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Do ugly/problem coins every really find a home?
jacktheknife
Posts: 1,547 ✭
We have all seen it before. A coin shows up at auction and then you see it again a couple months later. Perhaps a few more months goes by and there it is again. What ultimately happens to these poor ugly/problem coins? Do they ever find a home? It is so sad to watch. I know of one coin that I have seen offered on various dealer websites or at auction easily 10-15 times over the past 5 years.
I suggest we start the "Save the Ugly/Problem Coin Foundation". We can get Sally Struthers or Jane Fonda to do TV commercials. Ugly/problem coins without a home would be shown and then Sally would come on and pitch for a donation "so that this coin can have a place to sleep tonight". "Please give generously to the Save the Ugly/Problem Coin Foundation. All coins deserve a home".
What do you think? I just wish these coins could find a home.
Jack
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sweet stunners end up in a dark safe deposit box for generations
besides...problem coins are learning tools...per se books of the trade
<< <i>ironic in away that most problem coins travel...they have a life
sweet stunners end up in a dark safe deposit box for generations
besides...problem coins are learning tools...per se books of the trade >>
I really love the OP, but I also think LVT raises a good point. I think we should concentrate more on what the coin would want, could it speak for itself. Are coins vain? Would they choose to be pretty, only to be locked safely in a SD box, in the dark, only to be looked at and preened by a very few, priveledged souls? Or would they choose to be overgraded, only to spend the rest of eternity hopping from one city to another, facing surutinzing eyes that ultimately reveal disappointment? Maybe I'd want to be an envelope toned attractive raw coin, doomed to circulate amongst amateur type collectors, merely bought for the look, and acknowledged as being too questionable for PCGS, but too nice for the bargain bin.
On the other hand, even if I were a 1794 dollar or other desired rarity with an ugly spot or some horrible scratch, something unconserveable, what I would really want is to be put out of my misery. Take up a collection so that the I can be purchased, and then in the dark of night, take me out back to the shed, and drop me into the communal melting pot.
Maybe a plaque could read: This was once a great coin, which lived it's life to the fullest. Its sacrifice will be remembered.
Or something like that.
Empty Nest Collection
Matt’s Mattes
<< <i>I think bad coins start off with the first person who get screwed and pays too much. >>
I know dat be right...
I think it ultimately boils down to demand. If something is over-priced due to the whims of a trend that then dies down, then the one holding the devalued coin might have to live with selling at a loss if one loses interest in the coin (or if one is a dealer selling). Getting stamped with a "Genuine" holder when one was expecting a grade can knock back interest in one's coin, but all coins have some monitary value, even if it's the one stamped on the reverse.
It is certainly noteworthy that two coins with the same value in the price guides might have very different demand. Go to a coin show with a 1909-S-VDB wheat cent and an MS66 semi-key date (but not Carson City) Morgan, both with the same list value, and I'll bet you'll get far more inquiries on the VDB penny. We've all daydreamed about the VDB penny as kids. Not as many of us have wanted all these years our very own MS65 1889-S Morgan dollar. (I would, being a Morgan collector, but even I might prefer the penny.)
I like the idea of them traveling. Even though they are unattractive or overgraded, they are out seeing the world.
Still, I can't help but feel sorry for them. Just as they are getting to know the other coins in the box, off on another trip they go. They have no true friends, no real home.
Think of Stewart's coins. "The beautiful coins", they all stick together. A very tight knit group. They've known each other for years and years. They don't get out much, but they have each other. Sure, the 14-D in 66RD might think he's better than the 09-SVDB in 67RD and they may squabble from time to time, but they are family. That's what counts.
Jack
Later, Paul.
Later, Paul.
Or, maybe we need to go do something a little less nerdy, like catching the new Star Trek movie. (It rocks, by the way.)
GrandAm
but NOT IN MY BACK YARD !! I turn a blind eye to the less
fortunate coins laying helplessly on the side walk and stride on by.
Land fills probably get many of them!
<< HSN >> that's a good answer too
Inside every ugly coin is a pretty coin just waiting to be dunked in solvent, artificially toned, and put in a "genuine" holder.