<< <i>Why are US coins valued higher than the majority of foreign coins....? >>
World coins are undervalued because they haven't received significant demand like US coins. This is due to the fact that the majority of numismatists is Americans, and American collectors hesitated to venture into collecting something that they don't know or unfamiliar with. Sometimes the language barrier and lack of information prevented American collectors from collecting foreign coins.
All true, and more basically it is simple supply and demand. For example, many Conder tokens have significant similarities to U.S. early copper but sell for tiny fractions of the price. But that creates opportunities for the rest of us!
I posted the following remarks on the US forum in error (I thought that I was in the Foreign Coin Forum) so now I fear that I will raise the hackles of US collectors and suffer their slings and arrows. Here is what I wrote concerning US vs Darkside collecting:
"Many people have said it, and I'll say it again. It is all driven by demand and collector base. A great deal of recent (last 10 years or so) collecting interest has been driven by investors, or people looking to put some bucks into something, rather than "collectors" in the literal or historical sense of the word. Third party grading companies and electronic internet buying have ratchetted up the "semi-safe" buying opportunities for all people now. I also think that many new collectors are being hoodwinked into buying the printed paper that accompanies TPG slabs and the true hobbiests have taken somewhat of a back seat to the "what's it going to be worth tomorrow" crowd. Although it's hard to paint things with a broad stroke of the brush, I think that people with excess funds to throw at possible capital appreciation are mostly in the US. And US collectors buy what they are most comfortable with, in this case US coinage. It is relatively easy to get a handle on the general US market because of all the books, internet, and publications available now and US collecting generally has a straight "one-government, common-decimal denomination" collecting outline. It is just too much for many people to handle most of the darkside stuff, because it goes back 500 years instead of 200 years ... and is further exascerbated by all the City-Sates, monarch changes, war reparations that changed borders/names, and weird(to us) monetary denominations that make many people shy away from foreign coinage. In my opinion, the vanilla US coinage can't hold a candle to the diversity available in the darkside .. it just takes, time, research and study to wade into an alien collecting arena. Many people don't want to spend the time. US collecting is the fast-food choice of way too many new collectors"
I am still learning how to navigate this website and its different forums and get waylayed sometimes. Maybe my remarks will ring a little truer on this side of the fence. Although I now specialize mostly in Canadian Large Cent coinage, I have a great deal of Darkside stuff back nearly 500 years, especially German and Austrian States minors, but my "hoard" is really all over the board, except for the Canadian. I'm normally a lurker rather than a poster.
Comments
<< <i>Why are US coins valued higher than the majority of foreign coins....? >>
World coins are undervalued because they haven't received significant demand like US coins. This is due to the fact that the majority of numismatists is Americans, and American collectors hesitated to venture into collecting something that they don't know or unfamiliar with. Sometimes the language barrier and lack of information prevented American collectors from collecting foreign coins.
"Many people have said it, and I'll say it again. It is all driven by demand and collector base. A great deal of recent (last 10 years or so) collecting interest has been driven by investors, or people looking to put some bucks into something, rather than "collectors" in the literal or historical sense of the word. Third party grading companies and electronic internet buying have ratchetted up the "semi-safe" buying opportunities for all people now. I also think that many new collectors are being hoodwinked into buying the printed paper that accompanies TPG slabs and the true hobbiests have taken somewhat of a back seat to the "what's it going to be worth tomorrow" crowd. Although it's hard to paint things with a broad stroke of the brush, I think that people with excess funds to throw at possible capital appreciation are mostly in the US. And US collectors buy what they are most comfortable with, in this case US coinage. It is relatively easy to get a handle on the general US market because of all the books, internet, and publications available now and US collecting generally has a straight "one-government, common-decimal denomination" collecting outline. It is just too much for many people to handle most of the darkside stuff, because it goes back 500 years instead of 200 years ... and is further exascerbated by all the City-Sates, monarch changes, war reparations that changed borders/names, and weird(to us) monetary denominations that make many people shy away from foreign coinage. In my opinion, the vanilla US coinage can't hold a candle to the diversity available in the darkside .. it just takes, time, research and study to wade into an alien collecting arena. Many people don't want to spend the time. US collecting is the fast-food choice of way too many new collectors"
I am still learning how to navigate this website and its different forums and get waylayed sometimes. Maybe my remarks will ring a little truer on this side of the fence. Although I now specialize mostly in Canadian Large Cent coinage, I have a great deal of Darkside stuff back nearly 500 years, especially German and Austrian States minors, but my "hoard" is really all over the board, except for the Canadian. I'm normally a lurker rather than a poster.
<< <i>US collecting is the fast-food choice of way too many new collectors >>