Patterns? Morgan dollars that spent their entire lives in bank vault bags?

And who spends Washington halves, anyway? Besides me, of course...

bigbadchad777

Of course they are coins, BEAUTIFUL coins!

Deb048gold

That's like asking if a Honda or Toyota is a car. What should have been asked is do you consider Modern commems to be rare coins? Certainly a coin, but not particularly rare. At least not now!

cladking

Of course they're coins. They aren't coins like a Barber dime or a large cent but they're
every bit as much a coin as the classic commems or an 1804 dollar.

The term coin is really a spectrum and even good-for tokens have many coin-like qualities.
Tax tokens fullfill all the definitions of a coin much better than the 1804 dollar or many of the
other classic rarities.

It really doesn't matter anyway since people don't usually choose what they want to collect
for a single reason.

Murphy

Sure, why not. They're good at the store aren't they?

dthigpen

In the past I've spent plenty of 1986 halves.

Conder101

No I don't consider them to be coins. Every or almost every deffiition of what a coin is includes the requrement that they are issued with the intent that they are to be used as money. The modern commemoritives, although they are legal tender, are NOT intended to be used as money (For the same reason I don't consider proofs to be coins either.). That doesn't mean that they CAN'T be used as money. But if you can get them to accept it, you can use a silver round as money, but that dosn't make it a coin. Just becase you can spend something doesn't make it a coin.

Deadhorse

Hmmmm....... OK, is an 1856 Flying Eagle penny a coin? Technically I don't think it's a pattern, maybe it is, I'm no expert.

I doubt many of them were ever spent as they were gifts to the right people who happened to be at that event when they were unveiled.

There were too many of them to call a pattern, they were legal tender, they looked just like their younger cousins that were certainly circulated as coins.

I think they were coins. I think modern commems are coins too. Don't they meet the same criteria as legal tender? Am I further out in left field than usual?

Deadhorse

So, are there people here who don't consider silver Eagles to be coins?

ER

Why not?

jonesy

They're round and made out of smoe kind of metal. I'd say yes!!

sumnom

They are souvenirs made by the mint.

Conder101

1856 flying eagle cents are not coins. I classify them as patterns (and as restruck patterns). They can't be coins because the design was not approved until 1857.

I do not consider US Silver and Gold Eagles to be coins either. Again they fail the test of being issued with the intent of circulating as money. They are what are termed on the Darkside as NCLT, Non-Circulating Legal Tender. And coins don't have to be legal tender in order to be coins. Large cents were not legal tender until 1864, and half cents weren't until 1965. But they were issued by the government with the intention that they would circulate as money, and so they were coins.

Jonesy, Many tokens are round and made of some kind of metal as well, that doesn't make them coins. (And coins don't have to be round.)The difference between a token and a coin is the issuing authority. Both are intended to circulate as money (although in the case of a token it may be intended to have a restricted circulation area) but one is issued by a governmental authority and the other by a private authority.)

michael

NCLT

non circulating legal tender


michael

Craton

Issued by the United States Mint with a denomination on them and can be spent anywhere in the U.S. ........ I call it a coin. What else could it be?

Deadhorse

<< <i>Issued by the United States Mint with a denomination on them and can be spent anywhere in the U.S. ........ I call it a coin. What else could it be? >>



That's kind of the way I saw it too, before the experts made it so clear that even a dumb 'ole Texas boy like me could see the error of my ways.

Now where is that sarcasm flag icon?

Restruck patterns........... I can't help but think that an '09 S VDB Lincoln would have to fall under that broad definition as well. Still, I'm willing to to bet I'm wrong again, somehow.