I really don't get this modern stuff

ajaan

It is reaching Candian coins now. I recently bought a 1901 Large Cent in MS63 for 2/3 of the price of this 1997 cent.

MSD61

I don't understand either ajaan

lordmarcovan

<< <i>I recently bought a 1901 Large Cent in MS63 for 2/3 of the price of this 1997 cent. >>





To each his own, but that really does seem like madness to me, too.

I would understand it a little better if that particular modern happened to be in PCGS plastic, and somebody wanted it for a Registry set.

(I know ICCS is just as respectable, if not moreso, in the Greyside stuff, but surely they don't have a Registry...)



There's nothing wrong with moderns, particularly if they are pretty or have cool designs or something going for them.

And that is a pretty 1997 cent... but it's...

...a 1997 cent.

cccash

Looks like pooky doo on this end... But, I don't collect canadian coins either.. I wont pay more than .10 cents for anything post 1950....

spinaker2000

AuldFartte

Ouch !!!

Well ... to each, his own, I guess.

cccash

Hmmm, wasn't talking about Canadian coins in general, Speaking of paying that ammount for something so recent.

wybrit

That makes no sense. Modern coins have nowhere to go but down in value IMO. Just look at most modern US proof sets.

Aethelred

Utter insanity!

cladking

We appear to be exiting a most unusual era. Always in the past collectors were
keenly interested in current and new coin. These "moderns" didn't usually have
a lot of value simply because they were available to those who wanted them un-
like older coins which might require some searching to find. Collectors of the past
may not have expended huge effort on the moderns but many collected at least
some of them. The very existence of the many old coins in pristine condition attests
to this fact and proves that subsequent generations ofcollectors also cared for
those same coins.

This changed in the 1950's for the first time. Country after country switched to base
metal coinage in all or most of their coinage system and collectors simply lost inter-
est and stopped collecting them. There were always reasons and frequently they
were excellent reasons, especially at the time. But the simple fact is that a new gener-
ation of collectors are discovering recent coins and finding much of interest. They are
finding some coins are extremely elusive and some are elusive in very nice condition,
but they are having fun looking.

Everyone believes these coins will drop in value which would seem to leave no sell-
ers. This dovetails nicely with the fact that many of these coins are going into col-
lections which won't be seen again for many years. It also should be considered that
the supply of the rarities is very slim and since people didn't collect them there won't
be a lot of great modern coins coming on the market from old collections.

There are still many modern rarities which can be picked up for less than $5, if you
can find them.

wybrit

Cladking,

I agree with you that many of the circulating pieces made from base metal are getting very hard to find. Just about any Cu-Ni British coin dated 1947-1962 is pretty tough now (except for 1953) in really top condition. These dates were not issued in mint sets (again, except 1953) and most of the prices are unbelievably low - $2 to $20 per coin in BU. 1963-1967 are mostly very common and very easy to locate in BU - mint sets are quite commonly found in mylar packaging.

The same may hold true to a lesser degress for Cu-Ni British decimal dates 1969-1981, when there were no official Royal Mint issued BU packages. Nobody was interested in collecting decimal. After 1981, however, there is absolutely nothing rare, save for mint errors that occasionally pop up. BU sets are everywhere and people practically seem to be giving them away on ebay.

In the case of modern British proof sets, 1971-1982 are actually quite difficult to locate in pristine, untarnished condition. That said, the market has largely ignored these earlier sets. Later sets in fancy boxes are plentiful and highly overvalued in most cases.

cladking

<< <i>Cladking,

I agree with you that many of the circulating pieces made from base metal are getting very hard to find. Just about any Cu-Ni British coin dated 1947-1962 is pretty tough now (except for 1953) in really top condition. These dates were not issued in mint sets (again, except 1953) and most of the prices are unbelievably low - $2 to $20 per coin in BU. 1963-1967 are mostly very common and very easy to locate in BU - mint sets are quite commonly found in mylar packaging.

The same may hold true to a lesser degress for Cu-Ni British decimal dates 1969-1981, when there were no official Royal Mint issued BU packages. Nobody was interested in collecting decimal. After 1981, however, there is absolutely nothing rare, save for mint errors that occasionally pop up. BU sets are everywhere and people practically seem to be giving them away on ebay.

In the case of modern British proof sets, 1971-1982 are actually quite difficult to locate in pristine, untarnished condition. That said, the market has largely ignored these earlier sets. Later sets in fancy boxes are plentiful and highly overvalued in most cases. >>



I have it on good authority that there are some decimal varieties that don't appear in
mint sets. None of the British decimals are truly scarce in unc but some of the early is-
sues are pretty tough in nice choice or gem condition. One of the reasons people haven't
paid a lot of attention to the base metal coins is that they tend to be poor quality. The
few which have survived will usually be of the typical poor quality. The early 50P are
often banged up and strikes are sometimes a problem. These are high enough denomi-
nation that people didn't set large numbers aside.

Britain is not the best country for moderns. No doubt there are many who would disagree
but the primary attraction besides their major country status is that there is more demand
and more potential demand for them. Many countries have lots of much scarcer moderns.
Some (like Japan) are still completely unappreciated. Many of the African and South Amer-
ican countries have issued coins since WWII which are scarce in any condition. These were
made in large quantities but then melted down.

Even where mint sets were made in substantial quantities it provides no assurance that the
coins are common. The existence of large numbers of mint sets made an excellent reason for
collectors to ignore the coins and assured that the prices would be very low on the secondary
market. This has led to large attrition of these sets. In some cases specific coins will not appear
in the sets and in other cases the sets will be nearly uniformly poor quality. Varieties tend to be
much scarcer in sets simply because many fewer dies were used. This means that those varie-
ties which do not appear in the sets can be very scarce.

