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What is the numismatic value of a coin?
rooksmith
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IE - the value difference between the metalic value and the REAL value (rarity, popularity, and future value) ?
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<< <i>I think you answered your own question. >>
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Numismatic value in the academic sense is the information a coin can give an archeologist or an historian about the culture(s) within which it was produced and used.
<< <i>What two people are willing to pay for it. >>
Agree that this is a good definition of "numismatic value" as long as both people are knowedgeable. This definition wouldn't apply when a dealer rips a widow of her late husband's collection. Any value that is greater than the face value or the bullion value, whichever is greater, is refered to as the "numismatic premium".
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"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
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<< <i>What two people are willing to pay for it. >>
Why two?
<< <i>What is the numismatic value of a coin? >>
Whatever the PCGS Price Guide publishes online!
i think you have that wrong, it should be "collector value vs. the real value(ie.--bullion/metal content)."
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<< <i>What two people are willing to pay for it. >>
Why two? >>
I think his intent was: 1 buyer + 1 seller = 2 people
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
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<< <i>What two people are willing to pay for it. >>
Why two? >>
I think his intent was: 1 buyer + 1 seller = 2 people >>
So he is saying numismatic value is the price at which one person is willing to sell a coin, and is the same price at least one person is willing to pay for it.
That implies, by the way, that the buyer values the coin more than the seller does. Each according to their own circumstances, of course.
It's better to save than to spend in this environmment. The true wealth is "in the metal". But the rarity factor is finding collectors who appreciate the orb for what it is: Collectible and worth more than "junk" price.
I've finally gotten a few of my nephews to understand how a quarter in 1964 could buy a gallon of gas, and how that same silver quarter in 2011 has enough "intrinsic" value via it's precious metal content to buy 2 gallons of gas and get "change you can put in your piggy bank" (albeit an ATB slug or 3). Heaven forbid anyone ever find any numismatic value in them by being able to "grade" the coin under their natural dirt. (that's why so many get dipped). Although, it's at this juncture and the worst part of the hobby that "value" becomes paramount to history and so many coins get cleaned or dipped.
Recently a couple came into the shop with some very high grade coins. (Only four) However, the first thing I told them is that they sucked because of a "harsh cleaning". The lady said : "Well I had to clean them for you so YOU could see LIBERTY, and thats why it took us so long to get here" (IHC). I'd spoken to them on the phone just hours earlier. I forgot to say "DO NOT CLEAN THEM". My heart sank to my a$$ and my brain fried. I know I turned red as ... It was then I said: "Folks, you just turned these four coins worth over a thousand dollars in numismatic value into "junk coins" worth about twenty bucks.
She looked at me and said : "Why did I even bother taking the time to clean them ? ''
I said : "That's a great question". They grabbed their coins and huffed out.
Okay... enough of this "subject".
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A rare coin exists with a population of 5, all similar in grade and eye appeal, and all of which are for sale at the "right price".
There are several knowledgeable potential buyers, each willing to acquire a specimen at the "right price".
The highest price that any buyer is willing to pay is $3 million. The lowest price that any seller is willing to accept is $5 million.
What is the coin's numismatic value?
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<< <i>It is difficult to assign an objective "value" to a coin in the absence of a liquid market and reasonably frequent trades. Here's a "thought experiment" to illustrate this difficulty:
A rare coin exists with a population of 5, all similar in grade and eye appeal, and all of which are for sale at the "right price".
There are several knowledgeable potential buyers, each willing to acquire a specimen at the "right price".
The highest price that any buyer is willing to pay is $3 million. The lowest price that any seller is willing to accept is $5 million.
What is the coin's numismatic value? >>
That's why they have dashes in catalogs. I often thought there would be much less confusion about price guides if values were listed as ranges rather than as single numbers. In your thought experiment (which is very good, by the way), I would say the numismatic value is three million - the price the buyer is willing to pay.
Numismatic value in the academic sense is the information a coin can give an archeologist or an historian about the culture(s) within which it was produced and used.
I think you're on the right track in looking at numismatic value beyond strictly dollars and cents value, and would add that the numismatic value is what makes the coin an interesting example of it's type, or it's type an interesting example in history of numismatics, or an example of a coin that, if it could talk, could tell interesting historical stories.
For example, it might be what (to me) makes an 1819 B-5 quarter in Fine so much more interesting than, say a 1964 nickel in MS/FS with a population something like 238/91 in the grade out of a billion minted
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<< <i>What two people are willing to pay for it. >>
Why two? >>
I think his intent was: 1 buyer + 1 seller = 2 people >>
So he is saying numismatic value is the price at which one person is willing to sell a coin, and is the same price at least one person is willing to pay for it.
That implies, by the way, that the buyer values the coin more than the seller does. Each according to their own circumstances, of course. >>
I think Ankur was referring to two (or more) buyers willing to bid against one another.
Lance.
I said : "That's a great question". They grabbed their coins and huffed out.
Okay... enough of this "subject".
on my most reason visit ot a Coin Shop i overheard one of the owners talking to a customer and explaining about the differences in value based on grade. he must have used an unfamiliar term to the woman, something on the order of "BU" or "Uncirculated" or "Gem" or something else. the next thing i heard him say, which she apparently understood, was NEW. to that woman and perhaps to your couple the word new is inferred to mean bright and shiney, thus the cleaning in an attempt to achieve that. although i really dislike the term "original" there needs to be a way to communicate to non-collectors or to naive collectors what not to do to coins.
therein lies a problem since we so often and enthusiastically talk about such things as conservation at this forum and when in each others company at shops and shows.