Thought on the Future of Coin Mintage and Collecting.
BicentenBen
Posts: 58
As I sit and ponder the many posts about "have we hit the top of the curve for the coin market" or "can the US Mint continue to mint so many different products without flooding the market" I find myself day dreaming about the possibilities for the future of the hobby.
Article from the Future: (Note what follows is a sad excuss for a fabrication of a story, enjoy.)
xx/xx/xxxx, Washington DC - The US Mint announced in a press conference today plans to fundamentally change the way coinage is minted. Today's minting process produces millions of coins that for the most part can't be distinguished from one another. In the primary market this means little, but in the collecting/investing circles this can cause havok. Many collectors complain of the ease with which encapsulated coins are broken out and resubmitted until a grade is received that is desired. This process, often referred to as the "crack-out game" results in a coin anonymously travelling from TPG to TPG and grade to grade until happiness is achieved. Although many will argue that this process is simply a way for a coin to settle at it's ideal spot in the grading scale others will argue the contrary. All of this being considered the mint has decided to step in and present a solution that could in many ways give future buyers more leverage or at least ability to make an informed purchase decision.
Effective with all 2020 coinage the US Mint will employ a new multi-stage machine that will strike each coin with a serial number after it's typical obverse and reverse have been struck. This addition of a 12 digit serial number will allow every coin to be identified from every other coin. Several TPG companies have already agreed to update online serial number lookups that allow a coin history report to be run so that each coin can be tracked through multiple submissions to different grading companies.
Mint personelle that answered questions about the new process were optimistic about it's effect on the collector market. "We feel great about this move. It's our feeling that this could easily pull in currency collectors that spend their time collecting serial number notes from the BEP. At the same time we feel several niches can be exploited within this new process so that he US mint can continue to show increased profits on coinage." When pressed for examples mint personelle indicated that they could easily keep the first 10,000 minted coins and have them encapsulated by a TPG and resell them on usmint.gov as early strike low number examples. Other thoughts were to pull select coins from production for encapsulation and resell on the mints website. "We feel that since we've basically flooded the market with every possible coin finish and planchet on earth including the new buffalo leather nickel you saw last year that it was time to take coinage in a new direction."
Similar to ancient chop marks the new coins will have an added character to them hasn't been present in recent years. Strangely enough though an insider at the US Mint indicated that he felt the move could backfire. "I've seen their plans for pricing some of these special numbered coins and it's outrageous. I just can't see a number one coin going for six figures, but maybe that's just me."
Watch out error collectors as the US Mint also indicated that they would be introducing a conveyor belt system that would be manned by robots capable of catching unstruck planchets as well as error coins. "The US Mint has felt for many years that the production of mint errors was a negative reflection on government ability to produce high quality products so to that end we will have a star coin replacement system very similar to the BEP that will pull these error examples out of circulation, before they even make it to a bag." Of course it's this reporters opinion that these error coins may simply end up on eBay under the user id USMintBooBoo for a healthy profit, but either way the resulting star coins are sure to be a hit with collectors.
Whether the change in change will turn out to be good or bad is still up for debate, but there can be no doubt that the US Mint will stop at nothing to help fuel the modern coin hoarding wave that has been going for many years. State quarters and Presidential dollars be damned because the serial numbers are coming...
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Article from the Future: (Note what follows is a sad excuss for a fabrication of a story, enjoy.)
xx/xx/xxxx, Washington DC - The US Mint announced in a press conference today plans to fundamentally change the way coinage is minted. Today's minting process produces millions of coins that for the most part can't be distinguished from one another. In the primary market this means little, but in the collecting/investing circles this can cause havok. Many collectors complain of the ease with which encapsulated coins are broken out and resubmitted until a grade is received that is desired. This process, often referred to as the "crack-out game" results in a coin anonymously travelling from TPG to TPG and grade to grade until happiness is achieved. Although many will argue that this process is simply a way for a coin to settle at it's ideal spot in the grading scale others will argue the contrary. All of this being considered the mint has decided to step in and present a solution that could in many ways give future buyers more leverage or at least ability to make an informed purchase decision.
Effective with all 2020 coinage the US Mint will employ a new multi-stage machine that will strike each coin with a serial number after it's typical obverse and reverse have been struck. This addition of a 12 digit serial number will allow every coin to be identified from every other coin. Several TPG companies have already agreed to update online serial number lookups that allow a coin history report to be run so that each coin can be tracked through multiple submissions to different grading companies.
Mint personelle that answered questions about the new process were optimistic about it's effect on the collector market. "We feel great about this move. It's our feeling that this could easily pull in currency collectors that spend their time collecting serial number notes from the BEP. At the same time we feel several niches can be exploited within this new process so that he US mint can continue to show increased profits on coinage." When pressed for examples mint personelle indicated that they could easily keep the first 10,000 minted coins and have them encapsulated by a TPG and resell them on usmint.gov as early strike low number examples. Other thoughts were to pull select coins from production for encapsulation and resell on the mints website. "We feel that since we've basically flooded the market with every possible coin finish and planchet on earth including the new buffalo leather nickel you saw last year that it was time to take coinage in a new direction."
Similar to ancient chop marks the new coins will have an added character to them hasn't been present in recent years. Strangely enough though an insider at the US Mint indicated that he felt the move could backfire. "I've seen their plans for pricing some of these special numbered coins and it's outrageous. I just can't see a number one coin going for six figures, but maybe that's just me."
Watch out error collectors as the US Mint also indicated that they would be introducing a conveyor belt system that would be manned by robots capable of catching unstruck planchets as well as error coins. "The US Mint has felt for many years that the production of mint errors was a negative reflection on government ability to produce high quality products so to that end we will have a star coin replacement system very similar to the BEP that will pull these error examples out of circulation, before they even make it to a bag." Of course it's this reporters opinion that these error coins may simply end up on eBay under the user id USMintBooBoo for a healthy profit, but either way the resulting star coins are sure to be a hit with collectors.
Whether the change in change will turn out to be good or bad is still up for debate, but there can be no doubt that the US Mint will stop at nothing to help fuel the modern coin hoarding wave that has been going for many years. State quarters and Presidential dollars be damned because the serial numbers are coming...
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BicentenBen,
"I say we slab everything in sight, it's the only way to be sure."
"I say we slab everything in sight, it's the only way to be sure."
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