Collectors often contact me about coins they've been seeking for many years. Often it will be
one that I've been seeking also with no luck. Some of these I've even set aside in XF or AU be-
cause it's the only thing available.

sumnom

What's worse, it's a Canadian cent. It's not even worth one US cent!

ccrdragon

registry fever strikes the darkside.... sigh

Askari

Surprisingly, high-grade recent-issue coins can be surprisingly challenging to find. Most dealers at shows, for example, won't carry them because there's so little margin in them and they often don't "move" any better than older coins. If you're building a year set of modern coins, those of the past 20 years can be challenging -- and no 1997 pulled from circulation today is going to be anywhere near as nice as the one offered here.

weresteve

<< <i>registry fever strikes the darkside ... sigh >>



It was only a matter of time ... first Canada ... then the UK ... then the Euro coinage sets. What Next?

Oh well ... I have poked and prodded at PCGS to see if UK decimal registry sets would be a possiblity ... they are at the point where they will think about it. In a way I hope they will bite for it as I have been playing around with doing sets for 20 pence, 50 pence commems, £1, and £2 bimetallic. Thought about doing a complete £2 bimetallic silver proof set until I noticed the two high price stumbling blocks ... 2000 and 2002.

I guess if PCGS wanted to really be stinkers ... how about a complete worldwide modern bimetallic registry set ... that would keep people hunting for a long time ...

PuddlePirate

One of the things people keep forgetting is that "today's coinage" is the collector's dream in twenty-five years. What "we" know as cheap poorly made circulating coins will be just as difficult to find in mint and BU condition years from now (for what we each collect), because to us the moderns are trash coins, so why save them?

I grew up handling silver coins in day to day transactions and actually spending silver .50 Ben Franklins at the movies every saturday. My children (youngest is 21) all grew up with clad coinage, they never knew anything else. My youngest daughter has two large two gallon pickle jars full of those 1776-1976 clad bicentennal quarters. She keeps every one that comes into her hands for no other reason than she thinks they are neat.

What I find amusing about this "modern stuff" is the mint sets and proof sets are readily available now and for the most part pretty cheap, 90% of what I have scheduled for certification came out of those sets. Yet years down the road what are those mint sets going to cost compared to now? Surprisingly to me just because a coin comes out of a mint set doesn't mean its in any better condition than the change I get out of a Safeway or Walmart change machine when I buy groceries. You would think the US Mint would take more pride in their selection of coins for the mint sets but that doesn't seem to be the case.

While I have no use for "Registry Sets" they do serve a purpose, they "justify" TPG price values and give you something to compare grading against.

I still think it is insane to spend $50-100 on a modern penny, but then my wife thinks I'm nuts for paying $1-3 dollars for a dirty Roman bronze that has to be worked before you can tell if it is a slug or not. So with a "wider" mindset, to each their own. Even though I don't fully understand the "modern stuff" I am still setting away modern proof sets and individual coins in high mint state with no intention of selling them for the next 20 years or so. At least I don't have to feed and water them and they are quietly content to live in my closet.

SYRACUSIAN

There are smaller countries,with a much lower total number of coins minted, where collectors simply try to collect them all, without focusing on a particular period of time, or denomination. (Modern) Greece (1828-2000) is one of these countries, and to include all pre-euro modern coins, seems an essential task for every Greek collector. Actually most of us will start with moderns, as they are more easily available and more affordable. However, it's not as easy as it sounds ,as there are no official mint sets prior to 1978 (except for the 1965 coins that were not meant to circulate anyway) and once we get down to the years 1954-62, they are simply rare in unc. The cu-ni coins have not been hoarded (I don't think people could afford to hoard coins back then) and command very high prices for true unc conditions, for ex. $150 would not be an uncommon price to buy just one of the most rare, unlike the silver coins that are still sold for melt value or slightly better.Coins after 1962 have been hoarded, but the Bank continued its policy of issuing very few mint sets, I believe 1976, and 2000 pretty much covers it, without counting the very scarce 1993 set that was issued during an odd year, while (post 1976) coins for circulation were only minted in even years,so collectors must get them from circulation or from bank rolls or from dealers who pack them privately. Thus, no one can guarantee their quality and some collectors are already paying extravagant prices for gem proof like coins of the 70s and 80s, especially if they're slabbed.


So, my point is that if any particular modern coin is considered essential for someone's collection, there's not much choice left for him, even if he can buy an almost 100 years older coin for less. Obviously, I'm not referring to this particular example of the Canadian cent, the market of which I know nothing about.

cladking

Does anyone remember "Unc Junk". If memory serves his real name was Joe Lucas
and he was from SW Ohio. He was very active in collecting and hoarding uncirculated
world coins from the early '50's until his death in about 1978. It was said that he had
tens of thousands of unc coins in his home stacked floor to ceiling. He had been quot-
ed many times as saying that he believed that many of his coins were virtually unique
in uncirculated condition.

It's odd that he was able to store this "collection" of rare coins in his home. Today it
would probably be worth in excess of a million dollars but in those days there was sim-
ply no interest in the coins. The sale of the coins as advertised in the coin papers but
they the auction did poorly. I never heard the final total but have heard that almost
everything went at fire sale prices.

Not attending was a huge blunder on my part. At the time I wasn't as interested in
the modern world coins and didn't have much knowledge. I also figured that since it
was well advertised that things would sell for premiums and perhaps even prices re-
flecting their true rarity.

Such is life.