Thought Experiment...What if the Mint Stops Producing/Selling Collector Coins?
RichR
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So...with the recent resignation of the Mint director, the potential closing of one of more mint facilities, and reports that the Numismatic Products Division is being eliminated...what would happen if there were no collector coins (annual sets, all Eagles, Morgan & Peace dollars, etc.) produced for a year or more?
Would that have any impact on the prices of past issues?
And what would a permanent elimination of future collector issues have on the hobby in the US?
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i vote not
hard to say. on one hand i'll mention is that infinite sets will be finite and more attractive
then we are cooked. no new privy things to look through.
For those that follow Canadian coins, has the elimination of their cent impacted the collector base or coin market?
In general, the mint could benefit from going back to just a few core items. Then again, if the premiums remain where they are today, that will do more to limit collecting as fewer can afford the prices (or can justify paying that much even if they can afford it).
Many of US collect coins that are no longer actively in production. For some that makes them even more attractive.
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Maybe the knowledge that there will be no future mint issues will cause the prices of previous mint issues to rise.
And maybe some foreign mints will fill the void for US commemoratives with coins like this one.
It could be an excellent outcome for some modern coin series as the key date coins would be established for collectors now. I would hope for the mint to come out with new designs in a few years and start from scratch again, this would be best and would make the series that ended in 2025 modern classics. I would expect the key date coins to go up in price as the series are considered completed. The mint would still be issuing bullion coins though, so only the proofs might be completed for some coins like silver eagles.
No significant effect in Canada. Also, no effect on collectors of European coinage made obsolete by the Euro adoption.
If this happened, we'd all have to find something new to complain about. 😀
That said, and whatever changes they make to reduce a bloated bureaucracy that causes some on this forum to use "government accounting" to justify how they have to charge insane markups on what, in the aggregate, amounts to millions of units per year in order to generate a profit, it's impossible to conceive of anyone in the government seriously wanting to end a program that actually generates a significant marginal profit for the government.
Unlike the IRS, which, for obvious reasons, is wildly unpopular even though the money it spends also generates a return for the Treasury, no one actively opposes the production of collector coins for those who want them, at no cost to the taxpayers. Even those who have no use for them.
Just wait and see. I don't know anyone that can predict the future. I don't see the elimination of the San Francisco Mint either. Collectors will still collect, and the investors/flippers will just find a new are to work.
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Not iMO. At the margin, seemingly endless series like the AGE potentially reduce the collector base due to affordability, but this in and of itself doesn't make anyone already collecting it want to pay more.
Otherwise, why would anyone buy a coin they don't want now for this reason? That sounds more like speculation than collecting.
None or virtually none IMO. There is already an ample supply of US NCLT to market to attract new collectors. It's also my inference that most new collectors starting with NCLT first bought bullion ASE or AGE.
The theme of this thread provides more of a reason for more buying of US classic generic gold.
all the race to the bottom series will have found their bottom
Most of this coinage is destined to be lost in obscurity decades from now.
Almost certainly often bought because of the low mintage due to a supposed but not actual scarcity. Limited to virtually no recreational collector interest because the themes and designs are mediocre, not actually scarce, and not competitive as a collectible for the price.
Not exactly the greatest combination for future price appreciation.
i just wanted LOLs
I get an agree
Maybe a few patterns , die experiments, as far as I know the mint always made money. How about an overhaul of our coinage.
There you go!
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